“On the 7th of October last (1833), Macomo was invited by Mr. Read to attend the anniversary meeting of an auxiliary missionary society at Philipton, Kat River. The chief went to the military officer commanding the nearest frontier post, and asked permission to attend, but was peremptorily refused. He ventured, nevertheless, to come by another way, with his ordinary retinue, but altogether unarmed, and delivered in his native tongue a most eloquent speech at the meeting, in which he seconded a motion, proposed by the Rev. Mr. Thompson, the established clergyman, for promoting the conversion of the Caffres. Alluding to the great number of traders residing in Caffreland, contrasted with the rude prohibition given to his attending this Christian assembly, he said, in the forcible idiom of his country—‘There are no Englishmen at Kat River; there are no Englishmen at Graham’s Town; they are all in my country, with their wives and children, in perfect safety, while I stand before you as a rogue and a vagabond, having been obliged to come by stealth.’[76] Then, addressing his own followers, he said—‘Ye sons of Kahabi, I have brought you here to behold what the Word of God hath wrought. These Hottentots were but yesterday as much despised and oppressed as to-day are we—the Caffres: but see what the Great Word has done for them! They were dead—they are now alive; they are men once more. Go and tell my people what you have seen and heard; for such things as you have seen and heard, I hope ere long to witness in my own land. God is great, who has said it, and will surely bring it to pass!’ In the midst of this exhilarating scene—the African chief recommending to his followers the adoption of that Great Word which brings with it at once both spiritual and social regeneration—they were interrupted by the sudden appearance of a troop of dragoons, despatched from the military post to arrest Macomo for having crossed the frontier line without permission. This was effected in the most brutal and insulting manner possible, and not without considerable hazard to the chieftain’s life, from the ruffian-like conduct of a drunken sergeant, although not the slightest resistance was attempted.”[77]

It should be borne in mind by the reader that this Kat River settlement, where Macomo was attending the meeting, is the same from which he had been expelled in 1829, and in which the Hottentots were located, and, as I have already related, were making such remarkable progress. Macomo had therefore not only repassed the boundary line over which he had been driven, and the repassing of which the government would naturally regard with great jealousy, knowing well what injury they had done him, and which the sight of his old country must forcibly revive in his mind, knowing also that they were at this moment planning fresh outrages against him. This meeting took place in October, 1833, and therefore, at that very time, an order was signed by the governor for his removal from the lands he was then occupying; for the Parliamentary Report informs us that Sir Lowry Cole, before leaving the colony for Europe, on the 10th of August, 1833, signed an order for removing the chief Tyalie from the Muncassana beyond the boundaries; and in November of that year Captain Aichison was ordered to remove Macomo, Botman, and Tyalie, beyond the boundary; that is, beyond the Keiskamma, which he says he did. Capt. Aichison stated in evidence before the Select Committee, that he could assign no cause for this removal, and he never heard any cause assigned. But this was not the worst. These poor people, thus driven out in November, when all their corn was green, and that and the crops of their gardens and their pumpkins thus lost, were suffered to return in February, 1834, and again, in October of that year, driven out a second time! Colonel Wade stated in evidence, that at the time of their second removal, 21st of October, 1834, “they had rebuilt their huts, established their cattle kraals, and commenced the cultivation of their gardens.” He stated that, together with Colonel Somerset, he made a visit to Macomo and Botman’s kraal, across the Keiskamma, and that Macomo rode back with them, when they had recrossed the river and reached the Omkobina, a tributary of the Chumie. “These valleys were swarming with Caffres, as was the whole country in our front as far as the Gaga; the people were all in motion, carrying off their effects, and driving away their cattle towards the drifts of the river, and to my utter amazement the whole country around and before us was in a blaze. Presently we came up with a strong patrol of the mounted rifle corps, which had, it appeared, come out from Fort Beaufort that morning; the soldiers were busily employed in burning the huts and driving the Caffres towards the frontier.”

Another witness said, “the second time of my leaving Caffreland was in October, last year, in company with a gentleman who was to return towards Hantam. We passed through the country of the Gaga at ten o’clock at night; the Caffres were enjoying themselves after their custom, with their shouting, feasting, and midnight dances; they allowed us to pass on unmolested. Some time after I received a letter from the gentleman who was my travelling companion on that night, written just before the breaking out of the Caffre war: in it he says, ‘you recollect how joyful the Caffres were, when we crossed the Gaga; but on my return a dense smoke filled all the vales, and the Caffres were seen lurking here and there behind the mimosa; a patrol, commanded by an officer, was driving them beyond the colonial boundary.’ (This piece of country has very lately been claimed by the colony.) I saw one man near me, and I told my guide to call him to me: the poor fellow said, ‘No, I cannot come nearer; that white man looks too much like a soldier;’ and all our persuasions could not induce him to advance near us. ‘Look,’ said he, pointing to the ascending columns of smoke, ‘what the white men are doing.’ Their huts and folds were all burned.”

Such was the treatment of the Caffres up to the end of 1834, notwithstanding the most forcible and pathetic appeals to their English tyrants. Dr. Philip stated that, speaking with these chiefs at this time, he said to Macomo, that he had reason to believe that the governor, when he came to the frontier, would listen to all his grievances, and treat him with justice and generosity. “These promises,” he replied, “we have had for the last fifteen years;” and pointing to the huts then burning, he added, “things are becoming worse: these huts were set on fire last night, and we were told that to-morrow the patrol is to scour the whole district, and drive every Caffre from the west side of the Chumie and Keiskamma at the point of the bayonet.” And Dr. Philip having stated rather strongly the necessity the chiefs would be under of preventing all stealing from the colony as the condition of any peaceable relations the governor might enter into with them, Botman made the following reply: “The governor cannot be so unreasonable as to make our existence as a nation depend upon a circumstance which is beyond the reach of human power. Is it in the power of any governor to prevent his people stealing from each other? Have you not within the colony magistrates, policemen, prisons, whipping-posts, and gibbets? and do you not perceive that in spite of all these means to make your people honest, that your prisons continue full, and that you have constant employment for your magistrates, policemen, and hangmen, without being able to keep down your colonial thieves and cheats? A thief is a wolf; he belongs to no society, and yet is the pest and bane of all societies. You have your thieves, and we have thieves among us; but we cannot as chiefs, extirpate the thieves of Caffreland, more than we can extirpate the wolves, or you can extirpate the thieves of the colony. There is however this difference between us: we discountenance thieves in Caffreland, and prevent, as far as possible, our people stealing from the colony; but you countenance the robbery of your people upon the Caffres, by the sanction you give to the injustice of the patrol system. Our people have stolen your cattle, but you have, by the manner by which you have refunded your loss, punished the innocent; and after having taken our country from us, without even a shadow of justice, and shut us up to starvation, you threaten us with destruction for the thefts of those to whom you left no choice but to steal or die by famine.”

What force and justice of reasoning in these abused Caffres! what force and injustice of action in the English! Who could have believed that from the moment of our becoming masters of the Cape colony such dreadful and wicked scenes as these could be going on, up to 1834, by Englishmen. But the end was not yet come; other, and still more abominable deeds were to be perpetrated. Another war broke out, and the people of England asked, why? Dr. Philip, before the Parliamentary Committee, said,— “The encroachments of the colonists upon the Caffres, when they came in contact with them on the banks of the Gamtoos river; their expulsion from the Rumfield, now Albany, in 1811; the commandoes of Colonel Brereton, in 1818; our conduct to Gaika, our ally, in 1819, in depriving him of the country between the Fish and Keiskamma Rivers; the injury inflicted upon Macomo and Gaika, by the ejectment of Macomo and his people, with many of the people of Gaika, from the Kat River, in 1829; the manner in which the Caffres were expelled from the west bank of the Chumie and Keiskamma, in 1833, and, subsequently, again (after having been allowed to return) in 1834; and the working of the commando system, down to December, 1834,—were sufficient in themselves to account for the Caffre war, if the Caffres are allowed to be human beings, and to possess passions like our own.”

To all this series of insults and inflictions were soon added fresh ones.

“On the 2nd December, of this very year,” continued Dr. Philip, “Ensign Sparkes went to one of the Chief Eno’s kraals, for the purpose of getting some horses, supposed to have been stolen. Not finding them there, he proceeded to take by force a large quantity of cattle as an indemnity. This proceeding roused the dormant anger of the Caffres; they surrounded his party, and manifested an intention of attacking it. They did not, however, venture upon a general engagement, though one of them, more daring, and perhaps a greater loser than the rest, wounded Ensign Sparkes in the arm with an assagai, or spear, whilst the soldiers under his command were busily employed in driving the cattle out of the bush. Macomo no sooner heard of this affair, than he gave up of his own property, to the colony, 400 head of cattle, and went himself frequently to visit the young man who had been wounded, expressing great sorrow at what had occurred. This conduct was highly praiseworthy, as it was evidently for the sake of preventing any misunderstanding, but more especially so, because the deed had been committed, not by one of his people, but by a Caffre belonging to Eno’s tribe. On the 18th of the same month, a patrol under Lieut. Sutton seized a number of cattle at one of Tyalie’s kraals, for some horses alleged to have been stolen, but not found there. On this occasion the Caffres seem to have determined to resist to the last. An affray took place, in which they were so far successful as to retake the cattle. Two of them were, however, shot dead, and two dangerously wounded, one of whom was Tyalie’s own brother (not, however, Macomo), who had two slugs in his head. An individual residing in the neutral territory, referring to this affair, thus expressed his opinion: ‘The system carried on, and that to the last moment, is the cause the Caffres could not bear it any longer. The very immediate cause was the wounding of Gaika’s son, at which the blood of every Caffre boiled.’”

According to the evidence of John Tzatzoe, “every Caffre who saw Xo-Xo’s wound, went back to his hut, took his assagai and shield, and set out to fight, and said, ‘It is better that we die than be treated thus.’”

The war being thus wantonly and disgracefully provoked by the English, Sir Benjamin D’Urban, the governor, marched into the territory of the Caffre king Hintza, and summoned him to his presence. The king, alarmed, and naturally expecting some fresh act of mischief, fled, driving off his cattle to a place of security. He was threatened with immediate proclamation of war if he did not return; and to convince him that there would be no dallying, Colonel Smith immediately marched his troops into the mountain districts where Hintza had taken refuge, was very near seizing him by surprise, and carried off 10,000 head of cattle. Hintza, now, on sufficient security being given, came to the camp, where the various charges were advanced against him, and the following modest conditions of peace proposed,—that he should surrender 50,000 head of cattle, 1,000 horses, and emancipate all his Fingoe slaves. There was no alternative but agreeing to these terms; but unfortunately for him, the Fingoe slaves, now considering themselves put under the patronage of the governor, and knowing how fond the English are of Caffre cattle, carried off 15,000 head belonging to the people. The people flew to arms—and Hintza was made responsible. The governor declared to him that if he did not put a stop to the fighting in three hours, and order the delivery of the 50,000 head of cattle, he would hang him, his son Creili, and his counsellor and brother Bookoo, on the tree under which they were sitting.[78] Poor Hintza issued his orders—the fighting ceased, but the cattle did not arrive. He therefore proposed to go, under a sufficient guard, to enforce the delivery himself. The proposal was accepted, and he set out with Col. Smith and a body of cavalry. Col. Smith assured him on commencing their march, that if he attempted to escape he should certainly shoot him. We shall soon see how well he kept his word. They found the people had driven the cattle to the mountains, and Hintza sent one of his counsellors to command them to stop. On the same day they came to a place where the cattle-track divided, and they followed that path, at the advice of Hintza, which led up an abrupt and wooded hill to the right, over the precipitous banks of the Kebaka river. What followed we give in the language of Col. Smith:—

“It had been observed that this day Hintza rode a remarkably fine horse, and that he led him up every ascent; the path up this abrupt and wooded hill above described is by a narrow cattle-track, occasionally passing through a cleft of the rock. I was riding alone at the head of the column, and having directed the cavalry to lead their horses, I was some three or four horses’ length in front of every one, having previously observed Hintza and his remaining two followers leading their horses behind me, the corps of Guides close to them; when nearing the top, I heard a cry of ‘Hintza,’ and in a moment he dashed past me through the bushes, but was obliged, from the trees, to descend again into the path. I cried out, ‘Hintza, stop!’ I drew a pistol, and presenting it at him, cried out, ‘Hintza,’ and I also reprimanded his guard, who instantly came up; he stopped and smiled, and I was ashamed of my suspicion. Upon nearing the top of this steep ascent, the country was perfectly open, and a considerable tongue of land running parallel with the rugged bed of the Kebaka, upon a gradual descent of about two miles, to a turn of the river, where were several Caffre huts. I was looking back to observe the march of the troops, when I heard a cry of ‘Look, Colonel!’ I saw Hintza had set off at full speed, and was 30 yards a-head of every one; I spurred my horse with violence; and coming close up with him, called to him; he urged his horse the more, which could beat mine; I drew a pistol, it snapped; I drew another, it also snapped; I then was sometime galloping after him, when I spurred my horse alongside of him, and struck him on the head with the butt-end of a pistol; he redoubled his efforts to escape, and his horse was three lengths a-head of mine. I had dropped one pistol, I threw the other after him, and struck him again on the head. Having thus raced about a mile, we were within half a mile of the Caffre huts; I found my horse was closing with him; I had no means whatever of assailing him, while he was provided with his assagais; I therefore resolved to attempt to pull him off his horse, and I seized the athletic chief by the throat, and twisting my hand in his karop, I dragged him from his seat, and hurled him to the earth; he instantly sprang on his legs, and sent an assagai at me, running off towards the rugged bed of the Kebaka. My horse was most unruly, and I could not pull him up till I reached the Caffre huts. This unhorsing the chief, and his waiting to throw an assagai at me, brought Mr. George Southey of the corps of Guides up; and, at about 200 yards’ distance, he twice called to Hintza, in Caffre, to stop, or he would shoot him. He ran on; Mr. Southey fired, and only slightly struck him in the leg, again calling to him to stop, without effect; he fired, and shot him through the back; he fell headlong forwards, but springing up and running forwards, closely pursued by my aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Balfour, he precipitated himself down a kloof into the Kebaka, and posting himself in a narrow niche of the rock, defied any attempt to secure him; when, still refusing to surrender, and raising an assagai, Mr. George Southey fired, and shot him through the head. Thus terminated the career of the chief Hintza, whose treachery, perfidy, and want of faith, made him worthy of the nation of atrocious and indomitable savages over whom he was the acknowledged chieftain. One of his followers escaped, the other was shot from an eminence. About half a mile off I observed the villain Mutini and Hintza’s servant looking on.”