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I
PRESENTED TO THE UNIVERSITY BY THE RHODES TRUSTEES
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REPORT
PARLIAMENTARY SELECT COMMITTEE'
ABORIGINAI. TRIBES,
(BRITISH SETTLEMENTS.)
REPRINTED, WITH COMMENTS. BY THE "ABORIGINES PROTECTION SOCIETY."
LONDON:
PUBLISHED FOR TH£ SncIETV, BY
WILLIAM BALL, ALDINE CHAMBERS, PATEENOSTEB BOW,
AND HATCHABD & SON, PICCADILLY.
1837.
5, looc^v.j •.-.
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ABORIGINES PROTECTION SOCIETY.
■ T. FowELL Buxton, E»«. M.P,
COUltlTTSB.
• Wm. Allen, Ebq, G. F. Anoab, Eaa. E-Baines, EB4.-M.P. S. Blackbubn, Esq. E. N. Buxton, Esq. Eduund Buxton, Eiq. Rev. G. Christie. Sib AuQugTus d'Eite, Bart.
JOEIAK FoaSTEB, EsQ.
William Fokbter, Em. S. GdBNET, Esq. 3mv. C. HiNDLBT, Esa. M.P- GuitNGT HoARE, Esa.
T. HoDQEiN, Esa. M.D. M. Hutchinson, Jun. Esa. A. Johnston, Esq. . R. KtHO, Esa.
Dr. S. LuHUiNOTOK, M.P. C. LussiHOTON, Esq. M.P. Wh. Overend, Esa. J. Pease, Esa. M.P. Ebenezer Smith, Esa. W. Stroud, Esa. M.D. S. Bannister, Esa. W. M. HiaoiNs, Esa. Hull Tbrreli„ Esa.
TlttASVRgR. H. TccKETT, Esa. 20, Pinshury Ciictu. ■
soNoiuar secbbtasibs. Ret, J. J. ^BEMAK, Walthamstow. J. H. TiiEDOoLD, Esfl. 41, Wellclose Square.
The abject of lliis Socie^ is to assist in protec^ng: the defenceleis, And promoting the adBAncement of unciriliied Tribes.
B Guinea a year, or a DonAtion of lOJ. conatitutei a Member- la of promoting the formation of Auxiliary Associations, both
A Subscription off
The Society is deai: at home and abroad.
Subscriptions or Daoationa,' in ud of the Funda of the Society, will be thankfully received by the Treasurer, the Secretaries, or any Member of the Committee.
IS/-
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PREFACE.
An apology may perhaps be expected for the present volume, consisting ai it does, fot the most part, of details which have already, in a somewhat different form, been brought under the notice of the British public. On the value of the accompanying Report there can hardly be two opinions. The appalling facts which it discloses, and the judicious suggestions it contains, com- bine to render it one of the most important documents which has ever come before the legislature. Replete "with evidence as to the injustice and cruelty with which the Aborigines have hitherto been treated, and the pernicious effects which have resulted to them &om their intercourse with European nations, it abun- dantly proves the necessity of immediate legislative interference. In some respects, however, the Report is defective. Facts of deep importance, as showing the workings of the system, are more than once passed over altogether, or only incidentally alluded to. These deficiencies, it is hoped, will in part at least be supplied by the additional information contained in the pre- sent volume.
Another, and yet stronger inducement to the publication of the appended statements arises from the indifference which stiU too generally pervades the public mind in reference to the wrongs of the Aborigines. It is a mournful reflection, that among the many philanthropic designs which have recently called forth the active enei^es of the good and benevolent in this country, no effort, at aU commensurate with the magnitude of the object, has yet been made to check the progress of oppression in our colo- nies. In an age distinguished for its liberality, its enlightened sentiment, and its christian zeal, atrocities, the most daring and dreadful in their character, which, even in a darker era of the world's history, would have excited universal horror, have passed unnoticed and unrepioved. To a foreigner, acquainted only with the general reputation of the British people, the &cts,
detailed in the ensuing pages might appear as little other thsa idle tales, the dreams of an excited imagination. The injuries we have inflicted, the oppression we have exercised, the cruelties we have committed, the vices we have fostered, the desolation and utter ruin we have caused, stand in strange and melancholy contrast with the enlarged and generous exer- tions we have made for the advancement of civil freedom, for the moral and intellectual improvement of mankind, and for the furtherance of that sacred truth, which alone can permanently elevate and civilize mankind. Accustomed to view with indig- nation the tyranny of neighbouring states, we have yet by our silence given sanction to a pohcy not less iniquitous in its' prin- ciples, and destructive in its tendency. Every law of humanity and justice has been forgotten or disregarded. Through succes- sive generations the work of spoliation and death has been carried on, until to the colonial possessions of the most religious nation in the world the emphatic language of Scripture may with truth be applied — they are " the dark places of the earth, full of the habitations of cruelty." It would be an idle, as well as a painful task to trace the motives which may fairly be supposed to have actuated those, whose names Will for ever be connected with the oppression of the innocent and unoffending Aborigines. The policy of Spain was pre-eminent for its hypocrisy. Vainly attempting to conceal her ambition under the garb of piety, she sent forth her armies with the Bible in one hand, and the sword in the other, presenting death or conversion as the only altema- tives of the hapless beings she sought to plunder and destroy. The guilt of our own nation, though equal in degree, is somewhat different in its character. We have been content to assume the oSice of the murderer, without adding to it the baseness of the hypocrite. The lust of power, and the love of gain, have in our case been the open and avowed incitements to injustice. Borne away by these master passioos, we have left to the helpless vic- tims of our colonial policy one only choice, — to fall by the sword, or to perish by famine. While, however, the motives which have influenced the different nations of Europe in their treatment of the Aborigines may have varied with the changing cir- cumstances of the times, the effect of that treatment upon the Aborigines themselves, those especially of the Western hemi- sphere, has in all cases been the same. To them the brutal tyranny of Holland, the ferocious bigotry of Spain, and the insatiable cupidity of England, have proved alike degrading
and destructive. Destitute, afflicted, tormented, death has been their only refuge from suiTering so intense, as almost to justify their curses upon the memory of him, who first published to Europe the fact of their existence.
The leading causes of these frightful calamities are not difficult of discovery. Much of the evil may be regarded as resulting from vicious or mistaken legislation. The acquisition of new territories, and the advancement of British ascendancy, have too often been preferred to the claims of justice and sound policy. Another, and in the present day, yet more fruitful source of injury to the Aborigines arises from the pernicious character of our commercial intercourse. The amazing power we possess by means of our commerce has too generally been employed for the vilest of purposes. The mighty influence with which Providence has invested us, we have made the means of spreading devasta- tion and ruin. The national honour has been tarnished; common honesty has been thrown aside ; life itself has again and again been sacrificed, for the mere convenience of trade. On the native inhabitants of our colonies our mercantile enterprise and skill have produced effects scarcely less lamentable, Chan those occasioned by our open hostility. Men calling themselves Christians; sub- jects of a christian government, professors of the christian faith, have stooped, for the attainment of selfish ends, to prac- tise upon the confiding ignorance of these simple and untutored children of the desert. On the mischievous consequences which have resulted from the guilty conduct of our seamen, it would be superfluous to enlarge. By the sanction their example has given to the worst of vices ; the diseases they have introduced ; the dark and dreadful crimes against property and life which they have perpetrated, the efforts of our Missionaries have too often been counteracted or rendered comparatively useless. While holy and devoted men have been labouring to disse- minate the seeds of knowledge, to extend the light and purity of the gospel, the ministers of evil have also been at work, striving with unwearied assiduity to stay the progress of the trpth, to perpetuate the existing ignorance and misery. Which of these antagonist powers has hitherto prevailed, may be gathered from the following Report. A perusal of its pages, if it accomplish no better purpose, may, at any rate, serve to humble our national pride, to teach us that the feelings of tyranny and bigotry, which once reigned over Europe, are not yet alto- gether extinct — that the spirit of Cortes and Pizarro still si
The indifference with which the treatment of tie Aborijpnes has to the present day been viewed by the religious public of Great Britain seems, at first sight, almost unaccountable. It may well excite surprise, that oppression so grievous, and cruelty so atro- cious, should have been permitted to go on for centuries without restraint. Amid the excitement of party politics, and the pressing claims of our own population, the degraded state of the un- ibrtuaate Aborigines has been almost entirely overlooked. The
I prevailing apathy must, in charity, be ascribed to the prevailing ignorance. Comparatively little of what was passing in our colonies has been published at home. Sensible of the danger that would result to their own individual interests &om the pub- lication of the truth, it has been the almost invariable practice of the colonial authorities to bide their conduct towards the natives as much as possible from the public view. If occasionally facts of startling import have forced themselves upon the popular notice, it has been through the agency of men who have received the reward of their honesty in general hatred and abuse. For
I the greater part of the information we now possess, we are
I indebted to the Christian Missionaries sent out from this country. To the labours of these invaluable men the cause of humanity is unspeakably indebted. Amid persecution and scorn, obloquy, ridicule, and contempt, they have steadily persevered in their work of faith and labour of love, until to them, in an especial degree, belongs the honour of having first exposed the
I evil workings of our colonial policy. They have taken from us the plea of ignorance, with which we have hitherto sought to palliate our neglect of this all-important subject. The silence is broken ; the darkness has passed away ; and the TRUTH, ungarbled and undisguised, stands forth before the pub- lic gaze in all its dreadful and tremendous reality.
It will be well for the interests of justice, if the increase of our knowledge produce a corresponding diminution of our pre- judices— if it lead us to abandon the false and groundless opinions, which still prevail respectii^ the claims of the Aborigines. For- getful of Him " who hath made of one blood all nations that dwell upon the earth," we have too long been accustomed to look upon the coloured races as possessing a nature far inferior to our own.
1 To justify our oppression, we have resorted to calumny, and sought to vindicate by falsehood our cruel treatment of those whose existence has been their only crime. The injustice of the allegation is enhanced by the consideration that the only circum-
stance vtidch can give to it the semblance of truth, results mainly fi^im OUT own disgraceful policy. The mere fact, that scarcely one of the native tribes in the British colonies has become civilized, is sufficiently discreditable to our national character — the dishonour is increased when we attempt to found upon this the luotistrous assumption, that they are naturally incapable of im- ] provement. It is obviously unreasonable to expect that men habi- tuated and attached to a roving, imsettled life, should abandon their wandering habits, and engage in agricultural pursuits, when the experience of every day is reminding them, that the cultiva- tion of the soil will, in their case, prove only a preparatory step to its seizure by others. We may look in vain for any marked and decided amelioration in the condition of the yet uncivilized tribes, affected by our influence, until a widely different system of government is adopted in our colonies ; until we learn to act upon milder and more equitable principles j until we cease to foster prejudices as wicked as they are absurd.
It is not, however, in reference only to the capacities And capa- bilities of the Aborigines, that delusion and error still possess the public mind. Not a few, even in the present day, are inclined to the belief, that in spite of all our efforts, the speedy extinction of the Aborigines is inevitable. Theii extermination, it would seem, is an appointment of Heaven, and every attempt to avert their doom must, therefore, of necessity prove utterly unavailing. The atrocity of sach a sentiment is only surpassed by its impiety. 1 To imagine that there now exists a race of men devoted by Provi- | deiAe to destruction, is assuredly to libel the beneficent and merciful character of the Most High. The devastation and ruin, of which the ensuing pages contain so dreadful a detail, have been caused by no mysterious, and to us inexplicable process; they have followed, as natural consequences, from the guilty ambition and avarice of men professedly civilized and christian. There is as little of mystery about the origin, as in the reality of the evil. Acquainted with the one, we may with certainty anticipate the other. Oppression has produced its invariable effects. It re- mains with the British nation to decide whether such shall be the ruling principle for the time to come, or whether justice and mercy shall henceforth be permitted to exert their legitimate and wilutary influence.
While ignorance, prejudice, and error, have thus been operat- ing on the minds of many, others have been deterred from an attention to the sulgect by the apparent hopelessness of the
case, Sickeaed at the remembrance of the past, and looking onward with dismay to the future, they seek in a gloomy de- spondency an excuse for their supineness and neglect. It would be well for such persons to remember the vast amount of good which has, in modem times, been accomplished by a comparatively feeble instrumentality. The extinction of the Slave-trade, and the abolition of Colonial Slavery, were achieved by men armed I with no more formidable weapon than the Truth. Ridiculed and despised, they knew no such feeling as despair. Firm in their convictions of duty, and faithful in its performance, they left the consequences to God. Amid darkness and gloom they looked for- ward with sure and certain hope to a brighter day, and steadfastly laboured on, until public opinion was at length enlisted on their side, and the triumph of justice was secured. To the same spirit of dauntless determination we owe the recent act of justice to the native tribes of Southern A&ica. The energy which has once prevailed, may prevail again. It has already rescued thousands, it may yet be the saviour of millions.
The present volume, as will be seen from the title-page, is pub- lished under the sanction and superintendence of the British AND Foreign Aborigines Protection Society. The object of this association is sufficiently indicated by its name. It is esta- blished as the protector of those, who have no power to protect themselves. In this character, and in this alone, the Society makes its appeal to the public for support. The means to be em- ployed for the attainment of its great design are too obvious to need minute detail. By diffusing correct information concerning the character and condition of the'Aborigines ; by appealing to the government, or to parliament when appeal is needed ; and by bringing popular opinion to exert its proper influence in advanc- ing the cause of justice, it is hoped that much may be done towards the diminution of those gigantic evils, the continuance of which reflects such deep dishonour on the British name. The Society's proceedings will, of course, be mainly guided by the communications of its corresponding members, located in the countries occupied by Aborigines. The information they supply, and the suggestions they may offer, will form the ground-work of its future operations. Though but recently established, it has already bten productive of good. The degree of its efBciency must depend on the measure of its support. Only one thing is requisite to render the Society worthy of the cause — that its power be proportioned to the magnitude and importance of its objects.
It can baxdly be neces&ary, after what has now been stated, to dwell at any length upon the (urciunstacces which vindicate the formation of this Society, and estitle it to the sanctioa of the public. A review of the past history and present degraded state of the Aborigines, is sufiGcient to show the absolute neces- sity of adapting immediate measures far their protection and preservation. The same unjust and unhallowed principles which have already wrought such fearful desolation, still reign on our earth — they have lost little of their former prevalence, and none of their original tendency. While tee are slumbering at ' our posts, deaf to the call of duty, and indifferent to the claims of mercy, the oppressor and the spoiler are abroad, outraging the dearest rights of humanity, and devoting thousands of our race to ruin. To delay our interference in the hope that the rapid diffusion of christian feelings may soon render interference unnecessary, will be but to wait until the last office of oppres- sion is performed, until the work of death has reached its per- fect and final consummation. It was the lament of an ancien^j tyrant that, having subjugated to his power every nation then known to exist upon the earth, he had no ambition left to gra- tify, no further conquest to achieve. Let us see to it, that his case, in a yet more melancholy sense, be not our own. Let us DOW, by unceasing vigilance and effort, seek to guard against the fearful possibility, that, persevering in the practice of cruelty and injustice towards our uncivilized fellow-men, the day may at length arrive, when not one of all their race will remain in whom the purer and nobler features of our character may be reflected. Every consideration, as well of national interest as of moral obligarion, every dictate of reason, every motive of humanity ; the retrospect of the past, the events of the present, the pro- spects of the future ; our duty, our patriotism, our religion — all alike incite and impel us to immediate and energetic exertion. The case is urgent — the danger is imminent — the demand is I imperative. At once, then, let us awake to our duty, and rely- ing on the blessing from on high, let every energy be exerted, and every nerve be strained, to hasten the arrival of that period, when the voice of the oppressor, and the cry of the oppressed, shall no more be heard on our earth : when men shall dwell together as brethren — children of one. common Father — heirs of i the same glorious immortality.
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Lunce, 20° die Februarii, 1837.
Ordered, That a Select Committee b« appointed to condder what Measure* ought to be Bdopted with regard to the Native Inuabitahtr of CoiintrieB where British Settlehentb are Diade, and to the neighbouring Tribes, in order to secure to them the due obaerrance of Justice, and the protection of flieir Rights ; to promote the spread of Civilization among them ; and to lead them to the peaceful and Toluntaiy reception of the Christian Religion.
And a Committee was fiinned of — Mk. Powell Buxton. Ma. WibLiAH Oladstone, Ma. HAWEt. Mm. Baoshaw. St a RirrANB Don kin. Mk. Hollani). Mr. Charles LusHiHaTox. Sir Geo roe Gret.
Mk. Pease. Ma. Bainbs. Mr. ANDmsw Johnston.
Ma. HiNDLBT.
Mr. Plumptrb. Mb. Wilson- Colonel TaoMPtON.
Ordereil, Tbat tt Records.
I Committee have povrer to send for Persons, Papers, and
Ordered, That Five be the Quotum of the Committee.
Ordered, Tbat the Minutes of Evidence, with the Report of last Session, be referred to the Committee.
Ordered, That the Committee have power to report the Minutes of the Evidence taken before them, together with their Observotioiia thereupon, from time to time, to The House.
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REPORT.
The Select Committee " appointed to consider what Measures ought to be adopted with regard to the Native Inhabitants of Countriea where British Settlements are made, and to the neighbouring Tribea, in order to secure to them the due observance of Justice and the protection of their Rights; to promote the spread of Civilization among them, and to lead them to the peaceful and voluntary recep- tion of the Christian Religion;" and to whom the Report of theCommitteeof 1836 was referred; and who were empowered to report their Observations thereupon, togetlier with the Minutes op Evidence taken before them, to The House ; — Have examined the Matters to them referred, and have agr.eed to the following Report :
The situation of Great Britain brings her beyond any other power into communication with the uncivilized nations of the earth. We qre in contact with them in so many parts of the globe, that it has become of deep importance to ascertain the results of our relations with them, and to fix: the rules of our conduct towards them. We are apt to class them under the sweeping term of savages, and perhaps, in so doing, to consider ourselves exempted from the obligations due to them as our fellow men. This assumption does not, however, it is obvious, alter our responsihility ; and the question appears momentous, when we consider that the policy of Great Britain in this parti- cular, as it has already affected the interests, andj we fear we may add, sacrificed the lives, of many thousands, may yet, in all probability, influence the character and the destiny of millions of the human race.
The extent of the question will be best comprehended by taking a survey of the globe, and by observing over how much of . its surface an intercourse with Britain may become the greatest i blessing, or the heaviest scourge. It will scarcely be denied in word, that, as an enlightened and christian people, we are at 1 least bound to do to the inhabitants of other lands, whether '
3 ABOalQINES REPORT.
' enlightened or not, as we should in similar circumstances desire to r be done by; but, beyond the obligations of common honesty, we are bound by two considerations with regard to the uncivilized : ( first, that of the ability which we possess to confer upon them the most important benefits; and, secondly, that of their inabihty ■ to resist any encroachments, however unjust, however mis- chievous, which we may be disposed to make. The disparity of the parties, the strength of the one, and the incapacity of the other to enforce the observance of their rights, constitutes a new [find irresistible appeal to our compassionate protection.
The duty of introducing into our relations with uncivilized nations the righteous and the profitable laws of justice is incon- ' trovertible, and it has been repeatedly acknowledged in the ' abstract, but has, we fear, been rarely brought into practice; for, ' as a nation, we have not hesitated to invade many of the rights which they hold most dear.
Thus, while acts of parliament have laid down the general principles of equity, other and conflicting acts have been &amed, disposing of lands without any reference to the possessors and actual occupants, and without making any reserve of the pro- ceeds of the property of the natives for their benefit.*
Such omissions must surely be attributed to oversight; for it is not to be asserted that Great Britain has any disposition to sanction unfair dealing: nothing can be more plain, nothing can be more strong, than the language used by the government of this country on the subject. We need only refer to the in- structions of Charles II., addressed to the Council of Foreign Plantations in the year 1670.
" Forasmuch as most of our said colonies do border upon the Indians, and peace is not to be expected without the due ob- servance and preservation of justice to them, you are, in our name, to command all the governors, that they, at no time,' give any just provocation to any of the said Indians that are at peace with us," &c.
Then, with respect to the Indians who desire to put themselves under our protection, that they " be received."
" And that the governors do by all ways seek firmly to oblige them.
" And that they do employ some persons to learn the lan- guages of them.
" And that they do not only carefully protect and defend them from adversaries, but that they more especially take care
* See Evidence 4367. In the preamble of an act pasuil AugUEt, 1834, "em- powering hia Majeet; to erect South Ausiratia into a British Province," &c. it i> suted that (he part oC Australia which liea as there described, together with the iaUnds adJRcent, " consists of waste and unoccupied lands, nhich are supposed Co be fit for the purposea of colonisation." In the account of (be proposed colony which appears to be authorized by the Company nhu have purchased land under this act, it is stated that " great numbers of natives have been seea along that part ot (lie coast."— P. 62.
REPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE. 3
that none of our own subjects, nor any of their servanta, do any way harm them.
" And that if any shall dare to offer any violence to them in their persons, goods or possessions, the said governors do severely punish the said injuries, agreeably to justice and right.
" And you are to consider how the Indians and slaves may be best instructed and invited to the christian religion, it being both for the honour«of the Crown and of the Protestant religion itself, that all persona within any of our territories, though never BO remote, should be taught the knowledge of God, and be acquainted with the mysteries of salvation."
Nor is modem authority wanting to the same effect: the Address of the House of Commons to the King, passed unani- mously July, 1834', states, " That his Majesty's faithful Commons in Parliament assembled, are deeply impressed with the duty of acting upon the principles of justice and humanity in the inter- course and relations of this country with the native inhabitants of its colonial settlements, of affording them protection in the enjoyment of their civil rights, and of imparting to them that degree of civilization, and that religion, with which' Providence has blessed this nation ; and humbly prays that his Majesty will take such measures, and give such directions to the governors and officers of his Majesty's colonies, settlements, and planta- tions, as shall secure to the natives the due observance of justice and the protection of their rights, promote the spread of civiliza- tion amongst them, and lead them to the peaceful and voluntary reception of the christian religion."
This Address, as the Chancellor of theExchequer observed, so far from being the expression of any new principle, only embodies '■ and recognises principles on which the British government has for a considerable time been disposed to act.
In furtherance of these views, your Committee was appointed to examine into the actual state of our relations with uncivilized nations; and it is from the evidence brought before this Com- mittee during the last two se^ions, that we are enabled to compare our actions with our avowed principles, and to show what has been, and what will assuredly continue to be, unless strongly checked, the course of our conduct towards these defenceless people.
It is not too much to say, that the intercourse of Europeans ' in general, without any exception in favour of the subjects' of Great Britain, has been, unless when attended by mis- ', sionary exertions, a source of many calamities to uncivilized ■ nations.
Too often, their territory has been usurped; their property seized; their iiumbers diminished ; their character debased; the. spread of civilization impeded. European vices and diseases. have been introduced amongst them, and they have been fami-; liarized with the use of our most potent instruments for the b2 ,
ABORIGINES REPORT.
subtle or the violent destruction of human life, viz. brandy and gunpowder.
It will be only too easy to make out the proof of all these assertions, which may be established solely by the evidence above referred to. It will be easy also to show that the result to our- selves has been as contrary to our interest as to our duty; that our system has not only incured a vast load of crime, but a vast expenditure of money and -amount of loss.
On the other hand, we trust it will not be difficult to show by inference, and even to prove, by the results of some few experi- ments of an opposite course of conduct, that, setting aside all considerations of duty, a line of policy, more friendly and just towards the natives, would materially contribute to promote the civil and commercial interests of Great Britain.
It is difficult to form an estimate of the population of the less civilized nations, liable to be influenced for good or for evil, by contact and intercourse with the more civilized nations of the earth. It would appear that the barbarous regions likely to be more immediately affected by the policy of Great Britain, are the south and the west of Africa, Australia, the islands in the Pacific Ocean, a very extensive district of South America at the back of our Essequibo settlement, between the rivers Orinoco and Amazon, with the immense tract which constitutes the most northerly part of the American continent, and stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.
These are countries in which we have either planted colonies, or which we frequent for the purposes of traffic, and it is our business to inquire on what principles we have conducted our intercourse. , It might be presumed that the native inhabitants of any land - have an incontrovertible right to their own soil : a plain and sacred right, however, which seems not to have been understood. Europeans have entered their borders uninvited, and, when there, have not only acted as if they were undoubted lords of the soil, but have punished the natives as aggressors if they have evinced a disposition to live in their own country.
" If they have been found upon their own property, they have been treated as thieves and robbers. They are driven back into the interior as if they were dogs or kangaroos."
Erom very lai^e tracts we have, it appears, succeeded in eradicating them ; and though from some parts their ejection has not been so apparently violent as from others, it has been equally complete, through our taking possession of their hunting- grounds, whereby we have despoiled them of the means of existence.
NEWFOUNDLAND.
To take a review of our colonies, beginning with Newfound- land. There, as in other parts of North America, it seems to
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 5
liave been for a length of time accounted a " meritorious act" to kiU an Indian.*
On our first visit to that country the natives were seen in every part of the coast. We occupied the stations where they used to hunt and fish, thus reducing them to want, while we took no trouble to indemnify them, so that doubtless many of them perished by famine ; we also treated them with hostility and cruelty, and " many were slain by our own people as well as by the Micmac Indians," who were allowed to harass them. They must, however, have been recently very numerous, since in one place Captain Buchan found they bad " run up fences to the extent of 30 miles," with a variety of ramifications, for the pur- pose of conducting the deer down to the water, a work which would have required the labour of a multitude of hands.
It does not appear that any measures were taken to open a communication with them before the year 1810, when, by order of Sir J. Duckworth, an attempt was made by Captain Buchan which proved ineffectual. At that time he conceived that their numbers around their chief place of resort, the Great Lake, were reduced to 400 or 500. Under our treatment they con- tinued rapidly to diminish; and it appears probable that the last of the tribe left at large, a man and a woman, were shot by two Englishmen in 1833. Three women had been taken prisoners shortly before, and they died in captivity. In the colony of Newfoundland it may therefore be stated that we have exter- minated the natives.f
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.
The general account of our intercourse with the North American Indians, as distinct from missionary efforts, may be given in the words of a converted Chippeway chief, in a letter to Lord Goderich: " We were once very numerous, and owned all Upper Canada, and lived by bunting and fishing ; but the white men, who came to trade with us, taught our fathers to drink the fire waters, which has made our people poor and sick, and has killed many tribes, till we have become very small.";};
It is a curious fact, noticed in the evidence, that some years ago the Indians practised agriculture, and were able to bring
■ ColKin Matlier records, thai, amongsl the early settlera, it waa cangitlered a '' religious act lo kill Indianl."
A Bimilar seniiraeni prevailed niDongit the Dutch boors io South Africa with regard lo the natives of the country. Mr. Bsrro* writes, " A farmer thinks he cannot |iroclaini a mare merilorious action than the murder of one of these people. A boor from Graaf Relnet being asked in ihe secretary's ofBce, a few days before we left town, if the savages were numerous, or troublesome on the road, replied, ' he had only shot four,' with as much composure and indifierence as if heliad been speahing of four partridges. I myself have heard one of the humane colonistB hoasc of having destroyed, with his own bands, near 300 of these unforlunBte wretches."
t See Evidence given by Capt. Buchan.
I Papers Alior. Tribes, 1S34, p. I3S.
6 ABORIGINES REPORT.
com to our settlements, then suffering from famine ; but we, by driving them back and introducing the fur trade, have rendered them so completely a wandering people that they have very much lost any disposition which they might once have felt to settle. All writers on the Indian race have spoken of them in their native barbarism aa a noble people, but those who live among civilized men, upon reservations in our own territory, are now represented as " reduced to a state which resembles that of gip- sies in this country." Those who live in villages among the whites " are a very degraded race, and look more like dram- drinkers than people it would be possible to get to do any work,"
To enter, however, into a few more particulars. The Indians of New Brunswick are described by Sir H. Douglas, in \825, aa " dwindled in numbers," and in a " wretched condition."
Those of Nova Scotia, the Micmacs (by Sir J. Kempt), as dis- inclined to settle, and in the habit of bartering their furs, " un- happily, for rum."*
General Darling's statement as to the Indians of the Canadas, drawn up in 1828, speaks of the interposition of the government being urgently called for in behalf of the helpless individuals whose landed possessions, where they have any assigned to them, are daily plundered by their designing and more enUghtened white brethren.-f
Of the Algonquins and Nipissings, General Darling writes, " Their situation is becoming alarming, by the rapid settlement and improvement of the lands on the banks of the Ottawa, on which they were placed by government in the year 1763, and which tract they have naturally considered as their own. The result of the present state of things is obvious, and such as can scarcely fail in time to be attended with bloodshed and murder ; for, driven from their own resources, they will naturally trespass on those of other tribes, who are equally jealous of the intrusion of their red brethren as of white men. Complaints on this head are increasing daily, while the threats and admonitions of the officers of the department have been insufficient to control the unruly spirit of the savage, who, driven by the calls of hunger and the feelings of nature towards his offspring, will not be scrupulous in invading the rights of bis brethren, as a means of alleviating his misery, when he iinds the example in the conduct of his white father's children practised, as he conceives, towards himself. "J
The General also speaks of the " degeneracy " of the Iroquois, and of the degraded condition of most of the other tribes, with the exception of those only who had received christian instruc- tion. Later testimony is to the same effect. The Rev. J. Beecham, Secretary to the Westeyan Missionary Society, says he has conversed with the Chippev^ay chief above referred to, on
• PapCTB Abor. Tribes, p. W. t Ibid. p. 22. J ^bU. p. 24.
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 7
the condition of the Indians on the boundary of Upper Canada. " That he stated most unequivocally that previously to the intro- duction of Christianity they were rapidly wasting away ; and he believed that, if it had not been for the introduction of Chris- tianity, they would speedily have become extinct. As the causes of this waste of Indian life, he mentioned the decrease of the - game, the habit of intoxication, and the European diseases. The smoll-pox had made great ravages. He adds, " The in- formation which I have derived from this chief has been con- firmed by our missionaries stationed in Upper Canada, and who are now employed among the Indian tribes on the borders of that province. My inquiries have led me to believe, that where Christianity has not been introduced among the aboriginal in- habitants of Upper Canada, they are melting away before the advance of the white population. This remark applies to the Six Nations, as they are called, on the Great River, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senacas, Cayugas, and Tuscaroras, as well as to all the other tribes on the borders of the province." Of the ulterior tribes, the account given by Mr. King, who accompanied Capt. Back in his late Arctic expedition, is deplorable; he gives it as his opinion, that the Northern Indians have decreased greatly, and " decidedly from contact with the Europeans."
Thus, the Cree Indians, once a powerful tribe, " have now degenerated into a few families, congregated about the European establishments, while some few still retain their ancient rights, and have become partly allies of a tribe of Indians that were once their slaves." He supposes their numbers to have been reduced within 30 or 40 years from 8,000 or 10,000, to 200, or at most 300, and has no doubt of the remnant being extirpated in a short time, if no measures are taken to improve their morals and to cultivate habits of civilisation. It should be observed that this tribe had access to posts not comprehended within the Hudson's Bay Company's prohibition, as to the introduction of spirituous liquors, and that they niiserahly show the effects of the privilege.
The Copper Indians also, through iU-management, intempe- rance, and vice, are said to have decreased within the last five years to one-half the number of what they were.
The early quarrels between the Hudson's Bay and the Nortli "West Companies, in which the Indians were induced to take a bloody part, furnished them with a ruinous example of the savageness of Christians.* Mr, Pelly, the chairman of the Hud- son's Bay Company, has, however, assured your Committee, that many of the evils caused by the rivalry of the two companies have been removed by their junction, and that the present directors are well disposed to promote the welfare of the Indians : yet we observe, that the witness above quoted, Mr. King, who has
especially Mr.
8 ABORIGINES REPORT.
travelled in the country, is of opinion, that even our system of peaceable trade lias a tendency to became injurious to these people, by encouraging them in improvident habits, which fre- quently bring large parties of them to utter destitution and to death by starvation.
But whatever may be the actual condition of the Indians at the present moment, on which subject there appears to be some diversity of testimony, we entirely concur in the wisdom, the humanity, and the right feeling which dictated the following paragraph : —
It appears to me that the course which has hitherto been taken in dealiiig with these people has had reference to the advantages which might be derived fronl their friendship in ^mes of war, rather than to any settled purpose of gradually reclaiming them from a state of bar- barism, and of introducing amongst them the industrious and peaceful habits of civilized life. Under the peculiar circumstances of the times, it may have been originally difficult to pursue a more enlightened course of policy ; the system may, perhaps, have been persisted in by the borne and colonial governments rather as a matter of routine than upon any well-considered grounds of preference, whilst, on the part of the Indians themselves, there is no doubt that its accordance with their natural pro- pensities and with their long established habits rendered it more acceptable to them than any other, nor is it unlikely that, if on the one hand there existed a disposition in the aboriginal inhabitants to cling to their original habits and mode of life, there was a proneness also in the new occupants of America to regard the nauves as an irreclaimable race, and as inconvenient neighbours, whom it was desirable ultimately wholly to remove. Whatever may have been the reasons which have hitherto recommended an adherence to the present system, I am satisfied that it ought not to be persisted in for the future ; and that so enlarged a view of the nature of our connexions with the Indian tribes should be taken as may lead to the adoption of proper measures for their future preser- vation and improvement ; whilst, at the same time, the obligations of moral duty and sound policy should not be lost sight of.*
SOUTH AMERICA.
In South America, British Guiana occupies a large extent of country between the rivers Orinoco and Amazons, giving access to numbers of tribes of Aborigines yho wander over the vast regions of the interior. The Indian population within the colony of Demerara and Essequibo, is derived from four nations, the Caribs, Arawacks, Warrows, and Accaways.
It is acknowledged that they have been diminishing ever since the British came into possession of the colony. In 1831 they were computed at 5,096 ; and it is stated " it is the opinion of old inhabitants of the colony, and those most competent to judge,
SOUTH AMERICA. 0
that a considerable diminution has taken place in the aggr^ate number of the Indians of late years, and that the diminution, although gradual, has become more sensibly apparent within the last eight or tea years." The diminution is attributed, in some degree, to the increased use of rum amongst tbera.*
There are in the colony six gentlemen bearing the title of " Protectors of Indians," whose office it is to ■ superintend the tribes, and under them are placed Post-holders, a principal part of whose business it is to keep the Negroes from resorting to the Indians, and also to attend the distribution of the presents which are given to the latter by the British government, of which, as was noticed with reprehension by Lord Goderich, rum formed a part.
It does not appearf that any thing has been done by govern- ment for their moral or religious improvement, excepting the grant in 1831, by Sir B. D'Urban, of a piece of land at Point Bartica, where a small estaWishment was then founded by the Church Missionary Society. The Moravian Mission on the Courantin was given up in 1817 ; and it does not appear that any other Protestant, Society has attended to these Indians.
In 1831 Lord Goderich writes, J " I have not heard of any effort to convert the Indians of British Guiana to Christianity, or to impart to them the arts of social life."
It should be observed that no injunctions to communicate either are given in the instructions for the " Protectors of Indians," or in those for the Post-holders ; and two of the articles of the latter, (Art. 14 and Art. 15,) tend directly to sanction and encourage immorality. All reports agree in stating that these tribes have been almost wholly neglected, are retrograding, and are without provision for their moral or civil advancement ; and with due allowance for the extenuating remarks on the poor account to which they turned their lands, when they had them, and the gifts (baneful gifts some of them) which have been dis- tributed, and on the advantage of living under British laws, we must still concur in the sentiment of Lord Goderich, as expressed in the same letter, upon a reference as to sentence of death passed upon a native Indian for the murder of another. " It is a serious consideration that we have subjected these tribes to the ^ penalties of a code of which they unavoidably live in profound ignorance ; they have not even that conjectural knowledge of its provisions which would be suggested by the precepts of religion, if they had even received the most elementary instruction in the christian faith. They are brought into acquaintance with civilized life not to partake its blessings, but only to feel the severity of its penal sanctions.
" A debt is due to the aboriginal inhabitants of British Guiana
:* Letter from Jbs. Hackett, Eaq., Civil Conimiuioner, to Sir B. D'Urban. Papers Abor. Ttibri, 1834,' pp, 19t anU 198.
t Papers Abor. Tribei, pii. 183, 193. t Papen, p. 182.
10 ABOKIOINES REPORT.
of a very different kind from that which the inhabitants of Christendom may, in a certain sense, he said to owe in general to other barharous tribes. The whole territory which has heeii occupied by Europeans, on the Northern shores of tlie South American Continent, has been acquired by no other right than that of superior power ; and I fear that the natives whom we have dispossessed, have to this day received no compensation for the loss of the lands on which they formerly subsisted. However urgent is the duty of economy in every branch of the public service, it is impossible to withhold from the natives of the country the inestimable benefit which they would derive from appropriating to their religious and moral instruction some moderate part of that income which results from the culture of the soil to which they or their fathers had an indisputable title.*
CARIBS.
Of the Caribs, the native inhabitants of the West Indies, we need not speak, as of them little more remains than the tradition that they once existed.
NEW HOLLAND.
The inhabitants of New Holland, in their original condition, have been described by travellers as the most degraded of the human race ; but it is to be feared that intercourse with Europeans has cast over their original debasement a yet deeper shade of wretchedness.
These people, unoffending as they were towards us, have, as might have been expected, suffered in an aggravated degree from the planting amongst them of our penal settlements. In the formation of these settlements it does not appear that the territorial rights of the natives were considered, and very little care has since been takep to protect them from the violence or the con- tamination of the dregs of our countrymen.
The effects have consequently been dreadful beyond example, both in the diminution of their^numbera and in their demoraliza- tion.
Many deeds of murder and violence have undoubtedlv been committed by the stock-keepers (convicts in the employ of farmers in the outskirts of the colony), by the cedar cutters, and by other remote free settlers, and many natives have perished by the various mihtary parties sent against them ; but it is not to violence only that their decrease is ascribed. This is the evidence given by Bishop Broughton : " They do not so much retire as decay ; wherever Europeans meet with them they appear to wear out, and gradually to decay : they diminish in numbers ; they appear actually to vanish from the face of the earth. I am led to appre- • Paper* Abor. Tribes, pp. lal, 182. j^-
NEW HOLLAND. tl
hend tliat withio a very limited period, a few yearsj" (adds the Bishop), " those who are most in contact with Europeans will be utterly extinct — I will not say exterminated — but they will be extinct."
As to their moral condition, the bishop says of the natiwes around Sydney, " They are in a state which I consider one of extreme degradation and ignorance; they are, in fact, ia a situ- ation much inferior to what I supposed them to have been before they had any communication with Europe." And again, in his charge, " It is an awful, it is even an appalling consideration, that, after an intercourse of nearly half a century with a christian people, these hapless human beings contiuue to this day in their original benighted and degraded state. I may even proceed far- ther, so far as to express my fears that our settlement in their country has even deteriorated a condition of existence, than which, before our interference, nothing more miserable could easily be conceived. While, as the contagion of European inter- course has extended itself among them, they gradually lose the better properties of their own character, they appear in exchange to acquire none but the most objectionable and degrading of ours."
The natives about Sydney and Paramatta are represented as in a state of wretchedness still more deplorable than those resident in the interior.
" Those in the vicinity of Sydney are so completely changed, they scarcely have the same pursuits now ; they go about the streets beg^ng their bread, and begging for clothing and rum. From the diseases introduced among them, the tribes in imme- diate connexion with those large towns almost became extinct; not more than two or three remained, when I was last in New South Wales, of tribes which formerly consisted of 200 or 300."
Dr. Lang, the minister of the Scotch church, writes, " Prom the prevalence of infanticide, from intemperance, and from European diseases, their number is evidently and rapidly diminishing in all the older settlements of the colony, and in the neighbourhood of Sydney especially, they present merely the shadow of what were once numerous tribes." Yet even now " he thinks their number within the limits of the colony of New South Wales cannot be less than 10,000 : an indication of what must once have been the population, and what the destruction. It is only," Dr. Lang observes, " through the influence of Christianity, brought to bear upon the natives by the zealous exertions of devoted missionaries, that the progress of extinction can be checked."
The case of these people has not been wholly overlooked at home. In 18S5 his Majesty issued instructions to the governor to the effect that they should be protected in the enjoyment of their possessions, preserved from violence and injustice, and that measures should be taken for their conversion to the christian faith, and their advancement in civilisation. An allowance has been made to the Church Missionary Society in their behalf, and
12 ABORIGINES REPORT.
efforts for their amelioration have been made, and attended with some degree of utility; but much as we rejoice in this act of justice, we still must express our conviction that if we are ever able to make atonement to the remnant of *his people, it will require no slight attention, and no ordinary sacrifices on our part to compensate the evil association which we have inflicted; but even hopelessness of making reparation for what is past would not in any way lessen our obligation to stop, as far as in ua lies, the continuance of iniquity. " The evil," said Mr, Coates, " resulting from immoral intercourse between the Europeans and the Aborigines, is so enormous that it appears to my mind a moral obligation on the local government to take any practicable measures in order to put an end to it."
In this opinion the Committee entirely concur.
A new colony is about to be established in South Australia, and it deserves* to be placed upon record, that parliament, as . lately as August 1834, passed an act disposing of the lands of this country without once adverting to the native population. With this remarkable exception, we have had satisfaction in observing the preliminary measures for the formation of this settlement, which appears, if we may judge from the Report of the Colonial Commissioners, likely to be undertaken in a better spirit than any such enterprises that have come before our notice. The commis- sioners acknowledge that it is "a melancholy fact, which admits of no dispute, and which cannot be too deeply deplored, that the native tribes of Australia have hitherto been exposed to injustice and cruelty in their intercourse with Europeans;" and they lay down certain regulations to remedy these evils in the proposed settlement.*
On the western coast of Australia collisions have not unfre- quently taken place between the colonists and the natives, on the subject of which we may adopt the just language of Lord Glenelg : "It is impossible to regard such conflicts without regret and anxiety, when we recollect how fatal, in too many instances, our colonial settlements have proved to the natives of the places where they have been formed ; and this too by a aeries of con- flicts, in every one of which it has been asserted, and apparently with justice, that the immediate aggression has not been on our side. The real causes of these hostilities are to be found in a course of petty encroachments and acts of injustice committed by the new settlers, at first submitted to by the natives, and not
* Had Buch a course of conciliation been ralJawrd in the eatabliiliing of the colony B( Itafftes Bay, on the nortliern share of Australia, il ia probable ibat (he " boitility of the nalives" would never have been among Ihe reasona for tile abandonment of that setilemenl. It is said, that on the triainf; ofTenee of Ihe Iheh of an axe, the sentinels were ordered to Rre at the natives whenever ilicy approached. Captain Barker, in command when the order came for the Hbandonment of the settlenient, had pursued a dilferent course, and had won their ci.nlidence ; and, it is said, that, far from being sueh "unlameable savages as originally represented, they proved iheraselvEB to be a mild and merciful race of people.'^— See Wilson's Voyage.
VAN diehen's land. 13
sufficiently checked In the outset by the leaders of die colonists. Hence has been generated Jn the minds of the injured party a deadly spirit of hatred and vengeance, which breaks out at length into deeds of atrocity, which, in their turn, make retaliation a necessary part of self-defence."*
It is true, that to remain passive under actual outrages, would encourage savages in their perpetration, but we regret that in any instance, punishment, which appears disproportionate, should have been inflicted. We find the natives on the Murray River mentioned as amongst the most troublesome in this quarter ; and in the summer of the year 1 SSi they murdered a British soldier, having in the course of the previous five years killed three other persons. In the month of October 1834 Sir James Stirling, the governor, proceeded with a party of horse to the Murray River, in search of the tribe in question. On coming up with them, it appears that the British horse charged this tribe without any parley, and killed fifteen of them, not, as it seems, confining their vengeance to the actual murderers. After the rout, the women who had been taken prisoners were dismissed, having been informed, "that the punishment had been inflicted because of the misconduct of the tribe ; that the white men never forget to punish murder ; that on this occasion the women and children had been spared ; but if any other person should be killed by them, not one would be allowed to remain on this side of the mountains." f
However needful it may be to overawe the natives from com- mitting acts of treachery, we cannot understand the principle of such indiscriminate puni^ment, nor approve of threats extending to the destruction of women and children. " It would also be satisfactory," as Lord Glenelg has observed, " to know that there had been no previous misconduct, or act of harshness or injustice, which had originally provoked the enmity of the natives."
We are, however, happy to learn that, in bis general policy. Sir James Stirling has pursued conciliatory measures towards the neighbouring tribes, and that measures are in progress for effecting their civilisation.
VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.
The natives of Van Diemen's Land, first, it appears, provoked by the British colonists, whose early atrocities, and whose rob- beries of their wives and children, excited a spirit of indiscriminate vengeance,J became so dangerous, though diminished to a very small number, that their remaining in their own country was deemed incompatible with the safety of the settlement.
■ Despatch from Lord Glenelg to Governor Sir J. Stirling. 23d July, 1835. i- Detpalch of Sir J. Stirling to Mr. Secretary Stanley, l(t November, \ZSi. t Report of the Aborigioes Cammiltee, Van Diemen'B Land, 1830. Pari. Fapen, No. 2S9, p. 36.
14 ABORIGINES REPORT.
In their case, it must be remembered, the strongest desire was felt by the government at home, and responded to by the local governor, to protect and conciliate them; and yet, such was the unfortunate nature of our policy, and the circumstances into which it had brought us, that no better expedient could he devised than the catching and expatriating of the vrhole of the native population. There is no doubt that the outrages of the . Aborigines were fearful ; but while the local " Aborigines Com- mittee," in 1831, who recommended the removal, speak of the "forbearance" exercised both by the government and the greater part of the community, they state that there is the " strongest feeling amongst the settlers that so long as the natives have only land to traverse, so long will life and every thing valuable to them be kept in a state of jeopardy;" and they intimate their fear that if the measure recommended be not adopted, " the result will be that the whites will individually, or in small bodies, take violent steps against the Aborigines, a proceeding which they cannot contemplate the possibility of without horror ; but which, they do believe, has many supporters in tiiis colony :" tbey therefore urge the removal under the " persuasion that such a measure alone will have the effect of preventing the calamities which his Majesty's subjects have for so long a period sutfered, and of preventing the entire destruction of the Aborigines themselves."*
The governor Colonel Arthur's words on the subject are these : " Undoubtedly the Jieing reduced to the necessity of driving a simple, but warlike, and, as it now appears, noble-minded race from their native hunting-grounds, is a measure in itself so dis- tressing, that I am willing to make almost any prudent sacrifice that may tend to compensate for the injuries that the govern- ment is unwillingly and unavoidably made the instrument of inflicting." f
The removal accordingly proceeded under the management of Mr, Robinson (which is described by Colonel Arthur as able and humane); and in September 1834 it was so nearly effected, that the governor writes thus : " The whole of the aboriginal inha- bitants of Van Dieraen's Land (excepting four persons) are now domiciliated, with their own consent, on Flinder's Island."
From still later reports it appears that not a single native now remains upon Van Diemen's Land. Thus, nearly, has the event been accomplished which was thus predicted and deprecated by Sir G. Murray: —
The great decrease which has of late years taken place in the amount of the aboriginal population, render it not unreasonable to apprehend that the whole race of these people may, at no distant period, become extinct. But with whatever feelings such an event may be looked for- ward to by those of the settlers who have been sufferers by the collisions
• Papers Abor. Tribes, p. Ifi9.
i Deepaicb to Lord Godericb, 6rti April, 1S33. Pspen, '^'^"qoqIc
ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC. 15
wbich have taken place, it is imposgible not to contemplate such a result of our occupation of the island aa one very difficult to be recon- cUed with feelings of humanity, or even with principles of justice and aound policy ; and the adoption of any line of conduct, having for its avowed or secret object the extinction of the native race, could not fail to leave an indelible stain upon the British government,*
ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC.
We next turn our view to those islands in the Pacific Ocean to which we resort for purposes of traffic, without having planted colonies upon them ; and again we must repeat our belief that our penal colonies have been the inlet of incalculable mischief to this whole quarter of the world. It vrill be hard, we think, to find compensation not only to Australia, but to New Zealand and to the innumerable islands of the South Seas, for the murders, the misery, the contamination which we have brought upon them. Our runaway convicts are the pests of savage as well as of civilized society; so are our runaway sailors ; and the crews of our whaling vessels, and of the traders from New South Wales, too fireguently act in the most reckless and immoral manner when at a distance from the restraints of justice ; in proof of this we need only refer to tlie evidence of the missionaries.
It is stated that there have been not less than 150 or SOO run- aways at once on the island of New Zealand, counteracting all that was done for the moral improvement of the people, and teaching them every vice.
*' I beg leave to add," remarks Mr. Ellis, " the desirableness of preventing, by every practicable means, the introduction of ardent spirits among the inhabitants of the countries we may visit or colonize. There is nothing more injurious to the South Sea islanders than seamen who have absconded from ships, set- ting up huts for the retail of ardent spirits, called grog-shops, which are the resort of the indolent and vicious of the crews of the vessels, and in which, under the infiuence of intoxication, scenes of immorality, and even murder, have been exhibited, almost beyond what the natives witnessed among themselves while they were heathens. The demoralization and impediments to the civilization and prosperity of the people that have resulted from the activity of foreign traders in ardent spirits, have been painful in the extreme. In one year it is estimated that the sum of 1S,000 dollars was expended, in Taheite alone, chiefiy by the natives, for ardent spirits."
The lawless conduct of the crews of vessels must necessarily have an injurious effect on our trade, and on that ground alone demands investigation. In the month of April 1834, Mr. Busby
16 ABORIGINES REPORT.
states there were twenty-nine vessels at one time in the Bay of
Islands, and that seldom a day passed without some complaint heing made to him of the most outrageous conduct on the part of their crews, which he had not the means of repressing, since these reckless seamen totally disregarded the usages of their own country, and the unsupported authority of the British resident.*
Till lately the tattooed heads of New Zealanders were sold at Sydney as objects of curiosity; and Mr. Yate saya he has known people give property to a chief for tlie purpose of getting them to kill their slaves, that they might have some lieads to take to New South Wales.
This degrading traiEc was prohihited by General Darling, the governor, upon the following occasion : — lu a representation made to Governor Darling, the Rev. Mr, Marsden states, that the captain of an English vessel being, as he conceived, insulted by some native women, set one tribe upon another to avenge his quarrel, and supplied them with arms and ammunition to fight. The natives were thus involved in a war, through the reckless- ness of a foreigner ; for, as they alleged, it was not their own quarrel, and they wished to know what satisfaction the English would give them for the lives which had been taken. When, however, Mr. Marsden proposed writing to England to prevent the return of the obnoxious captain, they requested he would by no means do so, as they wished he might return, and then they would take satisfaction themselves.
In the prosecution of the war thus excited, a party of forty- one Bay of Islanders made an expedition agaiust some tribes of the south. Forty of the former were cut off, and a few weeks after the slaughter, a Captain Jack went and purchased thirteen chiefs' heads, and bringing them back to the Bay of Islands, emptied' them out of a sack in the presence of their relations. The New Zealanders were, very properly, so much enraged that they told this captain they should take possession of the ship, and put the laws of their country into execution. When he found that they were in earnest, he cut his cable and left the harbour, and afterwards had a narrow escape from them at Tau- runga. He afterwards reached Sydney, and it came to the knowledge of the governor, that he brouglit there ten of these heads for sale, on which discovery the practice was declared unlawful. Mr. Yate mentions an instance of a captain going 300 miles from the Bay of Islands to East Cape, enticing twenty-five young men, sons of chiefs, on board his vessel, and delivering them to the Bay of Islanders, with whom they were at war, merely to gain the favour of the latter, and to obtain supplies for his vessel. The youths were afterwards redeemed from slavery by the mis- sionaries, and restored to their friends. Mr. Yate once took fpom the hand of a New Zealand chief a packet of corrosive sub- limate, which a captain had given to the savage in order to • See abo Q. 2937.
; IN THE PACIFIC.
enable him to poison his enemies. Mr. Coates, the Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, communicated to your Com- mittee a letter firom the Rev. S. Marsden to Governor-general Darling, giving the particulars of a most horrid massacre per- petrated by means of the assistance of the master and crew of a British merchant brig. The circumstances were reported as follows to Mr. Marsden, by two New Zealand chiefs, who also made their report to Governor Darling in person : —
In December 1830, a Captain Stewart, of the brig Elizabeth, a, British vessel, on promise of ten tons of flax, took above 100 New Zealanders concealed in his vessel, down from Kappetee Entry Island, in Cook's Strait, to Takou, or Bank's Peninsula, on the Middle Island, to a tribe with whom they were at war. He then invited and enticed on board the chief of Takou, with his brother and two daughters: "When they came on board, the captain took hold of the chieFs hand in a friendly manner, and conducted him and his two daughters into the cabin ; showed him the muskets, how they were arranged" round the sides of the cabin. When all was prepared for securing the chief, the cabin- door was locked, and the chief was laid hold on, and his hands were tied fast ; at the same time a hook, with a cord to it, was struck through the skin of his throat under the side of his jaw, and the line fastened to some part of the cabin : in this state of torture he was kept for some days, until the vessel arrived at Kappetee. One of bis children clung fast to her father, and cried aloud. The sailors dragged her from her father, and threw her from him; her head struck against some hard substance, which killed her on the spot." The brother, or nephew, Ahu (one of the narrators), " who had been ordered to the forecastle, came as far as the capstan and peeped through into the cabin, and saw the chief in the state above mentioned." They also got the chief's wife and two sisters on board, with 100 baskets of flax. All the men and women who came in the chief's canoe were killed. " Several more canoes came off also with flax, and the people were all killed by the natives of Kappetee, who had been concealed on board for the purpose, and the sailors who were on deck, who' fired upon them with their muskets." The natives of Kappetee were then sent on shore with some sailors, with orders to kill all the inhabitants they could find ; and it was reported that those parties who went on shore murdered many of the natives ; none escaped but those who fled into the woods. The chief, his wife and two sisters were killed when the vessel arrived at Kappetee, and other circumstances yet more revolting are added.'
Governor Darling forwarded to Lord Goderich the account of this dreadful affair, together with the depositions of two seamen of the brig Elizabeth, and those of J. B. Montefiore, Esq. and A. Kennis, Esq., merchants of Sydney, who had embarked on board the Elizabeth on its return to Entry Island, and had there
18 AB0BIGIKE8 REPORT.
learned the particulars of the case, had seen the captive chief sent on shore, and had been intbriDed that he was sacrificed. Their depositions tally in all important points with the story of the New Zealanders; and General JJarling remarks thereupon: "The sanguinary proceedings of the savages could only be equalled by the atrocious conduct of Captain Stewart and his crew. Rauparalia" (the aggressor chief) '* may, according to his notions, have supposed that he had sufficient cause for acting as he did- Captain Stewart became instrumental to the massacre (which could not have taken place but for his agency) in order to obtain a supply of flax."*
General Darling referred the case to the crown sdicitor, with directions to bring the offenders to justice, but through some unexplained legal difficulty, this was never effected. Captain Stewart was indeed held to bail, but the other parties impli- cated, and the sailors who might have been vritnesses, were suffered to leave the country. Thus, then, we have seen that an atrocious crime, involving the murder of many individuals, baa been perpetrated through the instrumentality of a British sub- ject, and that yet neither he nor any of his accomplices have suffered any punishment. "Whether this impunity has arisen from defect in the law, or from inability to carry the law into execution, does not so clearly appear ; but in either case it is incumbent upon this nation to provide against the repetition of outrages so destructive to the natives and so discreditable to the British name. We cannot conclude this melancholy detail with- out quoting the expressions of indignation with which this and other atrocities committed in New Zealand are spoken of by the then Secretary -of- State for our Colonies, Lord Goderich : —
It is impossible to read, without shame and indignation, the details which these documents disclose. The unfortunate natives of New Zealand, unless some decisive measures of prevention be adopted, will, I fear, be shortly added to the number of those barbarous tribes who, in dJiFerent parts of the globe, have fallen a sacrifice to their intercourse with civilized men, who bear and disgrace the name of Christians. When, for mercenary purposes, the natives of Europe minister to the passions by which these savages are inflamed against each other, and introduce them to the knowledge of depraved acts and licentious grati- fications of the most debased inhabitants of our great cities, the inevi' table consequence is a rapid decline of population, preceded by every variety of suffering. Considering what is the character of a large part of the population of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, what opportunities of settling themselves in New Zealand are afforded them by the extensive intercourse which has recently been established, ad- verting also to the conduct which has been pursued in those islands by the masters and crews of British vessels, and finding from the letter of the Rev. Mr, Williams, that the work of depopulation is already pro- ceeding fast, T cannot contemplate the too probable results without • GoverDOi Oariing't Dopalcb to Lonl Godericb, iSth April, 1831.
ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC. 19
the deepest anxiety. There can be no more sacred duty than that of using every passible method to reseue the natives of those extensive islands from the further evils which impend over them, and to deliver our own country irom the disgrace and crime of having either occasioned or tolerated such enormities.*
In connexion with this subject we cannot forbear noticing the inequality of the measure of justice which appears to be dealt out to the European and the native by our Australian courts. This is especially noticed by the late Attorney -General of New South Wales ; and when we find that within the pre- cincts of our chief settlement it is yet a subject of recommenda- tion that coroners should be required to sit on the bodies of Aborigines, whenever there " might be any reason to suppose that British subjects had been in any way accessary to tneir deaths,"-)- we cannot be surprised that the enactors of savage deeds on shores remote from all abodes of civilized men find it easy to evade their due consequences.
A witness states that be has known of several murders com- mitted by European crews upon the beach at Kororeka and other parts j but with the disclosure of these fearful facts, he stilt grounds his chief complaint against our sailors, not on their cruelty, which he does not consider general, but on the highly demoralizing eflfect of their manners.
There are indeed honourable exceptions : " There are some," says Mr. Williams, " wlio are in the habit of visiting us twice or thrice a year, whose conductis very praiseworthy;" but we fear that evil greatly predominates in the merchant service j and so h%hly do some of our sailors resist the interference of chrbtian mis- sionaries, that they have been known to threaten their lives for venturing to interpose a check on their iniquitous proceedings. Thus it is stated, that in 1825, nearly forty seamen belonging to the Daniel, Captain Buckle, a large whaler from London, exas- perated at the restraints laid on their licentiousness, went on shore at Lahaina, the port of Maui, one of the Sandwich Islands, armed, and with the black flag flying, and attacked the house of Mr. and Mrs. Richards, American missionaries ; and appear to have been prevented from murdering them only by the prompti- tude and decision of the natives in coming to their defence. It is stated that the chiefs were obliged to keep a strong guard around the house for three successive days, to protect their missionary from the murderous assaults of christian seamen.
The conduct of the commanders and crews of our ships of war, both here and elsewhere, is stated to he such in general as to do credit to their nation. The savages in some parts of Aus- tralia are so aware of the distinction between them and the whalers, that they will flee on the approach of a small vessel, while
20 ABORIGINES
they hail with joy that of a large one. We think, however, that there is reason to regret some of the circumstances attendant upon a recent naval expedition against New Zealand ; the facts are thus stated :*
In April, 1834, the barque Harriet, 3. Guard, master, was wrecked at Capel^mont, on the coast of NewZealand. Thenatives came down to plunder, but refrained from other violence for about ten days, in which interval two of Guard's men deserted to the savages. They then got into a fray with the sailors, and killed twelve of them: onthepartoftheNewZealanders twenty or thirty were shot. The savagesgot possession ofMra.Guardandhertwo children. Mr. Guard and the remainder were suffered to retreat, but surrendered themselves to another tribe whom they met, and who finally allowed the captain to depart, on his promising to return, and to bring back with hiin a ransom in powder ; and they retained nine seamen as hostages. Three native chiefs ac- companied Guard to Sydney. Captain Guard had been trading with the New Zealanders from the year 1823, and it was re- ported that his dealings with them had, in some instances, been marked with cruelty. On Mr. Guard's representation to the government at Sydney, the AlUgator frigate. Captain Lambert, and the schooner Juahella, with a company of the 50th regiment, were sent to New Zealand for the recovery of Mrs. Guard and the other captives, with instructions, if practicable, to obtain the restoration of the captives by amicable means. On arriving at the coast near Cape Egmont, Captain Lambert steered for a for- tified village or pah, called the Nummo, where Mrs. Guard was known to be detained. He sent two interpreters on shore, who made promises of payment (though against Captain Lambert's order) to the natives, and held out also a prospect of trade in whalebone, on the condition that the women and children should be restored. The interpreter could not, from stress of weather, be received on board for some days. The vessel proceeded to the tribe which held the men in captivity, and they were at once given up on the landing of the chiefs whom Captain Lambert had brought back from Sydney. Captain Lambert returned to the tribe at the Nummo, with whom he had communicated through the interpreter, and sent many messages to endeavour to persuade them to give up the woman and one child (the other was held by a third tribe), but without offering ransom. On the 28th September the military were landed, and two unarmed and unattended natives advanced along the sands. One announced himself as the chief wlio retained the woman and child, and rubbed noses with Guard in token of amity, expressing his readi- ness to give them up on the receipt of the promised "payment." "In reply," as Mr. Marshall, assistant-surgeon of the Alligator, who witnessed the scene, states, " he was instantly seized upon
• Pari. Papers on New Zealand, 183G. No. 5ii.
ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC. SI
as a prisoner of war" (by order of Captain Johnson, commanding the detachment), " dragged into the whale-boat, and dispatched on board the Alligator, in custody of John Guard and his sailors. On his hrief passage to the ^boat, insult followed in- sult ; one fellow twisting his ear by means of a small swivel which hung from it, and another pulling his long hair with spiteful violence ; a third pricking him with the point of a bayo- net. Thrown to the bottom of the boat, she was shoved off before he recovered himself, which he had no sooner succeeded in doing than be jumped overboard, and attempted to swim on shore, to prevent which he was repeatedly fired upon from the boat ; but not until he had been shot in the calf of the leg was he again made a prisoner of. Having been a second time secured, he was lashed to a thwart, and stabbed and struck so repeatedly, that, on reaching the Alligator, he was only able to gain the deck by a strong eSait, and there, after staggering a few paces aft, fainted and fell down at the foot of the capstan in a gore of blood. When I dressed his wounds, on a subsequent occasiom I found ten inflicted by the point and edge of the bayonet over his head and face, one in his left breast, which it was at first feared would prove, what it was evidently intended to have proved, a mortal thrust, and another in the leg."
Captain Lambert, who did not himself see the seizure, admits that the chief was unarmed when he came down to the shore, and that he " certainly was severely wounded : he had a ball through the calf of his leg, and he had been struck violently on the head."
Captain Johnson proceeded to the pah or fortified village, found it deserted, and burnt it the next morning. On the 30th September Mrs. Guard and one child were given up, and the wounded chief thereupon was very properly sent on shore, with- out waiting for the delivery of the other child ; but " in the evening of the same day," Captain Lambert states, " I again sent Lieutenant Thomas to ask for the child, whose patience and firmness during the whole of the negotiations, notwithstanding the insults that were offered to him, merit the greatest praise. He shortly after returned on board, having been fired at from one of the pahs while waiting outside the surf. Such treachery could not be borne, and I immediately commenced firing at them from the ship ; a reef of rocks, which extend some distance from the shore, I regret, prevented my getting as near them as I could have wished. Several shots fell into the pahs, and also destroyed their canoes." *
Oct. 8. After some fruitless negotiation, all the soldiers and several seamen were landed, making a party of 112 men, and were stationed on two terraces of the cliff, one above the other, with a six-pounder carronade, while the interpreter and sailors
•Pari. Papers, 1835. Ko, S8S, pi J. ..C.O>,H^lc
22 ABORIQINES REPORT.
were left below to wait for the boy. The New Zealanden epproacbed at first with distrust; but at length a fine tall man came forward, and assured Mr. Marshall that the child should be immediately forthcoming, and also forbade our fighting, alleging, that " his tribe had no wish to fight at all," Soon afterwards the boy was brought down on the shoulders of a chief, who expressed to Lieutenant M'Murdo his desire to go on board for the pur- pose of receiving a ransom : —
On being told that none would be ^ven, he turned away, when one of the sailors seized hold of the child, and discoTered it nas fastened with a strap or cord ; to use his own expression, he had recourse to cutting away, and the child fell upon the beach. Another seaman, thinking the chief would make his escape, IcTelled his firelock, and shot him dead. The troops hearing the report of the musket, and thinking it was fired by the natives, immediately opened a fire from the top of the chff upon them, who made a precipitate retreat to the pahs. The child being now in our possession, I made a signal to the ships for the boats, intending to re-embark the troops ; hut the weather becoming thick, and a shift of wind obliging the vessels to stand out to sea, and, at the same time, finding myself attacked by the natives, who were concealed in the high flax, I found my only alternative was to advance on the pahs. I therefore ordered Lieutenant Gunton with 30 men to the front, in skirmishing order, for the purpose of driving the natives from the high fiax from which they were firing : this was done, and, as I have reason to think, with considerable loss on the part of the natives.'
The body of the chief is said to have been mutilated, and the head cut off by a soldier, and kicked about. It was identified by means of a brooch, which Mrs. Guard said belonffed to the chief, who had adopted and protected her son. It is scarcely necessary to add, that this wanton act met with the reprobation it deserved from Captain Lambert and his officers.
Captain Lambert states, that he should think there were between 20 and 30 of thi natives wounded (and this, be it ob- served, after the child was recovered), but it was not ascertained. " The English went straight forward to attack the pahs, and they had no communication with the natives after." The troops immediately took possession of the two villages ; and on quitting them, three days afterwards, burnt them to the ground.
In adverting to this transaction, it is necessary to bear in mind that we are furnished with the report made by one party only. If we could hear both sides, it is not improbable that further circumstances might be disclosed, which might alter the whole complexion of the case, or, at least, afford an explanation mid an apology for the "conduct of the natives. Limiting our- selves, however, to the narrative of the Europeans, and assuming
:o iha Governor of New South Wales. Pml. Papert,
INLANDS IN THE PACIFIC.
DO £acts but such as they disclose, let us see hovr much blame attaches to each party.
A fray, in the first instance, took place between the Kuropeans and natives, in which 12 of the former, and 20 or 30 of the latter, perished.
From the examination of Captain Guard, it would appear that the natives were the aggressors. The Committee, however, re- ceive his testimony with some hesitation, as they find this para- graph in the dissent of the colonial treasurer, C, D. Riddell, Esq., on the subject of this expedition : — " The council has had no evi- dence before them of the character of Mr. Guard. The colonial treasurer has been casually informed that he was formerly a convict, and that his dealings with the New Zealanders have in some instances been marked with cruelty."*
Mr. Marshall being asked what was the character Captain Guard bore in the Alligator, says : — " In the estimation of the officers, the general sentiment was one of dislike and disgust at his conduct on board, and his conduct on shore," He has him- self heard him say, that a musket-ball for every New Zealander was the best mode of civilizing the country.
Captain I^ambert also declares that Guard suggested several things that he thought very improper ; that he " was anxious that we should commence firing on the pahs ; that we should land immediately, and not treat with them ;" and that he did certainly hear of his having spoken in a very exasperated man- ner against the natives, and having no sort of Hnd feeling towards them. Further, on Captain Lambert's being asked, " Was Captain Guard a man upon whose unsupported testimony you would feel justified in commencing an attack upon the na- tives t" his answer was, " Certainly not, unless there was an object in view, which I saw." From these circumstances, and from the testimony of missionaries, that in cases of confiict, the cause, when completely sifted, has been always traceable to the Europeans, it appears to the Committee, that the unsupported testimony of Guard is hardly sufficient to warrant us in throwing the whole blame of the encounter on the natives ; more espe- cially, as there is this degree of contradiction between Guard's original narrative and his subsequent statement. In the former, he expresses his conviction that the natives, prior to the conflict, intended to kill him and his men, and to eat their bodies. In the latter, though the natives bad been further exasperated by the loss of 20 or 30 of their tribe, " he expresses no dread for the safety of his wife and family, nor of the men left in bondage to the Mataroa tribe ; and was quite confident that a pound of powder, and a blanket or two, would be considered as a sufficient ransom for each of them : something more, perhaps, would be required for bis wife and children. f
• Par]. Papers, 585, p. 5. + Part. Papm, 1885.
Kja'ti'-"
It appears to your Committee, that prior to proceeding to violence, it would have been prudent to have courted further commuDication with the natives, and to have heard their version of the events which had taken place. Nor can they conclude that the natives were entirely the aggressors when such inquiries do not appear to have taken place.
In another stage of the transaction an event occurred which created a suspicion of treachery.
Lieutenant Thomas landed on the 30th of September; a single ' musket was fired, and the ball passed over his head ; but whether this was the act of the tribe, or only of an individual, — whether it was by accident or design, and whether it was intended to destroy that officer, or was merely a customary and peacefiil salutation, as there is some reason tosuppose,i3not known, nor was inquiry made.
To your Committee it does not appear probable that the na- tives should have abstained from slaughter while their victims were in their power, and should resort to violence when they had surrendered all hut one of their prisoners.
These two acts, however, constitute the whole that has been alleged against the natives.
On the other hand it is necessary, for the sake of justice, and for the sake of those traders who may be placed in the power of the natives, to inquire in what light the conduct ol the Euro- peans appeared to them.
It is acknowledged that the agent sent from the frigate did promise ransom ; he did so in contravention of his orders, but of this the natives could have no kn owl edge- When the chief went down to the crew of the boat, unarmed and unattended ; when he exchanged with Guard the usual token of peace, and when they saw him, instead of receiving the promised ransom, seized, dragged to the boat, exposed to violence and a species of torture, and finally shot at and wounded, — it was natural for them to suppose that they had been treacherously dealt with, and this was their construction. This impression may have been confirmed by the burning of their fortification. Again, on the afternoon of the same day on which Mrs. Guard and her children had been restored, their town was cannonaded, and their canoes destroyod by the fire of the vessel. Again, sonie days after, they see a large body of soldiers landed on their beach : the natives, it appears, declared at once that they did not wish to fight, and that the child would be forthcoming. Soon after the child appeared on the shoulders of a chief, who had, as it seems from Mrs. Guard's declaration, been his protector ; they see the child snatched from him, the chief slain, his body mutilated, and a destructive fire poured upon them &om musketry and cannon ; and finally, after three days had passed, when the conflict had not been renewed, and when every prisoner had been restored uninjured, they saw two *" their villages committed to the fiames.
ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC. 25
The impression left witli that tribe of savages must have been one of extreme dread of our power, accompanied with one of deep indignation. The Committee cannot refrain from expressing their regret at this transaction ; because it occasioned a great sacrifice of life ; because it may be fatal to many innocent per- sons ; and because it seems calculated to obstruct those measures of benevolence which the legislature designs to native and bar- barous tribes.
It appears to your Committee that these evils might have been avoided if further efforts for negotiation had been made in the 6rst instance.
The missionaries, as we have seen, speak in general of the presence of the navy at their stations as beneficial ; " the visits of ships of war have done a great deal of good among us : Captain Waldegrave, Lord Byron, and various others ;" whilst they experience great annoyance from the undisciplined crews of merchantmen.
The Rev. J. Williams, missionary in the Society Islands, states, " that it is the common sailors, and the lowest order of them, the very vilest of the whole, who will leave their ship and go to live amongst the savages, and take with them all their low habits and all their vices." The captains of merchant vessels are apt to connive at the absconding of such worthless sailors, and the atrocities perpetrated by them are excessive ; they do incalculable mischief by circulating reports injurious to the interests of trade. On an island between the Navigator's and the Friendly group, he heard there were on one occasion 100 sailors who had run away from shipping. Mr. Williams gives an account of a gang of convicts who stole a small vessel from New South Wales, and came to Raiatia, one of the Sand- wich Islands, where he resided, representing themselves as ship- wrecked mariners. Mr. Williams suspected them, and told them he should inform the governor. Sir T. Brisbane, of their arrival, on which they went away to an island ^ miles off, and were received with every kindness in the house of the chief. They took an opportunity of stealing a boat belonging to the missionary of the station, and made off again. The natives immediately pursued, and desired them to return their missionary's boat. Instead of replying, they discharged a blunderbuss that was loaded with cooper's rivets, which blew the head of one man to pieces; they then killed two more, and a fourth received the contents of a blunderbuss in his hand, fell from exhaustion amongst his mutilated companions, and was left as dead. This man, and a boy who had saved himself by diving, returned to their island. " The natives were very respectable persons ; and had it not been that we were established in the estimation of the people, our lives would have been sacriiiced. The convicts then went in the boat down to the Navigator's Islands, and there entered with savage ferocity into the wars of the savages. One
2b ABORIGINES REPORT.
of these men was the most savage monster that ever I heard of: he boasted of having killed 300 natives with his own hands." Had Mr. Williams been invested with authority, he could have confined these men on their arrival, and prevented their further crimes.
The Rev. J. Thomas, Wesleyan missionary at the Friendly Islands, makes this report to his society from Tongataboo, De- cember 1832:—
I wish to make a few remarks on a painful subject, viz., the ill con- duct of masters of vessels and their crews at these islands. We have loDg been grieved to hear of the wickedness committed by our own couritrymcn who visit the Priendly Islands. It has spread its deadly influence far and wide, and presents an obstacle of no trifling importance to the extension of the gospel at many parts of this island, and is a constant stumbling-block to the infant church of Christ at this place. From what we have lately witnessed, we find that the evil complained of is increasing upon ns, and the consequences have been most afflicting. I do not hesitate to say that 18 out of SO of the accidents which have happened at these islands have taken place through the depraved and wicked conduct of the crews, as they drink to excess, quarrel and fight among themselves, and insult and ill-treat the natives, especially the females, which leads to quarrels with the men, and sometimes wiUi the heads of the people, who are nut disposed to put np with such con- duct from persons whom they can easily overcome. Designs are then formed to revenge the evils that they suffer ; which lead to murder and theft, to the great loss of property to the owners of vessels, the disgrace of our common Christianity and the English as a people, and the ruin and disgrace of the perpetrators, as well as the injury of the mission and the natives generally. Another thing we complain of is, that cap- tains of vessels leave their wicked and disorderly men at these islands, to our no small annoyance, and the injury of our people. We are aware that it is contrary to the British laws for captains to act so, yet they continue to do it. I here relate a case, which you can do as you please with : — Captain Banks, of the Mary Jane, whaler, of Sydney, was in here a few days ago. He said his steward was a scamping fellow, and that he would leave him ashore at this place. We told the captain that he had no right to leave him here ; also, that we had too many such men at this island. We furnished him with a copy of the British law on the subject ; but notwithstanding that, he has left the man here. His name is Harroway. Two others were discharged also, and four ran away from the same vessel. The captain of the Totmanl Castle, from England, has long been in the habit of frequenting Tonga. He has generally taken up his abode at what is called the Mua, on the eastern part of Tonga. The above captain, though an old South Sea whfller, yet, I am sorry to say, conducts himself very improperly. He and his officers and crew have made that part of Tonga a kind of ren- dezvous, where all kinds of wickedness have been committed, at which even the poor heathen have been ashamed.
And in June 1833, Mr. Thomas still speaks of the mischief done by ill-disposed captains of whalers, who, he says, " send
ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC. 27
the refuse of their crews on shore to annoy us ;" and proceeds to state thai the conduct of many of these " masters of South Sea whalers is most abominable ; they think no more of the life of an heathen than of a dog; And their cruel and wanton be- haviour at the different islands in those seas has a powerful tendency to lead the natives to hate the sight of a white man." Mr. Williams mentions " one of these captains, who with his people had shot 20 natives, at one of the islands, for no offence ;" and " another master of a whaler, &om Sydney, made his boast, last Christmas, at Tonga, that he had killed about 30 black fellows, — for so he called the natives of the Samoa, or Navigator's Islands, — for some very trifling offence ; and not satisfied with that, he designed to disguise his vessel, and pay them another visit, and get about a hundred more of them." " Our hearts," con- tinues Mr. Thomas, " almost bleed for the poor Samoa people ; they are a very mild, inoffensive race, very easy of access ; and as they are near to us, we have a great hope of their embracing the truth, viz., that the whole group will do so ; for you will learn from Mr. Williams's letter, that a part of them have already turned to God. But the conduct of our English savages has a tone of barbarity and cruelty in it which was never heard of or practised by them."
It is impossible but that such conduct should bring retaliation ; and unfortunately the natives do not always discriminate between the innocent and the guilty; so that occasionally crews just arrived are liable to suffer for the misdemeanors of their pre- decessors. We believe, however, that to almost all of these cases may be apphed the declaration made by a missionary respecting some which occurred in New Zealand : " Not one case has ever come under my own observation, never under any circumstances, but what the Europeans have been the aggressors, or have committed some breach in a known New Zealand law ; though I will say that the natives have not always punished the right, that is, the offending party."
" We have scarcely ever," says Mr. Ellis, " inquired into a quarrel between the natives and the Europeans, in which it has not been found to have originated either in violence towards the females, or in injustice in traffic or barter, on the part of the Europeans."
We have felt it our duty to advert to these glaring atrocities, perpetrated by British subjects, but we must repeat that acts of this nature form but the least part of the injuries which we have inflicted on the South Sea Islanders. The effects of our violence are as nothing compared to the diffusive moral evil which we have introduced ; and many as are the lives of natives known to have been sacrificed by the hands of Europeans, the sum of these is treated as bearing but a trifling proportion to the morta- lity occasioned by the demoralization of the natives.
This is the view taken by those who have vritnessed the pro-
28 ABORtOINES REPORT.
ccedings of Englishmen in these remote regions, and also by those whose opinions, though they have not all personally visited them, are yet entitled to a large measure of consideration, from the offices they hold bringing them into constant communication with persons experimentally acquainted with the condition of the natives. With regard, then, to the fact of the depopulation of these South Sea Islands, the Rev. William Ellis states —
It has been most fearful ; but I am not aware that it ia traceable to the operation of the cruelty of Europeans. It is traceable, in a great measure, to the demoralizing effects of intercourse with Europeans ; the introduction of diseases, of ardent ipirits, and of fire-arms. These results of intercourse with Europeans have produced a destruction of human life that is truly awliil. When Captain Cook was at the Sand* wich Islands he estimated the population at 400,000. In 162S, when, with other missionaries, I made a tour of some of the islands, we counted every house in one of the lai^st islands, which is 300 miles in drcumference, and endeavoured to obtain as accurate a census as several months' labour would aflbrd ; and there was not in the entire group of islands at that time above 150,000 people. That diminution is to be ascribed to the above causes — wars promoted by fire-arms, ardent spirits, and foreign diseases, and also to the superstitions of the people, the offering of human sacrifices. The practice of infanticide, which destroyed so many in the southern islands, did not prevail to any extent in the Sandwich Islands. Their wars were rendered far more destructive than heretofore by their being possessed of fire-arms. Where both parties are possessed of fire-arms the destruction is not so serious, but when one party only is possessed of fire-arms and the other party not, it is almost murder. With reference to the South Sea Islands, the depopulation has been as serious. Captain Cook estimated the population of the island of Tahiti at 200,000. I have reason to believe, from actual observation, that his estimate was much too high ; but the ruins of former dwellings, which still spread over every part of the island, show that it must have been much more densely peopled formerly than it is now. When the missionaries first arrived there were not more than 16,000, and after they bad been there ten or four- teen years, such had been the extent of depopulation, from the intro- duction of European diseases, ardent spirits, and of fire-arms, that the entire population was not above 8,000, some supposed not even 6,000. Since Christianity has prevailed among the people there has been a reaction ; the population is increasing, and perhaps it has increased one-fourth since Christianity has been introduced. I do not ascribe the depopulation which had taken place in the South Sea Islands to overt acts of cruelty, but chiefly to the indirect operation of intercourse with Europeans.
On this subject, the moral effect of the intercourse of Euro- peans in general with these people, savages and cannibals as they were before we visited them, Mr. Williams adds his testi- mony : " I should say, with few exceptions, that it is decidedly detrimental, both in a moral and civil point of view. And, in attempting to introduce Christianity among a people, I would
SOUTH AFRICA. 29
rather by far go to an island where they had never seen an European, than go to a place after they have had intercourse with Europeans. I had ten times rather meet them in their savage state than after they have had intercourse with Europeans."
SOUTH AFRICA.
In the beginning of the last century, the European colony in Africa was confined to within a few miles of Cape Town. From that period it has advanced, till it now includes more square miles than are to be found in England, Scotland, and Ireland ; and with regard to the natives of great part of this immense region, it is stated, " any traveller who may have visited the interior of this colony little more than twenty years ago, may now stand on the heights of Albany, or in the midst of a district of 42,000 square miles on the north side of Graaff Reinet, and ask the question. Where are the aboriginal inhabitants of this district which I saw here on my former visit to this country? without any one being able to inform him where he is to look for them to find them."
The disappearance of the former possessors of this immense region cannot, indeed, be accounted for in a few sentences, but we will endeavour to give a brief sketch of the fate of some of the tribes who have held possession of South Africa, premising that the Aborigines of this country may be classed under two distinct races, Hottentots and Caffres.
The first are divided into two branches, the " tame " or colonial Hottentots, and the wild Hottentots or Bushmen. To the Hottentots belong the Corannas, Gonaquas, and the mixed race of Griquas. The appellation Caffires, though sometimes still applied in a more extensive sense, is generally used in the Cape colony to denote the three contiguous tribes of Amakosa, Amatembee, and Amaponda. Tambookies is a name the English have given to the Amatembee. Mambookies is our Enghsh name for the Amaponda, and the Amakosa comprehend the tribe under the family of Gaika, and who inhabit the country between the Kei and the Keiskamma, and lie nearest to this colony, along the chain of mountains stretching from the sources of the Kat river to the sea.
When the Cape was discovered by the Portuguese, the Hot- tentots were both numerous and rich in cattle. It was observed of them, that they kept the law of nations better than most civilized people. The Dutch formed their first settlement at the Cape in 1652, and their governor, Van Ricbeck, gives vent in his journal to a very natural sentiment, and one which we fear has been too prevalent with succeeding colonists, when he de- scribes himself as looking from the mud walla of his fortress on the cattle of the natives, and wondering at the ways of Providence, which could bestow such very fine gifts on heathen.
8U ABORIGINES REPORT.
In the same spirit are the following entries: —
December iSth, 1652.— " To-day the Hottentots came with thou- sands of cattle and sheep close to our fort, so that their cattle nearly miKed with ours. We feel vexed to see so many fine head of cattle, and not to be able to buy to any considerable extent. If it had been indeed allowed, we had opportunity to-day to deprive them of 10,000 head, which, however, if we obtain orders to that effect, can be done at any time, and even more conveniently, because they will have greater confidence in us. With 150 men, 10,000 or 11,000 head of black cattle might be obtained without danger of losing one man ; and many savages might be taken without resistance, in order to be sent as slaves to India, as they still always come to as unarmed,"
December 18th. — " To-day the Hottentots came again with thousands of cattle close to the fort. If no further trade is to be expected with them, what would it matter much to take at once 6,000 or 8,000 beasta from them ? There is opportunity enough for it, as they are not strong in number, and very timid ; and since not more than two or tlree men often graze a tbonsand cattle close to our cannon, who might be easily cut off; and as we perceive they placee very confidence in us, we allure them still with show of triendship to make them the more confident. It is vexatious to see so much cattle, so necessary for the refi-eshment of the Honourable Company's ships, of which it is not every day that any can be obtained by friendly trade."*
The system of oppression thus begun never slackened til! the Hottentot nation were cut off, and Uie small remnant left were reduced to abject bondage. From all the accounts we have seen respecting the Hottentot population, it could not have been less than 200,000, but at present they are said to be only 33,000 in number.
When the English took possession of the Cape, they found them the actual, thougli not the nominal, slaves of the boors, and after some feeble efforts on their part for emancipation, as such we suffered the boors to retain them.
The law of passes, by subjecting the Hottentots to " rigorous control in moving from one place to another," did indeed much towards riveting their chains, as it had the effect of placing them under the control of any inhabitants of the colony, who never wanted frivolous pretexts to detain them at compulsory and unpaid labour, f
Every obstacle continued to be opposed to their civil or moral advancement, and as late as 1828, we find it stated in the law passed by Gieneral Bourke for their relief, that doubts existed upon the competency of the Hottentots and other free persons of colour (the recent possessors, be it remembered, of the whole soil) to purchase or possess land in the colony. J
All parties agree in their account of the state of the Hottentots
SOUTH AFaiCA. 31
before the parsing of the 50th Ordinance, a measure of admitable justice, by which their freedom waa declared and their civil rights were recognised. These are the words of Colonel Wade :—
I do not considei it requisite to enter into any detailed histoiy of the state of utter degradation from which the SOth Ordinance waa intended to rescue the Hottentots and other free persons of colour : suffice it to say, that, from all 1 have been able to leam, the state of the slaves waa a thousand times preferable, in every point of view, to that of this uphappy race, who, amounting at the very least to a fourth part of the whole free population of the settlement, were held in the most degrad- ing thraldom by their fellow -subjects, at the game time that both Dutch and English govemmenta over and over again admitted, and, by the strangest of all inconsistencies, admitted it in the very Proclamationa and Ordinances in which their compulsory servitude was provided for, that " the Hottentots were a free people." From the withering effects of this bondage (in truth, f know not how to designate so monstrous an anomaly), the 50th Ordinance was intended to emancipate them.
Major Dundas also speaks of it as the emancipation of the Hottentots.
Had this SOth Ordinance stood alone, it is more than probable that its benefits to the people would have been comparatively inconsiderable, but that ordinance was confirmed and perpetuated by an Order of tbe King in Council, which passed at the recom- mendation of Sir George Murray. *
The immediate effect of the liberty thus granted waa, as might have been expected, some temporary disorder, but not requiring more than the ordinary means of coercion. " Vagrancy, to a considerable extent, immediately after the promulgation of the SOth Ordinance, did take place ; but this, in the opinion of Mr. Justice Burton and others, the laws of the colony were fully sufficient to restrain." In 1834, Judge Kekewich, in his charge to the grand jury of the Cape district, stated decidedly, that crime bad decreased within the last four years.
Besides the subjugated Hottentots, there were other Africans of the same or of kindred tribes, who were early designated under the term Bushmen, from their disdaining to become bondsmen, and choosing rather to obtain a precarious aubsistence in the fields or forests. From their fastnesses, they were apt to carry on a predatory warfare against the oppressors of their race, and in , return were hunted down like wild beasts. This state of things is thus described by Captain Stockenstrom : —
The white colonists having, from the first commencement of the settlement, gradually encroached on the territory of the natives, whose ejectment (as is too well known) was accompanied with great injustice,
■ Sm Tapers Cape of Good Hope, Part II. ISS5. No. 35!, pp. 34, 3S.
S3 ABORIGINES KEPORT.
cruelty, and bloodshed, the most hostile feelings were entertained hy the weaker party towsTds those whom they considered as their oppressors. The Aborigines who did not becooie domesticated (as it was called) like the Hottentots, seeing no chance of retaining or recovering their country, withdrew into the interior as the whites advanced, and being driven to depredations by the diminution of the game, which constituted their principal means of subsistence, and which gradually disappeared when more constantly hunted, and as the waters became permanently occupied by the new comers, they often made desperate attacks on the latter, and in their turn were guilty of great atrocities. Some of the rulers of the colony in those days were, no doubt, favourable to measures of con- ciliation, but the evil soon got beyond their power of control. In pro- portion as the pastoral population increased, more and more land was taken possession of, and more desperate and bloody became the deeds of revenge on both sides, until the extermination of the enemy appeared even to the government the only safe alternative, at least it became its avowed object, as the encouragement given to the hostile expeditions, the rewards of the successful commanders of the same, and many docu- ments still extant, clearly demonstrate. The contest being beyond comparison unequal, the colonial limits widened with great rapidity. A thin white population soon spread even over the great chains of the Suven and Newveld mountains, whilst the hordes, who preferred a pre- carious and often starving independence to servitude, were forced into the deserts and fastnesses bordering on the frontier.
It will be at once perceived that I am here alluding to a period of the colonial history not long previous to the close of the last century, and that the Aborigines spoken of are the Bushmen and some tribes of Hottentots ; for our relations with the CafTres and others are somewhat of a different nature, as I will show in the sequel. Thus the isolated position of most of the intruders afforded the strongest temptation to the savages occasionally to wreak their vengeance. The numerous herds of our peasantry grazing on the usurped lands proved too seductive a bait for the hungry fugitives, who saw the pasturage of their flocks (the game) thus occupied ; but their partial success gainst individual families was generally dearly bought by the additional loss of life and land in the long run.
In 1774, an order was iasiied for the extirpation of the whole of the Bushmen, and three commandos, or military expeditions, were sent out to execute it. The massacre at that time was horrible, and the system of persecution continued unremitting, so that, as we have seen, Mr. Barrow records it came to be con- sidered a meritorious act to shoot a Bushman.
In 1795, the Earl of Macartney, by proclamation, authorized the landdrosts and magistrates to take the field against the wild Bosjesmen, whenever such an expedition should appear requisite and proper ; a practice to which, in some parts, they needed not much urging ; for Mr. Maynier, in his answers to the Com- missioners of Inquiry, says, " When I was appointed Landdrost of Graaf Reynet, I found that regularly every year large com- mandos, consisting of 200 or 300 armed boors, had been sent
. SOUTH AFRICA. 33
against the Bosjesmeii, and learnt by their reports, that generally many hundred of Bosjeamen were killed by them, amongst which number there were perhaps not more than six or ten men (they generally contriving to save themselves by flight), and that the greatest part of the killed comprised helpless women and innocent children.
" I was also made acquainted with the most horrible atrocities committed on those occasions, such as ordering the Hottentots to dash out against the rocks the brains of infants (too young to be carried off by the farmers for the purpose to use them as bond- men), in order to save powder and shot."*
Colonel Collins, in his tour to the north-eastern boundary in 1809, speaking of the Bushmen of that frontier, says,—
An attempt to draw them into service having proved unBuecessfiil, and some losses having been occasioned by their disposition to theft, a' people not inferior in natural endowments to any upon the face of the globe, were represented to the colonial government as unfit to live. A journey from the Cape was supposed at that time to be too great an undertaking for the purpose of ascertaining any point which concerned only so distant a quarter. The reports received were implicitly believed, and orders were given for unlimited commandos.
The original population of the north-eastern frontier must have been very considerable, if any credit can be attached to the accounts given by the old inhabitants, of their younger days. I have heard one man, who is represented as an estimable character in other respects, declare, that within a period of six years, parties under his orders had eitlier killed or taken 3,200 of these unfortunate creatures ; another has stated to me, that the actions in which he had been engaged had caused the destruc- tion of 2,700. They had acted thus in compliance with the instructions of a government which not only violated all the principles of Justice and humanity by this indiscriminate massacre, but even acted in direct opposition to Che plainest rules of policy and of common sense, by depriving the colony of the benefit which might have been derived from so useful a people.
The total extinction of the Bosjesmen race is actually stated to have been at one time confidently hoped for; but fortunately even such zealous instruments were not able to effect this bloody purpose.
It is but justice to observe, that the first attempt to conciliate this injured people was under the benign influence of Great Bntain.
The journey undertaken by Mr. Barrow, at the desire of Lord Ma- cartney, seems to have opened the eyes of the inhabitants of this district to the criminality of their conduct. They had never before harboured a thought that any government would condemn their proceedings, but, on the contrary, they conceived that their exertions in this unjust cause were the most certain means of recommending them to favour,')'
After a time, we find that a milder system was enjoined, ;[ and in some places the Bushmen became the willing herdsmen of the
• Papen Cape of Good Hope, 1886, No. «0, Part I. p. 28. t Papen reliUng to Ihe Cape, ISSS, No, SO, p. 40.
t See Despatch from Sir G. Murray, Papers Cape of Good Hop& PartiLllSSJ!. Mo.!S2,p.84. I I :.A>OUyiL
34 ABOmolNES REPORT.
boors, and whenever they were well treated, they are described to have made faithful servants ; but the boors were too often tempted to buy or to kidnap their children, and to turn the parents off the lands which they took into occupation ; and so completely is the country south of the Orange river now cleared of Bushmen, tbat, in 1834, Dr. Philip wrote in a memorial to the government, —
A tev years ago, we had l.SOO BoRchmen belonging to two missionary institutionB, among that people in the country between the Snewbergen and the Orange river, a country comprehending 42,000 square miles -, and had we been able to treble the number of out missionary stations over that district, we might have had 5,000 of that people under instruC' tion. In 1832, I spent seventeen days in that country, travelling over it in different directions. 1 then found the country occupied by the boors, and the Boschmen population had dbappeared, with the excep- tion of those that had been brought up from infancy in the service of the boors. In the whole of my journey, during the seventeen days I was in the country, I met with two men and one woman only of the free inhabitants, who had escaped the effects of the commando system, and they were travelling by night, and concealing themselves by day, to escape being shot like wild beasts. Their tale was a lamentable one : their children had been taken from them by the boors, and they were wandering about in this manner from place to place, in the hope of £nding out where they were, and of getting a sight of thent.
We reserve an account of the Griqua tribe, on the northern frontier, for an illustration of a subsequent part of our Report on the effects of Missionary exertions.
We may, however, remark, that no tribe of our neighbours appears to have suffered more from the incursions of boors with their flocks and herds into their country ; a practice illegal indeed, but unchecked, if not connived at.
One of the first steps to be adopted to secure the peace of the frontier, and the prosperity of the colony, will be to put a stop to the practice of the boors in crossing the boundaries of the colony at certain seasons of the year tvith their numerous flacks and herds. In 1834, there were said to be about 1 ,600 boors on the other side of the Orange river, and for the most part in the Griqua country. Of these there were 700 boors, for several months during that year, in the district of Fhilippolis alone, with at least 700,000 sheep, cattle, and horses. Besides destroying the pasturesof this people, in many instances their corn-fields were destroyed by them, and in some cases they took possession of their houses. This evil has been increasing for years, and all that time the Griquas have been remonstrating, but nothing has yet been done effectually to check it ; and, consequently, when the Griquas remonstrated with the boors, the latter replied that it was useless for the former to complain, because the government would pay no attention to their complaints, and that if the government interfered it would only be to grant the Griqua country to boors. Nothing but the influence of the missionaries and of Christian principles restrained the Griquas firom attempting to expel them their country by force of arms.
SOUTH AFRICA. 35
The migration of the boois into the country of the Bushmen and other tribes is not less unjustifiable than the alleged inroads and robberies laid to the chai^ of the Cafires hy the colonists. So long as the facts could be questioned, the reports on the subject were treated a,a gross calumnies. This being no longer possible, the conduct of those boors is defended on the plea of necessity. The country inhabited by the boors, it is said, cannot support their cattle. This may be a reason for leaving it, bnt none for seizing a country to which they can show no title. The natives have just as much justice on their aide, when they seize the cattle of the boors, as the boors have in seizing their country. It is said they only take possession of those tracts of country at certain seasons, and afterwards return to their farms within the colony ; but those seasons are seasons of scaicity to the natives as well as to the farmers, and this makes their conduct doubly oppressive. Their fiocks and herds consume the whole pasturage of the countries they thus invade, and the natives are left in a state of utter destitution. It is understood that a great many families crossed the boundary towards the Kye in 1834. It is important to know the number of sheep, goats, and horses, they carried with them. Conld we ascertain this, we would then be enabled to form an idea of the misery they must have inflicted on the natives, who live entirely by pasturage or game. The number of animals of all kinds would probably be estimated low at 2,000 for each ; but if we allow 1,500 boors, and 1 ,000 only to each, the efiects of such an immigration must be ruinous to the natives. It is a cruel robbery, followed by starvation and death in its most appalling shapes ; yet these men complain that cattle are occasionally stolen from them by the natives from beyond the boundary. When the farmers received their grants irom government, they knew the nature of the soil and climate, that they would support only a certain number of sheep and cattle, and that droughts often occurred. If they chose to collect a greater number of live stock than the lands could support at all seasons, they should have provided places of retreat behind them ; but for this they must have paid, and this is the sole reason of the unjust proceedings of these men. Avarice is the motive, and its fruits are systematic robbery and murder. In April ISth, 1829, a letter was written by the secretary to government, which states that these farmers expatriated themselves without the permission of the government, and in defiance of the law. This fact illustrates what all writers on the Cape have lamented, namely, the weakness of the government ; government gave way to the avaricious boors. It has also been stated, that did the farmers not graze their cattle beyond the line of boundary, the districts would be abandoned. There is in the colony, we hesitate not to say, room for ten times the number of its present population ; and portions oi these districts have been but recenUy taken from their original possessors, to make room for those who now occupy them, and who are yet allowed to plead the barrenness of the soil as an apology for further encroachments. Another plea is, that the evil cannot be remedied ; that is, that the state of the country is such that the boors cannot be stopped from passing the boundary. If it is so, means must be employed till the evil is stopped ; for robbery and murder, and the invasion of peaceable countries, and the extermina- tion of whole tribes of mankind, must not be connived at, much less be winked at, by the British government. It is astonishing the indif- D 3
36 ABORIGINES REPORT.
ference with which the local authorities have viewed the proceedings of
these wandeiing boors, and the slackness with which they have enforced the orders of government. In 1834 an official gentleman came to the Kat River settlement, where fae was told that the boors were daily passing the boundary, to intrude themselves on the country of the natives beyond them. " I know that," said he, " but I cannot stop them ; and besides, if they were to stop on their places, their cattle and all would perish for want of grass.'' What if Macomo were to make use of the same argument, and allowed his people, when there was as little grass in his country as there is on the floor of thi; committee-room, to graze their cattle on the colonial lands ? It is a well-known fact, that the farmers in the district of Tarka have been quite a nuisance to the Tambookie chiefs, Mapassa and others, by allowing their cattle to graze on their lands in times of scarcity. None but those who have studied human nature, and are intimately acquainted with the workings of the system, can conceive of the enormities that must necessarily result from such a state of things. That the boors have carried their slaves with them out of the colony is now beyond doubt. In 1834 an officer was sent lo the Kye to bring back some slaves who were reported to have been taken by their masters beyond the boundary. The officer succeeded in bringing back some of the slaves; but the impudence and audacity of these men was beyond any thing, and instead of being made an example of, they were allowed to remain beyond the line, much to the annoyance of the poor natives.
The statement is con6rmed by Colonel Cox. " Were there considerable numbers, or only one or two cases? — Yes, in some numbers. They have been in the habit of crossing for grass, during the dry season, for several years ; but I understand that they have now built houses upon the sources of the river, and are living there in great numbers.
" Do you happen to know of any great body of persons living together in this way ? — I heard of forty farmers that vrent out, and are living upon the Kye.
" Did they take their herds with them t — They took the whole of their herds and families and slaves. An officer was sent to bring back their slaves."*
Serious complaints have, as might have been expected, arisen respecting the conduct of these distant parties of boors, and that of wandering traders beyond the colony ; and in the absence of any specific enactment on this subject, offences committed against the natives in their own country could not be noticed in our colonial courts :f we have, however, much satisfaction in observing, that a remedy for this acknowledged evil has been provided by a late Act (August 1836), making all crimes committed by His Majesty's subjects within any territory adjacent to the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, and southward of the ^th degree of south latitude, cognizable and punishable by our courts of justice.
SOUTH AFRICA. 87
We proceed to take a brief retrospective review of our relations with the Caffre race ; a people generically distinct from the tribes' of Hottentots, Bushmen, and Griquas, and superior perhaps, from the effect of circumstances, to the two former in valour and intelligence.
For a considerable period, under the Dutch government, the Gamtoos river had been considered the limit of the colony. Previous to our occupation of the Cape in 1780, the Dutch governor, in a proclamation of that date, fiiced upon the Great Fish River as the utmost limit of the colony on the eastern fron- tier. This, however, was only a restrictive and prospective boundary, as the Caffres were still left in possession of the coun- try ; and in 1798, Lord Macartney claiming all that the Dutch assumed as belonging to them by the vague proclamation of Governor Van Plattenberg, this new boundary was declared by a proclamation of his Lordship, in which we find mention of our contiguity to the Caf&es. The preamble of this proclamation states, " Whereas hitherto no exact limits have been marked out respecting the proper boundaries between this colony, the Caffres, and the Bosjesmen, and in consequence of such limits not being regularly ascertained, several of the inhabitants in the more dis- tant parts of this settlement have united in injuring the peaceful possessors of those countries, and under pretence of bartering cattle with them, reduce the wretched natives to misery and want, which at length compels them to the cruel necessity of having recourse to robbing, and various other irregularities, in order to support life ;" be therefore fixes the Great Fish River as the eastern boundary, and strictly forbids the inhabitants of the colony to pass beyond it.*
The terms of this proclamation are remarkable, compared with others, inasmuch as we thereby find that at various times two several reasons have been assigned for taking away land from the Caffi'es ; the one, that they niake inroads upon us, that they are troublesome neighbours, that we are not safe in their vicinity, we therefore pronounce their land forfeited ; the other, as in Lord Macartney's proclamation, that we have been the oppres- sors, that we have seized their land and reduced the people to be plunderers from starvation, we therefore pronounce their land forfeited. It is singular that from such diversity of premises such an uniformity of conclusion should have been deduced.
After the return of the English to the Cape, in 1806, disputes were continually occurring ; and in 181 1 , the Caffres were driven completely out of the Zuurveld. " Up to 1811," says Captain Aitchison, " the Caffres had possession of the whole of Albany. In 1811, a large force was sent from Cape Town under Colonel Graham, and were about a year in clearing that country. A great many lives were lost on both aides."
* Parliameatiiry Papen on the Cape of Good Hope, Pan I. p. 114.
38 ABORIGINES REPORT.
The same witness states the process of clearing to have been bj " merely sending in small detachments and constantly harassing the Cafires."
The cost of this war of 1811, which was protracted four years,* was deplorable in all respects ; many hundred lives were lost on both sides; among the rest fell landdrost Stockenstrom, father of the lieutenant-governor of the eastern district, and T'Congo, father of the chiefs Pato, Kama, and T'Congo.
It is not easy to calculate exactly the expenses so brought upon the Cape colony, and upon the Home Treasury; but the commissioners of inquiry notice the expense of the war of 1811 '^as a great evil;f and, as they remark, that peaceful intercourse is endangered by the troops.j so they anticipate saving of money from a peaceful system.g
The results of this war of 1811 were, first, a succession of new wars, not less expensive, and more sanguinary than the former ;|| second, the loss of thousands of good labourers to the colonists j^f and this testimony as to the actual service done by Caflre labour- ers, comprises the strong opinion of Major Dundas, when landdrost in 1827, as to their good dispositions,*" and that of Colonel Wade to the same effect; and thirdly, the checking of civilization and trade with the interior for a period of twelve years. ff
The gain was some hundreds of thousands of acres of land, which might have been bought from the natives for comparatively a trifle.J|
In 1813, it is stated, that a " commando, under Colonel Brereton, took 30,000 head of cattle from the CafFres ; a practice forming part of a system to which frequent reference is made in every history of our Cape colony transactions.
The inhabitants of the frontier have, it seems, from the earliest times, been accustomed to unite in " armed assemblages, called commandos," for the purpose of recovering stolen cattle. The system was recognised by the government, who appointed a £ eld-commandant to each district, and a field-comet to each subdivision of the district.§§
For the mode of conducting the commandos, we refer to the evidence: II II —
63. Please to describe a commando; how the orders are originally given, and the process! — A commando is merely a name attached to a
• Par. Pro. H. C, 1835, No. 60. p. 196.
t Report, House of Commans Papers for 1S35, No. SO, p. 20O. t lb. p. 195. S Report on Hie Cape Finances, Papeci for 1836-7, No. 282, p. 83, yol.xxL y P«r. Pro. H. C. 1S3S, No. BO. p. 196.
'^ Ibid. No.SO. p. 195. and Evidence of Mr. Maynicr, landdrost at (he time, pp. 30 and 174; and Col. Collins's Report, p. 41, •• Par. Pro. 1835, H.C. No. 252, p. 14.
tt Il)id' No. SO, pp. 199, 200. il Ibid. No. 50, pp. 31 and 47.
IS Report of CommiasionerH of Inquiry, Portiamentaiy Papers on Native iohi- lis oF the Cape of Good Hone, Fart I. p. 194. ^ .OOOlC
Capt. Ailchiaon ; Dr. Philip ; Capt. Spiller; Capt. Stockenstrom '-
SOUTH AFFICA. 39
force collected, either a regular mililary force, or partly military and partly civil. The magistrates in that country have power to order the farmers upon military duties when occasion requires. The commandant of the frontier, or the civil authority, demands assistance from the military and from the neighbouring courtlea, to check any inroad the Caffres may make, or to recover beasts that may have been stolen ; these' when collected are called a commando.
66. What waa the first step generally taken in those cases? — It depends upon whether we went to check irruptions into our own country, or to punish for depredations committed. If by crossing the boundary upon the trace of stolen cattle, we were to follow them as far as we could; but I ought to say, different governors vary so much in their opinions, and take such extremely different views of a subject, that it was a difficult matter for those employed to know how to act.
67. Now you traced the cattle as far as you could? — Yes, generally, to some Caffre's kraal.
63. And if you do not fiud the cattle there, what do you do? — At one time we used to go to the first kraal we could, and make reprisals ; with those, of course, we returned to the colony, and they were given over to the civil authorities, to be disposed of as they thought fit. Upon other occasions we trace the cattle us far as we think proper, till we come to the kraal, and then point out to the chief of such kraal that the trace of such beasts had gone through his territory, and desired him to follow them up.
69. Suppose he denied all knowledge of them? — If you pointed out that the beasts had gone through and be refused to assist you, you took his cattle.
99. On what authority does the commando march; from the direction of the magistrate? — Nobody can enter Caffreland without the sanction of the military commander.
100. Then I wish to know on what authority he has this command? — By the order of the governor.
101. If I understand the matter right, when a boor loses his cattle he makes application to the magistrate? — To the nearest military post.
102. And upon his affidavit, or stating this fact satisfactorily to the magistrate, he interferes? — The magistrate is not required on these occasions; the magistrate is 60 milee off. I have been constantly on the frontier. The moment a fanner is aware that his cattle are driven off by the Caffres, he rides to the nearest military post, and there states his grievance. That officer has directions to listen to that, and to ascertain, as far as it is in his power, the truth of it> If he is satisfied of the truth of it, he sends an officer, if possible; but in many cases we have so small a force, that an officer could sot be sent, and there- fore non-commissioned officers were frequently trusted; they were sent to ascertain whether or not the cattle had crossed or passed as the farmer reported, and whether or not the Caffres were following them up. The trace of the Caffres is so marked that there can be no mistake.
In 1833, a proclamation of Sir Lowry Cole empowered any field-cornet or deputy field-cornet, to whom a boor may complain that be had lost cattle, to send a party of soldiers on the track and recover the cattle. These persons are often connected with
40 ABORIGINES KEPORT.
the booTS themselves : their unfitness for such a trust is elicited
in the following evidence : —
Wliat is the rank and condtlJon of a provisional field-cornet 1 — He is an inhabitant of the common class.
Is it possible that a man not in a higher situation than that of a constable in this country might be a provisional field-cornet? — Oh, decidedly, any man. I have seen provisional field-comets of the most indifferent class in the colony.
And to persons of the most indifferent class, and in circumstances the lowest, this extensive power of making inroads upon the native terri- tory, was, according to the old system, entrusted 1 — Very often ; for the committee must understand, that even a field-comet himself can appoint a provisional field-comet, who has the right of appoin^ng another provisional field-comet, in sudden emergencies.
It is on evidence, that this mode of recovering cattle is very uncertain, that the cattle are often reported as lost, when they have only strayed; so that, in nine cases out often, you punish the innocent; " and here," says Captain Stockenstrom, " lies the great evil, for it is the easiest and most lucrative mode of retalia- tion, yet at the same time the most demoralizing."
Of late years, a plan has arisen of keeping patrols constantly on the horder, parties of military on the alert for ohservation, and ready to attend the summons of the farmers. The fre- quency of these retaliating expeditions is thus noticed by officers who liave been employed in them :* —
109. Were you called upon constantly to perform duties of this kind? — Constantly; not perhaps so frequently latterly, from my seniority in the corps ; but I have known the junior officers to have been out four times in tie week.
110. Upon these expeditions? — Upon these expeditions.
111. So that it was the great business of the corps t — The solo busi- ness of the corps. I have been left at my own post with seven or eight
170. You say that you have known your officers called out four times in a week, suppose we say eight times in a fortnight; can you tell me the proportion, on an average, of how many of those are commandos, and how many patrols? — I mean the patrols; we have been out three months together on a commando; I have been out from Jidy until October.
769. In your opinion, is the present strenglh of the Cape regiment equal to the defence of the frontier? — Decidedly not; and they were very much harassed when I was there with the duties they had to perform.
1183. The military were constantly employed by these expeditions into the Caff're country? — That they were frequently employed there is no doubt; they were continually employed (I mean those who were on the immediate line of the frontier) on patrol ; they were continually passing along the boundary of the colony to observe whether there • Capt. Spiller; Major W. B. Dundas; Lieut,-Col. Wm. Cox,
SOUTH AFRICA. 41
might be marks of cattle having crossed the main roads, and follow snch, and to intercept any cattle they might by ciiance observe while being driven from the colony.
1184. How many expeditions do you imagine to have taken place during the year into the Caffre country to recover cattle? — I really cannot tell; but I can tell thia, that during the whole time I was on the frontier, three years and a half, there was but one commando, properiy so called, that is, a joint assemblage of burghers and military force, for the purpose of enforcing the restitutioo of cattle. There were other commandos, but they were set on foot to defend the Caf&es and Tam- bookies against the inroads of other nations.
1185. Do you mean to say that there were incessant robberiea going on of colonial cattle, aud only in one case the military were employed? — No; I particularly explained what I considered to he a commando: a commando is the joint assemblage of burghers and the military force in considerable numbers, for the purpose of punishing the Caffres for depredations, or forcing the restitution of stolen cattle. There were frequent military parties that went in for the purpose of recovering cattle, or demanding the restitution of cattle.
2816, It is a matter of common occurrence that the Caffres steal the cattle, and that commandos enter their country? — Not commandos, but patrols, agreeably to the directions of the governor ; it is very common ; there was scarcely a week without application on the part of the farmers and boors, when I commanded at Fort Beaufort, for patrols to retake stolen cattle, and sometimes two or three in the course of a
2817. Were those patrols continually granted? — Always; andaccom- panied by the farmer himself, or one of his sons, people to whom the cattle belonged.
Thelate Commissioner ofthe frontier, now Lieutenant-Governor, thus gives his opinion of the working of this system.
I had then long since made up my mind that the great source of misfortune on the frontier, was the system of taking Cafire cattle under any circumstances by our patrols, and I shall give my reasons: if Caffi-es steal cattle, very seldom the real perpetrators can be found, unless the man losing the cattle has been on his guard, and sees the robbery actually perpetrated, so that he can immediately collect a force and pursue the plunderers; if the cattle be once out of sight of the plundered party, there is seldom any getting them again ; our patrols are then entirely at the mercy of the statements made by the farmers, and they may pretend that they are leading them on the trace of the stolen cattle, which may he the trace of any cattle in the world. On coming up to the first Caffre kraal, the Caffre, knowing the purpose for which the patrol comes, immediately drives his cattle out of sight; we then use force and collect those cattle, and take the number said to be stolen, or more: this the Caffres naturally, and as it always appeared to me, justly, resist; they have nothing else to live on, and if the cows be taken away, the calves perish, and it is a miserable condirion in which the Caffre women and children, and the whole party, are left; that resistance is usually construed into hostility, and it is almost im- possible then to prevent innocent bloodshed. It also often happens
*3 ABORIGINES REPORT.
that when the patrol is on the spoor of cattle really stolen, they find some individual head of cattle which is either knocked up or purposely left behind by the real perpetrators, near a kraal, and that is taken as a positive proof of the guilt of that kraal, and leads to the injustice which I have previously pointed out. There have been instances where the farmers have gone into Caffreland with a patrol, pretending to he on the spoor of stolen cattle, and where cattle was taken from the Caffces on the strength of this supposed thef^, and on returning home he has found hia cattle in another direction, or found them destroyed hy wolves, or through his own neglect entirely strayed away; and thus men, not losing cattle at all, but coveting CafFre's cattle, have nothing more to do but to lead the patrol to a kraal, and commit the outrages above described; and the Caffres have frequently told me, " We do not care how many Caiires you shoot if they come into your country, and you catch them stealing, but for every cow you take from our country you make a thief." This I know to be the ca^e, and though I am aware that it is an unpopular view of the question, I must persist that as long as Caffre cattle be taken, peace on the frontier is utterly impossible,
1005. Then do you attribute the disturbances, which have so con- stantly prevailed on the frontiers, and the acts of severity which we have been obliged to inflict occasionally, and the backward state of improvement of the natives, and the necessity of maintaining a large military force on the frontiers, to this cause; namely, the seizure of CafiVe cattle, for cattle stolen or pretended to be stolen from the colonists ? — Decidedly.
1006. You think that is the great source of these evils ?— Certainly.
1007. And the great source of expense to government in keeping up a sufficient military force on the frontier? — Yes, decidedly; it leads to this, that when cattle are taken, those from whom they are taken have nothing else to live on; they consequently try to keep possession aad defend themselves; this is "resistance;" we then use violence, they are shot, and at last comes war, and war without end.
1013. Do you think we can have a system of peace and tranquillity, and the introduction of civilization among the natives, so long as this system of seizing their cattle continues ?— Decidedly not; they cannot be quiet, the people must eat.
1014. Do you think it is in vain to attempt to civilize and christianize them as long as this system of plundering them of their cattle con- tinues?— Yes, it is in vain to attempt to civilize and christianize, if people have nothing to eat.
1015. Did you represent to the government that the continuance of this system would render it necessary for the government to annex the Caffreland to our dominions ? — In both my statements which are before the Committee, it will be found that almost the very words were used long before any of the late outrages began. As a natural consequence of our commando in I81S, followed the expulsion of the Cafires, and the seizure jf the ceded territory. "We will go from one line to another, and we will take one slice of the country after another, and as long as you continue to take the people's cattle, so long will this take place, and you will go from river to river till you get to Delagoa Bay.
Nearly the same is the evidence of Colonel Wade, though
SOUTH AFRICA. 43
lie argues for the substitution of some other measure of pro- tection ; " I admit, without any hesitation, that there are very many and very great evils inherent in the commando system (some of which I will hereafter enumerate) ; that it is a mode of defence greatly liable to ahuse under many circumstances, some local, and others peculiar to the colony (some of which also_are insurmountable) ; that almost at the very moment when the Secretary of State addressed the last of the despatches above alluded to, to Sir B, D'Urban, communicating his Majesty's disallowance of the commando ordinance, I was myself employed in writing' to Mr. Stanley, representing the commando as a system of defence of veiy ancient date, and which, in every point of view, in my humble opinion, required to be abandoned."
The despatch of Mr. Stanley above referred to, expressly says, " There certainly are not wanting reasons for authorizing the presumption, that these commandos have been carried on vrith much disregard of human life, and have been marked with acts of atrocious cruelty. It must, therefore, I apprehend, be admitted, that the system has been a fearful scourge to the native population, and with that impression on my mind I have naturally bestowed the most serious consideration upon the provisions of the ordinance ;" and he thereupon adds, " I have his Majesty's commands to signify to you his disallowance of the Ordinance No. 99, and of Lord Macartney's proclamation, it being his Majesty's pleasure that such disallowance shall take place on 1st August next."*
But we return to the history. In 1817, we entered into a treaty vrith Gaika, a Cafire chief of importance, but not, as we chose, or as a witness expresses it, " wished," to consider him, paramount sovereign, to punish the depredations of the other chiefs, one of whom, T'Slambie, soon after quarrelled with G-aika. We took part with Gaika, and defeated Lis enemies, of whom a great number were slain, and we brought off an immense drove of cattle, which we divided with our ally. This involved us in the more serious war of 1819, when the Caffres, whom we had plundered in the preceding year, made a desperate incursion into the colony. They were driven back with slaughter, and we then demanded of Gaika a large portion of Caffi-eland, for no reason that can be discovered, except that he failed in preventing the incursion, though he was then our ally, and aided us in repelling it.
Then are these the facts of the case : that we interfered with the quarrel between Gaika Hud the other Caffre tribes ; that ne made an inroad into the Caffte territory, in consequence of which we took from them a considerable quantity of cattle ; that that led to an incursion on their part into our territory, and that then, having chosen to consider Gaika as the only responsible chief, we obtained his unwilling and
* Fniliiiiientir; Pspen ou clie Cape of Good Hope, Pari II. pp. 61, 65.
44 ABORIGINES REPORT.
leluctant consent to the sacrifice of this rich district of land ? — Yes, decidedly.
So that in the first instance, in consequence of our interference, wc obtained a considerable quantity of the personal property of these natives ; and, in the second place, we obtained a considerable space of territory 1 — Yes,
We thus pushed our boundary line to the Keiskamma, taking in about 2,000 square miles more. This tract was at first to be called neutral territory, but it soon came to bear the name of ceded territory, although the mode of cession was somewhat questionable. Gaika himself did not profess to have the entire disposal of the lands he thus surrendered ; the right was disputed by the chiefs of his own nation, and the treaty was merely verbal, and consigned to the memory of the parties alone ; but in those days, as a witness observed, a discussion with the Caffres was not treated with much formality.
But those chiefs who were present at ibe time of that inter- view with Lord Charles Somerset were consenting parties, were they not 1 — Lord Charles Somerset only held Gaika responsible, and
only communicated with him. The discussions among the chiefs took place between themselves, and no one knows what their objections or their acquiescence were at that time.
But, as they made no objection, it might be taken for granted they were consenting parties ? — It is very difficult for us to say whether they consented or not in their discussians with him ; hut we, being the Stronger party, did not give that latitude to objections on the part of the native tribes whicli may be allowed on other occasions ; a discussion with the CaiFres was not then treated with so much formality as at present.
It should be noticed, that in this treaty Gaika expressly reserved for the Caffces the basin of the Chumie, which became afterwards a point of further contention.
Do you consider that Oaika had the power to make a surrender of that tract of territory ? — He acquiesced after it was explained to him it must be so ; but that he said, " I willingly consent to this," I cannot possibly say. In the first place, it would be contrary to reason to sup- pose that any people, under such circumstances as the Caifres, would willingly part with such a country. I do not think any people would. But when he saw there were no other means, he acquiesced in it ; and, after much consultation with the other chiefs, he consented, provided that the Chumie Basin was included in Caffreland.
The next fact that strikes us is the statement of Captain Aitchison : " The chief, Macomo, upon representing the hardship of his being removed out of the country and giving up the Kat river, which was formerly his, was allowed to return again ; but many robberies had been committed by bis people, and traced to his kraals or huts. In 1832 or 1823 a la^e force, in which I
SOUTH AFRICA. 45
was employed, surprised these kraala in the middle of the night, and we took from them 7,000 heasts."
We also find other records of commandos of the colony, and in 18% it is admitted that one of these attacked by mistake the kraal of Botman.*
Still Macomo remained, as it was said, on sufferance ; but in 1829 an attack of Macomo's upon the Tambookies was the occa- sion or the pretext of his expulsion. Macomo alleged that he had done nothing to deserve the displeasure of the British govern- ment. But it is not our design to defend his treatment of the Tambookies. His expulsion, however, seems to have been a measure of severity, as described by a witness by no means favourable to Macomo, and to have remained a lasting grievance in his mind. Mr. Gisborne was asked,
S266. Ate you able to speak to the extent of territory taken frnm Macomo? — I cannot describe it otherniie than very generally, but it must be many miles each way, I accompanied one of the military parties, as a fnend of the officers, when they were sent into it, I think the military was divided into three or four parties, who were in it for two days, going about the country and destroying the villages ; and the country was so extensive, that our party had no communication with any other. The other parties were sufficiently iar from us for us not to be aware that they were in the country, except by seeing the smoke of villages burning; and it was only on the evening of the second day we joined them again, so that the country must have been many miles each way in extent.
3287- Be pleased to explain the circumstances which came under your own observation, or to your knowledge, relative to the expulsion of Macomo.— My knowledge was derived partly from general report and partly from the conversation with officers with whom I was living, whom I suppose to be very well informed. It was commonly said that Macomo had quarrelled with the Tambookies ; that he had made war on them, and captured from them about 7,000 head of cattle ; the Tam- bookies chiefs reported this to our government, and, I believe, asked for aid, and also for actual provision for themselves, in consequence of having lost their cattle ; our government remonstrated with Macomo, and insisted upon his restoring an equal number, which be constantly put off. I believe he never actually refused. He said he would if he could, but that the cattle had been distributed among his people, and it would be impossible for him to recover them, and therefore, after a con- siderable time spent in that way, military parties were ordered to go into his country to captnre all the cattle they could, and to expel him and his people from it. The country was afterwards colonized by free Hottentots.
3288. Tbose were the general motives which led to that step ? — I believe they were.
3289. What circumstances took place in your observation as to the method of moving him out of the country ? — The party of military I
• Parliamentsr; Papers on the Cape, Part II. p. 152. , C .()t>^Ic
46 ABORIGINES REPORT.
accompanied went into the country; they met with no opposition; they found a number of people, who immediately fled to the woods. They captured all the cattle they saw feeding, and burnt every village and every house which came within their range. The CaSre corn which was growing, they did not destroy, and the ofBcers certainly ordered it not to be destroyed, and not to be burnt ; so that if the Caffres chose to return at a future time and reap that com, they might; but it was almost impossible to prevent the horses straying into the com, and almost impossible to prevent the soldiera wilfully turning their horBes in, that they might get a much better mes! than they would otherwise. In most instances the soldiers went into the huts before they burnt them, and brought out any particular articles, such as the skins to hold mitk, and other vessels, and laid them outside the houses, before they burnt tiiem ; but where the villages were large, it was impossible for them to do so in every instance. I saw no injury done to any person, though I saw a very distressing case, in which a hut had been burnt, not by the party I was with, but by another : the hnt must have contained a poor idiot Caffre woman, who was also bhnd, and she waa crawling about when we came up, not knowing how to escape, and was burning herself. She was immediately removed by the soldiers, and they left a hut standing for her ; and some of the Hottentot soldiers, from their own feelings, left their rations with her, that she might have food.
3290. That injury was of course not intentional ? — Of course not at all.
3291. Had you an opportunity of communicating with the Caffres, so as to ascertain whether they considered their expulsion iWim their country a great injury ? — They certainly did, but we had no communi- cation wi^ any Ca^e in that country at the time, except with one man, who had got to the other side a rocky ravine, while a village was being burnt. He called out to us in the Caffre language, which was explained to us by an interpreter, and asked us why we were burning his house ; and it seemed to be difficult to make a reply : there was general silence throughout the party, I should perhaps say, I after- wards went into the interior, and was much among the Cafire tribes, and we were generally on friendly terms with them, and they often used to refer to the expulsion of Macomo, and ask about it, apparently thinking it was part of a general system of taking their country from them : even Hintza, and other chiefs less powerful than him, alluded to it in their conversation with us.
3296. Chairman.^ Will you state the general impression which the whole transaction left on your mind as to the system of measures of expelling the Gaf&es from their land, as to its policy, and as to the probable conseqnences with regard to maintaining peace in the country ? — As to the justice of the measure, I think that ejecting people entirely from their land, because they had been at war with others whom we might call our allies, was certainly the strongest kind of punishment that could be inflicted, and for an apparently almost dubious crime. The Caffires are constantly making war one with another, and a predatory war is not the greatest of crimes in their eyes. The government, very likely, were better informed as to what excuses, good or bad,Macomo might have for going to war with the Tambookies. He was a very uneasy neighbour, and 1 have no doubt the Cape government were very
SOUTH AFRICA, 47
desirous to get rid of him as their neighbour. He might be almost called a usurper. He was a very active man. He had always a consi- derable number of the most enterprising of the Caffres, who liked to serve under him, because he was a most successful plunderer. I think it would have been very difficult for any person to have relied on a promise or treaty of Macomo's, because he had established his power by being at the head of what might be termed a banditti. His father was Oaika, and Macomo could have no right to the territory till his death, if even then, not being his eldest or succeeding son. He had become the head of an army, and a certain portion of territory had been yielded to bim, perhaps, by Gaika. He was probably as difficult a man to live on good terms with as any man that could be found. The consequence of die measures might be easily foreseen. Macomo had no place to go to except to retire to a part of the country vihere the Caifres declined to live (unless they were forced to do so), for want of water : he conld not be expected to live there any more than the Caffres who had refused formerly to occupy it. He must therefore be still expected to live hy rapine, and even more bo than when he had a country where he could live by pasturing cattle and cultivating com. He retired further down the Sward Kei (I think), where is a very bad country, and, I believe, then became for some time a head of mere roving banditti, and lived on his neighbours. Since that time, he succeeded to the power in G^ka'a country, and then of course his circumstances were altered. He was, in the first case, driven back on the Ca&es, who were altogether deficient in pasture land. The numbers of persons to be supported by the same country were considerably increased, and their extent of land diminished.
3297. Bo you apprehend that Macomo entertained so painful a recollection of ihia season of his life as to have influenced him in his late attack, which had been made in the colony by the Caffres? — I think it is impossible to doubt that Macomo's feeling certainly had not subsided for a considerable time. He had professed to he very willing to make terms with the colonists again, provided they would give him part of his land.
The banks of the Chumie were still left in the possession of the Caffres, and their next remove was from tlience. We have thought it right to quote these passages of Mr. Gisborne's relative to Macomo, in order to show that there is no prejudice in his favour ; but after stating his opinion, it is necessary, in justice to the chief, to give that cif other witnesses, who are well acquainted ■ with his character :* —
126. What had been the previous conduct of Macomo? — He bad been a good deal blamed at one time : he was certainly the most daring Caflre of the whole ; a gallant bold fellow, and as a friend a most excel- lent one ; but as an enemy a very dangerous one.
127. But he was a man, Irom your intercourse with him, in whom you could place reliance, if he pledged his word to you ? — I should have no hesitation in doing so.
• CapL R. 8. AitcUson; Colonel Cax ; Mr. 3. Read, jun.l Rer.C&lS^lc
is ABORIOINES REPORT.
4532. Is the fact here stated true, that you Jiad reason to entertain a good opinion of Macomo? — Macomowaa a favourite of mine. I confess I thought a great deal could be done with him, and I thought he had been, in some instances, rather harshly treated. I have a more favour- able opinion of Macomo than of any other chief.
4536. Do you attribute to him deliberate duplicity ?— No.
4537- What do you think of him in point of general character and intelligence?— I think he has more intelligence than the other Caffre chiefs, and that a great deal more might be done with him than with any others ; he has more reason to complain than the others ; he has been removed two or three times from his territory.
5186. Mi. Johnston/] What was your opinion of Macomo's character for intelligence 7 — I think he is a most intelligent man, an acute man, a man of great mind, a juat man, a man who tried to do every thing in his power to discourage thefts, a man who, if he could but sit quiet, as he once called it, would attend to the word of God. We have never had any cattle traced to his country ; a man who is praised by every military officer. I heard Major Bimie say, at Beaufort, on my way to Graham's- town, that if Macomo had been treated by every officer as he had been treated by himself, Macomo might have been made much of, and this war never would have happened.
5187. What did the chief mean by the expression "sitting quiet?" — That he had no rest ; he was daily annoyed by patrols.
5256. ChairtRan.'] Do you consider Macomo to be a person of con- siderable natural talent 1 — Considerable.
5257- Do you think he had a sincere desire to sit down^as he called it, in peace, and to promote the civilization and imprqyemeut of his people ? — I believe perfectly so, from every thing I could learn. I do not derive this confidence in Macomo from my own personal observation alone ; but every mitisionary that 1 have met with that had any know* ledge of Macomo, spoke in the highest terms of him. The Rev. Mr. Ross resided with him three years, at Balfour, and he said he found him always correct in all hia proceedings ; and 1 have not met with a military ofHcer that has come into contact with Macomo yet, but what has given ' Macomo a good character.
In 1833, before Sir Lowry Cole left the colony, he had given orders for removing Tyalie and his people from the Muncas- sanna ; he was accordingly removed, but by an error, as Colonel Wade says, not placed beyond the boundary. To remedy this error, Colonel Wade, without consulting the frontier authoritiea, gave order for a further removal, which must have appeared to the Cafires, who had submitted quietly to the first order, an unaccountable decree.
A very short time before Sir Lowry embarked for Europe (on the 10th of August), orders were transmitted to the civil commissioner and commandant to remove Tyalie and his people from the Muncassanna beyond the colonial boundaries. Finding that government had decided on this measure, Tyalie did not offer any resistance, or render the em- ployment of the troops and burghers, who were in readiness to enforce compliance, necessary, but withdrew from the colonyj and was placed
SOUTH AFRICA. 4i)
behind what" was erroneoualy gappoaed to be the boundary, viz. the " Gaga," one of the small periodical streams which have their source in a ridge of no great elevation, which commences where the Kat Berg terminates, runs thence parallel to the course of the Chumie and Keiskamma rivers, as far as Somerset Mount, where it branches off to the westward, and encloses several other streams that run directly
The necessity of removing Tyalic and his people from the Muncas- sanna had undergone mature consideration before Sir Lowcy Cole issued his instructions for the execution of that measure in the preceding Angust or July ; and when afler his departure I discovered that they had been placed, not beyond the boundaries, but only behind the Gaga, which was erroneously supposed to be the boundary, and that there were others within the limits to whom I was positively certain no permission to reside there had been granted by the government, and that the locations were, under these circumstances, still exposed to, and suffering from, depredation and trespass, I did not again deem it necessary to consult the frontier authorities, but decided upon perfecting the protection of the locations, as far as it was possible to do so. Had I asked their opinion, I am inclined to believe that the acting com- mandant, Colonel England, would not, and that the civil commissioner. Captain Campbell would, have approved of the removal. It is right also that I should e:xplain, that the existence of an error as to the pre- cise boundary line at the point in question was by no means a matter to excite surprise, as from the length of time Tyalie's Oaffres had been permitted to remain in the Muncassanna, an indulgence they so fre- quently and so shamefully abused, no circumstance had for some years past rendered necessary the verification of that particular portion of the frontier, and there were very few who possessed accurate information on the subject.
I have already explained that the chief Charlie (Tyalie) and his people were removed from the Muncassanna by order of Sir Lowrj' Cole. His orders were that they should be placed beyond the colonial boundaries ; they were placed, not beyond the colonial boundaries, but beyond what was erroneously supposed to be the colonial boundaries, the Gaga. The source, as I have stated, of the Gaga is within a mile of the source of the Muncassanna; therefore, when I ascertained that depredations continued, I asked the officer of engineers to point out to me the exact boundaries, and be showed me that it was the upper stream, and not the Gaga, and it was at once evident to me that as long as the Caffres occupied the Gaga the depredations could be easily accounted for, as tbey had only a mile of open ground to go over into the Muncassanna, and therefore I at once decided upon removing ihem behind the upper stream, above the Oaga.
2783. Did the officer give any reason for his inferring that this upper river was the 'proper boundary, and not the Gaga ! — I have already stated it was the same officer who was sent with Captain Stocken- strom when a doubt arose as to the precise boundary in 1822. He had persons sent along with him to mark out and ascertain the bound- ary, and it happened fortunately that this same ofRcer was in the year 1 833 at Cape Town, and he traced the boundary himself upon that map, where the dotted line now is.
50 ABOaiQINES REPORT.
2784. Chairman.'] Then having aacert^ned from Lieut. Petttngall, who surveyed the boundary, that an error had been committed, you considered that you were justified in removing the Caffres further to the eastward? — Yea. I must explain, also, that this was the first time since 1823 that it had become necessary to ascertain the boundary in that direction, because the Cafires had* been pennitted to return to the colony "on sufferance," and that country had been occupied by them from that period. Macomo was expelled from the valleys of the Kat in 1829, but Charlie (Tyalie) was still left in possession of the Mun- caRSJinna, and therefore it had not before become necessary to ascertain the precise boundary. Sir Lowry Cole left Charlie (Tyalie), certainly the most troublesome chief upon the frontier, on that stream, the Mun- cassanna, and as nothing at that tooment was brought against him, permitted him to retain possession of it, although a tributary of the Kat river, where at the same time he located the Hottentots.
On this affair we would remark, that the actual boundary was at least a disputed point, few authentic witnesses remaining ; but there were two persons, who, from their station, must be regarded as competent to speak to the point, and they, without communi- cation, concur in declaring that the Chumie basin (the tract in question, as we believe) had been reserved for the Cafirea, These are Captain Stockenatrom, who, in hia account of the treaty, says, as we have seen, that Gaika did stipulate that his family should keep the Chumie basin ; and Macomo, who, in a letter written in 1833, says, that " I have lived peaceably with my people west of the Chumie river, ever since I have been allowed bj Stocken- strom and Somerset to live there in my own country."*
Whatever may be the opinions of our witnesses on this and on other particulars of our border policy, on one point we observe they are all agreed, in condemning and in lamenting its fickle- ness and inutility.
This vacillation may be explicable, perhaps, to ourselves, who are aware of the variety of men and opinions concerned in the administration of affairs, and of the contradictory representations liable to be made at a remote seat of government; but, as Lord Glenelg has justly observed, to the natives our proceedings must often have assumed on appearance of caprice, and of a confusion perfectly unintelligible. In no case has this vacillation been more awkwardly exemplified than in the further transactions with Macomo, thus stated by Captain R, S. Aitchison: —
115, Have you ever been employed in removing any of the Caffre tribes out of the neutral territory ? — I have : in November 1833 I was ordered to remove Macomo, Botman, and Tyalie, beyond the boundary, which I did,
116. Who was the commandant of the frontier at that time t — Colonel England, of the 75th; Colonel Somerset having gone on leave to England.
Ii Oct., 1834, Cape Papers, Pwt II,
SOUTH AFRICA. 51
117- Who was the governor? — The acting governor was Colonel Wade J after Sir Lowry Cole's departure, and before Sir Benjamin D'Urban arrived, Colonel Wade was acting governor.
118. Will you state what took place when you were ordered to re- move Macomo and Tyalie ?— Colonel England sent for me (I was absent about 30 miles from Graham's Town), and stated that he had received from Cape Town orders to remove those chiefs beyond the boundary, and that I was named for that duty. He then, as I had been a long time in the country and understood these matters perfectly, asked me the policy of that step, and we agreed that as it was the time of the year when the CaSre corn and pumpkins were in a forward slate, that if this could be put off for a few months it would be an act of charity towards the Caffcee. Viewing it as I did, he did not act upon the order, but by the post of the following day wrote to say that such being the case, he had submitted again the policy of allowing the Caffres to remain until they had reaped their harvest, and hoped it would be approved of by the governor. By return of post, which was about fourteen days from that date, a peremptory order arrived for the re- moval of the Caffres. I was named and ordered to repair to Fort Wiltshire, to take upon myself the comniand of that post, and to su- perintend the clearing of the country. The force that was then put under my charge was quite inadequate to effect this purpose by force. I sent for Macomo and for Botman, and as I had known them many years, I told them, and in fact they expressedgreat confidence, knowing that I had never deceived them in any way whatever, and never pro- mised them that which I could not perform. I sent for them and ex- plained the case. At first they refused positively to go : I then pointed out as well as I could the absurdity of objecting to go. Macomo said he knew very well that I could not force him ; I said of course that I mnst do it, but that if he would go quietly and advise all his people to do the same. Colonel Somerset might be expected very shortly and aliio the new governor, and that bis good behaviour on this occasion would insure him my support, and that I would not fail, if he went quietly, to mention his conduct to both when they arrived. After many hours, I may say almost, of needless conversation upon the subject, he at last said that he would believe me, and would go. I gave bim two days to complete the evacuation of the country, and then I went with the whole force I bad, and did not find a single Cafire.
119. Had they left anyproperty? — All the com, which was quite green, all the gardens, and all the pumpkins, and every thing was left; no animals were left.
122. In this conversation that you bad with Macomo, did he claim his right to stay ? — No ; but he distinctly said, which we found out afterwards to be the case, that he could not make out the cause of his removal, and asked me if I would tell him ; and I really could not : I had heard nothing, no cause was ever assigned to me for the removal ; and moreover, I met a boor who lived close to where Macomo was, and he said, "Pray, what are you removing these people for?" I said, " My orders are to do so." He said, " I am very sorry for it, for I have never lost, so long as they have been here, a single beast ; they have even recovered beasts for me."
125. Then Macomo behaved, in this interview between you and bim,
5S ABORIGINES REPORT.
Tery well? — At first, as may be supposed, he was very violent; the man was very much irritated. I could not assign any reason why he was ordered to he removed ; and he ahsolutely stated, " I will allow you to inquire at Fort Willshire, whether or not 1 have not sent in horses and cattle re-captured from other Cafices, which had been stolen from the colony,"
131. Did you see any instance of great distress amongst them ? — Unfortunately it so happened for them that it was a particularly dry season ; the grasa, whiiji generally is very abundant, was very scarce indeed, and also water ; and they were driven out of a country that was both better for water and grass than the one they were removed to, which was already thickly inhabited. They took me over the country they were to inhabit, and I assure you there was not a morsel of grass upon it more than there is in this room ; it was as hare as a
132, On Colonel Somerset's return from England, was there any permission given to Macomo and his followers to return ? — I mentioned to Colonel Somerset on his return, what I had told Macomo ; I con- sidered it my duty to do so, and he either obtained or gave the CaSres permission to re-occupy the ground from which 1 had driven them.
149. As to Macomo "s tribe, did they reap the benefit of that harvest when they returned in January ? — No, I think not ; the com would not be ripe till March.
150. You suppose the whole of that was lost? — A great part of that.
151. They came in February? — Yes,
152. When were they driven out? — By return of post. Colonel Somerset allowed them to come in, and, upon a representation to the civil commissioners, they were ordered back again.
In what light, m^ we again ask, must these changes have appeared to the Cafies, removed without cause assigned from their huts and springing corn in November, 1833 — restored in February, 1834— sent away a^ain by return of post — in the same year, as we shall see, allowed to resettle themselves — and again ejected.*
We might find cause for regret in these changes, if only on the ground of the fickleness of policy which they exhibit, but when we couple with them the fact mentioned by Mr. Gisborne, that one only of these removals had produced in the minds not only of the chiefa immediately concerned, but in that of Hintza, feelings of distrust and irritation, we cannot but consider these
■ Sir Benjsmin D'Urhan thus apeaks of the November expuliion :—" For many years past the tribes of the chiefs Macoino, Botraan, and T^alie, had been alloned by Ibe colonial govemtnent ro reside and graze (heir cattle immediately wiLhin (on tlie weelern tide of^ the River Keiskannna.upon tbeGags,ChiiiDie,aDd HuncaswDna. In (he November of (be lut year the actins goTemoi, under ihe iinpresaion that (bii indulgence had been abused (which probBbly it mig!i[ have been lo a certain extent), ordered tbeir immediate expulsion from Che whole of that line, and they trere ex- pelled accordingly. This unfortunately happened when a period of severe drought was approaching) lo that these tribes, I am afraid, hut loo certainly suffered much loss in their herds inconsequence." — Despatch, 2Slli Oct. IS34, Cape Pa||fn,Fart II. lS3J,No. 2^2, p. 103.
SOUTH AFRICA. 53
XtitioDS of the grievance as one of the principal causes of the nity which has befallen the colony. Of the last scene of removal. Colonel Wade was witness on the 21st October, 1834. He says, that " at this time, they had been returned about a month, had built their huts, estabUshed their cattle-kraals, and commenced the cultivation of their gardens." He states that, t<^etber with Colonel Somerset, he made a visit to Maeomo and Botman's kraal, across the Keiskamma, and that Maeomo 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 buriaing the huts and driving the Caffres towards the frontier."
Colonel Wade objects to the restrictions imposed by Sir B. D'Urban, as to the use of force against the Caffres, and conceives that to this system of leniency may be attributed the diffi- culties which arose: the above description, wo think, scarcely warrants the inference, and Macomo's remonstrances on the occasion appear to us to be but natural. " I rode with Maeomo for some time, who was evidently sorely vexed at the work that was going on arouud us. He complained of the Caffres being so often permitted to enter the colony and again thrust out, without any apparent cause for their removal; that they Iiad remained during the last Ave weeks unmolested, and were again burnt out, when there was no cause of complaint against them. He asked me, emphatically, ' When am I to have my country again?' "
The further procedures with the Caffies are thus described: —
The second time of my leaving Catfreland waain October, last year, in company with a gentleman, who was to return towards Hantam. We passed through the country of the Gaga at 10 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 1 received a letter from the gentleman who was my travelling companion aa 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; hut on my return a dense smoke filled all the vales, and the CafiVes 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
54 ABORIGINES REPORT.
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. When the hoors cross the northern boundary, you hear the civil commissioner and Colonel Bell eaying the drought compels them to intrude into the country of the Griquas. I suppose boors are men, Cafires are beasts, or why not use the same argument for all classes of our fellow-men?" Thus much of this gentleman's letter, upon whose veracity I can im- plicitly depend. It was about this period that the case of the Caffre Goubie came ou, when the magistrate of Graham's Town awarded to a Calfre 50 lashes on his bare back, and an imprisonment of two months, for resisting a seijeant in the execution of his duty," such being the civil charge, as may be seen in the records of the magistrates* court of Graham's Town. The poor CaSre being a subject of Macomo's, had, as it appears in evidence, built his }iut on a part of the neutral territory, so called, probably the Gaga. The Serjeant being about to set Are to the hut, the Caffre is said to have threatened opposition ; he afterwards went through the Caffreland, showing his wounded back to hia country- men, and calling down their vengeance. Numerons were the instances of commandos or patrols, of which I beard when in Caffreland, carrying off the cattle of the Cafiires, burning their huts, besides the misconduct of the traders and farmers.
Of the previous state of the country, and its appearance at the time we are speaking of, Dr. Philip says: —
In passing through Albany and the neutral territory in the end of August or the beginning of September, the scenes where their depre- dations were said to have taken place, I made particular inquiry after the boors and settlers who could not send their cattle and herds without sending armed men to defend them ; and I endeavoured to ascertain where the hordes of Caflres were said to be within the colony harassing the military, and, in spite of them, committing unparalleled outrages ; but I met with none who had either seen or heard of such things. Herds of cattle and horses were seen wandering in different directions, some of them attended by herdsmen without any arms, and others of these herds without anyone appearing to look after them. Everything within the colony wore the aspect of peace ; and the principal things which seemed to occupy the people's minds were the emigration of the boors beyond the frontier, and the eicpcctation that when the governor came to the frontier he would grant them new farms beyond the limits of the colony. We heard in every direction that the patrols had been very active ; and on approaching the Caffre frontier, the first thing which struck my travelling companions and myself was a patrol coming out of Caffreland. During the two weeks I spent at the Kat river, I was constantly hearing of patrols driving the Caffres over the Chumie, burning their huts, and going into Caffreland to bring out cattle said to have been stolen. Having remained at Kat river about a fortnight, I went into CaOreland, accompanied by Captain Bradford, J. H. Tred- gold, Esq. and the Rev. Mr. Read. We spent about a fortnight in the Cafire country, and in every part that we visited we found the Caffres in a state of continual alarm ; and we seldom met a few of them
SOUTH AFKICA. 55
fogethei but one or tlie other of them had to tell us how they had been ruined by the patrols. It waa truly iieart- rending to listen to their complaints, and the complaiota of the men were almost forgotten in the distress of the women and children, who were literally perishing, being stricken through for want of the fruits of the field and the milk that bad been the means of their support, their cows having been carried away by the patrols.
Having visited the missionary stations of Lovedale, Burn's-hill, and the Buffalo river, I returned by way of Knap's-hi!l, the missionary station of the Rev. Mr. Kayser, which was on Macomo's ground, and near his kraal. There we met with several of the Cafire chie& who had been invited to meet me there ; namely, Macomo, Botman, Kama, and Tzatzo. We bad a public raeetjng, which occupied the greater part of a day, and at which there was much speaking. My sole object on that occasion was to procure any additional information for the governor which I could obtain. I stated to them that I had come among them as their friend ; I neither was in fact, nor appeared to them to be, in any other character. In reply to the remarks which the chiefs made about their sufierings, I stated that I hoped the governor would soon be on the frontier, and that I had reason to think he was a just man, and would redress any real grievances of which they might have to complain. I told them, at the same time, that they must not expect anything more than was reasonable from his Excellency ; that he was obliged to protect the colonists from any depredations that might be committed on them by the Caffres, and that any future plan that might be proposed to the chiefs by the governor would necessarily embrace the restoration of cattle stolen from the colonists by the Caffres, and other things of a similar nature.
I found the CafTres reasonable, and I had not the least doubt that had the governor gone to the frontier at the time I was there, they would have embraced the plan he had to propose for the peaceable settlement of the frontier affairs with transports of joy. 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 discoun- tenance thieves inCaffreland, and prevent, as far as possible, our people stealing from the colony ; but you countenance Uie robbery of your people upon the Caf&es, by the sanction you give to the injustice of
56 ABOBiatNES REPORT.
the patrol system. Our people have stolen your cattle, bnt you have, by the manner by which you have refunded your Iobs, 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 degtruction for the thefts of those to whom you left no choice but to steal or die by famine."
My last intervieiv with the chiefs took place in the beginning of October, 1834. After this interview, 1 returned to the Kat river, where I waited, expecting daily the arrival of the governor. Finding that he delayed his proposed journey, and that I had no certainty as to the time of his arrival on the frontier, I drew up a document, commu- nicating additional information, and at the same time laying before Sir Benjamin the principle on which it was necessary to base the system of international law proposed to be introduced. Finding that I could not wait longer for his Excellency on the frontier, I wrote a letter to bim, in which I stated that circumstance, assigning my reasons for leaving Caffireland at that period ; and as he was daily expected in Graham's Town, the above document, with the letter in qneetion, I forwarded to Graham'-s Town, to be put into the hands of bis Excellency on his arrival there, that he might see them before be went into Cafireland,
I then left Kat river on the 4th of November, by way of the Mun- cassanna and Gaga. On a ridge which separates these two districts, I met several parties of Caffres, Goobie, a Caffre, who had been imprisoned and flogged at Graham's Town by order of the civil magistrate, had returned to that neighbourhood ; and one of the first questions asked me was, what right the English government had to punish the subject of a Caffre chief? I was assured by the people then around me, that it was the first example of a Caffre ever having been flowed ; that the man could never again lift up his head in society ; that it would have been better had be been shot dead ; and that when^the governor should arrive among them, he would hear of it from every tongue in Caffreland as one of the greatest indignities that could have been offered to their nation. I said every thing in my power to soothe them ; but no people cari have a keener sense of injustice in cases where they themselves are the sufferers, or can be more alive to what they deem national af&onts, than the Cafires are ; and I found that any argument 1 used to quiet their minds tended only to increase the excitement to which this circumstance had given rise. Some of the Caffres asserted that the man was arrested on what was, till then, con- sidered Caffre territory ; but this is a circumstance of small consequence ; he was tbe subject of a Caffre prince, and he had only lifted his hand to protect his hut, and his wife and child, who were in it.
Leaving the Muncassanna, I proceeded along the western edge of tbe Chumie basin, and during a ride of perhaps twenty miles, I did not find a single Caffre kraal or hut which had not been burnt or otherwise destroyed by the military. Immediately above Fort Willshire, and below tbe junction of the Chumie and Keiskamma rivers, I saw with my own eyes tbe kraals and huts of tbe Caffres burning. This was on ground that was of use to no one. It was on the boundary of the neutral ground (within the territory which goes by that name), and at a great distance from any colonists. The people were sitting in small groups looking at their burning habitations. Being asked why they
SOUTH AFRICA. 67
did not go over the river, they said there was no grass oa the other side, and they might as nell perish by the patrols as by famine ; they added, that the patrols who fired their kraals and huts had informed them, that the next day every one of them was to be driven over the river at the point of the bayonet.
On the 5th of November, the day after I left Kat river, I halted near Fort Willshire, about mid-day. Macomo, bearing that I was there, came to the place, accompanied with about twenty of his men. They remained with me about two hours. On his way he called at Fort Willahire, where he was reminded of a demand which had been made upon him a short time before by Colonel Somerset for 480 head of cattle, said to be due to the colony. The chief stated in reply to that demand, that there were no colonial cattle among his people ; that be had always been ready, whenever cattle had been stolen from the colony, and reported to him, to recover them ; that in the course of a year he had sent back a great number he had recaptured from Caffres tbat did not belong to them. Colonel Somerset had still urged that the 480 head of cattle were to be demanded, adding that he had orders from the governor to make this demand, but the governor was not willing to use force till he knew whether Macomo would comply with the demand or not. To this the chief replied, that he could only repeat what he had before said, that he had done every thing in his power to recover cattle said to have been stolen from the colony ; that he would be answerable for his own people, but that he could not be answerable for cattle stolen hy vagabond Gaf&es in the bushes. Having given tliis reply, and being conscious that he had done every thing in bis power, and seeing no end to the demands made upon him, he received this last demand as a proof that his ruin was resolved upon ; for be had just been told at Fort Willshire that a commando was about to enter his country to take the 480 head of cattle, and this threat seemed to add greatly to his distress. The chief then entered upon further detail of his grievances, and declared that it was impossible for human nature to endure what he had to suffer from the patrol system. I reasoned with him, and did all in my power to impress upon his mind the importance of maintaining peace with the colony. I stated again tbat I 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," be replied, " we have had for tho 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 Cafire from the west side of the Chumie and KeiakaiDma at the point of the bayonet." He asked to what extent endurance was to be carried ? and my reply was, " If they drive away your people at the point of the bayonet, advise them to go over the Kebkamma peaceably ; if they come and take away cattle, suffer them to do it without resistance ; if they burn your huts, allow them to do so ; if they shoot your men, bear it till the governor come ; and then represent your grievances to him, and I am convinced you will have no occasion to repent of having followed my advice. He was deeply affected, and the last words be said to me were, (grasping my hand,) " I will try what I can do."
ABORIGINES REPORT.
These events bring us to the breaking out of the late war. On this most important subject we abstain from entering. Though much evidence has been laid before uSj and many circumstances appearing therein have excited our deep r^ret (amongst the most painful of which we may allude to the death of the Caffre Prince Hintza), yet as the evidence on this head has not been completed, and as the events are so recent, we have been led to the belief that an analysis of the statements already before ua might not be considered either impartial or conclusive: we therefore waive the investigation. It is sufficient to express our opinion, that the system which has long been pursued in our intercourse with the natives of South Africa has been productive of most injurious effects both to the colonists and the Caffres, exposing the former to constant insecurity and frequent severe suffering and loss, and subjecting the latter to great injustice, and to treatment which could not fail to occasion feelings of irritation and hostility.
We look upon the late war as one among many illustrations of these evils. While we purposely abstain from dwelling upon the circumstances which immediately produced it, we, without hesitation, name its real, though perhaps remote cause — it was the systematic forgetfulness of the principles of justice in our treatment of the native possessors of the soil.
That any substantial benefit can accrue from border conflicts, either to the British or the Caffre nation, may well be ques- tioned. What has either party gained by recent hostilities? It is proved that both have sustained immense detriment — civilize tion has been retarded; commerce has been interrupted j the vanquished party has endured immense loss in property, in territory, and in life;* and the victorious nation, besides suf- fering in all these particulars, has incurred an actual outlay of money far more than commensurate to the value of the territory acquired. The cost of this war to the British nation is estimated at 241,884^. Us. S^d.
With respect, however, to this part of our investigation, we wish it to be understood, that it is not against individuals, much less against the colonists or the military as bodies, that we would direct our reprehension ; wo are convinced that a large proportion of both are well and kindly disposed towards the natives: but it is the system that has been permitted to prevail in the colony, which, in our opinion, requires a complete alteration : a system which puts it into the power of the few who are rash, reckless, or greedy, to hazard the peace and the welfare of the whole community. We ai-e aware that the results of a long system of
1 Ihe slaugliter of *000 of their wamora, or fighting men. " There have heen taken from ibem also, besides the coiK^uest and alienation of iheir country, about 60,000 head of cattlt^, almost ill (heir goats— their habitations ^rcrywheredesuoyed, and their gardens and corn fieldaluid waste. "—Sir B, D'Urban 'o Lord Glenelg, November, 1835.
CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION. 5Q
erroneous policy axe not to be remedied without much time and patience, and we fear that the weight of the calamity which it has produced has in many instances fallen on those of our colonists who have least merited it ; but we entertain a confident hope that, by the measures which have been lately adopted and recommended by the government, peace and harmony between UE and our neighbours may be restored and established on a aure and lasting basis; and it is chiefly to the enlightened principles, and to the just directions of the head of our colonial department, exemplified as they are in his late despatches before us, and to lavre embodying and carrying into effect those directions and principles, that we look for this happy accomplishment of our desires. Thus much at least is sufficiently obvious, as has been stated by Sir Benjamin D'Urbau in his despatch to Mr. Secre- tary Rice, of 28th October, ISSi, " that a complete and effectual reformation of our system of proceeding with the native tribes (if that may be called a system which seems to have been guided by no fixed principles, certainly by no just one) had become absolutely necessary."
Effects of Fair Dealing, combined with Christian Instruction, on Aborigines.
In the foregoing survey we have seen the desolating effects of the association of unprincipled Europeans with nations in a ruder state.
There remains a more gratilying subject to which we have now to direct our attention — the effect of fair dealing and of christian instruction upon heathens. The instances are unhap- pily less numerous than those of an opposite character, but they are not less conclusive; and in reviewing the evidence before us, we find proof that every tribe of manlnnd is accessible to this remedial process, and that it has actually been partially applied, and its benefits experienced in every quarter of the world, so that the main feature of the case before us being the ravages caused by Europeans, enough has been incidentally disclosed to show that those nations which have been exposed to our con- tamination might, during the same period, have been led forward to religion and civilization. Independently of the obligations of conscience to impart the blessings we enjoy, we have had abun- dant proof that it is greatly for our advantage to have dealings with civilized men rather than with barbarians. Savages are dangerous neighbours and unprofitable customers, and if they- remain as degraded denizens of our colonies, they become a burthen upon the state.
We have next to express our conviction that there is but one effectual means of staying the evils we have occasioned, and of
60 ABORtOtNBS REPORT.
impaiting the blessings of civilization, and that is, the propa- gation of Chriatianity, together with the preservation, for the time to come, of the civil rights of the natives.
We have seen that a mere acquaintance with civilized men by no means prepares savages to receive Christianity, and that kind of civilization which alone can be advantageous to them or ourselves.
True civilization and Christianity, says Mr. Ellis, are inseparable ; the former has never been found but as a fruit of the latter. An in- ferior kind of civiliaation may precede Chriatianity, and prevail without it to a limited extent ; Buch, for instance, as the adoption, by compara- tively rude tribes, of the dress and modes of living of more cultivated society, a taste for tbeir arts, manufactures, and comforts. All this may occur vritbout any change of character. This kind of civilization is only superficial : it may polish and smooth the exterior of buman society, but it leaves the deep foundations of crime and wretchedness, the vices of human nature, which are the causes of all barbarism in every part of the world, untouched, and consequently supplies no suffi- cient remedy for the evils to be removed. My experience would lead me to regard this inferior kind of civilisation as a very ioefficient means of promoting the improvement of the native inhabitants of difierent countries. The communication with members of a more advanced state of society, by which it is produced, has often occasioned the most serious impediments to the introduction of Christianity, and it certainly vould not predispose men to admit the moral claims of the christian religion. The advantages this kind of civiUzation offers have not proved inducements sufficiently powerful to overcome the long confirmed habits of uncivilized nations, while their intercourse with Europeans has generally added the vices of the latter to those of the aborigines, and has increased in a fearful degree the miseries which prevailed be- fore. Mr. Ellis adds, it is a fact of great importance in the present inquiry, that Christianity has never been introduced into any nation or tribe where civilization has not invariably followed.
We farther find, in the evidence before us, that benevolent attempts have been made to instruct sav^es in the arts of civilized life, for the purpose of improving their condition, and gradually preparing them for the truths of the gospel, and that these attempts have been signally unsuccessful.
The cause of this failure b explained by Mr. Beecham.
The higher motives of the gospel must he brought to bear upon the mind of the savage ; he must be made to feel the importance of the truths of religion before he will discover any thing desirable in the quietness and sobriety of civilized life, or will dare to break through his superstitions in order to subdue it.
I was aware that the governor of Upper Canada had made many attempts to induce the Indians to renounce their wandering life, and I wished to ascertain from the chief himself what were his views of the endeavours made by the governor in their behalf, and how it was that they failed. He said the fact was simply this, that the ofiers of the
CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION. 61
goremor had no chamiB for them ; they could see nothing in civilized life BufEciently attractive to induce them to give up their former mode of living for ^e sake of it. He told me that they gave the governor credit for very kind and benevolent intentions ; yet, in answer to all his applications, while they thanked him for his kind intentions, they uniformly told hiiu that they preferred their own mode of living to that followed hy Europeans. This again was the case with the Indians who are situated in the neighbourhood of the river St. Ciair. The governor made several attempt* to induce them also to renounce their wandering habits, and devote themselves to civilized pursuits ; but they also re- fused, Biguing in the following strain : " Who knows but the Munedoos (gods) would he angry with us for abandoning our own ways ;" and concluded by saying, " We wish our great father, the governor, to he informed that we feel thankful to him for his good will towards as, but cannot accept of his kind offers." It is true that, after some time, one of the tribes so far acceded to the governor's proposals as to consent that he should build them some bouses. He built a small number for their use, but it was altogether a fruitless experiment ; the Indians only occupied them occasionally as they used their own huts, without any reference to the comforts or pursuits of civilized life. I have here a letter from the chief himself in his own hand-writing, in which he says, in reference to the attempts that had thus been made to promote civilization without Christianity, " I have heard of no iDstance in this part of the country, where the plan of first civilizing the heathen In- dians ever succeeded."
In like manner, the American Society of Friends have for nearly a century and a half laboured for the civilization of the Indians, under an idea that civilization would make way for the introduction of the peculiar doctiines of the christian religion. Their eiForta have been always received with gratitude, and been repaid by the confidence of the Indians : but a member of the Society of Friends, Mr. Elisha Bates, who was in a committee for their benefit, and who several times visited the Shawnee tribes, declares, with reference to these people, that though there was an improvement in civilization, it was not by any means satisfactory ; and he states, " Within the last few years we have had to review the whole course of proceedings, and we have come to the conclusion, from a. deliberate view of the past, that we erred, sorrowfully erred, in the plan which was originally adopted, in making civilization the object ; for we cannot count on a single individual that we have brought to the full adoption of Christianity."
So complete, indeed, has been the failure of the merely civilizing plan with various tribes of Indians, that intelligent Americans have been led to adopt the conclusion, that it is necessary to banish the Indians from the neighbourhood of the white population, on the supposition that they are not capable of being reclaimed or elevated into a civilized or well ordered community.
This was not the opinion of William Penn, whose conduct
62 ABORIQINE3 REPORT.
towards the Indians has been deservedly held up as a model for legislators, and who, " notwithstanding he purchased their lands" by an equitable treaty, " did not desire their removal," but " ad- mitted tnem to full participation in the ^jenefit and protection of the laws, and who also took pains to promote their religious instruction, and to render the intercourse with their white bre- thren beneficial to them.* That the good which he contemplated has been frustrated by many untoward circumstances, we are aware ; but we do not therefore doubt the feasibility of producing a permanent impression upon uncivilized men. We consider that the true plan to be pursued is that which we find thus recommended by the Church Missionarv Society, [in their in- structions to two of their emissaries : — " In connexion with the preaching of the gospel, you will not overlook its intimate bearing on the moral habits of a people. One effect arising from its introduction into a country is, the ' beating the sword into a ploughshare, and the spear into a pruning-hook.' Seek then to apply it to the common occupation of life ; and instead of waiting to civilize them before you instruct them in the truths of the gospel, or to convert them before you aim at the improvement of their temporal condition, let the two objects be pursued simultaneously. "f
The governors of the Canadas, as we find in their despatches, seem to have been brought to the conviction that religious in- struction and the infiuence of missionaries would be Uie most likely means of improving their condition, and, eventually, of relieving the government &om the expense of the Indian de- partment. Both Sir James Kempt and Sir J. Colboume advise the sending of missionaries among them.|
A remarkable instance of the power of the gospel in re- claiming savages, has been afforded by the Mississaguas and Cbip- peways, the very Indians who had, as we have seen, rejected civilization, and who were notorious for drunkenness and de- bauchery. §
Their improvement began with their conversion : " as soon as they were converted, they perceived the evils attendant upon their former ignorant wandering state; they began to work, which they never did before ; they perceived the advantage of cultivating the soil ; they totally gave up drinking, to which they had been strongly attached ; they became industrious, sober, and useful. 11
The Bishop of Quebec writes, —
The Methodist Society have been very successful in converting a great portion of the Mississagua tribe from heathen ignorance and
• Paper A, referred to in the Evidence of T. Hodgkin, Eiq. M.D, t Papera A bor. Tribes, 1834, No. B 17, p. 152. - .
Z Abor. Tribei, Pari Papen, p. 40—43. J PaiL PapeTJ,4ii^>QlC
11 Report of the Rev. J. Magrath, p. 42. ^^
CHBiaTIAN INSTRUCTION. 6S
immoral habits to christian faith and practice ; and this improvement has been sa great and rapid within these few years, that the hand of God seems to be visible in it ; and it must be acknowledged that tbej have done much in the nork of their ciTilization. An extraordinary reformation and conversion to Christianity has taken place in this tribe within a few years. It commenced on the river Credit, and has extended to various settlements of the nation to a considerable distance. A great propor-^ tion of the tribe have become sober and industrious in their habits, well clad as to their persons, and religious in their life and conversation.*
Mr. Magrath also mentions, that they no longer desire the gifts of trinkets and gaudy coloured clothes, in which they for- merly delighted, in lieu of which they request twine, for the purpose of making fishing-nets for the Lake Ontario, The half-caste chief Kahkewaquonaby, generally known by the name of Peter Jones, in answer to the question, whether the Chippe- wajs, on embracing the gospel, did not immediately apply them- selves to civilized pursuits ? says, —
This has uniformly been the case with all the tribes that have em- braced the gospel. Immediately on their convenion, they have applied to the governor and missionaries for assistance, to enable them to settle down in villages, and attend to the things that make for their present happiness as well as their spiritual welfare. Their language is, " Give us missionaries to tell us about the words of the Great Spirit ; give us schools, that our children may be taught to read the Bible ; give us oxen to work with, and men to show us how to work onr farms." To the question. Whether the christian Chippeways have not made consi- derable advancement in civilization ? — "Aie improvement the christian Indians have made, has been the astonishment of all who knew them in their pagan state. The change for the better has not only extended in their hearts, views, and feelings, but also in their personal appearance, and in their domestic and social condition. Formerly they were in a wandering state, living in wigwams, and depending on the chase for subsistence. The christian Chippeways are settled at the following places, viz. : — River Credit, Qrape Island, Rice Lake, Mud Lake, Lake Simcoe, Cold Water, Muncey Town, River St. Clair (Wawanosb's tribe), and Sahgeeng. At each of these places they have made more or leas progress in civilization, according to the advantages they enjoyed. The River Credit mission being the oldest station among the Chip- peways, I will give you an account of their present temporal condition. About ten years ago this people had no houses, no fields nor horses, no cattle, no pigs, and no poultry. Each person conld carry all he pos- sessed on his back, without being much burthened. They are now occupying about 40 comfortable houses, most of which are built of hewn logs, and a few of frame. They are generally one-and-a-half story high, and about 24 feet long and 18 feet wide, with stone or brick chimneys ; two or three rooms in each house ; their furniture consists of tables, chairs, bedsteads, straw mattresses, a few feather beds, win- dow-curtains, boxes and trunks for their wearing apparel, small shelves
• Abor. Tribes, Pari. Papers, p. 63.
6i ABORIGINES REPOET.