Researches in South Africa, illustrating the civil, moral and religious condition of the Native Tribes, etc

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RESEARCHES IN SOUTH AFRICA; ILLUSTRATING THE CIVIL, MORAL, AND RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE NATIVE TRIBES: INCU'DI.VQ JOURNALS OF THE AUTHOR'S TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR; TOGETHER 991T11 DETAILED ACCOUNTS OF THE TROGRESS OF THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONS, EXHIBITING THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY IN PROMOTING CIVILIZATION. BV THE REV. JOHN PHILIP, D.D. Superintendent of the Missions of the London Missionary Society at the Cape of Good Hope, <_C. tjC. IN TWO VOLUMES.— VOL. II. LONDON : JAMES DUNCAN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. MDCCCXXVIII. LONDON : Printed by William Clowes, Stamford-street. Page 1 CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. Chapter I. Origin of the Bushmen. — Exaggerated reports of their physical and moral deformities. — Evidence of their natural good qualities. — Colonel Collins's report suggesting means for their improvement. — Commencement of missionary stations at Toverberg and Hephzibah Chapter II.

Abolition of the Bushman missions by the Colonial Government. — Testimonies of their beneficial effects. — Appearance of Toverberg, when visited by the author. — Motives of the colonists in conspiring against these missions. — A Commando, to extirpate the Bushmen, recommended by the Commission of Circuit, in 1816. — Continuance of this bloody system ........ 23 Chapter III. Exclamation of a Bushman on going to be executed. — Description of the State of the Bushmen in 1823. — Mr. ' George Thompson's Account of the Commando system. — Feelings of the Colonists on this point. — Comparative Humanity ofthe Dutch and English Governments. — Present Condition of the Bushmen. — Interview with Uithaalder, the Bushman Chief 39 Chapter IV. Mission to the Griquas. — Origin of this Tribe. — Their former savage State. — Effects of the Missionaries' Labours among them. — Their Settlement at Klaarwater, now Griqua Town. — Ordered by the Colonial Government to furnish Recruits for the Cape Corps.— Refuse to accede to CONTEN TS.

Page this Conscription. — Injustice and Impolicy of the Measure. — Plan to seize the Griquas during the Beaufort Fair 55 Chapter V. Appointment of Mr. Melvill as a political agent at Griqua Town. — Jealousies and Dissensions. — The Bergenaars. — Their barbarous conduct towards the Native Tribes. — Bechuana Refugees. — Description of a Party of them. — Author's Journal. — Arrival at Philippolis. — Meet with more Bechuanas. — Arrival at Rama. — Colonial Traders. — Alexander River. — Interview with the Bergenaars. — Arrival at Griqua Town. — State ofthe People. — General Convocation — Resolutions passed at it . . . 78 Chapter VI. Journey to the Bechuana Country. — Interview with Bushmen. — Berands the Griqua Chief. — Bushmen's mode of destroying Lions. — Arrival at the Kuruman. — Improvements introduced by the Missionaries. — Superstition of the Bechuanas. — Intelligent Conduct of the Chief Mahuri 107 Chapter VII.

Appendix

. Fage I. Stuurman's Kraal ■ . . . . . .371 II. Colonial Proclamation of 1809 373 III. Colonial Proclamation of 1812 378 IV. Letter from Sir John Cradock to the Rev. John Campbell 380 V. Missionaries who accepted Appointments under the Colonial Government . 383 VI. Proposal to abolish the Institution of Pacaltsdorp . ib. VII. Account of the Caffer Chief Makanna, and the attack on Graham's Town in 1819 . . . .385 VIII. Compensation to the Hottentots ofTheopolis . . 389 IX. Theopolis Correspondence ..... 392 X. Diagram of the Lands of Theopolis .... 400 XI. Bethelsdorp Correspondence ..... 403 XII. Case of Cobus Pommer 437 XIII. Oppression of Hottentots in Albany .... 439 XIV. Letter from Mr. Roger Edwards, Missionary Artizan . 443 XV. Letter from Dr. Vanderkemp to Governor Janssens . 444 XVI.

Letter from the Missionary Conference at Graaff-Reinet to the Colonial Secretary ..... 447 XVII. Letter to the Author from the Rev. John Campbell . 450 *s* At p. 335, vol. i., and p. 90, vol. ii., references are made to the Appendix for two letters which have not been inserted : tbey have been subsequently withdrawn to make room for documents of more importance. CONDITION OF THE NATIVE TRIBES, fye, Ssc.

Chapter I

Origin ofthe Bushmen. — Exaggerated reports of their physical and moral deformities. — Evidence of their natural good qualities. — Colonel Collins's report, suggesting means for their improvement. — Commencement of missionary stations at Toverberg and Hephzibah. Deprive a commercial people of their commerce, and you may drive many of them to piracy ; but commerce cannot be destroyed at once : even the conquerors of such a people, however much they may oppress them, must, to a certain extent, be dependent upon them for the supply of their wants ; and, if the trade which remains does not furnish sources of wealth, it will still continue to minister the means of subsistence. Under despotism and oppression, the agriculturist loses his stimulus to industry, and the fields that were once crowned with luxuriant crops are seen returning to a state of nature ; but an agricultural people, living on a fertile soil, if, by the oppression and tyranny of their rulers, they are deprived of the comforts of life, will still find from their soil a scanty means of subsistence.

With a pastoral people the case is different. Deprive Vol. II. B ORIGIN OF THE BUSHMEN. them of their flocks and herds, and you scarcely leave them any alternative but to perish, or to live by robbery. This was the case with many of the Hottentot tribes during the seventeenth century. Driven to des peration by the loss of their cattle, they were occasionally forced by hunger to seize a few sheep or cattle belonging to the colonists. To evade their pursuers, and to have the opportunity of devouring their spoil in peace, they would naturally seek refuge in the most inaccessible places of the mountains ; and in this brief sketch will be seen the origin of the Bushmen. The opinion now advanced on this subject was ori ginally formed from circumstances which came under my own observation during my journies into the inte rior of South Africa ; and it has been since strongly confirmed by the facts elicited during my investigation into the early history of this people.

The reader, by referring to Vol. I., page 33, will find the true origin of the Bushmen developed in brief, but forcible terms, by the respectable Dutch magistrate, Sterreberg Kupt. This gentleman explicitly states that, 'f by the misbe haviour of these vagabonds" — unprincipled aggressors from the colony — cf the whole country was ruined ;" for the kraals of the Hottentots being plundered by the colonists, the natives were driven by famine to rob other hordes of their own countrymen, and these again their neighbours. Those who betook themselves to this mode of life retreated to fastnesses among the rocks and mountains, whence they issued forth, from time to time, to plunder the Colonists, or such of the native hordes as still possessed cattle. *"-* And thus," says the landdrost Kupt, "from people living in peace and happiness, divided into kraals under chiefs, and sub- ORIGIN OF THE BUSHMEN. 3 sisting quietly by the breeding of cattle, they are become almost all of them huntsmen, Bushmen, and robbers, and are dispersed everywhere, among the barren and rugged mountains."

The same system was continued, as the reader will perceive, by referring to Vol. I., Chapter III., by the " barterers," (as they styled themselves,) who penetrated, from time to time, into the interior of the country. The Hottentot tribe of Horisons, men tioned at page 38, are termed " Bosjesmen" in the original manuscript from which the account of the transactions' there briefly stated has been extracted ; and the reader may, from that circumstance, form a pretty impartial judgment as to the quarter from which the first and worst aggressions principally pro ceeded. The account of the commando system,* em- * Mr. Thomson, when travelling near the Hantam, in 1S24, received the following account of the outbreakings of Bushman animosity from an aged Hottentot : — " An old Hottentot servant ofthe family accompanied me.

This man was between sixty and seventy years of age, and had all his life resided upon the Bushman frontier. I found him communica tive, and elicited some interesting information from him. He said he could recollect the time when few or no murders were com mitted by the Bushmen, especially upon the Christians. The era of bitter and bloody hostility between them commenced, according to his account, about fifty years ago, in the following manner: — The burgher, Coetzee Van Reenen, had an overseer, who kept his flocks near the Zak river ; this fellow was of a brutal and insolent disposition, and a great tyrant over the Bushmen ; and had shot some of them, at times, out of mere wantonness. The Bushmen submissively endured the oppression of this petty tyrant for a long period ; but at length .their patience was worn out ; and one day, while he was cruelly maltreating one of their nation, another struck him through with his assagai.

This act was represented in the B 2 / THEIR DETERIORATION ployed against the native tribes, already given, (see Vol. I., page 41, et seq.) renders it unnecessary to recapitulate here the revolting details of this dis graceful chapter of colonial history. I only request the reflecting reader to retain the facts, there stated on official authority, in his recollection, while we proceed with the more recent history of the degraded and per secuted race of Hottentots now denominated " savage Bushmen." " Treat men as wild beasts," says a philosophical writer, "and you will make them such ; and by joining the ardour of revenge to their yet untamed barbarity, they will grow every day more untractable, and more dangerous." The vindictive dispositions ascribed to the Bushmen are more owing to their unfortunate circumstances than to anything in their natural character, which distinguishes them from other uncivilized tribes.

Driven to desperation by a long series of cruelties, they began to view all persons not belonging to their own tribe as against them ; and if men who were formerly colony as a horrible murder. A strong commando was sent into the Bushman country, and hundreds of innocent people were mas sacred, to avenge the death of this ruffian. Such treatment roused the animosity of the Bushmen to the utmost pitch, and eradicated all remains of respect which they still retained for the Christians. The commando had scarcely left their country, when the whole race of Bushmen along the frontier simultaneously commenced a system of predatory and murderous incursions against the colonists, from the Kamiesberg to the Stormberg. These depredations were re taliated by fresh commandos, who slevv the old without pity, and carried off the young into bondage.

The commandos were again avenged by new robberies and murders ; and thus mutual injuries have been accumulated, and mutual rancour kept up to the present day." FROM OPPRESSION. friends suspect and treat each other as enemies, their former friendship will soon be changed into bitter hostility. It is probable that the savage dispositions of the Bushmen would be at first directed against their immediate oppressors, but, once called into action, ancl cherished by a state of constant hostility, they would gain a wider sphere of operation, and be incensed against their fellow-creatures in general. This dete rioration of character, and the barbarous acts arising out of it, would be attended with loss of good repute ; would produce a general combination of other tribes against them, and occasion a powerful reaction ; and thus those dispositions, which at first arose out of the oppression to which they were subjected, would be con firmed by the continuance of those circumstances out of which they originally sprung.

Such as escaped the bloody scenes which accompanied these murdering expeditions would become the bitter enemies of the colonists. Deprived of their cattle, they must now rob others, or perish for want of the means of subsistence. Self-preservation is the first law of nature ; and, in their predatory excursions in quest of food, it is natural to suppose that their first thoughts would be turned towards the colony. Their vengeance would probably, in some instances, fall upon the innocent ; the retaliation of the Bushmen would call forth a powerful reaction on the part of the farmers ; and the flames of perpetual hostility would continue to rage when it was forgotten by what means they were first kindled. When savage and barbarous tribes are op pressed by civilized nations, perfidy and injustice are the only things they borrow from their oppressors ; and the animosity excited by a sense of the injuries they EXAGGERATED ACCOUNTS OF THEIR sustain, presents an insuperable barrier to their im provement in civilization.

The system of oppression under which the Hotten tots suffered so grievously, rendered it necessary for their oppressors to allege some reasons in their own defence ; and to a colonial government, in possession of the ear of the government at home, this was an easy matter. While a government continues on the side of the oppressed, abuses must be an exception to a general rule ; but when the duty and the interest of those at the head of a government are placed in opposite directions, the law itself becomes the greatest abuse ; all checks are withdrawn from the passions of the oppressors ; and the oppressed, if they are inca pable of vindicating their own rights, are left without a remedy. To the Dutch East India Company, which still, in all its communications with the Cape, manifested con siderable solicitude for the protection and improvement of the aborigines, the government at the Cape justified itself from the complaints urged against it for its conduct to the colonial Hottentots, by laying the blame on their character.

The Hottentots were now said to be the most degenerate creatures upon earth ; they were represented as the lowest class of human beings ; as void of memory ; as filthy, and disgustino to a degree exceeding credibility ; and so ungovern able in their propensities, that nothing would do for them but severe coercion. But the Bushmen-Hottentots have been still more calumniated. They have been represented, in their persons, as caricatures of human nature, as a species of semi-baboons, and as full of deadly malignity against all other beings. MORAL AND PHYSICAL DEFORMITIES. 7 Colquhoun, on the e< Resources of the British Em pire," has informed us, with matchless simplicity, that all attempts to tame the Bushmen have hitherto proved ineffectual, and that they cannot be civilized. Plutarch remarks, when a painter has to draw a fine and elegant form, which happens to have a blemish, we do not want him entirely to omit it, nor yet to define it with exactness.

The one would destroy the beauty of the picture ; the other would spoil the likeness. On a minute inspection of many individuals of the Bushman race, it is obvious that most who have travelled among them have not only marked distinctly, but aggravated their blemishes, and so disparaged their more pleasing features, as to create disgust towards a people, who, if they cannot boast of forms to call forth admiration, ex hibit, nevertheless, but few of those physical deformities so largely ascribed to them. Many, particularly the children, have interesting countenances, and under more auspicious circumstances would speedily lose their dis pleasing peculiarities of appearance, which in all coun tries are, in a greater or less degree, the inseparable concomitants of penury and suffering. The plant which, in the desert, is stunted in its growth, and pre sents but a scanty foliage, becomes the pride of the surrounding scenery when nourished by a more gene rous soil.

The most miserable specimens of the Bushman race are to be found amongst the frontier boors, or in the immediate vicinity of the colony. Many of the more remote hordes, still remaining in a state of comparative independence, are much superior in stature, and have a vivacity and cheerfulness in their countenances which form a striking contrast with the others. Some are EVIDENCE OF THEIR from five feet nine, to five feet ten and a half inches in height, and the former stature is by no means unusual. Besides the ordinary causes for the exaggerated de scriptions of the Bushmen, is the ease with which a caricature may be executed, and the propensity of tra vellers to aim at effect ; and other considerations have aggravated this evil, not less intelligible, and not, per haps, more creditable to human nature.

It is well known how much the adventitious circum stances of youth and beauty heighten our compassion for a sufferer. Add rank to these advantages, and say that the individual is a highly accomplished female, and sympathy for her case will be raised to its utmost height. Had Mary, Queen of Scots, been as defective in personal charms as she was in prudence, less sym pathy would have been excited by her unfortunate end. Knox might have made an ugly and deformed woman weep without creating much indignation ; but the fasci nation of Mary's beauty, added to her rank, has sunk her crimes, and the benefits of the Reformation, in the same grave; and that which entitled our Reformer to the highest praise, the triumph of his principles, has loaded him with the reproaches of a partial and frivo lous world.

On the same principle, when the liberties of a people are to be extinguished ; or, when greater severities are to be inflicted ; if, besides assigning certain disqualifications for freedom, and the necessity of restraining their vices, ugliness and deformity can be thrown into the picture, few will interest themselves in the fate of the originals. Misrepresentation and ca lumny having prepared the way, the work of slavery and extermination may proceed with impunity. The Bushmen are doubtless in a very ignorant and GOOD QUALITIES. degraded state ; but the filth and dejection which have been adduced in proof of their incapability of being improved, afford a better criterion of their depressed condition, than of the absence of mental capacity. The Bushman, in a native state, is in perpetual alarm, not merely for the safety of his little property, but for his personal safety, and for that of his family.

He is obliged to inhabit, for security, rocks almost inaccessible to any foot but his own ; and is perpetually called upon to remove from place to place, lest the colonists should discover his abode. When he ventures forth in quest of game or roots, he is in the utmost fear of dis covery, and has consequently leisure for nothing but the necessary regard to his own preservation. Many of the accounts which have been published in England respecting the savage, ferocious, and untame able character of the Bushmen, can scarcely be read in Africa without a smile. The civilization of that de graded people is not only practicable, but might be easily attained : while they are by no means deficient in intellect, they are susceptible of kindness ; grateful for favours ; faithful in the execution of a trust com mitted to them ; disposed to receive instruction ; and, by the use of proper means, could be easily brought to exchange their barbarous manner of life for one that would afford more comfort.

In a journey undertaken into the interior of the colony in 1819, we had two Bushmen in our train ; the one was called a ■ ' tame Bushman," because he had been brought up among the farmers ; and the other was found in the Bushman country, and had been newly received into the service of one of our missionaries. The stature of the one was about five feet seven, EVIDENCE OF THEIR that of the other about five feet four. Any one, not apprized of their origin, would have supposed them colonial Hottentots. The wild Bushman had only been a few months in the service of our missionary when he joined us ; and we had not in our party any one that was more teachable, faithful, and obliging. During the last four months of our journey he served at table ; and, after a month's apprenticeship, conducted him self with as much propriety as any English servant might have been expected to do with as little training.

If the following extract of a letter (written by a gentleman *, who was several years clergyman of a frontier district of the colony, containing many thousand square miles of the Bushman country) is no longer to be re garded as descriptive of the amicable relations which then subsisted between the colonists and the Bushmen, it may, nevertheless, be received as an honourable tes timony in favour of the character of that calumniated people : — " The farmers on the frontiers are entirely dependent on the Bushmen for their welfare. Few, if any, have either slaves or Hottentots, consequently they have no means of getting their cattle properly tended without their assistance. Such farmers as possess Bushmen have been in the habit of committing to them the charge of their flocks, and they have proved such faithful shep herds, that the farmers have not hesitated to give them some hundred ewes and other cattle, to sojourn with them beyond the limits of the colony.

The Bushman * The Rev. A. Faure, now Minister of the Dutch Colonial Church in Cape Town. The high esteem in which this gentleman is universally held, shows that a Minister may be respected by the Colonists, and be, at the same time, a friend to the natives. GOOD QUALITIES. 11 having received a reward of some tobacco, dakka, (or hemp leaves for smoking,) and, perhaps, two or three ewes, leaves the habitation of the colonist, drives the cattle into distant parts, with the fertility of which he is well acquainted \ and, aftei* an absence of some months, returns to the farmer his cattle in such an improved condition, that had they not his particular mark upon them, he would with difficulty credit that they were the same animals which, on account of their leanness, the Bushman could with difficulty remove from his farm.

Sometimes the farmer has put the fidelity of the Bushman to the test, by sending one or other of his acquaintance to try whether he could not obtain a sheep, by promising him some reward ; but the instances are rare in which he has succeeded. Many farmers on the frontiers declared to me, that were it not for the Bushmen, they saw no means of breeding cattle." The following extract of a letter, dated 24th No vember, 1825, addressed to the author by Sir Jahleel Brenton, Baronet, giving an account of a Bushman boy brought by him from the Cape of Good Hope, may be adduced as strongly confirmatory of the opinions which have been advanced of the talents and disposition of the Bushman people : — " Hermes is an honour to the race, and a distinguished proof of what this amiable people are capable of.

He possesses the sweetest disposition, and the strongest attachments possible. With all the fun and merriment you remember in him, there is a depth of thought and solidity of understanding that is really astonishing. He has been living for the last year with my sisters at Bath, to whom he is invaluable as a EVIDENCE OF THETR GOOD QUALITIES. servant, and even as a friend. He heard, some time since, of an approaching confirmation, and expressed a wish to be confirmed. My sister mentioned it to the archdeacon, who requested to see him, and, after a long conversation, pronounced him to have attained a most extraordinary degree of knowledge in religion. He was accordingly confirmed, and became the subject of universal conversation. A clergyman, who had heard of the circumstance, begged to see him, and cross-questioned him in every way.

He asked him which of all the characters in the Old Testament he should have wished to have~been, had it been possible. Hermes reflected for some time, and then said firmly, ' David, Sir.' 'What? sooner than Solomon, whose prosperity was so great V ' Yes, Sir ; both were sin ners ; but David, we know, repented of his sins ; while there is no passage of scripture which gives us the same opinion of Solomon.' This is the substance of his answer, which greatly surprised his auditors. His memory is wonderful : he brings home every sermon, and comments upon it with extraordinary acuteness." Colonel Collins, in his report to government, in 1809, which we have had occasion to quote more than once, speaks of the Bushmen as being most libe rally gifted by nature with talents. To the same effect, the following passage, related to me as a part of an address delivered by a Bushman to his country men, at a missionary station, when some colonists were present, may be adduced as displaying a very con siderable knowledge of scripture, and no mean share of natural ability.

" Why is it," said he, " that we are persecuted and oppressed by the Christians ? Is it because we live in desert lands, clothe ourselves with SPARRMAN'S ACCOUNT OF THEM. 13 skins, and feed on locusts and wild honey ? Is there any thing morally better in one kind of raiment, or in one kind of food, than another ? Was not John the Baptist a Bushman ? Did he not dwell in a wilderness ? Was he not clothed with a leathern girdle, such as we wear? And did he not feed on locusts and wild honey? Was he not a Bushman? Yet Christians acknowledge John the Baptist to have been a good man. Jesus Christ (whose forerunner he was) has said that there has not arisen among men a greater than John the Baptist. He preached the doctrine of repentance to the Jews, and multitudes attended his ministry; he was respected even by the Jews, and preached before a great king.

It is true John the Baptist was beheaded, but he was not beheaded be cause he was a Bushman, but because he was a faithful preacher ; and where, then, do the Christian Men find anything in the precepts or example of their religion to justify them for robbing and shooting us, because we are Bushmen ?" For a brief description of the manner in which these people were treated, when Sparrman travelled in the colony ofthe Cape of Good Hope, I beg leave to refer the reader to the following extract from the Work of that writer : — " The slave business, that violent outrage against the natural rights of mankind, which is always in itself a crime, and leads to all manner of misdemeanours and wickedness, is exercised by the colonists with a cruelty toward the nation of Boshies-men, which merits the ab horrence of every one ; though I have been told that they pique themselves upon it : and not only is the capture of the Hottentots considered by them merely as a party of COLONEL COLLINS'S REPORT pleasure, but, in cold blood, they destroy the bands which nature has knit between husband and wife, and between parents and their children.

Not content, for instance, with having torn an unhappy woman from the embraces of her husband, her only protection and com fort, they endeavour all they can, and that chiefly at night, to deprive her likewise of her infants ; for it has been observed, that the mothers can seldom per suade themselves to flee from their tender offspring." In the instructions given to Colonel Collins, by the colonial government, on his visit into the interior, among other subjects on which he was called to collect information, his attention was particularly directed to the Bushmen. Having studied their character, as far as his opportunities allowed him, he asserts, without the slightest qualification, what we have already stated as affirmed by him, — that there is not upon the face of the globe a people possessed of better natural abilities, or more susceptible of mental or moral improvement.

Having stated this officer's opinion on this subject, the reader must be anxious to know the measures he has recommended in his report to the colonial government, in 1809, to be adopted for their improve ment ; and they shall be stated in his own words : — " In adverting to our northern neighbours," savs he, " I feel the sincerest pleasure in being enabled to recommend a more liberal line of policy than that which I think necessary to be observed, for a considerable time at least, towards those of the east. Different from the Kaffers and Tambookies, the Bosjesmen are mostly scattered over an immense tract of country, in small parties unconnected with each other: they may, therefore, be more safely introduced into the ON THE STATE OF THE BUSHMEN. colony, collected and instructed in institutions, and dis persed among the inhabitants.

"■ The report which I formerly had the honour to make, founded on the information that I had received of the state of those people living beyond the northern boundary, will, I believe, apply equally to those residing near the north-eastern limits. Although differ ing, in some degree, in language and appearance, their habits and manners are in few points dissimilar. They subsist on the same food, use the same arms, and are equally attached to a wandering life ; they are alike bound by no authority, and are unconnected by all ties, except relationship, and such as tend to secure their individual safety. My sentiments have been already so fully delivered on the subject of missionary institutions, that, convinced as much as ever of their utility, under proper regulations, it remains for me only to point out the situations that seem most eligible for their esta blishment.