In a conntry where Chrijiians only are confidered -as human
beings, and where ftrong prejudices prevail, the negro has little
chance of obtaining juftice. It has been obferved, with too
much truth, that if a black ihould only ftrike a white, he runs
the chance of being tortured and torn in pieces, on prefumptive
proof that his intention was to murder ; but if a white man
murders a black belonging to himfelf, he puts him into the
ground, and nothing more is faid about i t i f he murders that
of another, he has only to pay the owner his full value; unlefs,
indeed, the owner Ihould be inexorable and bring the criminal
before the Court of Juftice, a cafe which I believe has not yet
happened. Such is the diftribution of juftice between a man
compelled to be a Have, and one born to be. free !
We had little doubt that the greateft number of the Hottentot
men, who were aflembled at the bay, after receiving favourable
accounts from their comrades of the treatment they experienced
in the Britifti fervice, would enter as volunteers into this
corps; but what was to be done with the old people, the women,
and the children? Klaas Stuurman found no difficulty in
making a provifion for them. “ Reftore,” fays he, “ the coun-
“ try of which our fathers have been defpoiled by the Dutch,
“ and we have nothing more to afk.” I endeavoured to convince
him how little advantage they were likely to derive from
the pofleflion of a country, without any other property, or the
means of deriving a fubfiftence from i t : but he had the better
of the argument. “ We lived very contentedly,” faid he,
before thefe Dutch plunderers molefted us L and why ihould
“ we not do fo again, if left to, ourfelves ? Has not the Groot
“ Baas '
■ “ Baas (the Great Mafter) given plenty of grafs-roots, and ber-
“ ries, and grafhoppers for our ufe; and, till the Dutch de-
“ ftroyed them, abundance of wild animals to hunt ? And will
they not return and * multiply when thefe deftroyers are
“ gone?” We prevailed, however, upon Klaas to deliver up
their arms, and, in the mean time,, to follow the troops until
fome arrangement could be made for their future welfare.
Proceeding on our march, along the banks of the Sunday
River, and among the vaft thickets that almoft entirely covered
this part.of the country, we fell in with a prodigious number of
Kaffers with their cattle, belonging, as they told us, to a powerful
chief named Congo. This man was at the head of all the
other emigrant chiefs who had fled from the Kaflfer country,
eaftward of the Great Fiih River, on account of fome enmity
fubfifting between them and their King Goika, with whom I
had, in vain, attempted, in company .of the Landroft, to bring
about a reconciliation two years before. As the pofition he now
occupied not only encroached very much upon the territorial
rights of the colony, but was alfo far within the line aitually inhabited
by the Dutch boors, we deemed it expedient to endeavour
to prevail upon him to move towards the eaftward ; and for this
purpofe, we fent a meflenger to requeft that he would give us
the meeting. The anfwer brought back fignified, that he did
not care to come alone, and that he defired to know, if we had
any objeaionsto receive him at the head of a certain number of
his people. The meflenger being told he might bring with him
any number of his attendants not exceeding thirty, he ihortly
made