spices of the Parent Board, and yet with such modiùcations and reforms as would render it difficult for the latter, to assume at once the entire responsibility without an admission of continued wrong done to other colonists and the settlements now in existence. Just so far as these modifications and reforms extend, would it be necessary to have different or amended local laws and regulations, if not a different executive agency; as when it is proposed in the new colony that more attention shall be paid to agriculture, the importation, manufacture and sale of ardent spirits prohibited, and an uniforin plan adopted and acted on of supplying the public stores, and for the issue, by gift or sale, of their contents to the colonists and native inhabitants. But as the Parent Board is entitled to reap its share of success and increased reputation to the cause of Colonization, even in measures not primarily of its own suggestion or originating, its counsel and guidance are invoked in the present enterprise by the Young Men's Society of Pennsylvania. The Auxiliary here invites the sanction of the principal to the measures now in progress by the latter for the selection and purchase of land for a new colony, the appointment of a home Agent and a Governor, and the enactment of such laws as experience shall indicate in addition to, or in modification of those already in force in Liberia. Until the sanction by formal consent be given to these steps, as well as those which may be afterwards taken toward the attainment of the great objects in viewcolonizing and Christianizing Africa, the Young Men's Society will feel itself deprived of that countenance and support to which it looks with continued hope and allection. It is proposed, moreover, the better to secure joint action and to preserve to the Parent Board its right of general superintendence, that a special agent should be despatched from time to time, from Monrovia, to visit the new colony, and be instructed to give his aid and counsel towards maintaining a right understanding between it and the other colonies on the coast. With these explanations (made in a spirit of perfect good will and fellowship) of their understanding of the Auxiliary connexion and relation which the Young Men's Coronization Society of Pennsylvania have with the Parent Board at Washington, the Executive Committee submit the following resolution:— Resolved, That the Board of Managers of the Young Men's Colonization Society of Pennsylvania, agree to the terms proposed in the second resolution of the Parent Board recently received, (and annexed hereto), respecting the transmission by the latter to the former, as from principal to auxiliary, of the manumitted slaves of the late Dr. Hawes of Virginia; and that they will proceed forthwith to complete the necessary arrangements for a new colony at or near Bassa Cove,-the first settlers in which are to be the said liberated slaves. The above is a true copy: TOPLIFF JOHNSON, Secretary of the Board of Managers. Whereupon it was, on motion, unanimously JOHN BELL, Chairman. Resolved, That the said Report, adopted and transmitted by the Managers of the Young Men's Colonization Society of Pennsylvania, meets the approbation of this Board, so far as the same is in accordance with the Report adopted by this Board on the 3rd day of July last, in which their views of the relations between Auxiliary Colonization Societies and the Parent Society, were distinctly set forth, and of which a copy was transmitted to the Young Men's Colonization Society of Pennsylvania. Resolved, That the Resolution of the Managers of the said Young Men's Colonization Society, accompanying the aforesaid Report, adopted and transmitted by them, agreeing to the terms on which the Parent Board had consented to transfer to the said Young Men's Colonization Society the colonizing in Liberia of certain manumitted slaves of the late Dr. Hawes of Virginia, is entirely satisfactory to this Board; and that this Board will place said manumitted slaves under the care of said Young Men's Colonization Society for the purpose aforesaid, and will afford to them every facility in the use of the receptacles, and in the countenance, aid and assistance of the Agents of the Parent Society, at the colony, that may be wanted to promote the comfortable settlement of said manumitted slaves at their proposed residence within the Liberian territory. Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to the Young Men's Colonization Society of Pennsylvania. Published by order of the Board. Attest: P. R. FENDALL Recorder. JAS. LAURIE, President. REVIEW. KAY'S TRAVELS IN CAFFRARIA.-CONCLUDED FROM p. 173. [From the Edinburgh Review, January 1834.] Travels and Researches in Cafraria: describing the character, Customs, and Moral Condition, of the Tribes inhabiting that portion of Southern Africa: With historical and topographical Remarks, illustrative of the State and Prospects of the British Settlement on its Borders, the introduction of Christianity, and the Progress of Civilization. By STEPHEN KAY, Corresponding Member of the South African Institution. 12mo. London: 1833. The accounts which Mr. Kay gives of the system of Military Reprisals, which has long been maintained by the colonial authorities, in their relations with the frontier tribes, affords a humiliating picture of European policy and humanity. This is not a novel topic: from the time of Sparrman to the present, almost every writer on the Cape has denounced the revolting injustice and barbarous impolicy of what is locally termed the Commando System.' Mr. Barrow exposed its iniquity and cruelty in the strongest terms, as exercised, at the period of his visit, more especially against the miserable race of Bushmen. Many details of its atrocities on the northern frontier were published by Mr. Thompson in 1827.* Dr. Philip has given the rise and progress of this system from the earliest records of the colony down to 1828, when his valuable work appeared; and several subsequent writers on South Africa-Bannister, Rose,§ Pringle, &c., not to mention the printed reports of His Majesty's Commissioners of Enquiry-have furnished lamentable and unauswerable evidence, that the same shortsighted and barbarous policy is still continued with but a very slight and inefficient modification. I do not consider,' says Lieutenant Rose, 'the Caffers a cruel or vindictive people. The policy adopted towards them has been severe: for when did Europeans respect the rights of the savage? By the Dutch Border-farmers, over whom their government had little control, they are said to have been slaughtered without mercy-to have been destroyed as they destroyed the wolf. At no period, I believe, since the English have been in possession, has wanton cruelty been committed; but the natives have at different times been driven back from boundary to boundary, and military posts have been established in the country from which we have expelled them. Orders, too, have been issued that all Caffers appearing within the proclaimed line * Travels and Adventures in Southern Africa. Second Edition. Vol. i, p. 392–7. Researches in South Africa; illustrating the Civil, Moral, and Religious Condition of the Native Tribes. By the Rev. J. Philip, D.D. By Humane policy: or Justice to the Aborigines of New Settlements essential to a due expenditure of British Money, and to the best Interests of the Settlers. With suggestions how to civilize the Natives by an improved administration of existing means. S. Bannister, late Attorney-General in New South Wales. London, 1830.-This work, which has not received attention at all adequate to the importance of its contents, contains some valuable details respecting the Cape frontier system, well deserving the serious consideration of the Colonial Department. § Four Years in Southern Africa By Cowper Rose, Royal Engineers. London, 1829. See p. 74-77, 94. Reports of the Commissioners of Enquiry upon the ment at the Cape of Good Hope. Dated 6th Sept. 1826. mons to be printed, 1st May, 1827. See p. 23. Administration of the Govern- should be shot.'-'In 1810, the Great Fish River was proclaimed the eastern limit of the Colony. In 1820, Gaika, a powerful chief whom we had aided in his wars, was obliged to evacuate a rich extent of land lying between that river and the Kirskamma. On this occasion he is said to have remarked, "that though indebted to the English for his existence as a Chief, yet, when he looked upon the fine country taken from him, he could not but think his benefactors oppressive."—It is not strange that the savages should be unable to see the justice of all this; that they should be troublesome neighbours to the settlers in a country of which they had been dispossessed. They were so: such instances were exaggerated, and a Commando (an inroad of military and boors) was the frequent consequence. The crimes were individual, but the punishment was general; the duty of the Commando was to destroy, to burn the habitations, and to seize the cattle, and they did their duty.'-'I hate the policy that turns the English soldier into the cold-blooded butcher of the unresisting native; I hate it even when, by the calculator, it might be considered expedient; but here it is as stupid as it is cruel.' Rose's Four Years in South Africa, p. 74–6. Such is the account of our Caffer frontier policy, given by an officer for some time stationed on the Caffer frontier, and officially cognizant of the transactions he thus characterises. Let us now turn to Mr. Kay. In noticing (p. 88) the extreme alarm spread among the natives by the rumour of a Commando having entered their country from the colony, he remarks, that the 'barbarously indiscriminate manner in which military expeditions have sometimes rushed upon the tribes, spreading dessolation and death on account of robberies committed by individuals unknown, has naturally rendered the very sound of such expeditions dreadful throughout the land.'An entire chapter (pp. 241-266) is occupied with the history of the treatment experienced by the Amakosa clans from the Colonial Governments, Dutch and English, from an early period down to 1820. We cannot find room for any of the details; but many of them are such as to excite reflections of the most painful character. The authenticity of the principal facts cannot, we fear, be questioned: they rest not only on the testimony of travellers, but on official documents, and on the statements of the local goverument in its official Gazette. Some of these atrocities rival any thing we have read of the conduct of certain States of North America towards the native Indians. While such has been the treatment of neighbouring tribes, and of recognised allies (as in the above case of Gaika,) more distant hordes have, it appears, been occasionally assaulted with even less ceremony. Mr. Kay gives us the following example (p. 330): In June, 1828 rumours reached the colony that the warlike Zoolu Chief, Chaka, had invaded the Amaponda territory, and as this Chief had lately sent two of his principal captains on a friendly embassy to the Colonial Government, an officer was very properly despatched with an armed escort of about forty men, with the view of obtaining an amicable conference with this African Cæsar, and mediating a peace. On reaching the Amaponda territory, however, the party found that the Zoolu invaders had retreated, but being solicited by an Amatembu Chief to assist him with their fire-arms in an attack upon another horde, they altered the direction and object of their expedition. This was the Amanwana or Ficani, a tribe who had been driven from their own territory by the devastating career of the Zoolus; and who were now pressing upon the Amatembu territory from the north. The Fulish party, unhappily, so far forgot their character of mediators as to become parties in these intestine broils. They made a charge on this Amanwana horde, and captured 20,000 head of cattle, which were given to their new ally the Amatembu King. This was rather an unfortunate close to amicable designs. It might, however, possibly have arisen from sudden impulse or misapprehension; but what shall we say for the sequel? We give, without comment, Mr. Kay's statement: 'About a month after the above-mentioned skirmish, a strong military force, together with several hundred armed colonists, were hurried into the interior, to the distance of nearly three hundred miles from the colonial boundary, where they were immediately joined by an immense host of Kaffers, who proved themselves to be Kaffers indeed! Flushed with the hope of conquest and abundant spoil, having got an ally so powerful in their van, the natives hastened onward to the combat, pointing out exactly the site whereon was erected the temporary huts of the Amanwana. On the Sunday evening, the troops arrived within a few hours' march of the spot, and, after halting an hour or two, again proceeded, with a view of taking them by surprise ere dawn of day the following morning. In this they succeeded; so that while the greater part of the people were still fast asleep, the rushing of horses, the clashing of spears, and the horrid roar of musketry, poured in upon them on every side. Who can conceive of a situation more awful? The thought makes one's very blood run cold. If we had not heard the details of this sanguinary affair confirmed by more than fifty eyewitnesses, we could not possibly have given credence to it; so strange was the plan, and so barbarous its results! A respectable British officer, whom duty required to be on the spot, candidly declared to the author, that it was "one of the most disgraceful and cold-blooded acts to which the English soldier had ever been rendered accessory." * 'The moment our troops arrived on the summit of the eminence that overlooked the vale in which the Matuwana and his men were lying, orders were given for all to gallop down amongst the houses. Their affrighted occupants then poured out in droves, and a dreadfully destructive fire was forthwith opened upon them. Very few seconds elapsed ere every hut was vacated, and thousands seen scampering off in every direction.---Numbers, gaunt and emaciated by hunger and age, crawled out of their miserable sheds, but with pitiable apathy sat or laid down again, as if heedless of their fate. Many of the females cast away their little ones, the more readily to effect their own escape; whilst others actually plunged into the deepest parts of the river with infants upon their backs. In this situation some were drowned, others spared, and many stoned to death by the savage throng; insomuch that the water was at length literally dyed with blood.' This is an appalling statement; and brought forward as it is by a respectable man, then resident in the Caffer territory, and who appeals to the authority of British officers, and 'the unanimous testimony of numbers who were present during the whole affray;' it will not fail, we trust, to attract due attention in the proper quarter, and lead forthwith to that thorough investigation which appears to be imperatively required for the purposes of justice, as well as for the vindication of the national character. In the concluding chapter Mr. Kay gives a statement of the circumstances attending the seizure (or cession, as it is termed) of a tract of country extending to eighteen hundred square miles, eastward of the old Colonial boundary, and the forcible expulsion from it of the Caffer inhabitants. * It has indeed been said, that a parley was attempted; and for the honor of our countrymen, we cannot but wish that this could have been proved. Unhappily, however, the unanimous testimony of numbers who were personally present during the whole affray, is altogether against this assertion, showing too clearly, that time was not allowed for any thing of the kind. The facts as here stated, (and a report of the Commissioners of Enquiry is referred to as one of his chief vouchers,) are of a character that again remind us most forcibly of the treatment of the Creek and Cherokee Indians, as detailed by Mr. Stuart in his late valuable work on the United States.* If correctly represented, they may well make us blush for the honor of our country. When did Europeans,' exclaims Mr. Rose, 'respect the rights of the savage!' But though past iniquities cannot be recalled, nor perhaps to any great extent redressed, surely our present Government will promptly adopt effective precautions to prevent the repetition of outrages not less disgraceful to the British name, than detrimental to the progress of civilization and Christianity among these interesting tribes. It is of vital importance,' says Mr. Kay, to the peace of the frontier, and the civilization of our neighbours, that such measures be adopted, as shall in future protect (their rights), and prevent all further encroachment upon them.As already shown, much good feeling has of late been manifested towards the tribes in many different ways: but we have not as yet by any means extended to them that protection which they reasonably demand at our hands, and which our increased intercourse renders absolutely necessary. Hence numbers are at this moment suffering most grievously from their rights being shamefully trampled under foot, and their clanish feuds materially promoted by lawless colonists, English as well as Dutch, who, when once beyond colonial precincts, seem to laugh both at law and legislators, scrupling not to commit acts of aggression and cruelty quite equal to those of former years.' After relating a recent case of a very revolting description, in which a Cape trader (an Englishman) and a Caffer chief were parties, and where the terms 'civilized and savage,' appear to have changed sides, Mr. Kay emphatically remarks, 'that the astonishing supineness with which deeds of this horrid character are treated, would really seem to confirm a doctrine that has again and again been gravely argued, namely, that "crimes committed without the Colony are not cognizable within."' Pp. 498, 500. The unprotected state of the tribes on the northern frontier,' he adds, 'is, if possible, still more distressing. There, numbers of Dutch Boors, despite both of right and remonstrance, are continually trespassing upon the lands of the Aborigines, and treating them in a manner the most oppressive. It is an incontrovertible fact, that these tribes are molested, that they are seriously injured, and that in many different ways. The game upon which some of them (the Bushmen hordes) have entirely to depend for subsistence, is by these Nimrods destroyed, the seanty pasturage of their fields consumed, and their children often reduced to a state of complete vassalage.'' Barrow records that the Boors used to obtain slaves from beyond the boundaries westward; and certain it is, that the evils of slavery are at this moment increasing on our north-eastern borders, where it is not sufficiently checked by the established authorities. The daily encroachments of Dutch farmers upon lands beyond these frontiers greatly facilitate the practice.'-'Such,' in conclusion he observes, 'are some of the evils under which, notwithstanding all our boasted benevolence and good feeling towards the long oppressed African, we are still leaving him to perish, and that on our very threshold. With wiser men we now leave the case, that they may devise a remedy. Devised some remedy must be, and that speedily, if we wish to maintain the honor of our character either as Britons or as Christians. In 1826 his Majesty's Commissioners of Inquiry declared, that they could only hope for a reduction of the heavy expense, now incur * See ! uart's Phree years in North America, vol. ii, p. 166. |
