South Africa -- Description and travel; South Africa -- History -- 1836-1909; South Africa -- History -- To 1836
the interval of many hours spent in constructing a second gallows. They
were all Dutchmen, and the Dutch implacable Boer has said ever since
that he cannot forget Slagter’s Nek. It was the followers and friends of
these men who trekked away northwards and eastwards till after many a
bloody battle with the natives they at last came to Natal.
From this time the Colony went on with a repetition of those two
troubles,--war with the Kafirs and disturbances with other native races,
and an ever-increasing disposition on the part of the European Colonists
to go backwards so that they might live after their own fashion and not
be forced to treat either slaves or natives according to humanitarian
laws. While this was going on the customary attempts were made to
civilize and improve both the colonists and the natives. Schools,
libraries, and public gardens were founded, and missionaries settled
themselves among the Kafirs and other coloured people. The public
institutions were not very good, nor were the missionaries very
wise;--but some good was done. The Governors who were sent out were of
course various in calibre. Lord Charles Somerset, who reigned for nearly
twelve consecutive years, is said to have been very arbitrary; but the
Colony prospered in spite of Kafir wars. From time to time further
additions were made to our territories, always of course at the expense
of the native races. In 1819 the Kafirs were driven back behind the
Keiskamma River; where is the region now called British Kafraria,--which
was then allowed to be Kafirs’ land. Since that they have been
compressed behind the Kei River, where lies what is now called Kafraria
Proper. Whether it will continue “proper” to the Kafirs is hardly now
matter of doubt. I may say that a considerable portion of it has been
already annexed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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