South Africa -- Description and travel; South Africa -- History -- 1836-1909; South Africa -- History -- To 1836
We have not caught Kreli yet. When we have, if we should catch him, I do
not in the least know what we shall do with him. There is a report which
I do not believe that the Governor has threatened him with Robben
Island. Robben Island is a forlorn isle lying off Capetown which has
been utilized for malefactors and lunatics. Langalibalele has a
comfortable farm house on the Gape Flats where he has a bottle of wine
and a bottle of beer allowed him a day,--and where he lives like a
second Napoleon at a second St. Helena. I trust that nothing of the kind
will be done with Kreli. There is an absurdity about it which is
irritating. It is as though we were playing at Indian princes among the
African black races. The man himself has not risen in life beyond the
taste for squatting in his hut with a dozen black wives around him and a
red blanket over his shoulders. Then we put him into a house where he
squats on a chair instead, and give him wine and beer and good clothes.
When we take the children of such a one and do something in the way of
educating them, then the expenditure of money is justified. Many
Kafirs,--many thousand Kafirs have risen above squatting in huts and red
blankets; but they are the men who have learned to work, as at the
Kimberley mine, and not the Chiefs. The only excuse for such treatment
as that which Langalibalele receives, which Kreli if caught would
probably receive, is that no one knows what else to propose. I am almost
inclined to think it better that Kreli should not be caught. Prisoners
of that nature are troublesome. What a blessing it was to France when
Marshal Bazaine escaped.
I was told before leaving the Cape that the trouble would probably not
cost above £50,000. So cheap a disturbance certainly should not be
called a war. The cattle taken would probably be worth the money;--and
then the 300-acre farms, if they are ever allotted, will it is presumed
be of some value. But now I fear that £50,000 will not pay half the
bill. There is no luxury on earth more expensive than the British
soldier.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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