was so
extensive and so common, that all the principal people in the colony
were implicated, and would have to be punished.

"Such was therefore the condition of the colony at the time that it fell
into the possession of the English--the Hottentots serfs to the land,
and treated as the beasts of the field; the slave-trader supplying
slaves; and continual war carried on between the boors and the Caffres."

"I trust that our government soon put an end to such barbarous
iniquities."

"That was not so easy; the frontier boors rose in arms against the
English government, and the Hottentots, who had been so long patient,
now fled and joined the Caffres. These people made a combined attack
upon the frontier boors, burned their houses to the ground, carried off
the cattle, and possessed themselves of their arms and ammunition. The
boors rallied in great force; another combat took place, in which the
Hottentots and Caffres were victorious, killing the leader of the boors,
and pursuing them with great slaughter, till they were stopped by the
advance of the English troops. But I can not dwell long upon this period
of the Cape history; these wars continued until the natives, throwing
themselves upon the protection of the English, were induced to lay down
their arms, and the Hottentots to return to their former masters. The
colony was then given up to the Dutch, and remained with them until the
year 1806, when it was finally annexed to the British empire. The Dutch
had not learned wisdom from what had occurred; they treated the
Hottentots worse than before, maiming them and even murdering them in
their resentment, and appeared to defy the British government; but a
change was soon to take place."

"Not before it was necessary, at all events," said Alexander.

"It was by the missionaries chiefly that this change was brought about;
they had penetrated into the interior, and saw with their own eyes the
system of cruelty and rapine that was carried on; they wrote home
accounts, which were credited, and which produced a great alteration. To
the astonishment and indignation of the boors, law was introduced where
it had always been set at defiance; they were told that the life of a
Hottentot was as important in the eye of God, and in the eye of the law,
as that of a Dutch boor, and that the government would hold it as such.
Thus was the first blow struck; but another and a heavier was soon to
fall upon those who had so long sported wi