ce, they were sent as prisoners
to Robin Island, where malefactors are confined. They made their escape,
and returned to Caffreland. Three years afterward, Stuurman, anxious to
see his family, returned to the colony without permission. He was
discovered and apprehended, and sent as a convict to New South Wales;
for the government was at that time English.

"Such was the fate of the first Hottentot who stood up for the rights of
his countrymen, and such was the conduct of the English colonial
government; so you will observe, Mr. Wilmot, that although the strides
of cruelty and oppression are most rapid, the return to even-handed
justice is equally slow. Eventually the gross injustice to this man was
acknowledged, for an order from the home government was procured for his
liberation and return; but it was too late,--Stuurman had died a
convict.

"I have mentioned this circumstance, as it will prepare you for a
similar act of injustice to the Caffres. When the colony was in
possession of the Dutch there was a space of about thirty thousand
square miles between the colonial boundary (that is, the land formerly
possessed by the Hottentots) and the Great Fish River. This extent of
thirty thousand square miles belonged to the Caffres, and was the site
of continual skirmishing and marauding between the Dutch boors and the
Caffres.

"In 1811 it was resolved by the colonial government that the Caffres
should be driven from this territory, and confined to the other side of
the Great Fish River. This was an act of injustice and great hardship,
and was proceeded in with extreme cruelty, the Caffres being obliged to
leave all their crops, and turned out with great and unnecessary
slaughter.

"It may be proper, however, to state the causes which led to this Caffre
war with the English. At this time the colonial governor had entered
into negotiations with a Caffre chief of the name of Gaika. He was a
chief of a portion of the Caffres, but not the principal chief, and
although the English treated with him as such, the Caffres would not
acknowledge his authority. This is a very frequent error committed in
our intercourse with savage nations, who are as pertinacious of their
rights as the monarchs of Europe. The error on our part was soon
discovered, but the government was too proud to acknowledge it.

"It so happened that the other Caffre chiefs formed a powerful
confederacy against Gaika, who, trusting to the support of the Englis