1824.] Proceedings of Public Societies. 



addressed to a private frkud, who Lad 

 collected a small subscripliou for him in 

 Cape Town : — 



Feb. 17, 1823. 



To mj' friends, and the tVieiids of Lnina- 

 nity, I am indebted, I may say, for tlie 

 existence of myself and family ; for really, 

 but for their kind interfeienee, we must 

 have perished. 



If I could only see any kind of bread of 

 my own jirovinig, I should be happy. 

 'Tis now nearly three months since|\ve had 

 any bread to eat, and indeed very liitie 

 rice. If I could any way get a bag of 

 meal, it wonld be a great relief. 



I am very sorry to be so troublesome ; 

 however, necessity compels me to do what 

 my nature eomewiiat recoils at. We are 

 very badly off for breakfast, which now 

 usually consists of a bit of fried cabbage, 

 or piimpkin stewed. If we once again get 

 bread, we will enjoy it sweetly. 



Iduy 23, 1823. 



Every necessary is so extravagant in 

 Graham's Town, that it is impossible to 

 come at clothing. ]\Iy sons and myself 

 are very naked, and the weather is now 

 excessively cold. If I could but get the 

 price of a pair of new wheels for my wag- 

 gon, I would put my son J on the 



load, and he would earn a little by draw- 

 ing loads for the shopkeepers in Graham's 

 Town. Tlie calico will be a great relief 

 when it ariives. A whole shirt will now 

 be a great luxury. 



We are at present as badly off as ever. 

 The four cows that gave us milk, which 

 was a great part of our support, are dry, 

 owing to a disease now prevailing among 

 the cattle thioughont the country. 



The following inlercsting passages 

 are extracted from the nianiiscript jour- 

 nal of a geiilleiTiaii well known to seve- 

 ral members of the Committee, who 

 travelled Ihroiigli tiic English locations 

 in Mareli and April lasl, and jjersonally 

 witnessed many of tiie facts which he 

 iclales : — 



March 31. 



Visited Scanlan's party. — There are 

 only three families remaining here ont of 

 seven, of which it originally consisted. 

 They wcie all, but one, shoemakers, and 

 might liHve obtained plenty of eraploy- 

 menf among the sfttlers, were it not that 

 there is not one in twenty who has now 

 money sufficient to purchase a pair of 

 shoes ; and, in fact, the settlers are gene- 

 rally found without them. These people 

 have still a few cattle, but have lost many 

 by the Calfies. Indian corn and pimip- 

 kius are their only produce. 



April 1. 



Mr. Mandy informed me, that many in 

 ills neigh bonrhood were in the greatest 

 «li»fress, and tiiat some had killed their 

 i48t Gow lor food. 



435 



Baillie's party.— Mr. Adams, who is 

 head of one division of this party, in- 

 formed me, that there were only thirteea 

 or fourteen families now remaining on the 

 location, out of the whole of this large set- 

 tlement. He added, that there was mucli 

 distress among those who remained ; and 

 instanced one person, of the name of H — , 

 who had formerly been in good circum- 

 stances, but who, from the failure of every 

 other resource, had that day been forced 

 to go to Graham's Town, to sell some of 

 the small remaining part of his clothes, to 

 keep himself and his family from starving 

 for absolute want. 



April 3. 



Visited Smith and Cock's parties.— 

 Three persons belonging to these two par- 

 ties had some wheat grown this year; and 

 at one of their houses I ate the first and 

 last bread that I niet with in Albany, 

 made from wheal grown by any settler. 

 A few of the other settlers have bought 

 some of this wheat for seed, at two shil- 

 lings per pound. 



It is most disiressing to see the husband 

 and wife, with scarcely any thing to cover 

 them, and their children in the same con- 

 dition, lying on the ground, on the outside 

 of their miserable huts, roasting a few 

 heads of Indian corn, probably the only 

 food they have. IMany have nothing but 

 pumpkins. One family, of the name of 



H , had not tasted butcher's meat, 



nor, I believe, bread, for about three 

 months ; and their children were running 

 about without clothes. As for shoes and 

 stockings, they are seldom to be seen on 

 cither old or young. 



I am sorry to be obliged to remark, that 

 all that honest boldness of character, so 

 conspicuous in the yeomen and labourers 

 of England, seems to have left these 

 wretched emigrants ; and they now ap- 

 pear to meet their disappointments and 

 misfortunes with an indifference bordering 

 on de.spair. 



Hyman and Ford's party are in a truly 

 miserable pliglit, witli scarcely any thing 

 to eat but a few vegetables. I here saw 

 an aged couple in almost a starving condi- 

 tion. On going into their hut, I found 

 the poor woman boiling a little pumpkin- 

 soup, which was mixed with some milk. 

 She said this was the only food they had ; 

 and their wretched dwelling was neither 

 wind nor water fight. 



At a little distance I met what had 

 once been, as I was told, a fine hearty- 

 looking young woman, but now miserably 

 emaciated, — apparently about twenty- 

 four or twenty-five years of age. She wss 

 leading one child, another was following, 

 and a third was on her arm. They were 

 all without shoes or stockings. The wo- 

 man's dress (if such it could be called,) 

 consisted of the remains of an old tent tied 

 about her; the children were clad in the 



same 



