142 SOUTH AFRICA. 



which I will not bore the reader, were perpetrated 

 under the auspices of the Imperial Government, 

 which for once in a way made a very judicious 

 selection of its local representatives, in Griqualand 

 West, for the purpose in hand. As a matter of 

 fact, the appointees to office were, with few excep- 

 tions, men " under a cloud " more or less opaque. 

 One Richard Southey, who had been a protege 

 and hanger-on of Sir Harry Smith when that 

 gallant general was Governor of the Cape Colony, 

 was appointed Administrator of Griqualand West 

 This man belonged to a family of farmers in the 

 East Province, Cape Colony, noted for enterprise 

 and bravery in Kaffir warfare, and was himself 

 brimful of any amount of resolution and audacity. 

 Government could count on him implicitly to carry 

 out his instructions without any weak reference 

 to morality, and he was therefore no doubt the 

 right man in the right place during the Arnott 

 regime. Fastidious people might not exactly 

 admire his manners or his deficiency in education, 

 but at all events he was a good servant to a bad 

 Administration, and never, I believe, but once 

 incurred censure, and that was for a trifling charge 

 of 1,500 expended by him at an orgie " all among 



