346 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XXXIX. 



interference, veiled under the cloak of philanthropy, 

 is principally to be attributed the desolated condition 

 of the eastern frontier ; bounded, as it is, by a dense 

 and almost impenetrable jungle, to defend which 

 nine times the military force now employed would 

 barely be adequate ; and flanked by a population of 

 eighty thousand dire, irreclaimable savages, na- 

 turally inimical, warlike, and predatory, by whom 

 the hearths of the Cape border colonists have for 

 years past been deluged with the blood of their 

 nearest and dearest relatives. And whilst, during 

 the unprovoked inroads of these ruthless barbarians, 

 their wives and helpless offspring have been merci- 

 lessly butchered before their eyes; whilst their 

 corn-fields have been laid waste, their flocks swept 

 off, and their houses reduced to ruins, to add bitter- 

 ness to gall, they have been taunted as the authors' 

 of their own misfortunes, by those who, strangely 

 biassed by ex i^arte statements, have judged them 

 unheard, at the distance of several thousand miles 

 from the scene of pillage, bloodshed, and devas- 

 tation. 



It does indeed furnish matter of amazement to 

 every thinking person, how such a state of things 

 should so long have been suffered to exist ; how 

 those who have legislated for the affairs of the 

 Colony should not long ago have seen the impe- 

 rious necessity, dictated alike by reason, justice, 

 and humanity, of exterminating from off the face of 

 the earth, a race of monsters, who, being the unpro- 

 voked destroyers, and implacable foes of Her 



