30 THE BOERS MAKE WAR ON THE BAKWAIN8. 



making dams and canals, and at the same time to support 

 themselves. I have myself been an eye-witness of Boers 

 coming to a village, and, according to their usual custom, 

 demanding twenty or thirty women to weed their gardens, 

 and have seen these women proceed to the scene of unre- 

 quited toil, carrying their own food on their heads, their 

 children on their backs, and instruments of labor on their 

 shoulders. Nor have the Boers any wish to conceal the 

 meanness of thus employing unpaid labor : on the contrary, 

 every one of them, from Mr. Potgeiter and Mr. Gert 

 Krieger, the commandants, downward, lauded his own 

 humanity and justice in making such an equitable regula- 

 tion. " We make the people work for us, in consideration 

 of allowing them to live in our country." 



The Boers determined to put a stop to English traders 

 going past Kolobeng, by dispersing the tribe of Bakwains 

 and expelling all the missionaries. Sir George Cathcart 

 proclaimed the independence of the Boers, the best thing 

 that could have been done had they been between us and 

 the Caffres. A treaty was entered into with these Boers ; 

 an article for the free passage of Englishmen to the coun- 

 try beyond, and also another, that no slavery should be 

 allowed in the independent territory, were duly inserted, 

 as expressive of the views of her majesty's government at 

 home. "But what about the missionaries?" inquired the 

 Boers. " You may do as you please with them," is said to 

 have been the answer of the " Commissioner." This re- 

 mark, if uttered at all, was probably made in joke : design- 

 ing men, however, circulated it, and caused the general 

 belief in its accuracy which now prevails all over the coun- 

 try, and doubtless led to the destruction of three mission- 

 stations immediately after. The Boers, four hundred in 

 number, were sent by the late Mr. Pretorius to attack the 

 Bakwains in 1852. Boasting that the English had given 

 up all the blacks into their power, and had agreed to aid 

 them in their subjugation by preventing all supplies of 

 ammunition from coming into the Bechuara country, they 



