30 TREATMENT OF NATIVES BY BOEES. Chap. II. 



Zulu or Caffre chief, named Mosilikatze, had been expelled by 

 the well-known Caffre Dingaan ; and a glad welcome was given 

 them by the Bechuana tribes, who had just escaped the hard 

 sway of that cruel chieftain. They came with the prestige of 

 white men and deliverers ; but the Bechuanas soon found, as 

 they expressed it, " that Mosilikatze was cruel to his enemies, and 

 kind to those he conquered ; but that the Boers destroyed then 

 enemies, and made slaves of then friends." The tribes who still 

 retain the semblance of independence are forced to perform all 

 the labour of the fields, such as manuring the land, weeding, 

 reaping, building, 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 then usual custom, 

 demanding twenty or thirty women to weed their gardens, and 

 have seen these women proceed to the scene of unrequited toil, 

 carrying then own food on then heads, then children on then- 

 backs, and instruments of labour on then shoulders. Nor have 

 the Boers any wish to conceal the meanness of thus employing 

 unpaid labour ; on the contrary, every one of them, from Mr. 

 Potgeiter and Mr. Gert Krieger, the commandants, downwards, 

 lauded Ins own humanity and justice in making such an equitable 

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

 of allowing them to live in our country." 



I can appeal to the Commandant Krieger if the foregoing is 

 not a fan and impartial statement of the views of liimself and his 

 people. I am sensible of no mental bias towards or against these 

 Boers ; and during the several journeys I made to the poor 

 enslaved tribes, I never avoided the whites, but tried to cure and 

 did administer remedies to then sick, without money and without 

 price. It is due to them to state that I was invariably treated 

 with respect ; but it is most unfortunate that they should have 

 been left by then own Church for so many years to deteriorate 

 and become as degraded as the blacks, whom the stupid prejudice 

 against colour leads them to detest. 



Tins new species of slavery which they have adopted serves to 

 supply the lack of field-labour only. The demand for domestic 

 servants must be met by forays on tribes which have good 

 supplies of cattle. The Portuguese can quote instances in which 

 blacks become so degraded by the love of strong chink as 



