32 BOERS AFRAID OF THE CAFFRES. Chap. II. 



The first question put by them to strangers is respecting peace ; 

 and when they receive reports from disaffected or envious natives 

 against any tribe, the case assumes all the appearance and pro- 

 portions of a regular insurrection. Severe measures then appear 

 to the most mildly disposed among them as imperatively called 

 for, and, however bloody the massacre that follows, no qualms 

 of conscience ensue : it is a due necessity for the sake of peace. 

 Indeed the late Mr. Hendrick Potgeiter most devoutly believed 

 himself to be the great peacemaker of the country. 



But how is it that the natives, being so vastly superior in 

 numbers to the Boers, do not rise and annihilate them ? The 

 people among whom they live are Bechuanas, not Caffres, though 

 no one would ever learn that distinction from a Boer ; and 

 history does not contain one single instance in which the Bechu- 

 anas, even those of them who possess fire-arms, have attacked 

 either the Boers or the English. If there is such an instance, 

 I am certain it is not generally known, either beyond or in the 

 Cape Colony. They have defended themselves when attacked, 

 as in the case of Sechele, but have never engaged in offensive 

 war with Europeans. We have a very different tale to tell of 

 the Caffres, and the difference has always been so evident to 

 these border Boers, that, ever since " those magnificent savages "* 

 obtained possession of fire-arms, not one Boer has ever attempted 

 to settle in Caffreland, or even face them as an enemy in the 

 field. The Boers have generally manifested a marked antipathy 

 to anything but " long-shot " warfare, and, sidling away in their 

 emigrations towards the more effeminate Bechuanas, have left 

 their quarrels with the Caffres to be settled by the English, and 

 their wars to be paid for by English gold. 



The Bakwains at Kolobeng had the spectacle of various tribes 

 enslaved before their eyes — the Bakatla, the Batlokua, the Baku- 

 keng, the Bamosetla, and two other tribes of Bakwains were all 

 groaning under the oppression of unrequited labour. This would 

 not have been felt as so great an evil, but that the young men 

 of those tribes, anxious to obtain cattle, the only means of rising 

 to respectability and importance among their own people, were 

 in the habit of sallying forth, like our Irish and Highland 

 reapers, to procure work in the Cape Colony. After labouring 

 * The ' United Service Journal ' so styles them. 



