34 LECTURE II. 



Two hundred years ago, a number of Dutch and 

 French people, the descendants of pious families, fled 

 from the persecutions in Holland and France, and settled 

 at and around the Cape. But their descendants fled from 

 the British dominion in Cape Colony, on account of the 

 emancipation by the government of their Hottentot 

 slaves. They said, they did not like a government that 

 made no difference between a black man and a white one : 

 they therefore made forays and slavery incursions, and 

 established themselves where they could pursue their 

 slave-holding propensities with impunity. No fugitive 

 slave-law being in operation, hundreds of Africans fled 

 from the Boers to Sechele, and the Dutch consequently 

 desired to get rid of that chief. They attacked the 

 Bakwains while I was staying among them ; and had 

 frequent battles with the people, killing many of them 

 in these unequal conflicts. As an illustration as to 

 how far exaggeration can be carried, on one occasion, I 

 lent the chief a cooking-pot, which the Boers afterwards 

 magnified into a cannon! and 5 guns into 500; writing 



and dealers, the more distant revelling in slothful idleness on the industry 

 of the natives. Themselves they call "Christians;" the natives, "black 

 property," or "creatures;" saying, that God has given them "the 

 heathen for an inheritance." 



This accursed system has made them fraudulent and mean-spirited ; 

 English missionaries, traders and travellers are their abomination, fear- 

 ing that they will enlighten the natives, and especially give them fire- 

 arms. Hear our traveller's decision about the matter, as far as he is 

 concerned : " The Boers resolved to shut up the interior, and I deter- 

 mined to open the country ; and we shall see who have been most suc- 

 cessful in resolution, they or I." — Travels, p. 39. 



