TREATMENT OF NATIVES BY BOERS. 21 



objection many of the Boers had, and still have, to English 

 law is that it makes no distinction between black men 

 and white. They felt aggrieved by their supposed losses 

 in the emancipation of their Hottentot slaves, and deter- 

 mined to erect themselves into a republic, in which they 

 might pursue without molestation the " proper treatment 

 of the blacks." It is almost needless to add that the 

 " proper treatment " has always contained in it the 

 essential element of slavery, namely, compulsory unpaid 

 labour. 



One section of this body, under the late Mr. Hendrick 

 Potgeiter, penetrated the interior as far as the Cashan 

 Mountains, whence a Zulu or Caffre chief, named Mosili- 

 kdtze, had been expelled by the well-known CafTre 

 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 their enemies, and made slaves 

 of their 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 their usual 

 custom, demanding twenty or thirty women to weed their 

 gardens, and have seen these women proceed to the scene 

 of unrequited toil, carrying their own food on their 

 heads, their children on their backs, and instruments of 

 labour on their 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 his 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 fore- 

 going is not a fair and impartial statement of the views 

 of himself 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 



