134. CAUSE OF THE FREQUENT COLLISIONS 
Some of the public prints, in reporting these oceur- 
rences, have charged the settlers with exercising 
cruelty and injustice towards the native tribes, and 
have more than insinuated that the Caffers have been 
thereby goaded into retaliation, Now, my Lord, I 
wish most distinctly to state that I believe this to be 
an unfounded calumny. I profess myself, and am very 
well known to be a devoted friend of the native tribes ; 
but I will not be a party in the advocacy of their 
rights, on principles which involve an aggression on 
the character and claims of others. iat gustitia, ruat 
celum. I cannot perceive that true philanthropy 
requires me to blacken my white friends, for the 
purpose of making my black friends white. 
‘I admit it is possible that instances of flagrant 
injustice exercised by individual settlers towards 
Caffers may have taken place; nay, I believe some 
such cases have actually occurred: but it is mani- 
festly unjust to charge upon a whole community the 
faults of individuals. The ready co-operation of a 
very large and influential portion of the settlers 
in every religious and benevolent institution esta- 
blished by the Missionaries of various denomina- 
tions, with a view to the propagation of the Gospel, 
and the general improvement of the native tribes, 
ought in justice to be taken as full evidence of their 
friendly feeling towards the aborigines, and of their 
_being incapable of the cruel conduct which has been 
so thoughtlessly and unfairly imputed to them. 
