142 CAUSE OF THE RECENT DISTURBANCE. 
conducting them has ever yet been introduced, they 
have, of course, gradually become so entangled; that 
no Governor of the Colony, resident in Cape Town, 
and constantly receiving from the frontier the most 
conflicting statements, how great soever his talent 
and tact for business, can possibly obtain a thorough 
acquaintance with them. If, therefore, serious 
errors have been committed, instead of imputing 
them to highly distinguished persons who have 
held -the reins of Government at the Cape, I would 
account for them by referring to the impracticable 
nature of their duties, so far as concerns our border 
policy; occasioned principally by the great distance 
of the seat of Government (six or seven hundred 
miles) from the boundaries of the Colony. 
“ Thus you will perceive that I attribute the 
present disturbed state of the Caffer border, not 
to any cruelties perpetrated by the British settlers 
upon the Caffers; not to any want of huma- 
nity in the British officers in their treatment of 
the native tribes, or of zeal and activity in the pro- 
tection of British lives and property; but to the 
moral state and predatory habits of the Caffers, the 
evil tendencies of which have been aggravated by the 
exceedingly mischievous character of our border 
policy.” 
