t 
THE KAFFIR QUESTION. 317 
£1,200,000 came to the share of the Cape, thus 
again reducing the average value to £48 each 
slave. Several of the owners having effected 
mortgages on their slaves, this second sudden 
reduction in the amount to be received, tended 
to ruin many families. Added to this, several 
of the boers being bad men of business, fell into 
the hands of persons representing themselves 
as alone acquainted with the requisite forms, 
&c, who bought up their certificates at vari- 
ous sums, varying from eighteen to thirty per 
cent, discount, thus reducing their compen- 
sation again another fifth, so that, by the time 
they received their several amounts, it was, 
of course, a renewed source of discontent, and 
in no way tended to obliterate the rancourous 
feelings which were festering in the breasts of 
many of these boers. 
The third and last matter mentioned as lead- 
ing to the Dutch emigration, was the " Kaffir 
question" This was the last and paramount 
cause. It was, of course, intimately connected 
with the various incidents which occurred in 
the different Kaffir wars of the period, all of 
which tended to render their property more inse- 
cure, and themselves, consequently, discontented 
with their farms, for which their affections had 
long been wavering. The continual vacillation 
of policy that marked the constant changes of 
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