1831.] 
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 
ST 
got information of their designs, and marched with rapidity to 
Kat river. He reached the settlement before them, on New- 
Year's day. It .was Sunday, and he found the Hottentots quietly 
congregated, unarmed, in their different places of worship. In 
one place there was a congregation of about five hundred souls,' 
one hundred and nine of whom had just taken the sacrament. 
He informed the people of the rumours that had been spread 
against them ; assured them of his perfect conviction of their 
entire innocence ; and, taking with him three of their veld-cornets, 
Groepe, Valentyn, and Stoppels (religious and quiet men, all well 
known to the author), he rode to meet the troop of colonial militia, 
who had by this time approached within view of the settlement. 
By energetic remonstrances and threats, he prevailed on these 
violent and vindictive men to return quietly to their homes ; and 
on the 11th of January, 1832, a strong proclamation was issued by 
the governor, reprehending in the severest terms the mischievous 
and irrational conduct of the colonists and their local officers. 
Had Colonel Somerset acted with less promptitude and energy, 
this Hottentot settlement would, in all human probabiHty, have 
been deluged with innocent blood, and a bitter feud begun between 
the white and coloured classes, which might have lasted for gen- 
erations." 
Brighter prospects are evidently opening for this long oppressed 
and benighted region of the globe. " Long indeed has Africa been 
neglected, and suffered to remain the devoted victim of cruelty and 
oppression ; we cannot, therefore, but hail many recent and highly 
important events, which go far to prove that her 'day of visitation' 
has arrived. Now is stiixed up the philanthropist to plead her 
cause, and unwea.iedly to exert himself in behalf of her fettered 
millions ; the traveller and man of science to explore her unknown 
deserts ; the missionary to establish himself in the most pestilen- 
tial of her climes ; and the Christian colonist to fix his habitation 
in the very neighbourhood of her warlike tribes." 
" Let proud oppression's pallid sons go weep ! 
Let Afric. with her hundred thrones, rejoice V 
