ation," appearances may be urged against the effect of most of the Missionary Establishments, and that the common observer would be led to imagine, that no real good had been accomplished hitherto. On your fourth proposal, for a station also at the Great Zwarteberg, in the district of Graaff Reynet, I must equally require time to gain the full information that is necessary. I am much obliged by the account you sent me of the numerous establishment at the Klaar Water, beyond the limits of the colony; and coming from so respectable a source as yours, (though the means of information, from the shortness of your stay, must be confined,) I am willing to believe, that the mischiefs so universally imputed to that Association are not so great as are alleged; and that, under proper regulations, it may become something better than the refuge of many disorderly and wicked persons, who are obliged to fly from justice. I still see, however, that it has carried off many persons that belong to this colony; and considering our very scanty population, the loss of any of the inhabitants must be accounted a great evil, and resisted by government. To evince the good-will and co-operation of the government in all the pious works your respectable institution proposes, I am happy to promise my ample support to the society at Bavians Kloof, as foremost in those essentials of industry and usefulness, without which every association must, sooner or later, fall to the ground; and I will enlarge their grounds and means of subsistence; but, even with them, I conceive that employment may take a much more extended sphere, and that traffic and manufactures may be introduced, of which, at present, they seem to have no intention. To relieve Bethelsdorp, and give the best chance of improvement to a place never designed by nature for a creditable or useful institution, I have granted, as far as the circumstance is practicable, (the legal difficulties of which you are well aware of) the beautiful tract in Albany, to which we have given the name of Theopolis; and I will cherish the hope, that in this situation all the prospects of united Christianity and utility to the world, in which we now indulge, will be realized. Such is the fertility and abundance of the place in every necessary of life, together with wood, water, and every material for building at hand, that the very view of it will take away all excuse. I shall close this communication with exhorting you to instruct all your subordinate missionaries, to show the utmost respect to the several landdrosts, under whose authority they may be placed, and that they may be especially enjoined not to admit any person into their societies without the concurrence of the magistrate in writing, as laid down by former governments. Without the performance of this indispensible condition, there will be perpetual complaint and irritation. I have now, Reverend Sir, but to express the great satisfaction I have derived from your special mission and residence in this colony, and to declare my assurance, that the respectability of your character, and your unassuming, amiable, and conciliating disposition, rendered more effectual by the extent of your travels and researches, will not only further in the greatest degree, the object of your mission, but leave a lasting impression of general advantage. I have the honour to be, Sir, With great esteem, Your faithful and obedient Servant, The Rev. John Campbell, (Signed) Deputy from the London Missionary Society. No. V. Missionaries who accepted Appointments under the Colonial Government.-(Vide vol. i. p. 202.) The Rev. J. B. Kicherer and the Rev. 'John Evans left the service of the London Missionary Society, to enter into the Dutch Colonial Church, and their example was followed in 1818, by the Rev. Dr. Thom, and the Rev. John Taylor. The Rev. John Brownlee left the Society at the same time, and accepted of an appointment under government, but he has since returned to its service, and is now labouring as one of its missionaries in Cafferland. No. VI. Proposal to abolish the Institution of Pacaltsdorp. (Vide vol. i. p. 244.) Expressing my surprise to the missionary then at Pacaltsdorp, that such a scheme should have been proposed by the acting governor, who had till then shown himself friendly to the missions, I received from him the following account of the affair. At the commencement of the Missionary Institution at Pacaltsdorp, there was no scarcity of servants felt in the district; the change which had recently taken place in that respect, and the improvement which had been made upon the Hottentots, had produced a change in the feelings and opinions of the local authorities and of the colonists towards the institution. They allowed that Mr. Pacalt was a very good man, and that he had done much for the Hottentots; but urged that they had not been making the same progress they had done during his life; and they considered it a shame that they should be living on their gardens and fields, when the colonists could not get people to do their work. Mr. Van Kerval the landdrost, who had been such a friend to the institution, fell by degrees into the same way of thinking; and they now consulted among themselves by what mode they should proceed to effect their object. The acting governor must be gained, and some pretext must be employed to gain him over to their views. Sir Rufane Donkin was then in Albany among the English settlers; and as it was known how much his feelings were alive to every thing connected with their interest, it was agreed that he should be requested to locate a few English settlers near the town of George, for the benefit of the district, on the Missionary Institution of Pacaltsdorp. Not that there was any wish on the part of the old colonists, or of the local authorities, to have English settlers near them; I had often heard them express their dread on this subject, but their wish to have the cheap labour of the Hottentots overcame this feeling; and on the return of the acting governor to the drosdy of George, the insidious proposal was made to him, and the grounds on which it was urged gained his approbation at the time. The following circumstance will show how men's minds change with their circumstances, and how little their opinions are to be trusted when they fall under a selfish bias. Mr. T- —, a Scottish farmer, arrived in the colony, strongly recommended by the colonial department at home to the colonial authorities at the Cape of Good Hope, with twentyeight English servants. He purchased a farm in the neighbourhood of George, and, on his arrival, he was very sanguine in his expectations. I happened to be at George when he first arrived in the neighbourhood, and I met him several times at the landdrost's and in other places in the district. He visited Pacaltsdorp, and he was very friendly to the institution, and spoke of it every where in the most favourable terms. He ploughed and sowed to a considerable extent, but his crops perished by the rust. Under successive disappointments, his means failed him, he could not pay his servants their wages, and he was obliged to part with them. In his distress he applied to the Missionary Institution for assistance, and the people assisted him as much as was in their power; but he became so much reduced in his circumstances that he could no longer pay them their small pittance of wages. While things were in this state on his farm, it could not be supposed that the Hottentots would continue to labour for him. His applications to the institution for Hottentots were no longer attended to; the Missionary could not induce them to labour for Mr. T- for nothing. In this reduced state he called upon me one day in Cape Town. His views concerning Missionary Institutions were now completely altered from what they formerly were. Hottentot institutions were now a nuisance to the country; the people, he said, ought to be removed from them and dispersed among the farmers, (that is, given to them on their own terms;) and, he added, that it was a shame to the religious people of England to support such establishments, while the colonists could not get servants! Account of the Caffer Chief Makanna, and the Attack on Graham's Town in 1819.-(Vide vol. i. p. 259. and vol. ii. p. 163.) THE following account of the chief Makanna is extracted from the notes of my friend Mr. Pringle, who has combined in it the information he derived from several military officers, and other individuals engaged in the late Caffer wars, with the details furnished to him by some of the Missionaries, and by intelligent Hottentots and Caffers, during his residence on the eastern frontier of the colony : The counsels of the Caffer chiefs were at this time (1818), directed by an extraordinary individual, generally known in the colony by the name of Lynx, but whose native appellation was Makanna. He had been originally a Caffer of low rank, destitute of property, and without any pretension to nobility of lineage; but, by his talents and address, had gradually raised himself to distinction. Before the present war broke out, he was in the habit of frequently visiting the British head-quarters at Graham's Town; and had evinced an insatiable curiosity and an acute judgment on subjects both speculative and practical. With the military officers he talked of war, or of such of the mechanical arts as fell under his observation; but his great delight was to converse with Mr. Vanderlinger the chaplain, to elicit information in regard to the doctrines of Christianity, and to puzzle him in return with metaphysical subtleties or mystical ravings. "Whether Makanna had acquired any correct views of the Christian system seems very doubtful; but of his knowledge, such as it was, he made an extraordinary use. Combining what he had learned respecting the creation, the fall of man, the atonement, the resurrection, and other Christian doctrines, with some of the superstitious traditions of his countrymen *, and with his own wild fancies, he framed a sort of extravagant religious medley; and, like another Mahomet, boldly announced himself as a prophet and teacher directly inspired from Heaven. He endeavoured to throw around his obscure origin a cloud of mystery; and impiously called himself the brother of Christ.' In his usual demeanour he assumed "Many of the traditionary customs of the Caffers, besides the rite of circumcision, bear a striking resemblance to those of the Mosaic law, and seem strongly to corroborate Mr. Barrow's opinion, that they derived, however remotely, their lineage from an Arabian origin. Many terms in their language appear to point to a similar source. For example, the name of that beautiful animal, the Springbok (Antelope pygarya), is Tzebe in the Amakosa tongue; and it is a curious fact that the very same word is used in Hebrew to denote an antelope of the same description, if not the precise species, erroneously rendered 'roe' by our translators: (Tzebe), or a young hart, upon the mountains of Bether.”” VOL. II. 2 c Like a roe, a reserved, solemn, and abstracted air, and kept himself apart from observation; but in addressing the people, who flocked in multitudes to hear him, he appeared to pour forth his soul in a flow of affecting and impetuous eloquence. The missionary Read, who visited him in Cafferland in 1816, describes his appearance as exceedingly imposing, and his influence both over the chiefs and the common people as most extraordinary. He addressed the assembled multitudes repeatedly in Mr. Read's presence with great effect; inculcating a stricter morality, and boldly upbraiding the most powerful chiefs with their vices: at other times, instructing them in Scripture history, he adduced as a proof of the universal deluge, the existence of immense beds of sea-shells on the tops of the neighbouring mountains. To the Missionaries he was apparently friendly, and urged them to fix their residence in the country under his protection; yet they were puzzled by his mysterious demeanour, and shocked by his impious pretensions, and could only conclude that he was calculated to do much good or mischief, according as his influence might be ultimately employed *. 66 By degrees he gained a complete control over all the principal chiefs, with the exception of Gaika, who feared and avoided him, He was consulted on every matter of consequence, received numerous gifts, collected a large body of retainers, and was acknowledged as a warrior chief as well as a prophet. His ulterior objects were never fully developed; but it seems not improbable that he contemplated raising himself to the sovereignty as well as to the priesthood of his nation; and proposed to himself the patriotic task, (for, though a religious impostor, he certainly was not destitute of high and generous aspirations,) to elevate by degrees his barbarous countrymen, both politically and intellectually, nearer to a level with the Europeans. 66 But, whatever were Makanna's more peaceful projects, the unexpected invasion of the country by the English troops, in 1818, diverted his enterprise into a new and more disastrous channel. The confederate chiefs, in turning their arms against Gaika, though roused by their own immediate wrongs, had acted at the same time under their prophet's directions; for it was one of his objects to humble, if not to crush entirely, that tyrannical and treacherous chief, who was the great obstacle to his public and, perhaps, personal views of aggrandizement. With the English authorities he had assiduously cultivated terms of friendship; and had not apparently anticipated any hostile collision with them on this occasion, But, after Brereton's destructive inroad, by which Makanna's followers, in common with the other confederate clans, had suffered most cruelly, the whole soul of the warrior-prophet seems to have been bent upon revenging the aggressions of the Christians, and emancipating * See Missionary Transactions, vol. iv. |