lived; but that last moon the field-cornet drove himself and wife, and young children, from the fountain, saying, that Bushmen should have no fountains in this country, and that they should have no pools but the rain-water pools out of which to drink.'

"9th. That about ten moons ago Louw Styns, the son of Hans Styns, travelled with his cattle over the Great River; that I, Uithaalder, was watcher of his cattle, and one evening, when bringing the cattle home, some of the cattle were missing, when deponent was severely beaten with a stave by Louw Styns, who said, "You have not Mr. Smith to go to now.' The strayed cattle that evening came home of themselves; yet three different times was I beat by Louw Styns for the same reason, whereupon deponent left his service.

10th, That I, Uithaalder, without people, with my wife and four young children, was necessitated to live among the mountains, and to subsist upon roots and locusts; and that, on hearing from a Bushman, who knew where deponent and his family were gone to, that missionaries were at Toverberg, deponent came to their waggons on the road, and stated to them his case.

"Uithaalder humbly begs that such white men as are true Christians will take into consideration his distressing case, and the distressing situation of his countrymen, who have survived the murdering commandoes, and who, after being deprived of their fountains, their gardens, and their game, are obliged to see their children taken from them, and themselves driven among wild beasts.

"11th, That last moon, whilst I, Uithaalder, ven

tured out to the plains, seeking roots to eat, a boor came up to deponent, and inquired what I was doing there?-saying, that I meant to steal some of his sheep, and eat them; and he, the boor, beat your deponent with a sambok severely over the head.

66 12th, That Uithaalder knows that much has been said against the Bushmen. Whenever sheep, or goats, or cattle have either strayed, or been stolen, the boors say the Bushmen have stolen them, and they are flogged, and shot, on suspicion only, for the cattle and sheep which have been taken by others, or destroyed by the lions, wolves, and tigers.

"13th, That Uithaalder allows that Bushmen may, when starving, have taken a sheep from a farmer's flock, to keep himself and children alive, but deponent is certain that this seldom happens, and that the Bushmen are blamed and punished without having done anything wrong; and, as a proof of this assertion, he may state, that three sheep for which he was flogged, and driven from the field-cornet's place, were found next day."

"20th August, 1825."

"We, the undersigned, attest that all the facts detailed in this statement were related in our hearing by Captain Uithaalder, the chief of a Bushman tribe, which formerly possessed the neighbourhood of Toverberg, comprehending a district containing above seven hundred square miles; and that the deposition, after it was written, was read over, paragraph by

paragraph, to Captain Uithaalder, to each of which he was willing to make affidavit.

JOHN BARTLETT,

JAMES CLARK,

(Signed)

JACOBUS BOEZAK, his + mark.

ANDRIES STOFFEL, his + mark,

55

CHAPTER IV.

Mission to the Griquas.-Origin of this Tribe.-Their former savage State.-Effects of the Missionaries' Labours among them. -Their Settlement at Klaarwater, now Griqua Town.-Ordered by the Colonial Government to furnish Recruits for the Cape Corps.-Refuse to accede to this Conscription.-Injustice and Impolicy of the Measure.-Plan to seize the Griquas during the Beaufort Fair.

THE progress a people may have made in morals, in social compact, and in civilization, is not to be ascertained by a cursory view of any one stage of the process, but by a careful comparison of what they were at a former period with their present condition.

The present state of the Griquas furnishes us with the means of judging of the effects which the labours of the missionaries have among savages. The origin of this tribe will be found fully developed in the journals of the Rev. Mr. Campbell, and other travellers in South Africa. I need, therefore, only remark here that they are a race of mulattoes whose ancestors were the offspring of the colonists by Hottentot females. These Bastaards, as they were termed, finding themselves treated as an inferior race by their kinsmen of European blood, and prevented from acquiring the possession of land, or any fixed property within the colony, about fifty years ago sought a refuge, from contumely and oppression, among the native tribes beyond the Great Orange river; where their numbers were gradually augmented by refugees of the same caste from

the colony, and by intermarriages with females of the Bushman and Coranna tribes around them..

1

In the year 1800, when Mr. Anderson went among the Griquas, (as they are now denominated,) they were a herd of wandering and naked savages, subsisting by plunder and the chase. Their bodies were daubed with red paint, their heads loaded with grease and shining powder; with no covering but the filthy kaross over their shoulders, without knowledge, without morals, or any traces of civilization, they were wholly abandoned to witchcraft, drunkenness, licentiousness, and all the consequences which arise from the unchecked growth of such vices. With his fellow-labourer, Mr. Kramer, Mr. A. wandered about with them five years and a half, exposed to all the dangers and privations inseparable from such a state of society, before they could induce them to locate where they are now settled.

The country possessed by this people is not so favourable to agriculture as many districts in the colony, and in its present state it is not in a condi tion to support its increasing population by the cultivation of the earth alone; but the Griquas have now as good a title to be considered an agricultural people as any class in the colony at a remote distance from Cape Town. I did not see, in my late journey, a single fountain in the whole of this country unoccupied; and to show the eagerness of the people to avail themselves of every opportunity that can facilitate agricultural pursuits, they are now employed in attempting to lead out the Great Orange river over a large plain contiguous to English Drift. The difficulties of this undertaking are truly appalling, and would have deterred perhaps