History of South Africa from 1795 to 1872/Chapter 2

by George McCall Theal

Chapter II.

George, Earl Macartney, Governor, installed 5th May 1797; retired 20th November 1798.

Several months elapsed after intelligence of the successful operations of the British expedition reached England before the king's government decided upon the form of administration of the colony. In December 1796 the arrangements were completed. A civilian of eminence was to be placed at the head of the government, and a military officer of high rank, who was to have command of the garrison, was to hold a commission as lieutenant-governor, empowering him to assume the higher duty in the event of the death or absence of the governor.

To fill the first place the earl of Macartney, a very able man, was selected, and as lieutenant-governor and commander of the forces Major-General Francis Dundas, who was already in the colony, having reached Capetown on the 18th of November 1796.

In the instructions to the governor all civil and military power in the settlement was placed in his hands alone, he was entrusted with the duties of vice admiral and ordinary, and he had authority given to him summarily to banish any person whose presence he might regard as dangerous to peace and good order. But the whole tone of the instructions was favourable to the colonists, and indicated a liberal and benevolent disposition towards them. Oppressive monopolies were not to be permitted, all land rents in arrear at the date of the conquest were remitted, liberty of conscience and the free exercise of public worship by all persons of whatever creed were allowed, torture on trial and barbarous modes of execution were abolished, and the strictest justice in every case was to be enforced.

Lord Macartney, who was an Irish gentleman recently raised to the peerage, had previously filled many positions of importance. In 1764 he was sent as envoy extraordinary to the empress of Russia, in 1769 he was appointed chief secretary of Ireland, in 1775 he became governor of Grenada, and in 1780 governor of Madras. In October 1785, when returning to Europe after holding the appointment last named, he visited Capetown and resided here for a fortnight. In 1792 he was sent as ambassador extraordinary to the emperor of China. He arrived at the Cape in the ship of war Trusty on the 4th of May 1797, and at ten o'clock on the following morning, in presence of the members of the high court of justice, the burgher senate, the clergymen, and the principal residents in Capetown, at the government house in the garden his commission was read, and he took the oaths of office. General Dundas did not assume duty until the 23rd of May, when General Craig proceeded to Bengal.

The administration of Lord Macartney in South Africa has been described by one of the ablest writers of the day, and that description has been received generally by Englishmen as correct. But the official records of his government, as well as the accounts given by colonists and by foreign visitors and travellers, do not accord with all that Mr.—afterwards Sir John—Barrow wrote. There are reasons for this, without implying that Barrow was intentionally guilty of misrepresentation. He was bound to Lord Macartney by the strong tie of gratitude. He had accompanied the embassy to China, during which he met with many favours. Then he was selected by Lord Macartney as one of his private secretaries, with a promise that he should be well provided for in South Africa, a promise that was faithfully kept. The one was a munificent patron, the other a grateful receiver of favours. This position must insensibly have coloured Barrow's pages. Then there was at least one strong sentiment in common to them both: a detestation of jacobin principles, so deep-rooted as to prevent them seeing any merit whatever in those who held republican views.

What to Barrow seemed liberal government appeared to others of his time oppressive and narrow; and there certainly never was a period in the history of the Cape Colony when there was less freedom of speech on political questions than during the administration of the earl of Macartney.

All the high offices were filled by Englishmen in receipt of large salaries. From the date of his appointment the governor drew from the colonial revenue £10,000 a year, besides a table allowance of £2,000 ; and he had the promise of a pension upon his retirement of £2,000 a year for life. The lieutenant-governor drew a salary of £3,000 a year. Mr. Andrew Barnard, colonial secretary, drew a salary of £3,500 a year. Mr. Hercules Ross, who had acted as secretary under General Craig, was now appointed deputy secretary, with a salary of £1,500 a year. Mr. John Hooke Greene filled the office of collector of customs, with a salary of £1,000 a year. Mr. Anguish, a young gentleman who came out with Lord Macartney purposely to be provided for, received the situation of controller of customs, with a salary of £1,000 a year; and upon his death a couple of days later, the office was transferred to Mr. Acheson Maxwell, previously one of the governor's private secretaries. Mr. Barrow was employed for a time in commissions to different parts of the country, and was then made auditor-general, with a salary of £1,000 a year. Mr. Edward Buckley was appointed civil paymaster, with a salary of £1,000 a year, and Mr. Henry James Jessup chief searcher of customs, with a salary of £700 a year. Without going further, here was a sum of £24,700 a year, which was the first charge upon the colonial revenue. It was payable in sterling money, so that the rate of exchange was not to affect these officials. And the whole revenue of 1796, the year before Lord Macartney and the new staff took office, was £28,903 19s. in paper, equivalent at the usual rate of exchange at the time to £23,123 3s. 2+²⁄₅d. sterling. All other expenditure was necessarily reduced to the lowest possible amount, in order that the imperial treasury should not have to make good any deficiency.

The government was free of the slightest taint of corruption, but was conducted on the strictest party lines. Those colonists who professed to be attached to Great Britain were treated with great favour. Lady Macartney had not accompanied her husband to South Africa, consequently there were no entertainments except dinners at government house; but Lady Anne Barnard, wife of the colonial secretary and one of the most fascinating women of her time, did all that was possible to captivate the wives and daughters of the leading townspeople, in order through them to secure the goodwill of their husbands and fathers. Her receptions and frequent evening parties were designed for that purpose; but the circle to which she was able to extend her influence was small. To those within it, as well as to the English military and naval officers and the high-placed officials, the government seemed a model of perfection.

Among those who expressed the greatest satisfaction at having been relieved from the fear of French domination were Lieutenant-Colonel De Lille and Mr. Honoratus Maynier. The latter had come to reside at Groenekloof, and will presently be found in office again. De Lille was now barrack-master in Capetown. The situation was not one usually held by a man of higher rank than a captain, but he seemed perfectly satisfied with his position.

Lord Macartney required the burghers to take a new oath of allegiance to the king, on the ground of a change in the administration having taken place. To many of them this was very objectionable, and a few held back when summoned to appear before the officers appointed to administer it. The governor was firm. Dragoons were quartered upon several of the reluctant ones, and others were banished from the country. The late national commandant of Swellendam, Petrus Jacobus Delport, was among those who tried to evade taking the oath. He kept out of the way for a while, but a year later he was arrested, and was then placed on board a ship and sent into exile. This act of power greatly increased the disaffection towards the British authorities in the south-eastern districts, and was one of the causes that a little later led to an insurrection.

Quartering dragoons upon offenders holding jacobin principles was the ordinary method with Lord Macartney of "bringing them to reason." There was a scale of diet, according to which the dragoons could insist upon being provided, if they were not supplied with food to their liking. In some instances payment was made, but in others food and lodging were demanded free. Burghers who were suspected of being republicans, but whose language and conduct gave no opportunity of bringing them to account, were appointed to some petty unpaid office, and if they declined to perform the duty and take the stringent oath required, a sergeant and ten dragoons speedily appeared with a demand for free quarters.

Allowance, however, must be made for the circumstances of the time, England and France being then engaged in a desperate struggle, and men of the tory party, such as Lord Macartney, regarding republican principles with some- thing like horror.

The slightest indication of French proclivities roused the ire of the governor, as the following incident will show. In August 1798 Mr. Hendrik Oostwald Eksteen, of Bergvliet, between Wynberg and Muizenburg, invited a number of his friends to be present at his daughter's marriage, and was so imprudent as to issue the invitations on cards in the French style, substituting for Mr. the word Citizen. On the day of the ceremony the governor ordered a party of dragoons to "proceed to the festive assembly of Citizens," and to remain there "to prevent any irregularity that might be apprehended from disaffected or suspected persons." Mr. Eksteen was required "without delay to retract and redress in the most public manner this wanton and petulant conduct, and to provide sufficient security for his good behaviour and dutiful deportment towards government in future, or to repair to that country where in the midst of confusion and medley his invitations would be better relished." This order, conveyed in writing, brought the offender to government house, protesting that he had not meant to cause the slightest annoyance; but his apology was not accepted until he produced a bond for a thousand pounds, signed by two substantial persons, as "security that he would not in future be guilty of similar or any other offences against the government." The dragoons were then recalled.

General Craig had promised the colonists free trade, and he kept his word as well as he could. By free trade must of course be understood what the words implied in those days, not what they imply now. Any produce required by the government could be demanded from the farmers at stated prices. A duty of five per cent. of the value was charged upon both imports and exports, as under the Dutch East India Company. No merchandise whatever was allowed to be landed from a vessel under a foreign flag, unless by special permission under urgent circumstances, and then double import duties were charged. The only exception to this rule was the case of a Portuguese vessel from Mozambique, which put into Table Bay with three hundred and fifty slaves on board. General Craig was of opinion that slaves were so greatly required for the extension of agriculture in the colony that he allowed this cargo to be landed and sold by auction on payment of the ordinary duty of £2 a head. A little later it was ascertained that there was a scheme on foot to supply the French island of Mauritius with provisions from the Cape, by means of slaves as a decoy. Vessels were to be fitted out at Mozambique under Portuguese or Danish colours, and were to put into Table Bay pretending to be bound to Brazil and to be in distress; under this plea the slaves on board were to be sold, as much grain as possible was to be purchased, and they were then to proceed to Mauritius. The discovery of documents on board a prize, however, frustrated the plan, and traffic between the Cape and the eastern coast was afterwards prohibited.

Before the arrival of Lord Macartney direct commerce with England was not established, but goods were obtained from ships that called for supplies. Lord Macartney brought out with him and put in force an order in council, dated 28th of December 1796, concerning trade at the Cape of Good Hope. Goods imported from any part of his Majesty's dominions—of course in British bottoms—were to be admitted free of duty.^[1] The subjects of all countries in amity with Great Britain were to be permitted to carry on trade in the colony, subject to such duties as the governor might establish. These duties were thereafter fixed at ten per cent. of the value on foreign goods brought in foreign bottoms, and five per cent. of the value on foreign goods brought in British bottoms or British goods brought in foreign bottoms. An exception, however, was made with regard to commerce with places east of the Cape of Good Hope, which could only be carried on by the English East India Company, or with its license.

No changes were made in any of the public institutions except the courts of justice. The old high court, the burgher members of which were unpaid during the administration of the Dutch East India Company, as were also the former official members after the British occupation, in October 1795, on being called upon to continue its duties, petitioned General Craig to attach salaries to the offices of the judges. The request was regarded as reasonable by the English ministry, but it was considered that the number of members could be considerably reduced without detriment to the efficiency of the court. Persons holding other situations in the civil service were to be eligible as judges, at the discretion of the governor. The high court was now reduced to a president and seven members, five of whom were to form a quorum. The president—who was the senior member—received a salary of £400 a year, the three members next in order of seniority received each £200 a year, and the four junior members each £100 a year, payable in paper money at the rate of five rixdollars to the pound sterling. In civil cases, when the amount in dispute was over £200, there was an appeal to a court consisting of the governor and lieutenant-governor; and, when the amount in dispute was over £500, there was a final appeal to the king in council.

The powers of the minor courts to adjudicate in civil cases were enlarged: the court of commissioners for petty cases in Capetown to sums not exceeding £40, the courts of landdrost and heemraden of Stellenbosch and Swellendam to sums not exceeding £30, and the court of landdrost and heemraden of Graaff-Reinet, on account of the great distance from the seat of government, to sums not exceeding £66 13s. 4d.

In January 1797 a commission was issued creating a court of vice admiralty, with a single judge, and Mr. John Holland was sent from England to fill the office. The area of jurisdiction of this court was defined in the commission as extending from Cape Negro on the western coast to Cape Correntes on the eastern.

An improvement of inestimable importance to the efficiency of the civil service was made at this time by a change in the mode of payment of officials of lower grade than those already referred to. It was a change admitted to be necessary by the latest administrators of the Dutch East India Company, and was even resolved upon by them, but they could never carry it into practice, owing to their want of funds. If the colonial revenue should prove insufficient for the purpose, Lord Macartney was directed to draw upon the imperial treasury through the English East India Company to make good the deficiency. Fixed salaries were now assigned to the officials, which they were to receive at regular intervals, and though the salaries were so small that there was no inducement for the best men to enter the service, a fairly efficient staff was secured. All fees and perquisites, upon which they had previously mainly depended, were thereafter paid into the public treasury. An exception, however, was made in the office of fiscal, the holder of which continued to receive the chief part of his income in the form of a third share of confiscations and fines imposed by the high court of justice.

Mr. Bresler was instructed by Lord Macartney to return to Graaff-Reinet and assume duty as landdrost. With him was sent a guard of twelve dragoons, who were to remain at the drostdy as a garrison and to carry despatches. All arrears of land rents to the 16th of September 1795 were remitted. The former inhabitants of the fieldcornetcies of Zuurveld, Tarka, Zwagershoek, Sneeuwberg, and Nieuwveld, who had been driven from their homes by Bushmen or Kaffirs, were to hold their farms free of rent for the next six years, provided they would return and resume occupation within four months. If the landdrost should consider it necessary to call out a commando against Bushmen, the farmers were ordered by proclamation to obey. The marauders were then to be driven into the great interior plain, where they were to be left unmolested, and, if possible, a boundary was to be fixed between them and the colonists, over which neither party was thereafter to be allowed to trespass. Such a scheme was really impracticable, but the governor, being without experience in dealing with a race of savages, could not know that.^[2]

The Xosas in the colony were to be treated differently. The landdrost was instructed to try to induce them to return to their own country, and he was to be careful that no encroachment was made by Europeans on territory beyond the Fish river, that the white men then living beyond that river should be required to come back to the colonial side, that all Kaffirs in service with colonists should be discharged, and that no one should cross from either side of the Fish river to the other without special permission. He was to report upon the advisability of removing the drostdy from the village of Graaff-Reinet to the neighbourhood of Zwartkops River.

On the 30th of July Mr. Bresler, accompanied by Mr. Barrow, Lord Macartney's private secretary, arrived at the drostdy of Graaff-Reinet, and met with a friendly reception from a body of farmers who had assembled purposely to welcome him. On the following morning Mr. Gerotz transferred the office and the records, and he assumed the duties of landdrost.

After arranging matters at the drostdy, Messrs. Bresler and Barrow proceeded on a tour of inspection of the district. They first visited the country around Algoa Bay, and then travelled eastward through the Zuurveld, taking as guides the farmers Jan du Plessis and Hendrik van Rensburg, and as interpreter the Hottentot Willem Hasebek. At the Kariega river parties of the Amambala clan, under the sons of Langa, were met, and near to them the clans of the Amantinde, Imidange, and Amagwali, under Tshatshu and other captains. Farther eastward was a clan that had recently come to reside there, under a young chief named Jalusa, who was a near relative of Ndlambe. All of these, on being requested to return to their own country, replied that they were willing to do so, but were afraid of Gaika. The chief of whom they thus spoke was the son of Umlawu and grandson of Rarabe in the great line. He had recently come of age, according to Bantu ideas, and had then claimed the position of chief of that section of the tribe over which his grandfather had directly ruled; but he had not succeeded in establishing himself in it without opposition, A large party was desirous that the regent Ndlambe should remain in power, and had aided him to resist Gaika in arms, but had been beaten. The clans in the Zuurveld preferred to acknowledge the superiority only of Kawuta, head of the Galeka branch of the tribe and representative of Tshawe in the great line, because in that case they would be much less subject to control.

Messrs. Bresler and Barrow visited Gaika at his kraal on the bank of a little stream flowing into the Keiskama. Between the Fish and Keiskama rivers they found no inhabitants, as the former residents had recently crossed over to the Zuurveld. Gaika stated that the clans in the Zuurveld were not his subjects, and that he had no control over them, but he would be glad to receive them as friends if they chose to return to their former homes. He stated also that he had been at war with his uncle Ndlambe, who had been assisted by Kawuta, but that he had been victorious and had taken Ndlambe prisoner. The captive chief was then residing at Gaika's kraal with his wives and personal attendants, and was well treated, though he was not permitted to move about.

An agreement was made with Gaika that he should send a messenger with an offer of peace and friendship to the chiefs in the colony; that none of his subjects, on any pretence whatever, should have intercourse with the colonists, or cross the established boundary unless expressly directed to do so by him; and that he should keep up a friendly communication with the landdrost by sending to Graaff-Reinet, yearly or oftener, one of his people, who should carry as a mark of office a brass-headed staff with the arms of the king of England engraved on it.

Mr. Bresler next sent Du Plessis and Van Rensburg to Cungwa, who was living on the Bushman's river, to try to persuade him to move beyond the boundary. But the Kaffirs in the Zuurveld had no intention of leaving it, and all the conferences and messages were useless. In February 1798 the landdrosts of Swellendam and Graaff-Reinet were instructed to renew the attempts to induce them to retire, and to warn them that if they did not leave of their own accord they would be expelled by force; but the warning was as unheeded as the requests.

In March 1798 the first post-office in the colony was established. Previously, letters for private individuals were sent as a favour with government dispatches, or were given in charge of people on board ships. The office was at first intended only for an ocean mail, as there was no thought yet of a post within the colony. The charge on letters was at the rate of a shilling a sheet, and on books or newspaper packets four shillings a pound (453.59 grammes). Mr. John Holland was appointed postmaster-general, with an office in the castle. The revenue derived from this source was for some time about £200 a year.

The northern boundary of the colony had never been defined by the East India Company. On the 14th of July 1798 Lord Macartney issued a proclamation, which added to the district of Graaff-Reinet a small piece of territory beyond the Tarka river, and declared the following to be the boundaries: the Fish river from its mouth up to Esterhuis's Poort at the end of the Kaga mountain, the Kaga mountain to the Tarka mountain, the Tarka mountain to the Bamboes mountain, the Bamboes mountain to the Zuur mountain, the Zuur mountain to Plettenberg's beacon on the Zeekoe river, Plettenberg's beacon to Great Table Mountain, thence to the Nieuwveld mountains, along the Nieuwveld mountains to the source of the Riet river, the Riet and Fish rivers behind the Roggeveld mountain, the Spioen mountain, the Kabiskow peak, the Long mountain, the northern point of the Kamies mountain, and the river Koussie or Buffalo to the Atlantic. In the proclamation, all persons were forbidden to settle or graze their stock beyond these limits, under penalty of banishment and confiscation of their cattle, or to hunt game or travel there without a pass from the governor, under penalty of corporal punishment.

But, in point of fact, colonists were then living and paying rent for farms north of the Nieuwveld mountains, and they were not disturbed by the government. On that distant frontier, seldom or never visited by any official of higher rank than a fieldcornet, it was impossible to have everything in regular order. The wording of the proclamation shows how vague was the knowledge at the seat of government of the geographical features of the country. Thus both the Riet and Fish rivers behind the Roggeveld mountains are named as forming the boundary, which is an impossibility.

The harvest of 1797–8 was a tolerably good one, and food was again at a reasonable price. A contract for the supply of bread to the troops was taken at a penny a pound, and of meat at two pence and two twenty-thirds of a penny a pound, payable in paper currency at the rate of four shillings for a rixdollar. The government permitted no provisions of any kind to be exported without special leave from the secretary's office; and the prices of cattle and corn, meat and bread, were fixed just as in the olden times. There was an excellent market provided by the shipping and the garrison, and payment for supplies was promptly made by the government; but the farmers had no more liberty of buying and selling than they had under the East India Company. It was a common occurrence for those near the Cape to be required to furnish quantities of grain for the troops, when notice was served upon them that if they did not deliver their respective quotas before a certain date soldiers would be quartered upon them to live free of charge.

At this time; and until the close of 1802, the average imports of goods of all kinds were in value £253,927, and of slaves £44,950 a year. The average exports of South African products amounted only in value to £15,047. There was thus a balance of trade against the colony of £283,830 a year, which was met in coin that came into the country through the troops and shipping.

The revenue rose rapidly after 1796. During the period 1797 to 1802 it was on an average £73,518 a year. The accounts were kept in rixdollars, and the figures here given are obtained by computing the rixdollar at its nominal value of four English shillings. Its real value, as determined by the rate of exchange, fluctuated so much that it is impossible to give statistics with absolute accuracy in English money.

Between the date of the surrender of the colony to the British forces and the close of the eighteenth century seven hundred and forty-two vessels, exclusive of coasters, touched either at Table Bay or Simon's Bay. Of these, four hundred and fifty-eight were English, one hundred and twenty-four were American, ninety-one were Danish, thirty-four were prizes to English men-of-war, and the remaining thirty-five belonged to various nations. The average number that touched yearly was one hundred and seventy-one.

In 1798 the district of Swellendam was first provided with a clergyman. The reverend Mr. Von Manger, who had retired from Graaff-Reinet, objected to return to duty there, and in consequence his salary was stopped at the end of June 1797. But in the following year he was again taken into service, and was sent to Swellendam. On the 31st of May the governor approved of elders and deacons, and on the 18th of June the clergyman commenced duty. The erection of a church in the village was taken in hand immediately afterwards.

Graaff-Reinet was not left long without a clergyman. In August 1797 the reverend Hendrik Willem Ballot, recently minister at Malacca, arrived in South Africa in a Danish ship from the East Indies, and as he expressed a wish to be employed here, he was shortly afterwards sent to Roodezand to perform the duties temporarily while the reverend Mr. Vos went on a pastoral tour to the eastern frontier. In February 1798 he was appointed permanent minister of Graaff-Beinet.

In October 1797 a mutiny broke out in a portion of the British fleet on the South African station. Tidings of the mutiny at Spithead—15th April to 15th May of the same year—had reached Capetown on the 31st of August, but unfortunately no information of the more important outbreak at the Nore—20th May to 15th June,—and of the terribly severe punishment of those who took part in it, had yet been received.

A few changes had recently taken place in the ships on the station, the Ruby, Dordrecht, Tromp, and Princess having gone to England in charge of convoys, and the Echo having been condemned as unseaworthy and put out. of commission. On the other hand, the Raisonable, of sixty-four guns, the Star, of eighteen guns, the Chichester storeship, and the Suffolk tender had arrived to strengthen the fleet. At this time the Stately, Sceptre, Raisonable, Jupiter, Saldanha, Crescent, Sphinx, and Hope were at sea on service, the remainder of the fleet was in port.

On the 2nd of October the crew of the Vindictive in Table Bay showed symptoms of discontent, and on the 7th the crews of the Tremendous, Trusty, Imperieuse, Braave, Rattlesnake, Star, Euphrosyne, Chichester, and Suffolk, all lying in Simon's Bay, rose in general mutiny. On a preconcerted signal a jacket was hung at the end of each ship's jibboom and a round of cheers was given. Some officers, both commissioned and warrant, who were obnoxious to the seamen were put ashore, but Admiral Pringle was detained on board the Tremendous, and was not permitted to send any other than open letters to land.

The mutineers elected delegates to represent their grievances, and issued a manifesto, in which they declared their loyalty to their country and asserted their intention of returning to duty immediately in case an enemy should appear. They would permit neither pillaging, pilfering, riot, nor ill usage of any one. Their only motive, they said, was to obtain redress of their grievances and to secure better treatment from their officers. They complained generally of tyrannical conduct on the part of those they had sent on shore, of petty acts of oppression and extortion by individual officers, and of food bad in quality and defective in quantity.

As soon as intelligence of these occurrences reached Lord Macartney he prepared to occupy the heights above Simonstown with a strong body of troops, in order to compel the mutineers to submit. Admiral Pringle, however, adopted more lenient measures. He took the grievances of the seamen into consideration, promised them redress as far as it was in his power to give it, and offered them a general amnesty. Any officers from whom they had received ill treatment, he assured them, would be brought to trial by court martial, upon their complaints being made in the proper manner. Upon this, on the 12th, five days after the commencement of the revolt, the men resumed their duty, and the admiral issued a proclamation of general pardon.

On the 24th of October a squadron consisting of the Sceptre, Raisonable, and Jupiter arrived from sea, and a similar mutiny took place on board these ships, when the men were pacified in the same manner.

One of the most obnoxious of the officers was Captain George Hopewell Stephens, of the Tremendous. On the 6th of November he was brought before a court martial on board the Sceptre, charged by a seaman named Philip James and others of his crew with oppressive conduct and neglect of duty towards them. He had been put out of the ship by force on the 7th of October. On the second day of the trial the court was insulted, and upon the offender being committed to prison, the mutiny broke out again in the Tremendous, Sceptre, and Rattlesnake, lying in Table Bay.

Admiral Pringle concerted with Lord Macartney, with the result that on the morning of the 9th the guns of the Amsterdam battery were brought to bear on the Tremendous, and the mutineers were informed by proclamation that if they did not return to duty and send the ringleaders ashore within two hours from the discharge of a signal gun, fire would be opened upon them. The crews of the three ships then surrendered and gave up the ringleaders to the number of twenty-two, who were placed in confinement in the castle.

The Crescent arrived in Table Bay on the 16th of October, but anchored off Robben Island on account of an outbreak of small pox on board a Spanish prize with slaves from Mozambique, which she had captured. On the 9th of November, just as the last-named disturbances were quelled, her crew mutinied and set some obnoxious officers ashore on the island. A delegate was then sent to the admiral, but was at once seized and committed to prison. The Jupiter was despatched to bring the Crescent up to the anchorage before the Amsterdam battery, where one hour was given to her crew to send the ringleaders ashore. They gave up six, and the mutiny was ended.

Captain Stephens was honourably acquitted by the court martial of the charges brought against him, and then followed the trials of the leading mutineers. On the 21st of November Philip James, seaman of the Tremendous, and Daniel Chapman, seaman of the Sceptre, were sentenced to death under the nineteenth article of war, which forbade making a mutinous assembly on any pretence whatsoever, and were hanged at the yard arms on the 23rd. On the 5th of December Richard Foot and James Reese, seamen of the Tremendous, were sentenced to death, and were executed on the 24th. Three others received severe punishments, but had their lives spared, and the remainder of the mutineers were admitted to mercy.

In an account of these occurrences quoted by Sir John Barrow, Lord Macartney wrote that "from the most minute investigation of the second mutiny he could not discover that there was the shadow of a grievance to be pleaded in its alleviation." The character of his government cannot be better exemplified than by this sentence. There is, and can be, but one opinion now: that throughout the British navy at that time the sailors had many and serious grievances. But with men of their class Lord Macartney had very little sympathy indeed. And Barrow, the writer who could not find words too strong to express the cruelty of colonists towards their Hottentot dependents, quotes the above sentence with approbation. It seems never to have occurred to him that the sailors in the king's ships were quite as badly treated as the Hottentots, even if all the tales of atrocities on frontier farms that had come to his ears were true.^[3]

In the colony itself there were no disturbances while Lord Macartney was governor. The large military and naval force at his disposal prevented any show of disaffection, and the strength of his character and the purity of his administration commanded general respect.

Towards the close of 1798, however, the force at the disposal of the Cape government was greatly reduced. Napoleon had landed in Egypt with a French army, and the British authorities, fearing he had designs upon India, were intent upon strengthening the garrisons there and blockading the entrances to the Red sea and Persian gulf to prevent his going farther. Owing to the rebellion in Ireland they were unable to spare a sufficient number of troops from home. Just at this time too it was ascertained that Tippoo Saib, the ruler of Mysore, was in alliance with the French, and that the governor of Mauritius was endeavouring to enlist volunteers for his service. Under these circumstances orders were issued to send the twenty-eighth light dragoons, the eighty-fourth regiment of the line, and the Scotch brigade with all possible expedition to Madras. On the 4th of November 1798 these troops left the Cape, under command of Major-General David Baird, who had then been for ten months a resident in the colony, and they were of essential service in the operations against Tippoo Saib, which ended with the storming of his city of Seringapatam and his death in the breach.

The fleet on the station had also been considerably reduced in strength. The Trusty, Saldanha, Crescent, Vindictive, Chichester, and Suffolk had gone to England with convoys, and had been as yet replaced by only the frigate Garland. Admiral Pringle, who was troubled with a disease in his eyes, had requested to be relieved, and in March 1798 was succeeded by Rear Admiral Sir Hugh Cloberry Christian.

Lord Macartney was over sixty years of age, and was subject to severe attacks of gout. Before leaving England he had stipulated that if he should find it necessary for his health, he might at any time return without waiting for a successor. Major-General Dundas held a commission as lieutenant governor, and was empowered to carry on the administration whenever the governor was absent. The first summer of Lord Macartney's residence had tried him severely, and as another hot season drew nigh he made up his mind to leave South Africa. On the 20th of November 1798 he embarked in the ship-of-war Stately, and the following morning sailed for England, Thereafter until 1803 he drew a pension of £2,000 a year nominally from the revenue of the Cape Colony, but really from the British treasury, which made up any deficiencies in the yearly accounts, and, owing mainly to the disturbances that took place in Graaff-Reinet subsequent to this date and to hostilities with the Xosas and Hottentots, deficiencies on a large scale occurred regularly. From 1802 onward the pension was a direct charge upon the imperial revenue.

After his arrival in England Lord Macartney was offered a high office in the government, with a seat in the cabinet, but felt himself obliged to decline it, on account of the precarious state of his health. He died on the 31st of March 1806, in his sixty-ninth year, and as he left no children the title became extinct.

1. This remained in force until the 1st of July 1802, when by an order in council of the 11th of February 1801 goods from any part of the king's dominions except Great Britain and Ireland were made subject to an import duty of five per cent. upon their value. But as the colony was then about to be restored to the Batavian Republic, trade under the English flag almost entirely ceased, so that the customs regulations introduced by Lord Macartney were practically observed during the whole period of the first British occupation.
2. He was quite ignorant that the Bushmen were the real aborigines of the country. But his instructions regarding their treatment were given in a spirit of humanity that, considering the views prevalent everywhere in the civilised world at the time, were most creditable to him. In the instructions to Mr. Bresler he wrote:

   "With the Bushmen, who are perfect savages, it will be always difficult to maintain, at least without much bloodshed, the limits to be fixed, still good order requires that they also should be forced to remain in their own country. Amicable endeavours must be used to oblige these savages to leave the country which they have overrun, or if these should fail then the inhabitants of those districts which they at present occupy must unite and use force. After which no better boundary can be found between the Bushmen and the inhabitants than the Zeekoe river situate behind the Sneeuwberg, the Karree or Roodeberg behind the Camdeboo, and the Zak river, forming the one with the other a half circle from the east to the west. The principal duty of the landdrost is … and afterwards by ordering regular expeditions to protect the other inhabitants in their possessions against the Bushmen.

   "But as the landdrost is bound to protect the inhabitants against the savages, so is he to keep a watchful eye that the inhabitants do not encroach beyond the places granted by the former government in loan. The said grants and the rents thereof being enjoyed by government has authorised the possession of those places, although in itself very unjust and originating in the oppression of the natives, but all further enlarging of this colony would be an absolute cruelty with respect to the natives, who thereby are molested in their possessions and expelled, which would be directly against the justice and humanity of his Majesty, wherefore the landdrost is to guard against such encroachments.

   "The proper Bushmen inhabit a very extensive tract of land behind the Zeekoe river; they feed upon venison and the produce of their fields, digging out of the ground certain anthills full of ant eggs which they call rice and which serve them for a great part of their food, but they keep no cattle. Even the cattle which some of them steal from our inhabitants they do not keep for breeding, but consume immediately with the greatest profusion, according to the known custom of savages. Of these, some robbers have … come down into the Roggeveld and the Hantam. These are therefore in every possible manner to be compelled to return to their own country. … If these people would by gentle means be persuaded to do so it would be fortunate, and a great deal of human blood would thereby be saved, but finally some means will be unavoidable for self-preservation, especially if their considerable procreation is considered, which according to reports thereof is inconceivable, notwithstanding their wild and uneasy manner of life and the disasters to which they are continually subject.

   "It is said that sixty years ago … some Bushman kraals were surrounded, the principal Bushmen thereof apprehended, transported to this town, and given to understand what would be the consequences of their not retreating immediately into their own country; that thereupon they were dismissed with some presents, and that the said manner of proceeding had very fortunately caused the greatest part of them to retreat. Should the like measures be once again adopted, they might produce a very good effect, and the landdrost, from a principle of humanity, should undertake something of this kind prior to his proceeding to order a general expedition of the inhabitants for the purpose of forcibly expelling the Bushmen. But should we be obliged to adopt such a deplorable expedient, then the landdrost is particularly required to take care that in such expeditions a more humane treatment be observed than that which I am informed sometimes on these occasions takes place."

3. At the close of the eighteenth century benevolent sentiments had not yet acquired much force, and the severest discipline was regarded as necessary on a man-of-war, whose crew was often largely composed of pressed men. The log books of the ships, the proceedings of the courts martial, and the lists of punishments inflicted at sea, which were delivered by the respective captains to the admiral when ships arrived in port, together with the correspondence between the naval officers and the government, form the evidence upon which my account of the mutiny in the fleet on the Cape station is given. Though not directly connected with the history of the Cape Colony, an account of such an event, which occurred in South African waters, could not with propriety have been omitted.