cattle, and requested him to hasten with the most trusty of his followers to aid him in pursuit of the robbers. The Hottentot chief and his party instantly equipped themselves and set out. When they reached Routenbach's residence, Stuurraan was welcomed with every demonstration of cordiality, and, with four of his principal followers, was invited into the house. On a signal given, the door was shut, and at the same moment the landdrost (Major Cuyler), the field-commandant Stoltz, and a crowd of boors, rushed upon them from an inner apartment, and made them all prisoners. The rest of the Hottentot party, who had remained outside, perceiving that their captain and comrade had been betrayed, immediately dispersed themselves. The majority, returning to their kraal, were, together with their families, distributed by the landdrost into servitude to the neighbouring boors. Some fled into Caffreland; and a few were, at the earnest request of Dr. Vanderkemp, permitted to join the missionary institution at Bethelsdorp. The chief and his brother Boschman, with two other leaders of the kraal, were sent off prisoners to Cape Town, where, after undergoing their trial before the court of justice, upon an accusation of resistance to the civil authorities of the district, they were condemned to work in irons for life, and sent to Robben Island to be confined among other colonial convicts.
"Stuurman's kraal was eventually broken up, the landdrost Cuyler asked and obtained, as a grant for himself—(Naboth's vineyard again!)—the lands the Hottentots had occupied. Moreover this functionary kept in his own service, without any legal agreement, some of the children of the Stuurmans, until after the arrival of the Commissioners of Inquiry in 1823.
