like the rest of the inhabitants. They have cost the government nothing except a little ammunition for their defence, about fifty bushels of maize, and a similar quantity of oats for seed-corn, and the annual stipend for their minister. They have rendered the Kat river by far the safest part of the frontier; and the same plan followed up on a more extensive scale would soon enable government to withdraw the troops altogether." In 1834, Captain Bradford found that they had subscribed 499l. to build a new church, and had also proposed to lay the foundation of another. In 1833 they paid in taxes 2,300 rix-dollars, and their settlement was in a most flourishing condition. Dr. Philip, before the Parliamentary Committee of 1837, stated that their schools were in admirable order; their infant schools quite equal to anything to be seen in England; and the Committee closed its evidence on this remarkable settlement with this striking opinion: "Had it, indeed, depended on the Hottentots, we believe the frontier would have been spared the outrages from which they as well as others have suffered."
Of two things in this very interesting relation, we hardly know which is the most surprising—the avidity with which a people long held in the basest thraldom grasp at knowledge and civil life, or the blind selfishness of Englishmen, who, in the face of such splendid scenes as these, persist in oppression and violence. How easy does it seem to do good! How beautiful are the results of justice and liberality! How glorious and how profitable too, beyond all use of whips, and chains, and muskets, are treating our fellow men with gentleness and kindness—and yet after this came the Caffre commandoes and the Caffre war!
