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INCREASING PERILS OF THE CAPE COLONY.
London, 14th August 1851. Sin—The latest intelligence from the Cape of Good Hope brings the Caffre, war to the end of its sixth month.
In December last, Sir H. Smith having adopted as the basis of British policy in Carraria, the substitution of stipendiary British magistrates for na- tive hereditary chieftainship, was suddenly ehecked by the unanimous re- sistance of the Gaika tribe, under their great chief, Samdilli, and his brother Macomo.
Sir Harry's denunciation of Sandilli and attempt to seize his person caused. the first collision; in which the British force suffered considerable loss, and failed in the object of its expedition. This was followed by the defection of a portion of the British force—a well- disciplined, armed, and mounted body of Caffres, who joined the enemy. The Tambookie tribe next declared against the British Government, and entered actively into the war. Several other tribes to the North-west followed their example, or assumed a suspicious attitude, evidently waiting the turn of events, being all undis- guisedly dissatisfied.
A body of Caffre people, who had for many years been resident within the- colony under a petty chief named Hermanus, and were generally regarded as British subjects and part of the fixed population, then openly revolted, and attacked the colonists and troops with fierce hostility.
These were soon joined by a large body of Hottentots, chiefly resident in the Rat River district.
Then came the defection of a loose body of the Cape Corps, -an old an hitherto faithful regiment ; who joined the enemy, carrying off their horses, and arms, and, more important, their discipline and perfect knowledge of frontier localities.
And now we learn that the Hottentots of the Missionary institution of Theopolis, who had in former wars acted as a bulwark against Caffre inva-. sion, have yielded to the torrent of ettscontert, and deserted the Colonial' cause, in a spirit of unprecedented barbarity.
i It is now clear that the whole of the Native tribes beyond the borders of the colony, and a large portion of the Natives within it, are alienated in heart from British supremacy in South Africa, and disposed to assert their inde- pendence at all risks.
Within the colony, the European inhabitants have also lost all confidence in the Local and Imperial Governments. They can discover no traces of system, or of anything that deserves the name of policy, in their proceedings.. system, most liberal promises and the most arbitrary acts succeed each other without regard to order or decency; and at a moment when the united energies of all classes are required to save the community from utter ruin, the sole occupation of Lord Grey for some months back has been the sowing of dissension, and the revival of animosities, which time and the spread of knowledge had almost wholly obliterated.
The consequence of all this is, that the Governor feels and declares that he is not supported by the colonists ; who, had they not been alienated by insolence and folly, would have supplied him with a force sufficient to have crushed the enemy without, and checked the spread of disaffection within the colony, in a few weeks. He feels that the British name has lost its weight and authority amongst all the Native tribes, said to number nearly two millions of barbarous and 'warlike yeoede. The Natives in British pay he can no longer trust. He sits at King William's Town for months, inert and powerless., waiting for troops from England. By the time these troops can arrive, a more than equal number of "levies" or volunteers from the Western districts of the colony will have left him, their term of service having expired.
The latest intelligence affords proof that this state of things is daily growing worse. The colony is breaking sp. Already a body of colonists, said to be near twenty thousand in number, have abandoned the colony, re- Bounced their allegiance, and founded an independent republic in the inte- rior. From the disrepute into which British authority has fallen, it is all but certain that many thousands more, who form the bulwark of the colony on the North-west, will follow their example and swell their numbers. The Hottentots on the North-eastern frontier are already one and have in great numbers become our bitterest enemies. The frontier districts, and those immediately behind them, are thus exposed along the whole line to the in-
cursions of the hostile tribes, to a degree unknown since the country was first. settled. And to augment this danger and confusion, Lord Grey has started the question of removing the seat of government from the secure and still tran- quil Western province, where the great body of colonial population, wealth, and resources is concentrated, to some unnamed place in the East; which threatens to rend asunder the European community, already but too evi- dently weak enough when combined to hold its ground amidst increasing hosts of almost natural enemies.
Surely the picture of which this is only a faint outline deserves more at- tention than it has yet received from the British public. Instead of being a valuable possession, a flourishing settlement, a growing nation, carrying civilization through healthy latitudes into the interior of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope is fast becoming a source of endless expense, a beggared and de- clining community, a curse and cause of wars and massacres amongst all its might sun. **WHIM***
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