Page:Colonization and Christianity.djvu/463

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AND CHRISTIANITY.
447

peans. In America we have seen how continually, when the bulk of the people, or the legitimate chiefs, would not cede territory, the whites made a mock purchase from somebody who had no right whatever to sell, and on that title proceeded to drive out the real owners. In this case, Plattenburgh, to give a colour of justice to his claim, sent out Colonel Gordon in search of Caffres as far as the Keiskamma, who conducted a few to the governor, who consented that the Great Fish River should be the boundary. The real chief, Jalumba, it appears, however, had not been consulted; but the colonists the next year reminded him of the recent treaty with his tribe, and requested him to evacuate that territory. Jalumba refused—a commando was assembled—the intruders, in colonial phrase, but the real and actual owners, were expelled: Jalumba's own son Dlodlo was killed, and 5,200 head of cattle driven off. This was certainly a wholesale beginning of plunder and bloodshed; but, says the same author, "this was not the worst—Jalumba and his clan were destroyed by a most infamous act of treachery and murder; the details of which may be found in Thompson and Kay."

It was on such a title as this, that Lord Macartney claimed this tract of country for the English in 1797, the Cape having been conquered by us. It does not appear, however, that any very vigorous measures were employed for expelling the natives from this region till 1811, when it was resolved to drive them out of it, and a large military and burgher force under Col. Graham was sent out for that purpose. The expulsion was effected with the most savage rigour. This clearing took up about a year. In the course