government has always been of the most harsh and arbitrary kind. He has been driven with his people from one location to another, and the most serious devastation committed on his property. Pringle's words regarding him are—"He has uniformly protected the missionaries and traders; has readily punished any of his people who committed depredations on the colonists, and on many occasions has given four or five-fold compensation for stolen cattle driven through his territory by undiscovered thieves from other clans. Notwithstanding all this, however, and much more stated on his behalf in the Cape papers, colonial oppression continues to trample down this chief with a steady, firm, relentless foot." The same writer gives the following instance of the sort of treatment which was received from the authorities by this meritorious chief.
"On the 7th of October last (1833), Macomo was invited by Mr. Read to attend the anniversary meeting of an auxiliary missionary society at Philipton, Kat River. The chief went to the military officer commanding the nearest frontier post, and asked permission to attend, but was peremptorily refused. He ventured, nevertheless, to come by another way, with his ordinary retinue, but altogether unarmed, and delivered in his native tongue a most eloquent speech at the meeting, in which he seconded a motion, proposed by the Rev. Mr. Thompson, the established clergyman, for promoting the conversion of the Caffres. Alluding to the great number of traders residing in Caffreland, contrasted with the rude prohibition given to his attending this Christian assembly, he said, in the forcible idiom of his country—'There are
