The Express.
London, England, 1858-03-03 00:00:00

THE CAPE MAIL.

PLYMOUTH, TVISDAT

The steamer City of Manchester, Capt. Kennedy,
belonging to Liverpool, arrived at Plymouth this
afternoon, from Calcutta, bound to London. She
left the former port on December 10 ; Point de
Galls, 18; Mauritius, 31; Cape, January 19; and
St. Vincent, February 1b; and brings mails, with a
general cargo, and 18 passengers. Among the latter
is Capt. Kerr, aide-de-camp to the Governor of the
Cape Colony.

THE LATE KAFFIR PLOT.

(From the

✓oursal, Jan. 6.)

The document. just published in the Gout), with
reference to the trial of Macomo and others, and more espe-
cially the disclosures of the young " Impoego prophetess "
and Kwitchi, will for us be historically important. The
disclosures of the prophetess and her prompter Kwltchi,
fully bear out the assertions of the governor in the opening
paragraphs of the sentence pronounced upon Macomo and
his followers. Those assertions are that the Kaffir
thief' bad formed a plot for the invasion of the
Frontier districts, and the expulsion of the Europeans Shou-
ter= ; and that their intention in causing the Kettles to destroy
their cattle was, that being left without any means of sup-
port, the Kaffirs would be driven to such an extenelve course
of depredation, that war would be the inevitable result.
That this was the true state of the case, had be= often hinted
and surmised before, but it, the examination of the little
girl Nonkosi, in Umbeta's location, who led the Kailas
to believe that she had conversed with the deceased prophet
Undanjeni at • yin, Lad mean Hintze, Dushani, and other
deed chiefs with cattle at the same place, and that she
had even passed below the ground and visited the new
country where they resided, the truth of these surmises is
fully borne out; the, after some considerable equivocation,
states that all that she had said had been told her by Kwitchi,
her mottle?' brother, and a councillor of Umbel*. Kwitchi,
too, after • barefaced attempt at hiding the real truth, con-
, fused to having told the little girl then things ; and that the
chief Umbel& had specially sent him for the purpose of
making the girl "talk." The chiefs Implicated belonged to the
Gaika tribe, which, headed by Sandhi', was to have occu-
pied the Amatolas, and ravaged the country round Keiskama
Hoek Post, and the Nimbi tribe, beaded by Uinhala, which
was to have occupied the Lynx Beth, and have operated be-
tween Fort Pato and East London, while Krell was to have
made • descent an Queenstown. A most formidable organ-
isation fora attack on the colony is thus proved to have ex-
Wed, and its defeat is said by Kwitchi to be du exclusively
to the slowness with which the cattle were killed, so
that one half the people was starving, while yet
the remainder yet possessed live stock. Those who had com-
menced early the work of destruction, had then to seek sub.
sistence among the Enlists and Pingo'', the people they
were to have destroyed. In (hie manner it is stated the
tribes were broken up, notwithstanding the great exertions
used by the various chiefs to hasten on the slaughter of the
cattle, end so rash into war. Pato, Bandilli, Oba, Maximo,
Mamba, Tole, and Mate are some of the chiefs implicated in
the plot, as they are represented as visiting Umhala at the
time when the discussions took plain.
The Lots brought to light in this manner may well give
rims to serious consideration on the part of the celonista, and
nothing perhaps is of more importance than the cause which
is Mated to account for the failure of the plot.
The colony has given some large share of credit for this
failure to the presence of the large body of troops we had on
the frontier, but K witch, refers this failure exclusively to the
want of slowness with which the Kaffir' yielded obedience to
their chiefs; and it is extremely probable that, although
oar =Mary preparations most have had some effect on
the Kaffir., yet, that notwithstanding these wan would have
been the result, If only the peculiar war preparation of the
Kaffir had been conducted as sunultaaeously u the chiefs
desired. They do not appear to have been altogether dis-
mayed, and after some considerable experienceof what
English troops can do, they appear to have been ready to
brave • far larger number of them than they bad ever
encountered before. Should the time arrive when Kaffir-
land, recovered from its present misfortune, and again
teeming with • savage population, may feel once
more a desire to precipitate itself on the colony, we
may expect therefore, that no amount of preparation on our
side for the hostile tint, will be effective la preventing it.
That, in point of fact, while there is • large savage popu-
lation upon and within our border, with little or no pos-
sible check upon their habits and mitting, it is impossible
that the frontier districts of the colony can ever be safe.
Only in taking advantage of the providential tarn things
have taken, as far as pueblo ; only by the extension of
British rule over the whole of KaMens, and planting it
with British settlers, can we hope to see any real help for
the colony or any effective measure of civilisation applied to
the Kaffir.

The manner in which his excellency has performed his
part in the affair has doubtless been of the most judicious
Mod. This forbearance probably prevented events that other-
wise would have precipitated the war the Kadin were de-
thing ; while the endeavours made to prevent the destruc-
tion of the cattle must largely have contributed to the
dilatory manner in which it was performed, the v reason
why we are not at preamt in the midst of a war. ery
A lesson
this for fatties governors of this colony.

In the judgments pared on the prisoners,Bir George Grey,
after stating that they have been found guilty of mimes
punishable with death, adds :—" But, as the excitement in
British Heffraria has now almost subsided, and there does not
appear to be the same necessity for prompt and severe exam-
ple, as would have been regdred if the governmest could
have brought home the crime to its real author*
at the time; and as no capital sentence has yet been carried
into execution upon any tidies prisoner in Kaiser* daring
the whole of the recent disturbances, and it is, In every
respect, desirable, if possible, that these should now be
suffered to close without even one person having been exe-
crated for any part he may have taken in them, and this, 'epe-
e:ldly after the calamities that have recently fallen upon the
Kaffir nation, which, although brought on by their own sego,
have yet been so heavy and terrible, that it Is Impossible
to contemplate them without pity and concern—the High
Commissioner directs that this sentence shall, in the came of
each of the primmer', be commuted to imprisonment for
twenty years with hard labour, Item the 19th day of Nov.,
1857, being the date of their conviction.—G. Our, High
Commissioner."
With regard to Macomo, the part of the sentence which
condemns him to hard tabour will not be enforced, in con-
alienation of his age end unfitness for such employment.
The Commercial Advertiser and Mad has the following
remarks on the necessity for a more effective supervision of
the native population of the colony:
" It is not less important that we ourselves should carefully
examine our position with regard to the Kaffir". Instead of
being driven backward over the Hsi, or the &Mee, as some
had proposed, yielding to the European current, the great
mos of what was once the Kaffir nation, includ-
ing the Fingoee, have slid through our advanced
settlement., and are now farther scat than their
tethers ever penetrated. The Kaffir' come unarmed, as
suppliants, are legally restricted to service. We would not
excite alarm, for we believe we are able to manage them.
But no man can doubt that the presence of from thirty to
forty thousand Kenya, and as many Fingoee, in the midst
of a sparse population of greeters in so vast a country, re-
quires not only an organisation of burghers and volunteers,
but a rural police far beyond our present establishment.
For this parliament will have to provide, and as moat of
the members must be personally aware of the existing dan-
ger, they may be expected to do se of actually."

The Cape Town Advertiser has the following:—
"By the northern post of Wednesday was received a very
interesting publication from Hardman—the well-known
station of the Rev. Mears. Moffitt and Ashton. It omelets
of the three first numbers of the first newspaper published
In the Beehuna language. It is issued monthly, is got up
and printed by Mr. Ashton at the mission press on the
station in the first style of typographio art, and, if not very
intelligible to the Rtigilah reader, premises in its large type
to be both legible enough and intelligible enough to its
Bechuana subscribers. The motto under which it appears
is Kioo Kinonooo,' and the title of the publication le
' Mokaeri oa Betel:ma, Le Muleri ea kfahaktt. the seen- 1
big of which la, of °curse, obvious to the educated reader,
and, therefore, needs no translation here."
MURDER NEAR LIVERPOOL.—James Moreeroft, a
shoemaker, residing at &hoe, neer Liverpool, left home on
the 19th of January lan, in order to collect some maser
which was due to him, and was not subsequently seem ulna
the 23rd ult., when his boat . mock bruised and diellored,
was found is the maid at d. It is believed that the
damned bad been carousing with the money which he had
eallaned, sad that whoa drunk he had fallen into the hands
e( sews shaman who rebind sad murdered Dim. A Tar-
diest to the east that the deceased had been feloniously mur-
dust by some walsowa was returned yesterday, at
ea Imps* by wscaly cesame.