In yesterday's journal we...
The Times, 1824-01-30T00:00:00

In yesterday's journal we inserted statements of a dis- tressing nature, on the subject of Southerii Africa. It would appear, if those statements should turn out to bdA wellfounded, that our countryrnen settled near the Cape had not only laboured under a total exhaustion of their funds, but had been grievously disappointed of that protection and relief which they had looked for from personsplacedin higlh official authority. 'The bounty of the eharitable then became their only resource. A local sociely was formed for the purpose of administering such aid as could be afforded to the necessitous; and its report, whicii has been printed, is; we lament to say, a most disheartening document. Whether the extent and intractable nature of the miseries cryingout for relief, or the class of persons upon whom they fall, areto be taken into consideration,-,we know 'not of a case that ever Inerited a more prompt .and ardent exercise of charity, than that of our iffibappy countryimen thus reduced to utter destitution; nori: after all that. puiblic muiinficenct,-aided by the knowledgeaand zeal.of' the resil dent members of this humane society, ean. accomplisi; 'have we ever secn more room for apprehending that much. tnust still be left unione. The sttbscriptions at the Cape, though liberal, aud appilrently distributed with judgment an'd co. triohiy,are* e-Kelit to say, far short of de eptge6cies to tIch4clsey bave budestvmed, _ To 'descrtbe fully. the cir- Atlmstitlets,vwolsd be to Co,pv .the report,iach for,ms in it- self a-.& pamphlet, awL from.vv.liael therofbre, i ve must'lue sa- tisfied.ith extracting afewpas:agesas fofIows. :fi r, PjlILIP ia n. mving the-adopti.on of eh reporti aftr somiieprelimi- nlary .observa~soios, -added- -. - VSl7AlL-I-bc, told.i'iiat 'there is no. surplus-of -misery among; gu6oulnbtqmi u4xprovided for- i, dgnot stand her 0on this ;occa-- -ion01s tife accuser of`the Coloniil Government, no,r of the Local 'Authotfties 'of the-colony;- but 'we may ertainly.allow Tbe poasi. bilityWf,&stTegs, xhtovt shy reflectidn upon any .Jnah or anly.class -of men. Reasonlng a praors I maintain -it is impossible to remove 5,000 mnneironi their native coantry aand plant them in any other countitry uder, flte,avaen,without involving a vast portion of slsffering. " For an illustration of this subject, we have only to look to tbe different- emigrations to Amnerica- in thefirst colonization of that country., Many of the Iiist settlers saffered greatly, and somle wehole par,ies per,ished for want of the necessaries oflife, on spots that are now, supporting -a dense population. The history of the Siera LIeone settlerpent is well known. .Uany lives were lost, and ,much property sunk, befbre'thie ezperiment.afforded any rationqZ- prospect'of success- Tbe colonization-of New -Holland is also a case' in point.. Duxtin& the early period of that settlement, the colonists were often in. the-greatestdistress. Several times they were under the painful ayprehension of 'death by famine. For six years they r.ntinued to receive a freat part of' their supplies from Batavia, from 'Indim, A ,d-fro-England, at considerable expense to the mother couhtry; . ' '- "From 1550 to 170, Including the first twenty years bf the his- tory of-this colony, although the number af the first settlers was not one (hildof thelrumber landed in Albany, it cost the Dutch East India Company 20,000,00 of guilders. Though it is not my inten- tion atpfesgnt,toattempt to.atcountfor the facts, yet it may be re. marked, that 'there seems to-bc something in a virgin soil unfavour. able- to the support-of huratn life; and it seeems to be with men as with vcgetablej-,they:mnust suffer, after being transplanted, before they can take'root. ' "9One drcumstance rnay be mentioned, in passing, which has 2dde dto the-distress of the settlers. In the emigrations constantly taking place to America, the emigrants having landed at New York, Boston, Quebec, or some largt.town, find employunept, assistance, or thc means of subsistence in the countries through which they pass, and from the colonists'settled in 'the inmediate neighbourhood'of their locatioins ;' but in tde lItte emigration to this colony, we have between 4,000 andar,000 people conducted at once toa country pos- sessed by a few Dutch boors, who, in case of any failure of the emsigrant's hopes, coald give them no assistance. "i'Shall we be. told, to ser aside their claims on our benevolence, that they want industry ? If, -after the failure of so many erops, they'nele'ct to.cultivate the soil to thse full extent of the credit they tmay have given them for physical energies, is it matter of surprise ? Thev-c,nnot-command the clouds of heaven to rain upon their fields: they - cannot raise the water from the deep ravines to which it is conrfiheil, to irrigate tbeir gardens; they cannot arrest Omnipotence, and stop the progress of that blight which, througlh successive years, has destroyed the promise of the harvest. And if, under the repeated strokes of the Almighty, the mind loses its tone, when nothing but- thiepowerful aids of religion can prevent depression, and stimulate to perseveraace, the unhappy sufterers are more entitled to our syim- pathy, than deserving of censure. " The claims of our unhappy countrymnen upon our sympathy are of ilore than an ordinary character. *' Here we have distress attended by all the attractions that ever fancy conferred upon fiction. And what is the sympathy this dis- tress calis forth ?. W1'e are told that the sufferers are Radicals; tJat Iley are zor-thIcss people; or that thle aUlrgcd d ittress d.rs not ettist. 'To this unslbpported assertion I oppose incontrovertible facts: I op- pose a number of letters from the-most respectable individuals in Albany, which I now hold in my hand: I oppose the most respect- able witnesses, who have lately visited the locations: and to the evi- -dence of these witnesses I add my own testimony; being able, from what I myself observeel among the settler,, to corroborate many of the statements contained in the Report. In that coiuitry, w hich was described in all the glowing tints of eastern imagery-which was held out to the poor settlers as a seconid Lantd of Piotisc, as a 'I and litcrallly overdoving-.viih snilkand hono.y-yoou may see the fingers, which seldom moved but to paint for the eye, or to charm the ear, tying up cattle, or stopping up the gaps of their enclosure; fe- males, on whom, in England, the wind was scarcely allowed to blow, exposed to all the-rage of the pitiless storm; mothers with large fa- milies, who used to have a servant to each chiid, without an indivi- dual to assist them in the drudgery of the house, the labour of the dairy, or the care of their children; families, who used to sleep upon downi, withscarcely a sufficient number of boartls, or a sufficient quantity of straw, to keep them from an earthen floor; young fe- mnales, posse;sed of every accomplishment, reducet to feed a few cows, almost the sole dependence of the family; men, who have held the ranks of captains and pa) tasters in the army, driving waggons, without shoes or stockings ! in a toutr I made tbrough the locations of the settlers, I found a gentleman, whose connexions at -home I knew to be respectable, -with two lovely daughters, without a single servant, male or female, upon the place. I asked him how he came to be in this situation ? In reply, he said, with much mildness and apparent resignation, '; I have sunk my all, I have spent niy last shilling, and I have nevcr reaped one handful of produce from my farm!" On annthet location I entered a liotise, in which I was ushered into the presence of a female, whose dress and circumstances exhibitet such a contrast to her manners and former connexions in life, that, when she began to talk of Sir John-, Sir William -, General , Lady -, as her relations, and to ask me- if I knew such persons, it re- quired a considerable effort to persuade-myself that I wras not listen- ing to a person under mental derangement., To describe all the nesas ot tne parties i met unnter-slmular circumstanees, 'would be to enumerate the greater part of them. I am fuUy satisfied, that if, in some instances, etamorous individuals may have exaggerated the miseries of their own condition, one-fifth of the real distress of the settlers, as a body, hbis neither met the public eye, nor been made klnown by theirpown report. " If there be any thing interesting in the coindition of the emi- grant, to him t.hit knows the heart of a stranger in a strange lend; any thing to excite pity for nien smarting under the rod of the Al- mighty; any thing to excite sympathY in old age, bending over the grave of a partner in life who has died of a broken heart; any thing touching in the name of widow; any thing tender in the con- dition of fatherless' chilaren; any thing affecting in the sight of young accomplished females, reduced, not to the spindle and the distaff; but to the drudgery that f'alls to the lot of the slave in the service of the African boor ; if there be any thing in hunger and. nakedness to excite 'pity-we have all these claims embo- .died in this institution. The ancients had a temple ,dedicated to Pity-the hliurman heattis the proper seat of pity; and wlhat objects can have a griater -laiiii to pity than those in whose cause we afe assembled here this day ? I may be told there are greater objects of pity than these settlers. I admit the fact ' and if asked who -they are, l reply, they are those persops wbo wish to destroy our svm- -pathy towards our' anfortunate countrymen ! I would ratber be the greatest suffereir inAlbany, than be in tbe candition of tbose in'di- viduals,. wEo-may nibt onlly refuse to relieve theirdistress, but would prevent others from doing it. I They that be slain by the sword, are better than they that be slain with hunger; for these pine away, stricken through, for.want of the fruits of the field.'" The following letter was written by a gentlemen, bead of a re- spettabte party, and vwho had-lived in genteel and comfortable cir- :&smistances in his u.tt'e country.- "Graham'gTown, Dec. 23, 1822. "I-received your letter, and am gladtiat sone one thinks it worth while to inquire after so wretched a being as myself. I mn sorry to tell yotj our;dear little Matilda is no more. She was with me while reaping some barley, when I told her to go to' the house to bring me sonie wate& to drink; slhe ran off, and fell on one of. those vile reptilesthat- aboand in this part of the globe, and was stung. I atte'Aded my sweet babe for seven daitys and nights, dluring which she 'was in the greatest agony, until mortification 'took place. She then .re&verd her senses-prayed forherpoor mamma and papa, andeipiredlquite easy,on Tuesday, at four o'clock. She was a lovely child;, only fotir years old;, all my miiisfortunes are rothing: c6mphted to this; she'was our last and only child. "It ou ask me for ar a'ccount-of our situattion, whielt I will give you ;; n'd I believe it is applicable to all the settlers, aE regards our eropsann prospect-of, food foor dte ensuing year. 2ly wheat, two mont&a 6iodie most promising I ever saw in any country, is now' cut'dowhijatid' in h'eaps for burnirrg, before we plough the ground again. The rust ha5, utterly .destroyed it;. not a 'grain have we saved. Mty barley, frui the drouglht, and a grub'which attacks the blad_juisti unider the surfce, prtoduced little tnore than I soved. illy. Indiau-corn, very muchinjrred by. thc caterpillar j-cabbageslde.' stroyeaby the:lice; thebees all' scorched vith thehot winds; and ctrrota'runto seed: the potatoes are goda, but I hve but a stnmai uantityk Q'uar cows are all dry tbr wvant bf grass: not the' lea?t appearbnce of,.verdure -as far as tbe eye can reacb. Nothing but ioae:grteat- *ilderiesa-of faded -grais,. something resemdliugia co'uchy.fellowinEgtisg . pn' Srturday, whilst s'atcldng by the- sick bed of my derlittleirl, I startled bythe cry of wild dogs.J I ran to the -windiow. and saw about 30 of those ferocious ammals ; before;I could drive them off, they killed 20 of mny flock, TThe avll7de hondt, orw%vicl dbg, jrf the Cape,4s menltioned by Bur. eheU as an Isndeseribed and very feRrq#ous specles of thte hy bna. )tciich eonsisteao f 27.in all. IstootAfor aindm0titthinkhilo9,mv misery-mydying child-my blasted crops-my scattered:and -ruin. ed'floclu -God's -wvill-be donalTvq_ need of-fo.d&de to bearup againstsuch accumulated misery. Farewell." l. ' L4ettr-wiitten bya Gentlenin win formerlycld a Captain'scoIl. mission in fli':`Alajesty' siervice; addressed tona private frient,' -rho bad collected a smal l'ubscription for himn en Cape Towin -- - - "- Feb. I7, 1823. ' " .o:rny friends, an2 the friends of humamt y, 1 am iudebted i. may say, for the existence of myself and faiilyf; for reallg, b'ut fof their kind interference, we must have perished. . * " If I could only see any kind of bread of my own growing, I' should be happy. .'Tis afow nearly three inorths since we had ang brcad to eat, anid indeed iery little tice. IfI conld . any wayget a bag of meal, it would be a great relief I am verk sorry to be so troublesome: however, necessity com- pels me to do what my nawtre somewhit recoils at.- Pe are-very badly off for breakfast, which now usually consists of a'bit of fned I cabbage,. or ptniipkin stewed. . If we once again get-brcad, c viii enjoy it sweetly." ' n a ' I The folowing i9 fxtracted from the MtS.journalof Mr.F_ (a gentleman well known to severalVniembirs of the committee), who travelled tbr6ssgh the Englisbhlocations in Mlarch and -April last, and personally witnessed many of the facts which be relates:- " April 3. " Visited Smith and Cock's parties.-Three persons b'elongring to these two parties had some wheat grown this year; and afone of their lXouses; I ate the.first and last bread that I met wvith in Al- bany, made from wheat grown by any settler. A few of the ofher settlers have bought some of this iwheat for seed, at two schillings per quart. '" It is most distressing to see the husband and wife, with scarcely any thing to cover them, and their children in the same condition, lying on the ground on the outside of their miserable huts, roasting a few heads of Indian corn, probably hse only food the' have. Alany have nothing but pumpkiis; One family of the name of 11- bhad not tasted butcher's meat, nor I believe bread, for' about three months; and their children were running about withlout clothes. As for shoes or stockings, they are seldom to be-seen on either old or young. I am sorry to be obliged to remark, that all tlhat honest bold- nessof character, so conspicuous in' the yeomen and laboorers of England, seems to have left these w-retched emigrants; anrd they. now appear to meet their disappointments and misfortunes with ian indifference bordering on ddspair."