Selected Despatches transcribed from CO48/54 at the National Archives in Kew, London

 

220

Bathurst

5th June 1821

My Lord,

            Your Lordship will observe from the date of this Despatch that I have carried into execution the intention I had the honor of mentioning to Your Lordship before I left Cape Town of visiting the settlers in Albany, and it is with great satisfaction that I have to report that I find the best spirit and feeling generally prevalent amongst them and a much greater progress made in their buildings and improvements than I could have hoped for after the severe calamity of an universal blight in their crops.

            The general health of the settlers is quite unexampled I believe in any other instance of colonization. The District Surgeon here tells me that within his knowledge the deaths do not exceed a dozen in the last year, whereas the births have been considerably more than one hundred.

This Town, as a control point for the locations, has far outstripped my expectations – above twenty houses are already built and nearly finished since I last had the honor of addressing your Lordship from this spot this time last year, when I fixed the site of Bathurst and, at a sale of building lots which took place here on the 1st instant, they averaged in price near £50 sterling an acre. In consequence of this demand I have ordered six more lots to be sold in about a month.

On Sunday last, the 3rd of June, Divine Service was performed here for the first time in public on the spot intended for the church.

Your Lordship is aware that the Town of Bathurst is near the Kowie River. I have great satisfaction in reporting to your Lordship that having lately visited the mouth of that river accompanied by seafaring and other experienced people I have every reason to hope both from my own inspection and from all the reports I have received that the mouth of the Kowie will prove to be safely accessible to small vessels and thus become a place of export for the corn and other productions of Albany. It is impossible to describe to your Lordship the effect this prospect has had with the settlers, and the additional value it has conferred upon Bathurst. One characteristic of the mouth of the Kowie is remarkable, and perhaps not elsewhere to be found in this Colony, which is that from the shortness of its course and the gentleness of its declivity, a great volume of water is not disembogued at once into the sea and consequently no obstacle properly called a Bar is thrown up, thus in fact the mouth of the Kowie is rather an inlet of the sea, running several miles up into the country, than the debauchure of one of those torrents which usually empty themselves from the continent.

I am making all necessary and possible arrangements while I am on the spot to give activity and efficacy to a trade between Bathurst and Cape Town by means of the Kowie.

In a Despatch I had the honor of addressing to your Lordship before I left Cape Town I submitted my conviction of the necessity of uniting the Civil and Military Authorities on this Frontier in the hands of one person and that I proposed to place Major JONES (an officer whose talents and character I have long known and can answer for) in the offices of Landdrost and Military Commandant. The necessity of this measure became more and more obvious every day; the difficulty was to find a military man of sufficient rank who has some knowledge of civil administration. I can assure your Lordship that if I had not believed Major JONES properly qualified I should never have placed him here; and I hope he will answer the expectations I have formed of him, but, whether or no that particular officer fulfils my expectations, I have no hesitation in submitting my opinion that the union of the Civil and Military Authorities on the Frontier is absolutely necessary for some time to come for the wellbeing of the settlers and for the effectual protection of themselves and property.

While addressing your Lordship I have the honor of receiving your Lordship’s Despatches of the 29th October and 2nd December 1820. As these Despatches relate to the settlers and to the country I am now in, I shall here submit to your Lordship whatever may be necessary in reply to them.

The first dated October 29th conveys your Lordship’s instructions for me to carry on the [fine/five?] Frontier works formerly planned by Lord Charles SOMERSET and an impression seems to be made on your Lordship’s mind that I had wholly suspended their progress. This I have not done, but instead of allowing a ponderous fortress of stone, cannon proof, to be erected under the name of Fort Willshire at an immense expence, and which would not have been near finished at this day, I caused a Fortified Barrack perfectly adequate to every defence against Caffers to be constructed in its stead, which has long been completed and occupied by 250 men, the number originally intended for Fort Willshire.

The Second Fort has not yet been begun upon because when I was last here the Chief Engineer and myself on reconsidering the ground both concurred in thinking that instead of placing it where first proposed it might be placed more advantageously nearer the sea, but I have had it in contemplation to locate a body of the disbanded African Corps in that direction and if I can accomplish this it will afford a fortified village as a Right Flank to the Colonial Frontier Line of Africa.

Should this prospected location of part of the African Corps prove impracticable I shall not fail to give orders for placing a Fortified Barrack similar to the one I have placed in the Keis Kamma on the best military point I can select.

Your Lordship’s Despatch of December 2nd related to the Rations and I am relieved by finding from the general tenor of it that in case of aggravated distress the issue of rations to settlers, to be ultimately paid for, would not be disapproved of by your Lordship. That case has arisen from the universal destruction of the crops, and rations have accordingly been issued with a distinct and clear understanding that they are to be paid for hereafter, for which payment the Heads of Parties are to be personally answerable and their lands mortgaged.

I take this opportunity of suggesting that perhaps it will be advisable as a matter of future consideration and favor that the several Heads of Parties shall be allowed to pay back their rations to the Commissariat in kind. This would be holding out a near and palpable encouragement to industry and would be opening a certain market for all the cattle and produce they may have to dispose of for some time to come.

I have adopted this principle in regard to seed corn, which has been ordered up hither and which is now distributing. I have told the settlers that they may repay that corn hereafter in kind, so that this Government will furnish them seed corn now, when its price is exceedingly high, on condition of receiving hereafter an equal quantity at whatever rate the market may be.

I beg leave now to express my acknowledgements to your Lordship for having made me the organ of communication to convey to the settlers the additional aid afforded them by His Majesty’s Government in regard to waggon hire. I shall do this immediately and I am sure great gratitude will be felt by them all.

For the favor and aid they have already received they are really grateful, as your Lordship will perceive by the address which all the Heads of Parties near this who could assemble, presented to me soon after my arrival at Bathurst and of which I take the liberty of enclosing a copy. Whatever there may be in it flattering to myself I can have merited only by acting upon and by obeying your Lordship’s instructions. I regret that your Lordship’s Despatch did not reach me before the address was presented, as I am sure that the very great indulgence extended by it to the settlers in regard to waggon hire would have been specifically noticed by them in expressions of warm and grateful acknowledgement.

I have the honor to be, my Lord

Your Lordship’s most obedient humble servant

R.S. DONKIN

 

226

[Pencilled in margin: I beg leave respectfully to observe that this entirely voluntary address is a complete refutation of the complaints of certain disappointed individuals at Cape Town who say they were deceived in England and have been neglected here. RSD]

Bathurst

June 1st 1821

 

To His Excellency Major General Sir Rufane Shawe DONKIN KCB, Acting Governor and Commander in Chief &c &c, Cape of Good Hope

 

            We the undersigned Heads of Parties and other British Settlers in Albany beg leave to address Your Excellency to express our gratitude for the liberal manner in which we were provided and sent to this Colony, for the precautions which were previously taken and for the ample supply of stores of all sorts which were furnished by the Government at home to ensure our future success and stability on our several locations.

            We further beg leave to convey the expression of our thanks to Your Excellency, to the Officers of this Government and to the local authorities here for the zeal and kindness with which the instructions of the Government at home have been carried into effect, and for the constant care and attention with which our wishes have been met and our wants even anticipated.

            We feel it particularly incumbent upon us to acknowledge our gratitude to Your Excellency for kindly continuing to us the issue of rations after the total failure by blight of all our crops, thereby assuring us a subsistence, until our endeavours by the blessings of Providence may procure us such necessaries as may render our situation easy and independent.

            In conclusion we are cheered and encouraged by feeling and knowing that in transplanting ourselves to the shores of Southern Africa we have not been removed beyond the fostering influence and protection of His Majesty’s paternal care and Government, and we hope Your Excellency will be pleased to convey these our sentiments most dutifully to our Sovereign.

(signed)

Duncan CAMPBELL

George PIGOT

Alex’r BIGGAR

George DYASON

D.P. FRANCIS

John SMITH

Henry LLOYD

Wm. BOARDMAN

Charles HYMAN

Edward FORD

Samuel JAMES

Arthur BARKER

William GRIFFITHS

Alexander BISSET

J.H. GREATHEAD

Thomas PHILIPPS

Miles BOWKER

Jas. RICHARDSON

Wm. CURRIE [sic]

W. SHAW

Geo. SOUTHEY

Wm. WAIT

Wm. HOLDER

Dr. O’FLINN MD

Geo. WATSON

Thos. HEWSON

Geo. ANDERSON

Thos. MAHONY

Sam’l BENNET

Geo. SMITH

Jos’h RHODES, COCK’s Party

John JARMAN

J. Centlivre CHASE

Peter CAMPBELL

Samuel Harper BRADSHAW

C.T. THORNHILL

John BAILIE

Isaac DYASON

 

[The above address was printed in the Cape Town Gazette and African Advertiser of Saturday June 23 1821 and a cutting enclosed with Government Despatches. The following notices of potential interest were on the back]

 

ARRIVAL IN TABLE BAY

19 June Duke of Marlborough Eng. Ship Wm.HOLLETT Master, from Plymouth 5th April, cargo sundreies from London for this place.

Passengers: The Rev. J.L. HODGSON, Missionary, Mrs. HOLLETT, Mrs. LUTTERMAN and child, Misses STRETCH and RENS, Messrs BOWNESS and WELSFORD, Merchants, Mr.& Mrs. JUBBER and child. Mrs. JAMES and 4 children, A. BURGIE, J. GEODAIR, E. PAINTER, T. GRIMES, Mrs. SANDERS and child and Master WAINSCOTT (Settlers).

 

ARRIVAL IN PORT ELIZABETH

4 June Mary, Coasting Brig, H. STEWARD Master from Table Bay 25th May, cargo Government stores.

Passengers: Mr. BOWIE, Mr. PERRY, Surgeon, Mr. REED, Mr. WYNAND, P. FLAMMY and S. HELINGAM