Letter to Sir George Grey, 1858
- The Establishment of Basutoland
Your Excellency---it may scarcely appear necessary to lay before Your
Excellency any lengthened details of what has taken place between the Orange Free State
and myself. I know that you have followed with interest the transactions which have led to
the commencement of hostilities, and you have heard with pain of the horrors occasioned by
the war, at present suspended in the hopes that peace may be restored by Your Excellency's
mediation.
Allow me, however, to bring to your remembrance the following
circumstances: About twenty-five years ago my knowledge of the White men and their laws
was very limited. I knew merely that mighty nations existed, and among them was the
English. These, the blacks who were acquainted with them, praised for their justice.
Unfortunately it was not with the English Government that my first intercourse with the
whites commenced. People who had come from the Colony first presented themselves to us,
they called themselves Boers. I thought all white men were honest. Some of these
Boers asked permission to live upon our borders. I was led to believe
they would live with me as my own people lived, that is, looking to me as to a father and
a friend.
About sixteen years since, one of the Governors of the Colony, Sir
George Napier, marked down my limits on a treaty he made with me. I was to be ruler within
those limits. A short time after, another Governor came, it was Sir P. Maitland. The Boers
then began to talk of their right to places I had then lent to them. Sir P. Maitland told
me those people were subjects of the Queen, and should be kept under proper control; he
did not tell me that he recognized any right they had to land within my country, but as it
was difficult to take them away, it was proposed that all desiring to be under the British
rule should live in that part near the meeting of the Orange and Caledon rivers.
Then came Sir Harry Smith, and he told me not to deprive any chief of
their lands or their rights, he would see justice done to all, but in order to do so, he
would make the Queen's Laws extend over every white man. He said the Whites and Blacks
were to live together in peace. I could not understand what he would do. I thought it
would be something very just, and that he was to keep the Boers in my land under proper
control, and that I should hear no more of their claiming the places they lived on as
their exclusive property. But instead of this, I now heard that the Boers consider all
those farms as their own, and were buying and selling them one to the other, and driving
out by one means or another my own people.
In vain I remonstrated. Sir Harry Smith had sent Warden to govern in
the Sovereignty. He listened to the Boers, and he proposed that all the land in which
those Boers' farms were should be taken from me. I was at that time in trouble, for
Sikonyela and the Korannas were tormenting me and my people by stealing and killing; they
said openly the Major gave them orders to do so, and I have proof he did so. One day he
sent me a map and said, sign that, and I will tell those people (Mantatis and Korannas) to
leave off fighting: if you do not sign the map, I cannot help you in any way. I thought
the Major was doing very improperly and unjustly. I was told to appeal to the Queen to put
an end to this injustice. I did not wish to grieve Her Majesty by causing a war with her
people. I was told if I did not sign the map, it would be the beginning of a great war. I
signed, but soon after I sent my cry to the Queen. I begged Her to investigate my case and
remove "the line," as it was called, by which my land was ruined.
I thought justice would soon be done, and Warden put to rights.
I tried my utmost to satisfy them and avert war. I punished thieves,
and sent my son Nehemiah and others to watch the part of the country near the Boers, and
thus check stealing. In this he was successful, thieving did cease. We were at peace for a
time. In the commencement of the present year my people living near farmers received
orders to remove from their places. This again caused the fire to burn, still we tried to
keep all quiet, but the Boers went further and further day by day in troubling
the Basutos and threatening war. The President (Boshof) spoke of
Warden's line, this was as though he had really fired upon us with his guns. Still I tried
to avert war.
It was not possible, it was commenced by the Boers in massacring my
people of Beersheba, and ruining that station, against the people of which there was not a
shadow of a complaint ever brought forward. Poor people, they thought their honesty and
love for Christianity would be a shield for them, and that the white people would attack
in the first place, if they attacked at all, those who they said were thieves. I ordered
my people then all to retreat towards my residence, and let the fury of the Boers be spent
upon an empty land; unfortunately some skirmishes took place, some Boers were killed, some
of my people also. We need not wonder at this, such is war! But I will speak of many
Basutos who were taken prisoners by the Whites and then killed, most cruelly. If you
require me to bring forward these cases, I will do so. I will however speak of the
horrible doings of the Boers at Morija, they there burnt down the Missionary's house,
carried off much goods belonging to the Mission, and pillaged and shamefully defiled the
Church Buildings.
I had given orders that no farms should be burnt, and my orders were
obeyed till my people saw village after village burnt off, and the corn destroyed, they
then carried destruction among the enemy's homes. On coming to my mountain, the Boers
found I was prepared to check their progress, and they consequently retired. My intention
was then to have followed them up, and to have shown them that my people could also carry
on offensive operations, believing that having once experienced the horrors of war in
their midst, I should not soon be troubled by them again. My bands were getting ready to
make a descent upon them, when the Boers thought proper to make request for a cessation of
hostilities. I knew what misery I should bring upon the country by leaving the Basutos to
ravage the Boer places, and therefore I have agreed to the proposal of Mr. J. P. Hoffman.
I cannot say that I do so with the consent of my people, for many of those who suffered by
the enemy were anxious to recover their losses. If they have remained quiet, it has been
owing to my persuasions and my promises that they might have good hope of justice---Your
Excellency having consented to act as arbitrator between the Boers and Basutos. With the
expectation of soon meeting you, I remain, etc., etc.,
Mark X of Moshweshewe, Chief of
the Basutos.
Source:
From: G. M.Theal, ed., Records of Southeastern Africa (Capetown: Government of
Capetown, 1898-1903).
Scanned by Jerome S. Arkenberg, Cal. State Fullerton.
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© Paul Halsall June1998
