The longing of the Cape colonists for the well-watered valleys
of the Kaffirs, and of the latter for the colonial cattle, which are
much superior to their own, still are, as they have always been, the
sources of irritation. Constant skirmishes took place, until, at length,
in 1834, the savages poured into the colony in vast numbers, wasted the
farms, drove off the cattle, and murdered not a few of the inhabitants.
An army of 4000 men was marched against the invaders, who were driven
far beyond the boundary-line which formerly separated Kaffirland from
Cape Colony, and not only forced to confine themselves within the new
limits prescribed, but to pay a heavy fine. Treaties have been entered
into, and tracts of country assigned to the Kaffir chiefs of several
families, who acknowledge themselves to be subjects of Great Britain,
and who are to pay a fat ox annually as a quit-rent for the lands which
they occupy.
Macomo, one of the Kaffir Chiefs, is a man of most remarkable character
and talent, and succeeded his father, Gaika, who had been possessed of
much greater power and wider territories than the son, but had found
himself compelled to yield up a large portion of his lands to the
colonists.
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