Macomo received no education; all the culture which his mind
ever obtained being derived from occasional intercourse with
missionaries, after he had grown to manhood. From 1819, the period of
Gaika's concessions, up to the year 1829, he with his tribe dwelt upon
the Kat river, following their pastoral life in peace, and cultivating
their corn-fields. Suddenly they were ejected from their lands by the
Kat river, on the plea that Gaika had ceded these lands to the colony.
Macomo retired, almost without a murmur, to a district farther inland,
leaving the very grain growing upon his fields. He took up a new
position on the banks of the river Chunice, and here he and his tribe
dwelt until 1833, when they were again driven out to seek a new home,
almost without pretence. On this occasion Macomo did make a
remonstrance, in a document addressed to an influential person of the
colony. "In the whole of this savage Kaffir's letter, there is," says
Dr. Philip, "a beautiful simplicity, a touching pathos, a confiding
magnanimity, a dignified remonstrance, which shows its author to be no
common man. It was dictated to an interpreter."
[Illustration]
"As I and my people," writes Macomo, "have been driven back over the
Chunice, without being informed why, I should be glad to know from the
Government what evil we have done.
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