Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1795 to 1872, Volume 1 (4th ed, 1915).djvu/42

18 by General Craig on his return from Saldanha Bay—with two hundred dragoons, five companies of light infantry, one hundred and fifty pandours, and three field guns, to endeavour to restore order in the country beyond Swellendam. An express was sent to recall this expedition, and overtook it at Roodezand. General Craig empowered Mr. Gerotz to act as landdrost and Mr. Oertel as secretary until further instructions, promised that the past should be forgotten, and issued a general amnesty from which only Woyer was excluded.

The inhabitants of the wards Bruintjes Hoogte, Zuurveld, and Zwartkops Eiver, however, did not regard themselves as included in this submission. In June, on Marthinus Prinsloo's summons, a meeting had been held at the Boschberg to discuss the question of their surrender, when the decision was adverse. They had even used wild language about marching to Swellendam, expelling the landdrost of that district, and restoring the national assembly there. But since the surrender of the Dutch fleet they had been reflecting, and at length they came to a resolution to send delegates to Capetown to proffer submission and to endeavour to obtain certain concessions. The burghers Willem Prinsloo, junior, and Frans Labuschagne accordingly brought to General Craig a letter dated the 12th of November and signed by thirty-one persons, which professed to explain the wishes of the farmers of Bruintjes Hoogte and the Zuurveld. They desired the approval of the government to their entering the Xosa country to recover cattle that had been stolen from them, requested permission to occupy land along the Koonap and Kat rivers, objected to Mr. Bresler as landdrost and asked that some one having greater sympathy with the farmers should be sent in his stead, suggested an alteration in the constitution of the board of heemraden which would make it elective, and hoped that a proclamation would be issued to secure them from being forced to serve in either the British army or navy.