Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa since September 1795, Volume 1 (1908).pdf/72

48 The English general had with him the greater part of the Hottentot regiment. Tidings of the presence of these soldiers spread rapidly through the district, and the people of their blood who were in service with the farmers, believing the strife to be one between colonists and Hottentots, began to desert and repair to the British encampment. In the condition of practical anarchy in which the district had been ever since its settlement by Europeans, the Hottentots in many instances had been harshly dealt with, and they had further the grievance that the wide pastures along the coast on which the flocks and herds of their clans had once grazed were no longer at their disposal. They had no more love for the farmers than they would have had for any other European settlers in the country. So from different quarters they began to make their way to the drostdy, where about a hundred of the young men enlisted in the Hottentot regiment, and five or six times that number of men, women, and children threw themselves under the protection of the army. This tended so greatly to discourage the farmers who were in arms that they gave up all idea of resistance.

On the 24th of March Willem Prinsloo, junior, and Daniel Liebenberg arrived at the drostdy, and presented to General Vandeleur a petition from the insurgents, begging for pardon. The general gave them a reply in writing, that they must lay down their arms before he would have any dealings with them, and that those who chose to do so could meet him on the 6th of April at the house of Willem Prinsloo, senior, at the Boschberg.

Four days later General Vandeleur with all the troops, except thirty men left at the drostdy as a garrison, set out for the Boschberg. Landdrost Bresler accompanied him. A party of soldiers was sent to arrest Adriaan van Jaarsveld and his son Zacharias, and made prisoners of them without resistance.

On the 6th of April one hundred and twelve of the insurgents, commanded by Marthinus Prinsloo, appeared at the place appointed, and laid down their arms before the troops.