scarcely be said to exist, and to the encouragement of which I shall give my best endeavours. I hope to be able to make to your Lordship a favourable report of the location in the Zuureveld on my arrival there, but I am prepared to hear many complaints and to find many difficulties to encounter. Such as are removable shall be removed, and I must say that most of the Heads of Parties I have yet seen seem well disposed to endure and make the best of such hardships as are unavoidable in such an operation as is now going on. I have &c. R. S. DONKIN. (Signed) [Original.] Letter from SIR RUFANE SHAWE DONKIN to EARL BATHURST. GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CAPE TOWN, April 25th 1820. MY LORD, I have had the honor of receiving your Lordship's Circular Letter dated 15th September 1819, covering the Copy of an Act of Parliament directing the formation of an Office for the General Enregistration of Slaves in the Several Colonies appertaining to the British Dominions, the provisions of which were to take effect on the 1st Day of the present Year. I did not receive this Dispatch until the 29th of March, and was not aware that it was in contemplation to call upon this Colony for so voluminous a return; I however immediately called upon the Colonial Inspector of Slave Registry to furnish the return required, and have the honor to transmit to your Lordship a copy of a letter which I have received from him, by which Your Lordship will perceive that it will take eleven weeks from the 17th of this month before the lists can be prepared. They will then be forwarded without the smallest delay. I have &c. [Original.] Letter from LORD CHARLES SOMERSET to EARL BATHURST. LONDON, April 26th 1820. MY LORD, I have the honor to enclose to Your Lordship a letter from Colonel Graham, together with Copies of letters from Lord Howden to that Officer and to the Earl of Liverpool; I have only to add that it would afford me unfeigned gratification to promote the Interests of Colonel Graham, that he is an Officer of the highest respectability, and that tho' his Services in the Kaffer War of 1812 were at a period previous to the Administration of the Government of the Cape being placed in my hands, I have invariably heard them spoken of as highly important and beneficial to the Colony. He has for a considerable time held the situation of Commandant at Simon's Town, the duties of which he has performed to my entire satisfaction. I have &c. (Signed) CHARLES HENRY SOMERSET. [Original] Letter from the EARL OF CLANWILLIAM to FOREIGN OFFICE, April 28th 1820. SIR,-In acknowledging the receipt of your letter to Mr. Hamilton of the 6th instant, relative to the French Slave Ship La Sylphe; I am directed by Viscount Castlereagh to transmit to you, for the information of Earl Bathurst, the enclosed copy of a Report of His Majesty's Advocate General, stating the measures which it may be expedient to adopt, with a view to remunerate the government of the Cape of Good Hope, for the value of the ship in question. I am &c. [Office Copy.] Letter from LORD BATHURST to MAJOR-GENERAL LONDON, 29th April 1820. SIR, I have the honor to acquaint you that His Majesty's Government have for some time had under their consideration the expediency of temporarily relaxing some of the Restrictions of the Navigation Act and the Regulations of our Colonial System, so far as they affect the Cape of Good Hope, and it has been determined to extend to that Settlement the same facilities in respect to Foreign Trade which will be applied to the Mauritius, on the renewal of the Act of Parliament which shall enable His Majesty to issue an Order in Council for that purpose. I have &c. (Signed) BATHURST. [Original.] Letter from LORD CHARLES SOMERSET to EARL BATHURST. LONDON, April 29th 1820. MY LORD,-I have the honor to submit to Your Lordship a Memorial from a woman named Steyntje, now detained in Slavery at the Cape of Good Hope, in behalf of herself and four children. As the Roman Law does not allow a slave to possess any property, the memorialist applied to the Court of Justice to bring her case before the Court in formâ pauperis. The application was acceded to, and the suit carried on free of expense to the plaintiff accordingly. The Plaintiff appealed from the sentence of the Court, and the suit was carried on in the same manner in the Court of Appeals for Civil Cases. In that Court the sentence of the Court below was reversed and the freedom of Steyntje and her four children established. The Respondent, being a wealthy man, declared his intention to appeal from the judgment of the Court of Appeals at the Cape of Good Hope to His Majesty in Council. The Appellant being destitute of any means has not the power of meeting the Respondent (now Appellant) before His Majesty in Council unless your Lordship will have the humanity to intercede, so that her case (as clear and as just an one as ever was presented for judgment) may be carried on without expense to her, or (I believe) to speak more technically "pro Deo." The Minutes of the whole Case accompany this letter, and I have to add that it is one of vital importance to the Administration of Justice. I have &c. No papers concerning this case are now to be found among the records in London.-G. M. T. [Copy.] Letter from the COLONIAL SECRETARY to MAJOR ROGERS, COLONIAL OFFICE, 4th May 1820. MY DEAR MAJOR,-Previous to Sir R. Donkin's departure for the Frontier he gave me instructions, upon the arrival of the Transports with Settlers from Cork to take measures for their location on the West Coast, at the Deputy Drostdy of Clan William; a survey is therefore actually taking for the future establishment of these Settlers; in the meantime the East Indian and Fanny have arrived in Simon's Bay from Cork, having on board Settlers, under the directions of Messrs. W. Parker, Ingram, Synnot, and Butler, to the number of 340 as per enclosed List. The transports therefore will be directed to proceed to Saldanha Bay, as soon as they are ready, there to disembark the several parties, and the object of my communicating with you on this subject is, that the Commissariat may receive instructions thro' you to afford these Settlers similar facilities, both with regard to approvisionment, and the supply of camp equipage and stores, as have been given to the parties of Settlers on the East Coast; a communication has been made from hence to the Magistrates of the Districts thro' which these Settlers will pass, in order to their being supplied with the means of conveyance at their own expence, and I am inclined to think the Commissariat will find little difficulty in making arrangements for their subsistence (should the parties require it, until such time as they can provide for themselves) by means of the magistrates. I however enclose a Return of the resources of the Country thro' which they will pass, which may be of use, in the consideration of the approvisionment. I have &c. P. S. It is said that there are stores on board the East Indian, if so, and they are not of the description required by the Settlers in those vessels, had they not better be transhipped to some of the vessels going to Algoa Bay? [Office Copy.] Letter from LORD BATHURST to LORD CHARLES SOMERSET. DOWNING STREET, 5th May 1820. MY LORD, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's letter of the 26th Ultimo, transmitting the Memorial of Mr. John Pigott Watney, praying for a Grant in perpetuity, at a more easy Quit Rent, of the farm of Klapmuts in the Drostdy of Stellenbosch. I entirely concur in your Lordship's opinion as to the importance of giving encouragement to persons possessing Capital, who have actually expended it in improving land at the Cape of Good Hope, and I have therefore no difficulty in authorising your Lordship to make a grant in perpetuity to Mr. Watney of the farm of Klapmuts, comprizing 270 Morgen of land, at the Quit Rent now paid by him of 1200 Rix Dollars per annum (sic). I have &c. (Signed) BATHURST. |