prayed that the judgments which threaten the land might be
^,-erted. After describing one meeting of this sort, the newspaper
breaks forth " And thus ended the i8th of August. May it
long be remembered in Zwartland. May fathers at their rising up
and at their lying down, etc., etc." Indeed, I have not seen more
heroic phraseology anywhere, not even in the Nation, than these
newspapers supply. They uniformly denounce the whole scheme
as a deliberate fraud of Earl Grey (which it is), and charge him
with direct lying throughout. They say if the high-wrought
civilisation of Britain breeds such a mass of crime, Britain ought
to deal with her criminals herself, and not turn colonies which
were established and peopled with quite other views and other
hopes, into sinks or common sewers of felony they say the Cape,
like every other community, has its own delinquents to keep in
order, and can neither afford to take charge of imported scoundrel-
ism, nor bear to inoculate its society with fresh varieties of
villainy and surely in all this they say only what is right and
reasonable. The British Government claim to be entitled to
palm some of their convict rascality upon the Cape, because they
supplied troops to save the Cape from Caffirs but, say these
newspapers, you did this to uphold British supremacy in Southern
Africa, not to protect our households and though it were not
so, still we say, take your troops, take your ships : we will
defend ourselves from the Caffirs ; at the very worst, we prefer
Caffirs to convicts.
Was there ever, since the beginning of the world, a juster cause
than these colonists have now, to stir their blood ?
But the agitation by no means confines itself now to the anti-
convict question. On every side a cry is rising for a representative
government, with control over supplies they will be ruled no
longer by red-tape puppies in Downing Street, and a British
legislative council at the Cape. Here is a resolution passed at a
meeting in Worcester district, on the nth August (Mr. Petrus
Jacobus de Vos, in the chair) " That the system by which the
colony is at present governed is arbitrary and unjust in its nature,
and that a more liberal system of government ought to be sub-
stituted. Further, that the present legislature has become un-
adapted to the wants of the colony, and ought to be superseded
184 JAIL JOURNAL
by a representative constitution." Some similar resolution 13
now passed at every meeting.
In the meantime the " government " here is completely
paralysed : the members of the legislative council have resigned :
the executive council never meets : and the Colony is virtually
without any government at all. The people are quietly but
effectually taking all affairs into their own hands : all the banks
and insurance offices have given notices that they will have no
dealings with anybody who is not pledged, or who may supply
the government in any manner, until after the Order in Council,
making the Cape a penal colony, shall have been cancelled : and
Sir Harry Smith, to " re-establish confidence," has taken a
questionable step proclaimed that he is about to issue a govern-
ment paper currency, to be advanced on such security as " a board
of officers " shall approve, and to be exchangeable for taxes.
All this I have culled out of the newspapers : the agitation
seems to have gone forward with still increasing violence till the
day the Neptune sailed into port : and matters are now growing
worse (or better) every day.
22nd. No more fresh meat. The " Committee of Vigilance "
found out the commodore's manoeuvre, and now the people refuse
to supply meat, or anything else, to the commodore himself or to
any ship of the squadron or any branch of the naval depart-
ment. There are four ships of war lying here, with about nine
hundred men, and they are all reduced to salt rations as well as
we. By good luck there is great abundance of excellent fish in
this bay : and one of the frigate's boats has just drawn a noble
draught of them. So we are supplied with fresh fish for
to-morrow.
The Association at Capetown are now directing their whole
energies to one point, to coerce the governor, by absolute starva-
tion of the public services, to send the Neptune at once, some-
where, anywhere, out of the waters of the colony. They are
applying the non-intercourse pledge in all its force. Contractors
for the supply of all government departments have as one man
declined to fulfil their contracts, preferring to forfeit the penalty
in their bonds. Government has advertised for new tenders (by
big painted placards, for no printer will print for a convict
government) not one tender sent in.
JAIL JOURNAL 185
Even at Simonstown the people are compelled to enforce the
pledge. The Neptune's steward went ashore to-day, by a
circuitous route, going first to the Minerva, an East Indiaman
lying near us, then to the shore in the Minerva's boat. He went to
butcher's shop ; asked for mutton ; the boy in attendance said he
would sell him two pounds : steward said he wanted a leg of
mutton ; boy did not know ; would call his master. The master
came, and the steward pretended to fall into a violent passion.
He was the steward, he said, of the Minerva ; and were his cabin
passengers, ladies and gentlemen from Madras, to be starved
because a cargo of damned rascally convicts were lying in the
bay ? For all his passion, the butcher put him to a strict
cross-examination, to make sure that he did not belong to
the Neptune ; and eventually the steward carried off the leg
of mutton.
This is all, perhaps, a rather serious business, and likely
to be more serious to those whom it may concern ; but
there is much excellent amusement in it. I laugh over the
newspapers till tears stand in my eyes. I laugh on the
poop at every fresh piece of news that comes on board as
the agitation develops itself ; a*)d sometimes I laugh for
half-an-hour in my bed.
zqth. Nothing but fish to eat yet ; but I hear the commodore
has resolved to ride on forays by night, and drive a creaght
from the farms. The governor takes no notice of the
Neptune now at all. The doctor still very ill, in a state
of constant nervous excitement, with occasional violent
paroxysms.
25^/2. There is a dismasted ship lying in the Bay the old
frigate Sermgapatam ; and to her, one hundred and twenty
of the prisoners were transferred yesterday evening, which
must certainly give much more air and room to those who
remain. We seem to be preparing to spend the summer here.
To-day the poor doctor was removed in one of the frigate's
boats, stretched upon his bed, to the naval hospital on shore.
I believe he will never leave it.
Our old skipper went ashore to-day, taking a brace of pistols
with him. He found the people very quietly disposed ; only they
would " hold no intercourse " with him he walked into several
i86 JAIL JOURNAL
shops, tried to buy a tobacco pipe, a glass for his watch, a fresh
roll of bread, but in vain ; they would hold no intercourse. He
went into the house of a poor woman, who keeps a small bakery
and confectionery shop, and who has hitherto lived by supplying
the men-of-war with fresh breakfast bread. She told him, with
tears, that she was utterly ruined that the farmers and millers
had ceased sending flour or grain to Simonstown, that but one
baker could now keep his oven hot, and was restricted to selling
at each house what would feed its known inmates only. While
they talked, the baker's cart came up ; the captain begged her, as
she was buying for herself, to get two loaves more, and sell them
to him ; but she protested, in the greatest agitation, that if she
even asked for such a thing, she would get no more bread for
herself. He came on board again, declaring he had never met
with such fools in his life ; our skipper belongs apparently to that
numerous class of persons who cannot understand how sane men,
Britons too, professing Christianity, and living in the nineteenth
century, can bring themselves, on mere public grounds, to refuse
to turn a penny. He is an old East India captain, and knows a
sure way, he tells me, to bring these people to reason namely,
to give " three dozen all round " to the colonists, and a double
allowance to the clergy.
26th. The Commodore has driven a prey of bullocks ; he sent
out a boat's crew last night ; and before morning they drove into
Simonstown a herd of cattle ; a fife and drum headed the pro-
cession, playing one of the jolly airs to which seamen are accus-
tomed to " walk away " when they raise a topgallant-mast.
The " Committee of Vigilance," keeping vigil all night upon a
balcony, were astounded. The commodore, of course, pays for
the cattle, and herein differs from a stark moss-trooper. An
officer who was on board to-day tells me the sailors of the frigate
are growing highly excited against the rebellious colonists, and
that the gunner's mate being on shore yesterday evening, and
hearing a man talking on the street about the infamous govern-
ment design of sending convicts among them to corrupt their
morals, and violate their daughters, came up to the indignant
patriot, " Ah ! you be hanged ; you're one of the cursed anti-
convict lubbers," said he, and he gave the man a blow between
the eyes that felled him where he stood.
JAIL JOURNAL 187
There is no relaxation of the blockade, however, shopkeepers
here will absolutely sell nothing to anybody belonging to the
ships of war or the Neptune. Simonstown, indeed, must go to
ruin, if the struggle last long, and the inhabitants are com-
plaining bitterly ; but public opinion is inexorable.
CHAPTER XII
2jth Sept On board the "Neptune," Simon's Bay. The
Captain went up yesterday to Capetown, and returned this
evening, bringing me three letters from home, the reading
whereof drove clear out of my head, for an hour or two,
convicts and anti-convicts, the Cape, the commodore, the
governor and all.
The captain came from Capetown in an omnibus, which con-
tained two gentlemen coming down to relieve the " Committee of
Vigilance " on the balcony, and take their turn with the telescopes.
They did not know who their fellow-traveller was, and their talk
was all of the Neptune and the felons. When he told them he had
been at Simonstown, and had seen the ship, they urged him with
questions had he seen me, J. Mitchel ? had he heard that I
had declared the colonists were right, and ought to persevere ?
Was it true that I walked about on the poop, where the captain
walks ? etc. He told them that was true enough, as any one
might see from the street at Simonstown.
He describes the excitement at Capetown as being extremely
violent ; business is nearly at a stand, and many hundreds of
persons are thrown out of work. Some families are preparing to
wind up business, selling their property, and declaring they will
fly the country. New buildings are stopped ; debts called in :
everyone thinks that howsoever this affair ends, it will go near to
destroy the colony. An impression prevails that the emigrants
who have been assisted to come here for years past by government
funds were in fact some of Lord Grey's convicts in disguise ; and
the farmers who had hired them as servants and labourers are now
dismissing them ignominiously. These poor creatures, of course,
flock into Capetown, and add to the ingredients of turbulence that
are now fermenting there. Capetown is a city somewhat larger
than Kilkenny, peopled by three or four distinct races, English,
Dutch (constituting the ruling caste), Malays, Hottentots,
and a very large number who are half Dutch and half of the
1 88
JAIL JOURNAL 189
ferocious Malay breed ; these are the artisans, boatmen, coolies,
servants, and the like. Here are materials for plenty of rough
work.
The anti-convicts are now divided into two parties ; one, the
" moderates," being willing to let the government, the army and
navy, and even the Neptune, be supplied with provisions until the
decisive despatch arrives from England, but then (if the despatch
be unfavourable) to enforce the " pledge," and use every means of
resistance the other, the immoderates (and only genuine anti-
convicts), insisting on the governor, and all his satellites,
being instantly excommunicated, unless he sends the Neptune
to sea at once, waiting for no despatches. These are the great
majority.
28th. Poor Dees, whom the governor would not relieve, has
been relieved by another authority. He is dead.
2gth. Military guard changed to-day : a party from the 73rd
regiment has come on board, under charge of a non-commissioned
officer. Our two smoking officers have gone to smoke on shore.
3Qth, Sunday. The " Bishop of Capetown," by name Dr. Gray,
came on board to-day and preached to the convicts on the main
deck. I had the curiosity, whilst he preached, to walk near enough
to hear how he addressed them. Mr. Stewart, the " instructor,"
never says, " my brethren," but always " my men " ; which I
suppose is the custom of convict chaplains : for though preachers
say that we all have sinned, yet it would be truly monstrous ii
convicted sinners were allowed to think themselves brethren to a
minister of the gospel. We all have sinned, indeed ; theoretically
or rather it is the etiquette for us to say so, in our polite
intercourse, as it were, with the Almighty. To my surprise,
however, the bishop called the poor convicts, " My dearly beloved
brethren."
After service he inquired for me : the captain came for me, and
as he, in the doctor's absence, is my head jailor, I went with hire
into the after-cabin, and was introduced to the reverend man. He
is a young man for a bishop, but wears a highly orthodox shovel-
hat, and a very peremptory silk apron girt round his loins. I
found him a most agreeable person : he heartily approves of the
anti-convict movement : told him I was glad to hear that that I
also approved of it. He declared that if the colony were but a
igo JAIL JOURNAL
little stronger it would rise in arms at once upon this argument
to which I said bravo ! This circumstance, however, he men-
tioned not explicitly as his own episcopal recommendation, but
as the universal feeling of the people. We conversed for nearly
half an hour, and I was sorry when he went away.
Oct ist. The people of Simonstown, I fear, can hold out no
longer. Shopkeepers, it is said, have begun to fly from the place,
and bills are appearing in the windows. Most of them, indeed,
are opening their shops again, a very superficial examination
being enough to satisfy the traders that all is right. Even in
Capetown, though they still refuse all intercourse with govern-
ment, or any of the departments as such, yet they will sell goods
to any one as an individual. There are no tenders yet for new
contracts, and the victor of Aliwal is in sad straits.
In the country parts the excitement and irritation increase
daily. The presence of this plague ship in their waters
acts on the colony like some acrid irritant introduced into
a living body there is fever and pain till the peccant
matter is got rid of the people really cannot bear this
poisonous blister of felony : they get no rest at night, but
are waylaid in dreams by atrocious convicts they are now
actually urging and obsecrating the governor daily to send the
ship at least out of the bay and beyond the Cape horizon,
with orders to cruise off this fearful coast until the expected
despatches arrive that is for three, four, or five months.
This he has announced he cannot legally do the Attorney-
General so advises him for the Cape also has an Attorney-
General whereupon the anti-convicts have laid the case before
some dozen eminent lawyers, Dutch and English, who unani-
mously affirm that he can legally do it. And so the anti-convicts
say he ought to do it, must do it, and if he will not do it, they
will apply the pledge machinery to him in all its power will
absolutely refuse to let anything be purchased for his private
use, even by individuals they will cut off his gas, will turn off
his water, will create on all sides a vacuum around (and inside of)
the government and all official persons ; so that the thing, it is
hoped, must collapse. Various mischievous rumours heighten the
perturbation. One day it was said that a few of the most un-
speakable felons had made their escape from the Neptune by
JAIL JOURNAL 191
swimming, and had straightway dispersed themselves over the
country on their errand of plunder, blood, and ravishment.
In the meantime the governor has, they say, so far complied
with the Association as to promise decidedly that if the final
order of the Colonial Office be to land the convicts, he will not
be the instrument of inflicting so great an injury, but will
resign. Therefore, we are likely to lie here the whole summer,
till February or March next while his resignation goes to
England, and a new governor comes out.
What complicates the business greatly, and adds materially to
the Downing Street difficulty, is that the Australian colonies are
also up in arms against the admission of any more British felony
there. A ship that lately arrived at Sydney roused an opposition
nearly as strong as we see here now, but not so well organised ;
for that governor at once landed the prisoners and shut the gates
of government house against a deputation coming to remonstrate.
And there are two or three shiploads of convicts, including that
which holds Martin and O'Doherty, now at sea on their way to
N. S. Wales, or Van Diemen'sland for on Britain's convict -ships
the sun never sets and it is hard to guess whether these will be
suffered to land their cargoes when they arrive. If we should be
sent forward, therefore, to any part of Australia, it would be only
another experimental trip : and the worthy colonists there also
might bid us pass on. At worst we cannot go much farther from
home : if my kidnappers make me sail any farther on that tack,
I shall only be coming round upon them at the other side : which
is one advantage of inhabiting a spherical body or spheroid, not
heretofore noticed by the learned.
Several persons have come to see me, either out of simple
curiosity having heard that there is a felon of a rather unusual
sort to be seen here or from a kinder motive. A young midship-
man of the Castor frigate came on board the other day, introduced
himself to me, and said he was an Irishman : so we had some talk
thereupon. A Church of England clergyman, named Sandberg,
by birth a German, being on his way from India, and making
some stay at the Cape, has been several times on board, and
has preached, he says, to the prisoners, between decks. He
offers me the loan of books, and is otherwise polite and
attentive. Also, several others, whom I forget.
i Q2 JAIL JOURNAL
Oct. I2th. Our good colonists are growing frenetic. Rumour
and rage, and " preternatural suspicion," are driving them mad.
The last week seems to have been hurrying matters forward to
some violent issue. Finding that the ship was not ordered away,
nor likely to be, and that the published opinions of Dutch juris-
oonsults were disregarded, as well as the published harangues of
the clergy and the published prayer adopted in the Jews' syna-
gogue and that both army, navy, government, yea, and the
very convicts, were actually feasting on Cape beef and mutton,
though at some inconvenience to the providers, and not without
a display of force seeing all this, and imagining that all was lost
if the ship were allowed to await Lord Grey's decision, the anti-
convicts convened a great open-air monster meeting yesterday,
and have solemnly resolved to shut all shops, and to deal with
nobody but their own customers and pledged persons. They
really hope to make it impossible for the governor to subsist the
convicts, or even himself while he harbours the convicts. The
resolution is printed, and posted everywhere, by way of pro-
clamation ; and one hour after it was promulgated yesterday,
every shop in Capetown was shut up. A courier was sent post to
Simon's Bay, with a copy of the new edict, and injunctions to
enforce the observance of the pledge most rigorously from this
day forth. Simonstown, therefore, is once more inaccessible.
The unanimity with which all this business goes on is wonderful.
Even the " moderates," though they deprecate such an extreme
measure, say they will act with their countrymen. Nobody, in
fact, dares to disobey the plebiscitum. Here it is :
" ANTI-CONVICT ASSOCIATION.
" At a special meeting of the Association, held in the Town
Hall this day, Thursday J. J. L. Smuts, Esq., in the chair
moved by J. Fairbairn, Esq., seconded by Thos. Sutherland, Esq.,
" That in consequence of the bad faith of the Right Hon. the
Earl Grey, and of his attempts to make this colony a penal
settlement, against the wishes and in defiance of the petitions, re-
monstrances and protests of the inhabitants ; and in consequence
of the detention within the limits of the colony of the ship Nep.
tune, with convicts on board, whose destination is the Cape of
Good Hope, on the ground of a professional opinion given by her
JAIL JOURNAL 193
Majesty's Attorney-General, as to the illegality of sending them
away, which the whole of the other members of the Bar have pro-
nounced to be erroneous, society in this colony is rapidly falling
into disorder, from one end of the country to the other, and the
local government is fast becoming, by reason of this disorder and
dissatisfaction, less and less capable of fulfilling the duties of a free
government, and less and less capable of protecting the lives and
property of the frontier and other inhabitants, should any troubles
arise among the native tribes and people on the borders :
" Therefore, it is the duty of all good and loyal subjects of her
Majesty, at once from this day to suspend all business transactions
with the government, in any shape or upon any terms, until it is
officially declared that the Neptune, with the convicts on board,
will go away as soon as all necessary supplies for her voyage can
be put on board and that all intercourse and connection between
private individuals and his Excellency and heads of the victualling
departments shall be dropped from this day the merchants,
auctioneers, bakers, butchers, shopkeepers, and all other good and
loyal people dealing only with such private individuals as they
know and clearly understand to be unconnected with those depart-
ments by or through which supplies, sufficient to afford a pretext
for the detention of the convicts, may possibly be obtained.
" And that, the measures already taken for this purpose being
too slow for the urgency of the case, it is recommended that after
this moment all shops and stores shall be closed as for a solemn
fast, except for the accommodation of ordinary private, and
well-known customers that his Excellency may no longer be
in doubt as to the impossibility of detaining the Neptune with
her convicts within the limits of this colony.
" Carried unanimously."
Possibly, the wisdom of this last procedure may be questionable.
Certainly, it is not to be thought of that the governor of a mari-
time colony, having plenty of ships and troops at his disposal, can
be coerced by mere starvation to do what the popular will dictates.
He may be inconvenienced, and the troops may be made hostile to
the country ; but all that will not make it " impossible " to retain
the Neptune in Simon's Bay for a few months, or even years.
Here she will assuredly stay, notwithstanding what they call the
urgency of the case, till the English despatch comes in ; therefore
194 J A1L JOURNAL
it may be that the course proposed by the " moderates " is the
wiser course, to let matters go on quietly, in the meantime (con-
tent that felony is kept afloat) reserving extreme measures of
resistance to meet the actual atrocity of landing the cargo, if
this should be attempted.
I have a strong suspicion, however, that these " moderates "
would still be moderate to the last, and that if the preservation
of the Cape depended upon them, it would be a lost country.
When we came in here at first, the chief leader of the movement
seemed to be a Mr. Ebden ; but he has been backsliding into
moderatism, and is superseded by a newspaper editor, named
Fairbairn, a man of much ability and energy, and a most im-
moderate opponent of convicts. Ebden' s portrait, lately hung up
in the public hall of meeting, has been thrown down and dis-
honoured. Artists are now engaged on a grand historic piece re-
presenting the public meeting of yesterday, with Mynheer Smuts