1820 British Settlers

George Southey 9, together with his parents and 6 siblings, were members of George Southey's Party of 49 Settlers on the Settler Ship Kennersley Castle.

Party originated from Somerset.

Departed Bristol, 10 January 1820. Arrived Table Bay, Cape Town - 29 March 1820. Final Port - Algoa Bay, Port Elizabeth 29 April 1820.

Area Allocated to the Party : Bush River - Lower Albany

Children :

• Sophia Southey 16
  
• William Southey 13
  
• Richard Southey 11
  
• George Southey 9
  
• Elizabeth Southey 7
  
• Robert Henry Southey 4
  
• Canon Southey 1
  

Copies or extracts of any despatches which have been received from, or addressed to, the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, relative to the late Caffre War and to the death of Hintza Instructions given to the Lieutenant-Governor of the Frontier Districts.

[Hintza https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hintsa_kaKhawuta] (c.1790-1835) was Chief of the amaGcaleka. He was a generous and even-handed leader who ruled his people through his good sense and physical presence. Boer traders and hunters noted his openness and hospitality to them. Living in what was later named the Ciskei, south west of the Gcaleka, was a breakaway clan called the amaRarabe, who were led by Hintza's great uncle. Clashes across the Eastern Cape had escalated as more and more white farmers moved into the area, and pressure on black pastoralists grew. The history of the frontier conflicts are well known, but in 1835 the Governor of the Cape, Sir Benjamin D'Urban, seems to have believed that conflict in the border area was the work of Hintza. Most historians suggest that Hintza did not wish to encourage conflict and in fact had moved his home further from the area of conflict. The British enlisted the help of the Mpondo and the Thembu, who attacked the Gcaleka. Hintza, aware of the situation, gave himself up as a hostage "in the hope of sparing his people the ravages of yet another war" [A PROPER DEGREE OF TERROR, Ben Maclennan, p. 216]. Unhappily, Hintza was assaulted in the camp; and when he set off to fulfil his offer to go back to his tribe and force them to pay the large number of cattle and horses D'Urban demanded, he was killed. The horse he was riding was either spooked or he lost control of his mount which broke away. As a result, Sir Harry Smith, who had accompanied him, misfired both his pistols, then knocked Hintza off his horse and broke his jaw. Hintza attempted to get away but was shot in the calf and then executed by R. Southey. His body was mutilated by unnamed troops. These events and this Frontier War were to have lasting effects on the whole of Southern Africa. Lord Glenelg, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, was dismayed by the chain of events and D'Urban's despatches, bringing to his attention the complete defeat of the Xhosa and Hintza's death, as well as the general manner in which the Gcaleka had been "chastised" [ p. 111]. Glenelg responded: "In a conflict between regular troops and hordes of barbarous men, it is almost a matter of course that there should exist an enormous disproportion between the loss of life on either side. But to consign an entire country to desolation and a whole people to famine, is an aggravation of the necessary horrors of war, so repugnant to every just feeling, and so totally at variance with the habits of civilized nations, that I should not be justified in receiving such a statement without calling upon you for further explanations. The honour of the British name is deeply interested in obtaining and giving publicity to the proofs that the safety of the king's subjects really demanded so fearful an exercise of the irresistible power of His Majesty's force. [p. 111]. Glenelg was also very disturbed by the accounts of Hintza's death: "…that Hintza repeatedly cried out for mercy; that the Hottentots present granted the boon, and abstained from killing him, that this office was undertaken by Mr Southey, and that the dead body of the fallen chief was basely and inhumanly mutilated. I express no opinion on this subject, but advert to it because the honour of the British name demands that the case should undergo a full investigation which is my purpose to institute" [Glenelg to General Commander-in-Chief, p. 115]. The Xhosa mutilated British soldiers in later wars and were also made wary of any negotiations. Glenelg dismissed D'Urban and returned the area to which D'Urban had laid waste to the Xhosa, calling it Adelaide Province. The Boer farmers saw the returning of the land to the Xhosa as yet more evidence of the Cape government siding with the Xhosa and renewed their expeditions to find new land to settle; three years later the Great Trek began in earnest, triggering the consequences that flowed from that movement northwards.