The South-African crisis - pagina 11

THE SOUTH-AFRICAN

CRISIS.

ranee and a tenacity which nothing can shake. Neither

the

Spaniards in

glish at the

the

sixteenth century nor the En-

Cape ever comprehended

upon kitent energy.

this character based

Because they in winter noticed

only a tiny rivulet like a thread of frozen and harm-

were not prepared

water, they

less

for the powerful

torrent that at springtime would rush

How

down

to over-

bed as soon as the melting of the snow set

its

Shortly after

the

occupation

in.

of the Cape in 1814

between the colonists and their new masters The farmers on the northern

affairs

began to give trouble.

frontier of the colony, especially, refused to accomodate

themselves to the

new

named Bezuydenhout pany

gun

of soldiers.

conditions.

single-handed a

resisted

He was

killed

hand, vowed vengence.

in

of them a

One

on the

A

spot.

man com-

His wife,

disturbance broke

Brought to a stand by a military force three

out.

times superior some of the rioters were taken and tried,

and

five of

the

rest

were compelled to

On March top of a

them were condemned 9^^^

1§}^

hill in

tlie

to be

hanged while

assist at their execution.

gallows was erected on the

the presence of a crowd of colonists

uccompanied by their wives and children.

Presently

the five condemned men, strung up tot he same beam,

swung together from side to side. They had alread}-^ consciousness when suddenly the beam came down with a crash. The five bodies lay upon the ground. The unhapp}^ men recovered animation. The lost

an act of divine clemency, im-

crowd,

seeing

plored

with heart-rending appeals, the mercy of the

in this

English magistrate. But he, a

man

of a severity

which

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