GREMAN SETTLEMENTS AT THE CAPE.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 763, 14 January 1871, Page 3

GREMAN SETTLEMENTS AT THE CAPE.

(From the Kaffrarian Watchman) There are a number of German villages rapidly increasing in size, and having a very creditable appearance, along the left bank of the Buffalo, and extending to the east point of the Amatola Mountain, on the Queen's Town boundary. The singular success attending the German settlements in this (East London) and the King William's Town division will justify a short account of their origin and progress. Towards the close of 1856, the native tribes on the frontier showed unmistakable signs of restlessness, and a Kaffre war seemed almost unavoidable. It was just at the moment that the Crimean war had been finished, and the Government of Great Britain was endeavoring to find an outlet for the men of the British German Legion who were to be disbanded. Sir Geo. Grey, then Governor" of the Cape Colony, conceived the idea of creating military settlements along the frontier upon something like the system of the Austrian military frontier. Two thousand of the German Legionaries were •subsequently brought out and located in companies along the left bank of the Buffalo River, from East London to King William's Town, and from thent-e in an easterly direction as far as the Thomas Uiver. They commenced to form small villages, and there is no doubt that the sudden influx of such a number of military men had its due moral influence upon the minds of the Kaffres, and coupled with the infatuation caused by the prophetess Umhlakaza, it helped to prevent the outbreak anticipated ; but the German military settlements entirely failed as regards the usefulness of the Legionaries as colonists. An enquiry into the causes of the failure is foreign to the object of this work. Sir G. Grey quickly perceived the failure, and became alarmed at the prospect of the probable results from a state of society formed by a numerous class of adventurous men, mostly young and destitute of the charms of family life, placed in a new and wild country, where the while population were in no proportion to the natives. To remedy the evil Sir George proposed, and Parliament sanctioned, a plan of introducing a number of German peasant families, and sis hundred families or thereabouts, were consequently brought out upon certain conditions, and they -were ioeated in and arounii the diverse settlements originally formed by the German Legion. These families arrived in 1858, and have been designated by the common appellation of the " German Immigrants." The ■colony advanced the passage money, and the immigrants, were entitled to a ce. tain number of acres of ground proportionate to the number of heads in each family, ranging from 20 to 100 acres, for which land, they had, however to pay £1 per acre, on a term of credit ranging over ten years. They had likewise to undertake repayment of the passage money advanced by the colony within the same period. These people arrived here mostly poor and destitute of all means of support. Their respective lots of ground not having been allotted to them till a considerable time after their arrival, the Government to prevent distress and actual starvation, allowed them rations for the first six months, which they should also undertake to repay along with the land and passage money. But the Government, having been made aware of the distressed situation of the German immigrants, remitted the payment for the rations. These German peasants, were, however, the very class of men required for this country. Nothing daunted by adverse circuit.stances in the beginning, they set to work with the spade, they cultivated small plots of ground, and soon gave a lively appearance to the hitherto barren looking villages. They found a ready market for their small produce in King William's Town and East London ; and beinir sober, industrious, persevering men, thfy added one plot of cultivation to another—men, women, and children working alike with good cheer and indomitable spirit—and the result of their labors may now be seen in a number of flourishing settlements, where many thousand acres of ground are most carefully cultivated, neat and comfortable homesteads erected, andall sorts of handiwork effected. The men of the German Legion found partners amongst their own countrywomen, and became real settlers in their turn ; a great danger to society was averted, and the foundation has thus Deen laid of the ultimate prosperity of a numerous class of colonists of the right stamp No market in the colony is so plentifully and cheaply supplied as the. market in King William's Town. Potatoes, vegetables, grain, fowls, eggs, butter, and all those little comforts of life r-quired by a large town population, are brought to market by primitive instruments of conveyance, drawn by a pair of horses or oxen, whilst the poorest will manage to traverse the country with their produce upon wheelbarrows drawn by the man and his frau and adult children. A larye propo Hon' of the revenue of the King William's Town market ia derived from

tho Germans, and on the whole, they themselves are mostly independont.aud many possess considerable balances in hard cash. Their morals, as a elas.*, are unimpeachable, and they form altogether, a most respectable and respected part of the population of the two divisions of King William's Town and East London