Sir Henry Pottinger
& British Kaffraria

Sir Andries Stockenström's treaty system was never given a fair trial. The treaties were complicated and not perfectly understood by the Lieutenant Governor's successor.

When Major-General Sir George Napier became Governor in 1838 - with Lieutenant Colonel John Hare as his deputy - he failed to see the relevance of such treaties and tended to assess them purely in terms of their success in returning "stolen" cattle.

The system maintained an uneasy existence until September 1844 when the next Governor, Lieutenant-General Sir Peregrine Maitland, bowed to pressure from the colonists and abrogated the treaties.

He replaced them with arrangements of his own - to build a series of forts along the Buffalo River. Lieutenant Governor Hare correctly saw that such a move was provocative - and he resigned in protest.

Hare was right. Conditions on the frontier deteriorated rapidly and when, in April 1846, a servant stole an axe from a farmer and his friends refused to turn him in, the entire frontier exploded into yet another war.

The "War of the Axe" would last 21 months, much longer than any of its predecessors, and was a heavy drain on the British Treasury. The protracted length of the war was due to better Xhosa military organisation and to Sir Peregrine's mishandling of the campaign.

By 1846, however, a substantial change had taken place in both the Colonial Office and southern Africa. In the decade which followed Sir Benjamin's recall, the humanitarian sentiment had lost ground, to be replaced by a more pragmatic approach.

Indeed, the Colonial Office was now more inclined to ratify a Governor's decision provided that he was able to justify it and guarantee that no further expense would be incurred. Sir Benjamin D'Urban would have loved that arrangement!

In 1846 the Whigs had come to power in Britain and were faced with another war in the Cape Colony which was to cost more than £1 million. Furthermore, the Great Trek had by now placed a substantial group of the Dutch-speaking population outside the colonial borders - the so-called Great Trek.

A new colonial policy was therefore seen as imperative to accommodate the altered circumstances. The scheme that was now formulated was in part the brainchild of Sir Henry Pottinger, who had had experience of the system of indirect rule in India.

The idea involved the creation of a form of protectorate over what was now termed "Kaffraria". The Chiefs would acknowledge the Queen as their protector and would recognise their own subordination in civil and military affairs to a British military commander, resident in Kaffraria.

Sir Henry Pottinger was considered the ideal person to implement the new system because of his experience in India, and because he had no other no immediate assignment. Sir Henry, however, would have preferred another post in India.

His acceptance of the Cape Town appointment was conditional therefore to its being a claim to a higher position in India as soon as one became available. He then complicated the issue when he saw the possibility of enhancing his salary.

He demanded that he be known as High Commissioner for Southern Africa. The Colonial Office had no objection to whatever title Sir Henry preferred provided that he was indeed a Governor and was paid no more than a Governor's wages. In this way, the High Commissionership was born!

As it turned out, Sir Henry was not able to implement the new system at all. Sir Peregrine Maitland had misled the Colonial Office into believing that the war was nearly over but, when Sir Henry arrived in Cape Town in January 1847, he found that this was certainly not the case.

His first task, therefore, had to be ending the war but this proved to be impossible within the time available to him. Indeed, just as hostilities appeared to be abating, the desired promotion materialised and Sir Henry found himself en route to India.

The task of implementing the carefully conceived plans for British Kaffraria would therefore have to be performed by the next Governor and High Commissioner, Sir Harry Smith - the same man who had played so important a role in implementing Sir Benjamin D'Urban's earlier plans for the Province of Queen Adelaide.

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