Surrender at New Orleans

by David Rooney

  During this period of separation, Juana finally decided to join the Church of England which brought deep satisfaction for Harry although, in consequence, she was disowned by her remaining Spanish relatives. As their separation dragged on, Juana constantly begged to come and join Harry. She reminded him of her long months of campaigning in Spain, when she had never complained. Every letter from Harry reassured her of his deep and constant love, but never said a word about her joining him. There was some slight solace when he suggested that she started to write down details of all their adventures together, remarking light-heartedly that one day it might be published as Harry and Jenny Smith. She attended social functions, including balls in Government House, no longer the dazzling young wife but a rather plump Spanish matron, albeit splendidly attired. But still her thoughts were on the frontier with Harry.

  By early 1835, having pacified the area around Grahamstown and the Great Fish River, Harry had to tackle the bigger problem of the powerful chief Hintza, who controlled a vast territory up to and beyond the River Kei, some hundred miles beyond Grahamstown. Hintza and his forces had caused havoc along the frontier, frequently clashing with Dutch trekkers who were moving into the area. Harry reflected uncritically the view of the British as they moved into many parts of Africa, that they were bringing law and order and the benefits of civilization to a dark continent. It did not occur to the supporters of British expansion that Hintza and many others were defending their lands against attack by alien intruders. After reports that Hintza’s men had made ferocious attacks on mission stations and had stolen thousands of cattle, Harry marched his forces beyond the River Kei to a mission station deep into Hintza’s territory. For weeks the British had made overtures to Hintza to arrange a peaceful settlement, but constantly received evasive answers.

  Harry led a strong force, including his faithful Scottish Highlanders, some Hottentot units and also new units of Fingoes, a tribe which Hintza had cowed into slavery. As the British advanced, Hintza’s chief representative came to the headquarters. Harry described him as ‘a sharp wolf-like fellow with the cunning of Satan’. After lengthy and patient discussion it became clear that Hintza had not the slightest intention of restoring the cattle he had stolen or making restitution for destroying the mission station, and D’Urban, who had now joined Harry, therefore formally declared war. On 24 April 1835, Harry moved his forces, including some cavalry, further into Hintza’s country. While his main force advanced, Harry, really in his element, led fighting patrols against Hintza’s different kraals and rounded up thousands of cattle which had been stolen from the settlers. Then, in a rapid manoeuvre, he led the attack on Hintza’s main kraal. Hintza had fled but in a significant gesture his whole kraal was burned down. Hintza had treated every previous approach with contempt, but the burning of his kraal had a dramatic effect. Almost immediately he came into the British camp with a group of followers to make peace with the Governor. D’Urban formally read out all the charges against him and he asked to have until the next day to consider the situation. Harry made certain that his prisoner was very carefully guarded, but during the evening they had a formal dinner during which a bullock was ceremonially slaughtered – described by Harry in gruesome detail in his autobiography.

  The following day a formal court was set up, presided over with due pomp by D’Urban, and peace was officially proclaimed. Hintza, appearing to cooperate, agreed to send messages to all his chiefs with orders to them to bring in their quota of cattle. In the meantime, he remained in Harry’s HQ virtually as a prisoner. During the peace negotiations, Hintza’s forces started to attack the Fingoes, but they desisted when Harry threatened to hang Hintza, his brother and his son. Soon afterwards, an elderly representative of Hintza came into Harry’s HQ and it was later discovered that Hintza had sent him in order to murder Harry. D’Urban distrusted Hintza from the start, but he did allow Harry, with a strong military force, to take the chief back to his lands to collect the stolen cattle. When Hintza asked what his position was Harry replied that he was a prisoner, and if he tried to escape he would be shot. They travelled for several days and Hintza often behaved suspiciously. Then, when they were close to a deep valley and close to several Kaffir villages, Hintza tried to escape. He spurred his horse away, but Harry galloped after him and after a desperate ride, managed to pull Hintza off his horse. Before Harry could turn his horse round Hintza had disappeared into the thick bush. The military escort quickly spread out and in the ensuing melee, confusion and darkness, Hintza was shot.

  On the frontier, D’Urban and Harry faced a complex situation. On the one hand, their handling of the general unrest and especially their treatment of Hintza was seriously criticized by the missionaries, who had powerful contacts back in London at Exeter Hall, the headquarters of evangelical and missionary activity. On the other, they fell foul of the Boer settlers for being far too lenient with Hintza and his warriors who had spread murder and mayhem across the whole area. The Hintza crisis drew D’Urban and Harry together, although there is evidence of some disagreement. Harry criticized D’Urban for being too cautious and dilatory, and D’Urban, in a personal letter, pointed out that because of Harry’s hasty and impetuous actions, there were fairly serious doubts about putting real power into his hands.

  In his autobiography, Harry described very briefly how Hintza, in attempting to escape, was shot. He did not realize at the time the very serious implications this incident would have. Glenelg, the Colonial Secretary, who was strongly influenced by the evangelical lobby, not only criticized the forward policy on the frontier, but, after receiving an independent report, demanded a Court of Inquiry into the death of Hintza. The report alleged that in his attempt to escape, Hintza had been wounded and then had been shot in cold blood. For Harry, the Inquiry was both humiliating and frustrating, and in its final statement it was critical of his description of Hintza’s death. The intensity of their feelings is illustrated in the personal letters between D’Urban and Harry. D’Urban wrote that Glenelg’s ravings were fanatic and imbecile, and Harry reacted furiously at the canting hypocrisy of philanthropists and ‘their damned Jesuitical procedures’. In a letter to Glenelg, Harry bitterly regretted that he had believed the ‘trumped up fabrications of a double-faced scoundrel’. Although Glenelg subsequently apologized, his actions caused grave hurt to Harry and damage to his reputation. Allegations and recriminations about the death of Hintza have continued into the twenty-first century.

  On the ground, immediately after Hintza’s death, Harry’s force was in serious danger, because Hintza had led them into his stronghold, and the news of his death could well rouse his people to fury. Harry gathered his units together, urged their total vigilance and quickly moved off. They covered 80 miles in three days, but he kept them going and set off at 3.00am, leaving only ‘jaded horses and weakly men’ under an experienced Peninsula officer as a guard on the cattle they had recovered. As he had half expected, the Kaffirs did attack during the next night and murdered one section of the guards. Still in serious danger from large bodies of the enemy, Harry concentrated all his forces, set out strong defences with covering fire and prepared for another attack. On leaving this difficult and dangerous position, the British had to cross a deep, wooded river valley, but thanks to Harry’s clear orders and positive leadership this was achieved without loss. He considered that it was the most dangerous situation he had ever been in. He described the handful of his people ‘compared with the thousands of brawny savages all round us, screeching their war-cry, calling to their cattle, and indicating by gesticulations the pleasure they would have in cutting our throats’.

  By the middle of May 1835, Harry and his troops were ready to fight their way forward, and they moved slowly westwards with 3,000 cattle which had been recovered, together with about 1,000 Fingoes who flocked to the British units for protection from their Hintza attackers. They had to cross very difficult mountainous country with deep valleys and fast-flowing rivers, but they safely rejoined the main for
ce under D’Urban on 21 May. The Governor issued a special order praising the military skill and indefatigable activity of Colonel Smith and ‘the admirable zeal, discipline and determined spirit’ of his troops. He also praised the rescue of the Fingoes and the recovery of thousands of cattle.

  During the campaign, Harry’s letters to Juana give a vivid account of all his actions, together with discreet comments when D’Urban was present. In February, when the Governor arrived, Harry had written: ‘Master is always floundering in the midst of information, whilst I like to take a look at the ground, march and take possession.’ Despite this criticism, Harry came to revere D’Urban. Whatever pressures Harry was under, one thing always shone through his letters: ‘The sum total of all my love, affection, regard, esteem, everything that is dear, to you alma mia’. In another letter he describes a hut which was built for him, but he wished his dear wife was in it. He gave amusing anecdotes of how he tried to cope with Dutch for the burghers and a few phrases for the Kaffirs. He showed his vigorous and cheerful personality which dominated the atmosphere of the camp. Two of his young officers, ‘the impudent rascals’, planned Fort Harry, and even drew a sketch of it. On another day, to please Harry, they drew Fort Wellington.

  Harry’s brisk and successful campaign, so warmly commended by D’Urban, had pacified a large area and saw the creation of Queen Adelaide Province, from the Fish River to the River Kei, with King William’s Town as the capital. Before he left for Cape Town, the Governor appointed Harry in full charge of the new province. This made it possible for him to write to Juana to say she could join him. Her journey was quickly planned. She would leave on 4 June, reach Fort Willshire by 23 June and be reunited with Harry the following day.

  Harry – frequently with Juana by his side – threw himself into the arduous task of pacifying and civilizing the new province. He took a very strong line with the remaining Kaffir rebels and made it clear that above all he wanted to establish peace, but if they attacked him he would destroy them. It was still a dangerous situation and soon after Juana arrived a patrol, warned to be vigilant, and led by an experienced British officer, was completely wiped out without a shot being fired. In their growing headquarters, at first Harry and Juana had to sleep under canvas because their house was not ready, and they had to be protected by numerous sentries because of the danger of Kaffir attacks. The fairly large Fingo contingent, which Harry had rescued from Hintza’s attacks, were now confident enough to drive off the Kaffirs from the headquarters area. Harry, helped greatly by Juana, tried to influence Kaffir women to curb their men’s brutal and warlike tendencies, and to assist in the establishment of peace. After a long and determined effort, peace was at last established – in September 1835, D’Urban came to Fort Cox, halfway between Grahamstown and Fort Willshire, and formally agreed peace terms with Kreili, the son of Hintza.

  After this, Harry and Juana started on the difficult but rewarding task of establishing law and order and civilized standards across the new province. Realizing that the chiefs wielded immense power, he appointed them as magistrates, and as a symbol of their authority issued them with a black cane with a brass knob. He ostentatiously used a very large cane and a bigger brass knob to show that the authority came from him. He called his HQ his ‘Great Kraal’ and encouraged all chiefs to send a representative to stay there to ensure good communication – only partly as a hostage. He appointed army officers to act as magistrates alongside the more important chiefs. This regime which he set up was remarkably similar to the system of Indirect Rule, which was used across most British colonial territories in Africa, from the time of Lord Lugard in 1900 until after the Second World War.

  Harry discovered that a chief would frequently be in league with a powerful witch doctor, together creating an absolute tyranny over their people. The charge of witchcraft, which they frequently levied against an innocent man, especially if he owned many cattle, led to almost certain death, after horrifying torture – like tying a man to a stake in the ground and covering him with black ants. In spite of his best efforts, Harry discovered chiefs who still inflicted brutal punishments on their victims. He therefore called great meetings of chiefs with their people, and where necessary would publicly punish the chief who had broken the rules.

  At the same time as gradually removing barbaric practices, he positively introduced the benefits of civilization. Key men in each tribe were taught to use oxen for ploughing and were encouraged to spread the practice. Trade slowly replaced barter and the use of money spread to most areas. Juana played an active part in the civilizing schemes by maintaining close contact with the wives of the chiefs, encouraging them to forward the civilizing process and the eradication of warlike and barbaric customs. Not quite the Lysistrata of Aristophanes, but along the same lines! Her influence was particularly significant when Harry attempted, successfully, to put a stop to the annual custom of a chief and his cronies having their way with all the young maidens of the tribe. Belief in magic remained a huge problem and Harry persevered in undermining it. In a special large gathering of chiefs and people, Harry brought in a chief who had been particularly truculent, and set out to prove that his magic was stronger. He had the engineers place on old wagon on the skyline and fill it with explosive. Then, before the assembled crowd, he stated that his magic was so powerful that he could merely point at a distant object and it would blow up. Which of course it did. Harry admired the very handsome physique of the African men and women, ‘figures and eyes beyond conception’, but surprisingly he seemed really offended by their nakedness and did his best to encourage them to wear clothes, normally animal skins. At the same time, while he hesitated to oppose polygamy, he did oppose the purchase of wives – usually nubile young maidens. He and Juana had some success in getting the families to oppose this practice.

  They had thrown themselves heart and soul into the challenging but rewarding task of bringing peace and prosperity to the new province, when suddenly they were stopped in their tracks. The missionary lobby, the combative Reverend John Philip and the scheming Captain Stockenstrom, through their evangelical contacts in London, had prevailed on the vacillating Lord Glenelg, the Colonial Secretary, to remove Harry from his position, replace him by Stockenstrom, abandon Queen Adelaide Province, and withdraw British control back to the Fish River. Harry reacted furiously, writing years later that he remained deeply hurt and offended by the fierce criticism he received in the press. He wrote:

  The most crooked policy ever invented by the most wicked Machiavellians blasted all my hopes for the benefit of the barbarians committed to my rule, and the bright prospect of peace and tranquillity for the Colony … it restored the province to barbarism, shook off the allegiance of the Kaffirs, and reestablished the full plenitude of their barbarity … I did not expect to be called a bloodthirsty murderer in every print in every quarter of our dominions or to be shamefully abandoned by the Minister of the Colonies.

  He added that Stockenstrom was violently obnoxious to both the colonists and the Kaffirs. Harry was not likely to accept, without protest, such a calamity and the shattering of all his hopes for civilizing the province. He wrote to Glenelg with a full and lengthy justification of all his actions. Glenelg did not respond to him personally, but much later, in May 1837, he did send a dispatch to D’Urban, indirectly admitting his error, and stating that he was delighted to express the acknowledgement of the Government to Colonel Smith, ‘not only for his Military Services but for his zealous, humane and enlightened administration of the Civil Government of the Province’.

  In King William’s Town, the whole population was horrified at the dismissal of Harry and Juana, who had won their respect and affection for bringing peace, justice and prosperity to the region. The wives of the chiefs, weeping and lamenting, heaped their valuables onto Juana. Harry, despite his fury, did his best to hand over to Stockenstrom, and then they left. He wrote: ‘I had laboured day and night, God alone knows how I had laboured, and to be so unkindly treated by the minister
of my country was galling to a soldier whose good name is his only hope in the world.’ As they travelled towards Cape Town, at every town they passed, they received an overwhelming welcome, a formal dinner and public presentations. Harry had arranged a light wagon with swinging seats for Juana and they had a delightful journey, with Harry able to ride off and chase game or ostriches as they went along. At Grahamstown, the whole population came out to bid them farewell and thank them for bringing peace and prosperity – a stark contrast to the dire situation when Harry arrived after his famous ride, in January 1835, twenty-two months before. After their return to Cape Town, they were showered with gifts and presentation silver plate, and were honoured with formal ceremonies expressing gratitude and admiration. The Dutch burghers, the officers of the garrison, all the military units and almost all the civilian organizations expressed their feelings with warm and generous donations.

  There were further repercussions. Harry’s rapid occupation of Queen Adelaide Province and its swift abandonment by Glenelg prompted one of the major events in South African history. The Dutch burghers, already alienated by the imposition of British law and language, and by the abolition of slavery on which their way of life depended, decided that Glenelg’s weak truckling to the missionaries was the last straw. They started the Great Trek in which, with all their families, cattle and all their possessions, they trekked north, beyond British control and eventually established two independent Boer republics – the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. This was to impinge on Harry’s life again when he returned to the Cape as Governor.

  Harry’s curt dismissal by Glenelg as a result of the machinations of the missionary lobby in London could have been disastrous for his career, but once again he was to find that he had a powerful backer in Whitehall. Instead of ignominious dismissal, thanks to the intervention of the Duke of Wellington, Harry was appointed Adjutant General of the forces in India. Within just a few days, he and Juana had to dispose of most of their belongings and hurriedly embark for new adventures in India.