Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations and Maps
- Preface
- Author's Note
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Part I Scotland: Border Farm to Literary Edinburgh (1789–1820)
- Part II The Cape Frontier: Pioneer, Settler Leader (1820–1821)
- Part III Cape Town and Genadendal: The Stand Against Power (1822–1825)
- 8 Westward
- 9 ‘An Arrant Dissenter’
- 10 Vale of Grace
- 11 On the Frontier: the Final Year
- Part IV The Frontier, Karroo: Rural Retreat and the ‘Great Cause’ (1825–1826)
- Part V London Literary Life and The Anti-Slavery Campaign (1826–1833)
- Part VI Scotland and Highgate A Poet Returns to his Roots and Last Works (1830–1834)
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - Westward
from Part III - Cape Town and Genadendal: The Stand Against Power (1822–1825)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations and Maps
- Preface
- Author's Note
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Part I Scotland: Border Farm to Literary Edinburgh (1789–1820)
- Part II The Cape Frontier: Pioneer, Settler Leader (1820–1821)
- Part III Cape Town and Genadendal: The Stand Against Power (1822–1825)
- 8 Westward
- 9 ‘An Arrant Dissenter’
- 10 Vale of Grace
- 11 On the Frontier: the Final Year
- Part IV The Frontier, Karroo: Rural Retreat and the ‘Great Cause’ (1825–1826)
- Part V London Literary Life and The Anti-Slavery Campaign (1826–1833)
- Part VI Scotland and Highgate A Poet Returns to his Roots and Last Works (1830–1834)
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The, ‘on the whole, prosperous’ state of the Glen Lynden settlement, which compared so starkly with the calamitous fate of the English settlers in Albany, brought many favours with it. Thomas Philipps, promoting settlement in 1836, recalled the first four years as having brought
bitter disappointment, principally from the entire loss of the wheat crop by the rust, amalady scarcely remembered before…at the same time the Caffers made frequent incursions and robbed the settlers of numerous cattle … the inattention and want of feeling of the military and civil authorities.
Philipps saw fit not to mention the three-year drought followed by a great flood, which ruined so many in Albany and which, apart from drought, the Scots had escaped.
When Thomas, his Library appointment in Cape Town secured, heard of the imminent arrival of his eldest brother William and his companions in July 1822 he was able to make use of the laissez passer with which an indulgent Colonel Bird had furnished him. It read:
By Command of His Excellency – Whereas the Bearer Mr Thomas Pringle is to proceed from Graaff Reinet to Cape Town on Public Service, all Landdrosts, Field Cornets, and other Inhabitants, being called upon by the said Officer, are therefore hereby required to afford him every accommodation in their power, and forthwith to provide him, from Farm to Farm on his route with Draught Oxen, and with every other necessary he may, for the better execution of his Commission, stand in need of and require.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Thomas PringleSouth African pioneer, poet and abolitionist, pp. 111 - 120Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012