Reports of first sheet For every subsequent one Rds. st. 0 12 06 The like stamps are to be used by the secretary of the court in all copies. And in order that no person may plead ignorance thereof, I have caused it to be published and affixed. Given under my hand and seal, at the Cape of Good Hope, this 22nd day of May, 1812. (Signed) J. F. CRADOCK. [Copy.] Government Advertisement. Notice is hereby given that as the Persons infected with the Small Pox and sent to Paarden Island are recovered, His Excellency the Governor and Commander in Chief has directed that the communication with the said Island is to be considered open as before the Proclamation of the 5th March 1812. Castle of Good Hope, 22nd May 1812. By Command of His Excellency the Governor. Letter from LIEUTENANT COLONEL REYNELL to LIEUTENANT COLONEL GRAHAM. GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, May 23rd 1812. SIR, I was yesterday honored with your dispatch of the 15th instant which with the several enclosures contained therein I have submitted to His Excellency the Commander of the Forces. The distribution of the force under your orders for the security of the inhabitants and for the protection of our frontiers (as far as an imperfect knowledge of the features of the country can regulate the judgment) appears to be judicious, and will no doubt ensure those essential objects if the commanders of the several Posts pay unremitting attention to the excellent system of defence and vigilance which your detailed instruction to them embraced. His Excellency has remarked that there are several posts with ten soldiers at each, which appear to have no specific commandant either officer or non-commissioned officer. It is possible that such posts may be in the vicinity and under the immediate control of larger positions, but under any circumstances it would seem desirable to have a non-commissioned officer at each station where there may be placed as many as ten soldiers, that is if the strength of the corps and detachments in that rank would admit of such an arrangement. Your having marked each post by constructing a field work is much approved, and it is expected that these works, whatever may be their extent or force, will be considered of consequence, and kept in proper repair by the Detachments. The inspection of the several posts at stated or uncertain periods by a Field Officer or Captain would have the best possible effect, by keeping the Troops in a proper degree of alertness and general attention to the duty of their posts. You will therefore be so good as to give the necessary orders that inspections of this nature take place constantly through every part of the line, and also direct official reports to be made to the Commandant at the Head Quarters Cantonment, remarking where neglect or inattention has been discovered. It is to be hoped that long ere this the arrival of the commandos from Stellenbosch has enabled you to complete the whole line of defence, and that the troops of every description are now at their respective stations. The necessity of treating as enemies such Kaffers as may hereafter be found lurking in the neighbourhood, or intruding between the posts, is so satisfactorily explained that His Excellency cannot avoid approving of the orders you have circulated upon that subject, as the precautions adopted in apprizing the Kaffers of the existence of those orders ought to give every reasonable expectation that sanguinary consequences may very rarely ensue. The late partial aggression related in your letter, and which was nearly attended with the loss of so many head of cattle, would seem to render in every respect indispensable for the security of His Majesty's subjects the system of decided proceedings that you have adopted. Altho' His Excellency will not urge your sending again overtures to Gaika, still he would not be displeased to hear that an interview could be managed with that chief, without risking the appearance of having any other motive in view than that of establishing an amicable limited intercourse with the Kaffers, and which could not fail to be productive of advantage to them. His Excellency entirely approves of your having postponed the erection of any permanent buildings for the accommodation of the troops until experience enables us to ascertain with more satisfaction those points of the line that may be most eligible for the construction of such buildings, and in consideration of the expence and inconvenience that the officers must necessarily suffer in providing themselves with habitations, your solicitation on their behalf will be attended to, and an allowance of lodging money granted to those who are actually in the field, or not provided with quarters by Government. I have also to signify His Excellency's approval of your intention to purchase the few horses that will be required to complete the two troops of Dragoons stationed in the interior, and it is to be hoped that your expectation of procuring a serviceable description of animal may be realised. Lieut. Colonel Arbuthnot has suggested some improvements as relating to your Commissariat in points of future supply, and also in respect to payments, which will be duly attended to, and the resident commissaries furnished with specific instructions upon those heads. From the expressions of approbation contained in my former communication, and the general strain of approval which pervades this letter, it appears almost superfluous to repeat how perfectly satisfactory have all your arrangements proved to the Commander of the Forces, and how fully answered has every expectation been that your character for military judgment and discretion had induced His Excellency to entertain. I have &c. (Signed) THOS. REYNELL, Lt. Col., Mil. Sec. [Copy.] Letter from HENRY ALEXANDER, ESQRE., to LIEUTENANT SECRETARY'S OFFICE, May 23rd 1812. SIR,-I have received your letter dated May the 2nd, and I am directed to express His Excellency's extreme satisfaction with, and approbation of, every part of your most active and judicious arrangements. I must have been unfortunate in my expressions of His Excellency's sentiments if I conveyed, or implied, in my letter of the 2nd of May that any part of your conduct had not met with His Excellency's approval in such a manner as to excite regret in your mind. Upon a fundamental principle referred home by His Excellency but as far decided here as in his power, it has been determined in no instances to grant loan leases. Ignorant of such decision you had suggested to the inhabitants to return to certain deserted situations on loan leases. His Excellency authorises me to state in the grants of lands upon Quit Rent and in perpetuity, a most serious preference will be given to persons acting on your suggestion, and in the interim between this and the time of the Survey being accomplished it is His Excellency's pleasure they should continue their possession. His Excellency is most anxious to uphold the respect due to your engagements in your public capacity, as well as to relieve your mind from any sensations of a personal nature at having created expectations not to be realized, but he considers the personal interests of the individuals, as well as those of the public, will be better consulted by the modifications proposed by His Excellency. In answer to your letter of the 14th instant His Excellency is equally pleased with the selection of places you have chosen for military situations as with the caution and circumspection you have acted with waiting the result of experience before you recommend any extraordinary exertions to forward population or a serious expenditure of the public money. After having made the best enquiries in your power, His Excellency must trust to your local knowledge and good understanding to do what is immediately necessary, and directs me to assure you of every support his administration can afford. Such suggestions as you may make for the carriage of provisions and the supply of troops His Excellency will approve of as far as relates to the troops more completely Colonial, but without previously directing the officers attached to the Commissariat to obey your instructions on that point, he trusts they will do so in every thing consistent with their being enabled to pass their accounts, and I presume His Excellency will communicate to the Commissary General his sentiments. Your sentiments as to a military village exactly describe what His Excellency directed me to convey to you and he is equally sanguine in his expectations with you of the ultimate good effects of such establishments. His Excellency trusts you will lean as lightly upon the farmers as is consistent with public necessity, and authorises you, where the burthen is frequent and oppressive, to make compensation, but highly approves of your idea of as much as possible by arrangements guarding against that pressure. His Excellency authorises you to exercise your own judgment in the distribution of the lands immediately surrounding the |