DofAInhabitants

To His Excellency the R Hon. Lord Charles
Henry Somerset, Governor and Commander
in Chief &c. &c. &c
The Memorial of the undersigned Inhabitants
of the District of Albany
Respectfully Sheweth
That your Memorialists
after four Years of privations and distress from
failures of Crops and others numerous and serious
causes, were at length indulged with hopes that
some improvement was likely to take place
in their condition _ The attention of the British
Government and Nation was drawn to their situation
_ Enlightened inquiry has began to inspire
them with sanguine expectations of the future
while the removal of various grievances that
could not for a moment bear the light of dispassionate
examination, which the Memorialists
had ventured to represent to the British Government,
seemed to be the immediate fruit of the
investigation, and earnest of the attention likely
to be extended to all their other reasonable requests
and a convincing proof of the wisdom and liberality
of the British Government.
That the insecurity and alarm arising
from perseverance in a fruitless hostility with the
Neighbouring Tribes, had wholly disappeared from the
moment that a more humane and conciliatory
intercourse was established; that the appointment
of a Commissioner to define Boundaries
and decide upon claims for Land, the encouragement

couragement given to the Navigation of the Kowie
and the disappearance of those destructive principles
of Monopoly, which had so long left the supply of
provisions to the Troops, in hands of a Government
establishment, and which had in a great measure
confined the growing of Forage for the Cavalry, to
their own Officers, had altogether encouraged the
Memorialists to believe that some field would
length be allowed to open for their industry and
exertions.
That the growing of wheat opposed as it has
been by constant and almost total failures, had
naturaly been abandoned by all within twenty
Miles of the Market that thus appeared to be opened,
and every one had exerted them selves beyond
their means in growing Forage, with the belief that
they would not be exposed to a competition as unfair
as those which had been so lately abolished -
That no sooner are their prospects improved
by the Government relinquishing one monolopy,
than an Officer of Government possessing all the
influence deserved from holding the chief judicial
and executive authorities, and all the means
arising from his salaries in his civil capacity, as
well as that of Commandant of the Albany Levy,
having also the advantage of the Labour of Slaves,
prize Negroes, and the command of the Labor
of Hottentots beyond any other individual, at
the same time enjoying the use of Government
Lands free from burdens which are imposed
on others _ no sooner had the Memorialists
exhausted all their means in growing
Forage, than this Officer availing himself of
all

all these advantages, which the fair Cultivator can
never expect to enjoy, steps in and engrosses the
whole Contract, at a rate which can never repay
free Labour and ordinary means.
The effects of this interference must produce the
total ruin of Many of the Memorialists, and exclude
the rest from their means and Labor into competition
with the Officers of Government.
That Memorialists leaving to your Excellency
to imagine the effects of this ruinous measure upon
their hopes and prospects of Securing a
living by Agriculture, would entreat attention
to the effect which such unequal competition
must have upon the state of the Settlement,
and future supply of the Market, it being
evident to Memorialists, that when the
fair Cultivator is ruined, a full supply of the
demand can never be expected from sources
so precarious, as the necessities or cupidity of a
Local Functionary.
That the Memorialists have understood, that
it is a prescribed duty of the Landdrost, not only
to visit all parts of the Provence committed
to his case, but to consult with his Heemraden
and the Farmers themselves, upon the measures most
conducive to the interests of the District; but Memorialists
leave it to Your Excellency to decide, how
far this duty has been fulfilled in regard to them,
when the Loans which the British Government
had intended for their relief, are (after being granted
by Your Excellency and drawn by the Landdrost)
returned

returned under protest from Cape Town, to the destruction
of the credit of the few who had hoped to participate in the
advantage of them; and when the Landdrost is enabled to
monopolize the supply, upon which a great portion of
the Inhabitants depend for their daily Bread.
That Memorialists humbly conceive that the sacrifices
they have made and the sufferings they have
undergone, do entitle them to some degree of consideration,
and that the British Government would
see with satisfaction any encouragement extended to
them even if that encouragement did involve
some departure from general principles, but when
as Memorialists humbly conceive, all toward principles
are violated to the prejudice; and when their
attempts to raise themselves to the comfort which
is not denied them by natural causes, are met on
every side by artificial barriers, the Memorialists
feel that they are doubly entitled to the favourable
consideration of Government.
That Memorialists on these grounds found
their correct petition, that Your Excellency will
be pleased to allow the contract for the supply of
Forage to be again put up to public Tender, excluding
the Officers of Government (which possessed
of Such undue advantages) from all direct or indirect
participation in the supply both now and
in future, as there is at present more than a
sufficiency grown by the Settlers in the vicinity
of Grahams Town.
And Memorialists as in duty bound
will ever pray &c.
Albany 14 December 1824
Wm Thomas
Thom
Joseph Lofts
Jas Smith
Thos Simson
Geo Phillips
Thos Caverley
Wm Ford
Abraham Robinson
John Manley
Thomas Bendbridg
James Harner
Edw Hiley
Dun. Campbell
James Daniels
David Roes
Rich. Forrester
Wilm Bowels
S. Liversage
Ralph Manley
George Blakemore
Jams Carman
Richd Webb
James Ginkins
Wm Mountfort
Henry Harper
James Linsey
Wilam pebler
Wilam Tar
John Poulton
Thos Stanfield
Dond Mac Donald