Episode 43 – Lady Anne throws dinner parties as John Barrow and the Dragoons take a trip to Graaff-Reinet

This is episode 43 and we’re dealing with the arrival of the English at the Cape.
As you know, the Peninsular had become more important in the eyes of the English as they fought a lengthy war against France at the end of the 18th Century – a war that was to continue through until Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo in 1815.
The British would occupy the Cape twice of course and when they arrived in 1795 the region was convulsed by disorder on the frontiers. The Khoekhoe rose up twice in conjunction with the amaXhosa as we’re going to hear, while the frontier settlers were already in revolt by the time the British arrived.
Lady Anne Barnard had accompanied her husband – Macartney’s colonial secretary Andrew Barnard to the Cape. Also present on behalf of George Third was John Barrow – a man who was to have a significant effect on the South Africa and world affairs.
He was described as extremely intelligent, an amateur scientist, naturalist, geographer, a man of the enlightenment if there ever was one. He’d already revealed great gifts of intelligence gathering during his time in China and would now be called on to collect more intelligence on the frontier of South Africa.