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This is episode 86 and we left off with things heating up along the Orange River after hearing about the arrival of the 1820 Settlers and back in Cape Town, there were more moves afoot. Governor Lord Charles Somerset was still on long-leave, on sabbatical if you like, leaving Sir Rufane Donkin in charge as Acting Governor.
\nPerhaps he\u2019d have been better off taking his holiday in sunny Southern Africa, because there was big trouble brewing for Somerset. There must be something about the Cape, or Cape Town, because he\u2019d been indulging, shock, in corruption and nepotism.
\nIT had become a favourite sport of the VOC Dutch officials for a couple of centuries, and Somerset while ostensibly reducing corruption, was playing fast and loose with ethics.
\nDonkin was not Somerset. He was motivated and focused. That\u2019s what happens when you\u2019re a technocrat and you beloved wife has died. Donkin had barely decided to create the new town in Algoa Bay called Port Elizabeth after his departed wife, when he began to organize the colony.
\nSo naturally he peered closely at Somerset\u2019s Cape Town lifestyle \u2013 he did what we\u2019d now call a lifestyle audit \u2013 feared by contemporary politicians and for good reason \u2013 because like with contemporary politicians, Somerset had been a very naughty boy.
\nWatching these changes with open mouths were the missionaries. They realised that Donkin was a new man, and particularly, the London Missionary Societies Doctor John Philip who recognized the acting governors\u2019 anti-slavery philosophy.
\nWhat Philip really wanted, more than the right to head east and try and prothelitise the amaXhosa which Somerset had rejected, but the right to head up the Orange River \u2013 or rather to send someone by the name of Robert Moffat up the Orange.
\nNow folks, there are few names you need to remember in this vast saga of south African history, but this is one you really must remember. Moffat\u2019s effect on the entire sub-continent cannot be underestimated as you\u2019re going to hear. He\u2019s forgotten these days, but after you hear the full story, you\u2019ll probably agree his reach extends across the centuries like a religious bungee chord.