FRIGHTFUL TRAGEDY AT THE CAPE.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVI, Issue 1687, 22 November 1861, Page 4

FRIGHTFUL TRAGEDY AT THE CAPE.

r [From the Cape Aegus, August 8, 1861.] DOUBLE MURDER AT TULBAH. The quiet village of Tulbah has been painfully startled by one of the most terrible tragedies it has ever fallen to our lot to record. During the night of Friday last, though at what hour is. not exactly known, a colored man named Adrien Patis called at the house of Mr. J. C, who resided on some property belonging to the Independent Dutoh Reformed Churoh, and bad charge of a water-mill, also the property of the church. It appears that Mr. Botma, ,his wife and their only child, an infant of 17 months, had retired to rest some time before Patis called. The man, however, roused Mr. Botma, and informed him that Mr. Marias (who owns the adjoining farm, and in whose employ Patis had been for some time) bad sent him to request Mr. Botma to go for a ctoctor, as Mr. Marais's child was ill. Mr Botma, who bore the repuiatfoa of being exceedingly good-natured, and who was on friendly terms with Mr. Marais, without pausing to consider the matter, at once dressed himself and proceeded on his mission. Patis accompanied him. It was arranged before starting that they should first go to Mr. Marais's farm to procure horses, and in the direction of the farm they accordingly proceeded. The exact particulars of what occurred in that short, but dark and lonely midnight walk will probably never transpire but it would seem that when they had proceeded about fifty yards, and had reached a gloomy part of the road surrounded by trees and shrubs, Patis who must have been walking behind Mr. Botma, dealt his unsuspecting companion a blow with a poplar stick on the side of the bead, and right across the temple. That one blowj probably did its murderous work too well, for a surgical examination of the body favors tbe supposition thatjthe murderer dealt but one. Leaving his first victim weltering in his blood, Patis returned to the bouse that he had rendered desolate, and having obtained admittance, fastened the door on tbe inside, bo 'that he might be secure from molestation while completing his fiendish purpose. But, indeed there was little fear, or rather, little hope, that the wretch would be interrupted. No one had been aroused by the fearful crime that had already been perpetrated, and , the house was some distance from any other habitation, so that cries of terror, ' and screams for assistance alike stood little chance of reaching those who might have rendered help. Over the scene that followed, we draw a veil. Happily the great mass of humanity revolt and shudder at the enormities of which a few monsters, themselves bearing the outward semblanoe of men, can sometimes be guilty. We need only hint that the, murderer of the husband was (with the exception of an infant of seventeen months) alone in the house with the wife —a young and comely woman, on whom it seems the wretch had cast a longing eye/ Resistance was useless, the poor woman was overpowered, and twice did the murderer commit a frightful outrage. , He then demanded the- money that was in the house, and his trembling victim pointed to the wooden box in which her husband, of whose death of oourse she was unconscious, kept his cash. Patis broke open the box, and abstracted the money, and then left the house. He still remained close,to the door, however, and when the unfortunate woman attempted to fly to the .protection of a neighbour, the brute kicked her back. Ultimately she did succeed in getting away and fled, clasping her infant in her arms, and closely, pursued by Patis, towards the next house. Before she/reached it, however, and when about sixty yards from her, own house, the. murderer came up with her, threw her and the infant to the ground, and then inflicted on her: two fearful wounds, the one being a out on

1 the back of the neck, from ear to ear ; and the other was from the breast to thi 1 left ear. Mrs. Botma's arm was als< fractured, though whether it was don< t during the struggle in the house, or. whei: . the last deadly attack was made on her. . it is of course impossible to say. Loss of blood, fright, or exhaustion, or probably all these causes combined, rendered the poor creature insensible, and the murderer, no doubt believing her to be dead, took his departure. Our correspondent informs us that once in the coqrse of that fearful night, the sufferer revived, and saw her, child playing with its mother's bloed; . ; She was; however, too weak to call for assistance, even if her soreams oouldhave been heard, and so in this sad plight she lay till daybreak, her child dabbled and splashed with blood, crying itself to sleep in the meanwhile. Soon after daybreak, Mrs. Botma was discovered by some boys lying insensible, and frightfully mutilated. They at once gave the alarm, and the Rev. Mr. Morrees, the minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, and his lady, promptly rendered all possible assistance. Mrs. Botma was removed to her own house, and her infant taken care of, and when the poor woman recovered consciousness, she was interrogated as to the perpetrator of the outrage. Shes stated that it was Patis, and a number of persons at once proceeded to Mr. Marais's farm arid arrested the ruffian, who had, as usual, gone quietly about his work. Mrs. Botma's statement was amply, corroborated by marks of blood upon the prisoner's garments. A clasp knife, known to be his property, was found in his victim's house, and it was stained with blood. Patis's pipe was also found on Mr. Botma's premises, and the tatter's money box was found broken open near Mr., Marais's vineyard: It had been rifled of the contents, with, the exception of a cheque for £5, and some loose papers. The money had not been discovered when our despatch was sent off. . , Information was at once given to the authorities, and by eight o'clock the resident magistrate, Mr. Munnik, was on the spot, and took, the dying woman's deposition. That deposition is as follows: — "On the night of the Ist, some time after my husband and; I bad retired to bed, a rap was heard at the door. My husband got up and opened the door, and found Adrian Patis. at the door, who told my husband that he came with a message from his master, Mr. John Marais ; that he was to come to the house immediately, as his (deceased's grandmother lay dangerously ill; On hearing this, I advised my husband not to leave, but he overruled me and left the house with Patis, After they left I secured the door, returned to bed, apd extinguished the candle. Not long after my husband had left I heard a rap at the door. Thinking it was my husband who had returned*. I got up and opened the door and said, ' how is this that you have returned so goon?' I then went, aud light a oaudle, and came and saw Patis in the plade of my 1 husband, who then said, ' I have waited some time for aii opportunity, but I have this night found it.' He immediately seized me and .threw me to the ground, and most violently ill-used me. I endeavonred to escape from him, when he again threw me to the ground and completed his second brutal assault on me, leaving me in the most excruciating pain. I then after an interval, succeeded in making my escape from the house with my child, followed by Adrian Patis toj about sixty yards from the house, when he again seized me, threw me and my in- 1 fant to the ground, and then inflicted the wounds upon my person of which I now suffer. 1 lay there for the remainder of the night in the open air, and remember nothing further until I found myself in my own house the next morning, attended by the Rev- Mr. Morrees and his lady." Another account says that this statement was taken by the Rev. Mr. Morrees' at the request of Dr. Simpson, who examined the body of Mr. Botma, and afforded all requisite professional assistance to the unfortunate wi/e. It is pro-, bable that two statements were taken at different times — the one by the minister, the other by the magistrate. The funeral of the murdered man took place at three o'clock in the afternoon of .Saturday. The scene was most painfully affecting, the deceased having been much respeoted/ and his grey-headed father, who was present, being overwhelmned with grief. The Rev. Mr. Morrees preaohed a touching and impressive sermon on the occasion. Between two and three hours' after the remains of her husband had been consigned to their last resting-place, poor Mrs. Botma also breathed her last. Her case was from the first hopeless ; and considering the accumulated horrors of the fearful night she had gone through, death oanuot but be looked upon as, in this instance, a glad and welcome release from suffering. The murderer, Patis, is "described as a Mozambique, about twenty-one years of age, five feet six inches in height, and of robust appearance. He is now in gaol, and, let us hope, well secured. . . ~ — i __ ' ' ;