prompt action by those in authority; not less necessary is it when savages, known to be warlike and impulsive, have to be dealt with. Then the anonymous order, purporting to have come from some Native of high position, requiring the killing of pigs, white fowls, etc., and the discarding of utensils of European manufacture, could have had no other significance than that the Natives in general should unite against the white man's government. Such interpretation is patent to anyone. There was, moreover, abundant evidence that this propaganda had been widely spread. Messengers are known to have proceeded to different parts of the Transvaal and even to the neighbourhood of Salisbury, Rhodesia, preaching sedition wherever they went. In Natal the order had already been complied with by many people. Numerous instances occurred in the thickly populated belt of country between Krantzkop, Mapumulo and Stanger, especially on the Tugela side of that line. Others were not wanting in other parts of the Colony, such as Ixopo, Mid-Illovo, Weenen, etc. Not only had animals been either killed or sold at absurdly low figures,[102] but European utensils, _e.g._ pots, had been destroyed or thrown away. If some Natives had already manifested disaffection, only time and want of effective control by the Government were needed for others to do the same. Thus the atmosphere, by the time of the outbreak, had become so charged with an unmistakably rebellious spirit, and with reports that the tribes generally were out of the control of their Chiefs, that it required but a successful outbreak or two, in places not readily accessible to European troops, to set the whole affair ablaze. And, in any such event, not only the peace of Natal, but of other portions of South Africa, would have been endangered. There is no getting away from this conclusion, because it follows directly from the widely prevalent facts above referred to. Clearly, the position was abnormal, and, being abnormal, it called for extraordinary action.