Among the Chiefs who attended the above gathering was Makafula. He went because his ward had been chosen by Mehlokazulu as a convenient rallying-point for the insurgents in that part of the country. He was much afraid of the notorious Chief, who might have caused him to be attacked and exterminated forthwith had he held back. Mackay, it will be remembered, did not leave Empandhleni for Helpmakaar, viâ Nondweni, till the 11th May, which was just about the day that the above doctoring took place. It is, therefore, reasonable to suppose that Makafula temporarily identified himself with the rebels solely because of there being no European troops in the vicinity to which he could have gone for protection. His act would, nevertheless, have been regarded as treasonable had not the Chief immediately dispatched a messenger to the local magistrate, Mr. Hignett, to report exactly what he had done, and by what reasons he had been actuated in so doing. "Acting on my advice," says the Magistrate (who had presided over the district for over six years), "though desirous of retiring from his ward, he (Makafula) remained at his post at great personal risk, and, under the pretence of interesting himself in the rebel designs, acted as an informant." Predicaments of this kind frequently occurred in various parts of the Colony, and, too impatient to personally inquire into the circumstances, commanding officers sometimes concluded that sedition had been committed, when the act had sprung from motives entirely dissociated from a spirit of disloyalty. When rebellion breaks out it is, of course, difficult to weigh and consider evidence that is at all involved, the impulse being to assume from even the most trivial indications that the worst has happened, and, therefore, that the most severe punishment must be meted out at once to fit the supposed crime. Among the Chiefs who afforded Mackay assistance in the way of scouts was the Basuto Mayime. His people had been settled in the country ever since the Zulu War, having been granted land in consideration of notable services rendered by them during that campaign.