Campaigning in Kaffirland; Or, Scenes and Adventures in the Kaffir War of 1851-52King, William Ross
History
Campaigning in Kaffirland; Or, Scenes and Adventures in the Kaffir War of 1851-52
King, William Ross
South Africa -- History -- Frontier Wars, 1811-1878
very towns and camps, most materially thwarting our efforts to bring
the war to an end. The Tottie women did not appear to consider it at
all a misfortune to be taken, for being unaccustomed to a bush life and
its precarious means of subsistence in such times, they preferred a dry
bed in a jail, with prison diet, to liberty and starvation. Our Fingo
allies wished to put the prisoners to death; and were sulky at not
being allowed to carry out their notions of warfare. A female prisoner,
unable to keep up with the rest, was shot dead by one of these fellows
before we had the least idea of his intention; so instantaneous was
the act that my horse nearly stumbled over her body as it fell in
the path. It required all the exertions of the officers to prevent
further cruelties, nor was a stop put to them, till several of these
half-tamed savages were knocked down and made prisoners of. One of the
Kaffir women, with a child of a few weeks old on her back, becoming too
exhausted to carry it, deliberately threw it away; it was, however,
picked up by an officer, and given to a Fingo, with orders to carry it
to the camp; the fellow obeying with a ludicrous mixture of disgust and
nonchalance to the intense amusement of his comrades. But next morning
the infant was missing, when "Johnny" being questioned as to what he
had done with it, replied with the greatest coolness imaginable, that
it _had escaped_ during the night.
On another occasion, one of them, when sentry over a Kaffir, was
observed giving a knife to his charge, and making signs to him to cut
the rheim which secured his feet to a gun-wheel; the Kaffir was in
doubt for a little, but reassured by the friendly nods and signs of his
keeper, severed the bands and jumped up, but only to be shot dead by
the sentry, who reported the attempted escape of the prisoner.
These, and a few other like instances of barbarity which occurred,
hardly any degree of watchfulness could have entirely prevented. It
was also next to impossible, amongst a set of men always ready to
screen a culprit, to bring home conviction to the real offender; and
doubtless, many more cases of barbarity would have taken place but for
the presence and exertions of the troops. Yet the Fingoes acted in
accordance with the practice of savage warfare rather than from cruel
or vindictive feelings; and had they and the Kaffirs alone been opposed
one to the other, it is more than probable that every woman and child
taken by either side would have been put to death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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