_M._--Do not talk of war! for, however anxious I may be to avoid it, you know that a dog, when beaten, will show his teeth. _G._--It will therefore be better that you should give up the cattle, than that I should go for them. _M._--I wish for peace, but have the same difficulty with my people, that you have in your country; your prisons are never empty, and I have thieves among my people. _G._--Then bring the thieves to me, that I may hang them. _M._--I do not wish you to hang them, but to talk to them. If you hang them, they cannot talk. _G._--If I hang them they cannot steal. But I am not here to talk. I have said, if you do not give up the cattle in three days, I must come and take them. _M._--I beseech you not to talk of war. _G._--I have no more to say. Go, and collect the cattle as quickly as possible, or I shall have to come to Thaba Bossigo. _M._--Do not talk of coming to Thaba Bossigo. I will go at once, and perhaps God will help me. After leaving the Governor-General, but before quitting the camp, Moshesh sent to beg that this day might not count in the three, to which his Excellency assented. 16th.--At six o'clock, the whole Division was reviewed by the Commander-in-chief, "marching past," and performing various evolutions and movements. A party of Engineer officers being ordered to proceed with a small escort to the drift on the Caledon River, some miles in front, to survey its practicability, and the nature of the country, in case of our further advance, I got leave to accompany them. After riding about four miles, we came on three villages very near together, all inhabited, and with numerous herds of cattle, and many horses feeding around. As we approached both unexpectedly and rapidly, we had, what would have been otherwise impossible, a full opportunity of seeing the natives at their accustomed employments, as we passed within pistol shot. The men were smoking, sitting and standing in groups, and looked dumbfoundered at seeing us; the women, who were pounding corn, or hoeing their millet and sweet cane, fled with their children, on our sudden appearance, to their huts in the greatest consternation, never having seen so many white men before. As we rode through the herds of cattle, the terrified keepers, whose only covering was a narrow belt of dressed hide round the groin, jumped up from the long grass, and with a short assegai drove in the cattle as fast as they could go.