Proceeding to charge No. 2, we find that the prisoner entirely denied having encouraged his young men to possess themselves of guns; nor could he justly be said to have even “permitted” them to do so merely because he did not actively exert himself to prevent it. The men went away from home, worked, were paid for their services in guns, or purchased them with their earnings, without consulting him. He had never considered it to be part of his duty to search the huts of his people for unregistered guns, but had simply left them to suffer the consequences of breaking the laws of the colony, if discovered. It is also to be observed that amongst the seven sons captured with him only one had a gun at a time when certainly, if ever, they would have carried them; which does not look as though he had greatly encouraged them to possess themselves of firearms. But if the second charge, in a very modified form, might be considered a true one, yet Langalibalele had done no worse in that respect than most of the other chiefs in the colony. In proof of this assertion may be brought “Perrin’s Register” for the years 1871-2-3—the years during which a large number of natives received payment for their services at the diamond-fields in guns. From this register it appears that the total number of guns registered in eight of the principal northern tribes of the colony—the two first-named chiefs being _indunas_ to the very magistrate who complained of Langalibalele—was as follows: +---------------------+--------------------+ | | GUNS REGISTERED IN | | HUTS. +--------------------+ | | 1871.| 1872.| 1873.| +---------------------+------+------+------+ | Ndomba 1190 | — | — | — | | Faku 2071 | — | 2 | — | | Mganu 1277 | — | — | — | | Pakade 2222 | 1 | — | 1 | | Zikali 1651 | — | 1 | — | | Nodada 3000 | — | 1 | 2 | | Putini 1239 | — | 1 | — | | Langalibalele 2244 | — | 9 | 4 | +---------------------+------+------+------+ Furthermore, any fault with respect to the guns was not an offence under Kafir Law, and could only have been tried in the Colonial Court under the ordinary law of the colony.