Incwadi Yami; or, twenty years' personal experience in South AfricaMatthews, J. W. (Josiah Wright)
History
Incwadi Yami; or, twenty years' personal experience in South Africa
Matthews, J. W. (Josiah Wright)
Diamond mines and mining -- South Africa; South Africa -- Description and travel
As our brave fellows peppered away with the skill of sharp-shooters some
seventy of the savage horde were laid low, and then dismay seized the
remainder. From the advantageous position selected by Colonel Warren it
was impossible for the enemy to know the strength of its opponents.
Consternation, as I have said, seized the sable host, and like
Sennacherib’s army they melted away even as snow, not, however, before
several of the Diamond Fields horse got into hand-to-hand combat with
them. Although the slaughter was great on the side of the rebels, yet of
the little force under Colonel Warren only one man was wounded, who
through his own neglect afterward succumbed. The news of this gallant
defence filled the inhabitants of the Diamond Fields with exultation.
Congratulations were telegraphed down to Colonel Warren and his men,
while the friends of the brave band under him were highly delighted. The
back of the rebellion had been virtually broken. The news spread, as
news only can spread among Kafir tribes, and Colonel Warren was looked
upon by the Kafirs as possessed of supernatural powers. It only required
tact to complete the subjugation of the rebels, and the leader was not
lacking in this quality. It had been known that the women folk of the
Kafir tribes intrenched within the Perie Bush were habitually allowed
free ingress and egress. This they made use of for the purpose of
bringing supplies from King William’s Town.
Reporting this fact to the late Sir Bartle Frere, the then governor of
the colony, Colonel Warren was advised to communicate with General
Thesiger. That red-tape entangled officer, however, deigned no reply,
and seeing the waste of public treasure involved by General Thesiger’s
indifference, Colonel Warren decided to act, knowing full well, if
successful, that he would have the full support of Sir Bartle Frere.
An opportunity of carrying out his plan quickly offered itself. Out of
the Perie Bush, seeking supplies, and almost in a starving condition,
came 600 women and children. Surrounded and made prisoners by the
Diamond Fields horse they were fed and taken into King William’s Town
and there handed over to the civil authorities, to be afterward sent to
Capetown and apprenticed as domestic servants.
The husbands and fathers, rather than that those they held most dear
should be separated from them, possibly for ever, appealed to the
chiefs, some of whom perhaps were sufferers from Colonel Warren’s _coup
de main_, and so ended the Gaika-Gealika rebellion.
This sudden termination to the war, however, I believe was also the
termination in the friendship previously existing between General
Thesiger and Colonel Warren.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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