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
During Major Lanyon’s encampment at Koejas the Griquas, who had up to
that time remained quiet (the rebellion having broken out among a number
of colonial Kafirs and Korannas living on the banks of the Orange
River), rose _en masse_ and besieged Griqua Town, which was surrounded
by them for eight days. On the night of the eighth day Major Lanyon rode
through them with twenty men undiscovered and joined some 100 volunteers
who had managed, the same day, to get into Griqua Town from the
Kimberley side. On the following day the rebels were completely routed
at Driefontein in a decisive engagement which lasted twelve hours and
driven into their fastnesses in the Langeberg. Major Maxwell, whose
arrival was eagerly looked for, arrived at Koejas on May 25th with the
cannon, just in the nick of time, as on the 31st 600 natives attacked
the camp, when the guns which he had brought up materially assisted to
secure the success of the day. During the time all these events had been
occurring Colonel Warren and “our boys” had been burning to respond to
the calls for assistance which had reached them from Griqualand West.
They had heard how volunteers had been raised and had taken the field
under the command of the administrator, and how the country on the
southwestern border was in a state of tumult and insurrection. Springing
to saddle the plucky band made forced marches, this time in the cold,
pinching month of May. “The air bit shrewdly and ’twas bitter cold,” but
with no covering save a blanket and the saddle for a pillow, they
quickly reached the junction of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. Scarcely had
the force (numbering then about 200 men) crossed the Vaal River than
Colonel Warren scented the disaffected Griquas at Wittehuis, where they
had “enschanged” themselves in a formidable position between the Kaap
Range and the Vaal River. Here the rebels were attacked and routed, and
after completing their defeat Colonel Warren and his men pushed on to
Griqua Town.
Thence he and Major Lanyon proceeded to the Langeberg, where several
engagements took place, in all of which the rebels were defeated. The
most important of these skirmishes was that of Paarde-Kloop, at which an
immense quantity of wagons, oxen, horses and sheep were captured. There
is nothing which makes a native regret rebellion more than the loss of
his worldly goods. Capture his stock and he is defeated.
After these engagements the administrator returned to Griqua Town,
leaving Colonel Warren in command, and there received the sad
intelligence of the skirmish at Manyeering, resulting in the death of
Messrs. Paterson, Rawstorne and several other well-known persons. While
proceeding as quickly as possible on his road to Kimberley, he was
attacked by and succeeded in defeating a body of rebels at Campbell,
some thirty miles from Kimberley, where he arrived in safety after being
some two months absent from the seat of government.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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