Though the disturbance has hardly been a war,--if a war, it would have to be reckoned as the sixth Kafir war,--it may be well to say a few words as to its commencement. To do so it will be necessary to bring another tribe under the reader’s notice. These are the Fingos, who among South African natives are the special friends of the Britisher,--having precedence in this respect even of the Basutos. They appear to have been originally,--as originally, at least, as we can trace them back,--inhabitants of some portion of the country now called Natal, and to have been driven by Chaka, the great King of the Zulus, down among the Galekas. Here they were absolutely enslaved, and in the time of Hintsa, the father of Kreli, were called the Kafirs’ dogs. Their original name I do not know, but Fingo means a dog. After one of the Kafir wars, in 1834, they were taken out from among the Galekas by British authority, relieved from the condition of slavery, and settled on locations which were given to them. They were first placed near the coast between the Great Fish River and the Keiskamma; but many were subsequently moved up to a district which they still occupy, across the Kei, and close to their old masters the Galekas,--but on land which was under British government and which became part of British Kafraria. Here they have been as good as their old masters,--and as being special occupants of British favour perhaps something better. They have been a money-making people, possessing oxen and waggons, and going much ahead of other Kafirs in the way of trade. And as they grew in prosperity, so probably they grew in pride. They were still Fingos;--but not a Fingo was any longer a Galeka’s dog,--which was a state of things not agreeable to the Galekas. This too must have been the more intolerable as the area given up to the Fingos in this locality comprised about 2,000 square miles, while that left to the Galekas was no more than 1,600: The Galekas living on this curtailed territory were about 66,600 souls, whereas only 50,000 Fingos drew their easier bread from the larger region. In August last the row began by a quarrel between the Galekas and the Fingos. There was a beer-drinking together on the occasion of a Fingo wedding to which certain Galekas had been invited. The guests misbehaved themselves, and the Fingos drove them away. Upon that a body of armed Galekas returned, and a tribal war was started. But the Fingos as being British subjects were not empowered to conduct a war on their own account. It was necessary that we should fight for them or that there should be no fighting. The Galekas were armed,--as they might choose to arm themselves, or might be able; while the Fingos could only possess such arms as we permitted them to use. It thus became necessary that we should defend them.