"At Fort Hare, they are endeavouring to drive away ennui by hack races, or any kind of amusement which easily presents itself. The listlessness of a camp life is too often complained of to need comment. In this Colony it is worse than ever, since books are obtained with difficulty, And the heat and glare render the tent habitations very trying to the patience as well as to the constitution. The sight especially suffers, and several officers and men have been rendered incapable of duty from inflammation of the eyes. "Macomo's eldest daughter is the belle of the camp; she is one of nature's coquettes, and attitudinises, exhibits her teeth, affects bashfulness, or mirth, as suits the taste of her admirers, and is as great an adept in the art of mute flirtation as any beauty at Almack's, or Ascot. "December 6th.--We hear that Umhala has come into Colonel Somerset's camp, offering to give us three hundred head of cattle, and bring with him two hundred and fifty of his people, tendering his submission to Captain Maclean, late 27th Regiment, and now the Agent between the British Government and the I'Slambie tribes. His adhesion is accepted on the understanding that he can never be recognised as a chief, but merely as a Kaffir; that the British are not anxious for peace, unless arranged satisfactorily and honourably, that if he wishes for war he had better avow it honestly than propose terms which he may intend to violate, and that he had better now make his decision without duplicity. In reply to this, Umhala remarked that `the war had lasted too long, since the corps of the Kaffirs were suffering in consequence of the delay.' Very cool! `His arms and those of his people had been left on the plains of the Gwanga! He had but two alternatives. One was to place himself at the Governor's disposal, the other to be dependent on Kreli. He found he could depend upon the honour of the British! whereas he could not place confidence in any Chief of his own land!' etc. "After he and his people had been duly registered, they all moved over the Buffalo, and are to remain there until matters shall be more definitively settled. "Umhala's alternatives remind one of the choice of David, who preferred `falling into the hands of God rather than men.' The cunning Kaffir knows that, by submitting to the British authorities, he yields to the humane influences of Christianity, whereas by giving himself and his people up to Kreli's tender mercies they would, to use Umhala's terms, `become the slaves (Fingoes) of the Amagalekas,' or as some call them, the Ama Hintza tribe. The terrible Zoolahs also would assail them. "The position of the Fingoes for many years, under their hard taskmasters the Kaffirs, reminds one forcibly of the Israelites under the Egyptians. Sir James Alexander, in his sketches, gives an animate description of the redemption of these unhappy slaves from their miserable bondage by Sir Benjamin D'Urban." [Note 1.]