The Cape and the Kaffirs: A Diary of Five Years' Residence in KaffirlandWard, Mrs.
History
The Cape and the Kaffirs: A Diary of Five Years' Residence in Kaffirland
Ward, Mrs.
South Africa -- History -- Frontier Wars, 1811-1878
The replies of Sandilla to various remarks and questions lately put to
him are shrewd enough. On his being told, by one of the authorities,
that if he attempted to escape from his confinement he would be shot,
Sandilla answered that "as he had voluntarily surrendered himself, it
was not likely he should run away." Soon after his imprisonment, he
requested a daily allowance of wine. On being asked if he had ever been
in the habit of drinking it, he said "No." Then why indulge in what he
had never been accustomed to? "I am now the white man's child," replied
Sandilla; "my father is wise, and I would do all things as he does."
When his warriors left his "Great Place," to join the gathering in the
Amatolas, he found one lingering long behind the rest. "What are you
doing here?" asked the Chief; "you are like a solitary locust when the
swarm has gone; so, the sooner you hop after it the better."
"December 17th.--The frontier to-night is delirious with joy. The town
is illuminated, and beacon lights telegraph from the hill-tops that Sir
Harry Smith has arrived."
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Note 1. As was proved before Sir Harry, then Colonel, Smith, and
published in a document signed by him, and by Captain Lacy, 72nd
Highlanders, Arthur Balfour, Aide-de-Camp, and Mr Shepstone, Kaffir
Interpreter. This document, dated King William's Town, February, 1836,
bears the marks also of Macomo and Ganga.
PART TWO, CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
RIDE IN THE WINTERBERG.
I have lately ridden within the space of a fortnight--and resting half
that fortnight--two hundred and fifty miles, through the country lately
infested, and still haunted, by the savage enemy. It presents a
glorious contrast to last year; the hand of Providence has put aside the
hand of man. The majestic Winterberg mountain, nearly nine thousand
feet high, rose before us in our ride, green almost to its summit. The
valleys beneath us, as we passed from one mountain-top to the other,
were "smiling with corn;" the grass on the plains waved as in our
English meadow-lands; the woodman's axe rang in the forests, near the
scene of many a bloody fray; and, although small groups of Kaffirs
doubtless looked down upon us from many "a leafy nook," we passed up the
steep ascents in the midst of deep jungle and impervious thickets,
unmolested. On the road to Fort Hare, a spot was pointed out to me, on
which a Hottentot waggon-driver had breathed his last. He was shot by
the enemy, who had carried off his oxen, scarcely a month before. A
fortnight after I had travelled that way, with but slight escort,--
Colonel Campbell, 91st, being the only one of our party who was armed,--
a man, formerly of the Royal Artillery, was killed by an assegai, thrown
by an unseen hand, from some huts formerly occupied by some of Macomo's
tribe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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