not prosecute his advance for want of supplies, and especially of ammunition.

This was by no means extraordinary. Anyone acquainted with 'war would confidently predict such a consequence of a Commissariat undertaken by persons ignorant of the subject.

I quote a few words of the many complaints in the public newspapers which met my eye at this time, and which, if they were true, as I firmly believe they were, at once exonerate Commandant Griffiths from not proceeding with his march as rapidly as he could have desired.

During the progress of the police from the Ibeka to the Bashee the greatest privations were endured, the principal evil being the smallness of the rations, which was the more acutely felt by the men owing to the hard work they had to perform. Affairs reached a climax at our camp, where, during three days of incessant rain, we were almost wholly without provisions, our sole food consisting of meat, without even a pinch of salt, and a few mealies given us by the Fingoes.

Shortly after this, at the place where we effected a junction with the Commandant, we were ordered to start, when the rations were two days overdue. On our refusal we were told to be careful what we were about; that it amounted to mutiny, &c.; but on the men remaining firm, Mr. Maclean spoke to the Commandant on the matter, and eventually we were served out with a handful of broken mouldy biscuit, some of the men, but not all, being fortunate enough to get a very small quantity of bad meal. This was declared to be all the provisions obtainable for us in the camp.

Later on, at a camp about twelve miles from the Willow, two

days after rations were due, they were not only not served out, but we were ordered on the road, and proceeded as far as the Willow, but returned next morning owing to some mistake. When a patrol is warned, it is arranged so that we have to

XXXII.]

OUR GREEN COFFEE.

315

thrust hot and reeking meat into the saddle-bags, and take green coffee, thus being deprived of our only luxury, and frequently having to throw away the meat; instead of being warned in time to dry the one, and grind (with two stones) the other.

The provisions are not weighed, but served out in pannikius, according to the judgment of the quartermasters.

By reason of the want of proper utensils, meal is mixed on a macintosh.

Those who are acquainted with the Crimean War will remember the "green coffee."

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE FIRST PART OF THE WAR GRIFFITHS DRIVES

GALEKAS OVER THE BASHEE.

THE

AT this time Mapassa, a Galeka of consequence, left the tribe of Kreli and crossed the river Kei into the colony. He came over with a large number of followers. A fatal mistake was here made, in not disarming his people; but they were allowed to squat upon some pleasant lands with their cattle, and retain their muskets and their assegais.

The attitude of the native chiefs on the northern part of the frontier now became exceedingly doubtful. Umditchwa had been troublesome, and Umthonthlo had complaints. Extraordinary fetish rites were in some instances practised; the witch doctors occasionally promising success and sometimes failure. Curious stories like this were circulated:

A trader reported that he had received reliable information that the two Kafir chiefs had recently held a consultation, the result being that they asked their witch doctors whether, in the event of their going to war against the white man, they would be successful. The witch doctors, after going through a round of incantations, ordered two oxen to be driven up to the kraal and skinned alive, one of the oxen being wholly black and the other wholly white. The barbarous sentence was carried out, and the poor animals were watched to see which would die first. The black ox lived twelve hours, the white ox nearly forty-eight hours; and consequently the two chiefs gave up all idea of war.