XXXIX.]

THE GREAT TAMBOOKIES.

365

section of the Great Tambookie tribe before they had committed a single act of disloyalty against Government? The expedition may have been carried out smartly, and with very little loss to the European forces engaged in it. But where is the justification for the expedition at all? Unless answered satisfactorily, the rectification of wrongs should lead to the summary fall of some person or persons whom an inquiry can alone disclose as being responsible for what appears to be an unjustifiable wrong.

A copy of my letter on the same subject, written a short time previously, is to be found in the Colonial Blue Book.

The immediate command of the troops in the Cis-Kei had now been placed in the hands of the Deputy-Adjutant-General, Colonel Bellairs, a trustworthy officer of experience, who reported to me as follows:

King William's Town, February 1st, 1878. In my despatch of the 14th ultimo I had the honour to report to your Excellency that the enemy had collected in two main bodies on the eastern frontier-the one in the Kabousie-Kei country, and the other in the Chichaba valley. The successful operations carried out in this latter resulting in the complete dispersion of the enemy, and capture of enormous herds of their cattle, have been already made known to your Excellency by my report of the 23rd ultimo.

It had been my intention to have caused the columns engaged in these operations to have afterwards swept through the Kei valley to Mordenaar's kop, thence acting with columns moving from the Bolo and down the Kabousie, to have hemmed in the enemy in the Kabousie-Kei country. This plan was however frustrated in part through the action taken by the Colonial Government in withholding the native levies and mounted corps then coming up (upon which I had depended), and forming columns to act under their own inspiration.

These Colonial forces, amounting to about 600 Europeans and 1600 Fingoes, were placed under the immediate command of Commandant Frost. They moved from Fort Cunynghame. and the Bolo drift on the 14th ultimo, and would appear to have subsequently formed a junction at Lugilo mission station, thence skirting the rugged Kabousie-Kei country, to have crossed the Kabousie river, and passed through the Gaika location, which had already been patrolled by the troops under my command, arriving at Komgha on the 18th. This last movement was caused no doubt by defective commissariat arrangements, but having obtained supplies from our commissariat department, and ammunition for his men, Commandant Frost retraced his steps, and proceeded north towards the Thomas river, where he is said to have again fallen in with the enemy in some force. From the published reports of this expedition it would seem that upwards of 8000 head of cattle, and as many sheep, were captured with little resistance from the enemy. About 100 Kafirs are stated to have fallen, with slight loss on the Colonial side.

Satisfactory as in some respects these operations were, yet I am of opinion that they might have been rendered more final had the forces been combined under military direction in properly organised columns, with efficient arrangements for supplies, and a common plan of action.

It may

be reasonably surmised that the fact of the Gaikas having been able to push their way past the Colonial forces towards the north may not have been without its influence on the reported rising of the emigrant Tambookies and others. I desire to point out that the condition of the Gaika women and children has become most deplorable. Left by the rebels to shift for themselves, their habitations burnt, their mealpits destroyed, their cattle captured, and a drought all over the land, they are reported to me during the past fortnight

XXXIX.]

WOMEN STARVING.

367

as frequently passing outposts in gangs twenty to fifty strong, pathetically replying when questioned, "We have no food and are going in search of work." Wherever our patrols go they seem to meet with these helpless creatures.

Humanity requires that they should be immediately cared for. Deserted by the rebels, it might perhaps be considered good policy to remove them to the interior of the colony, so that the children might be brought up among loyal natives.

I immediately placed these humane suggestions before the Colonial Government.

The Colonial forces were at this time supplied with the Snider rifle, and the Imperial with the Martini-Henry. It would appear that one small Colonial corps had obtained the Martini, but no provision had been made by the Minister of War for ammunition.

CHAPTER XL.

DISMISSAL OF THE MINISTRY.

THE native locations within the colony being now in rebellion, I thought it necessary to return to King William's Town, which I reached in the first week of February. I placed the command of the troops in the Transkei again in the hands of Colonel Glyn and recrossed the river.

At the beginning of February the Diamond Field Volunteer Cavalry reached King William's Town. They were under the command of Captain Warren of the Royal Engineers with the local rank of Colonel from Griqualand.

These were fine young men, and a very valuable adjunct, as I still had not burgher cavalry to keep open my communications with the Transkei, and my convoys were always liable to be cut off. This corps was well horsed but insufficiently armed, the agreement to furnish them with carbines by the civil government not being acted up to until they talked of returning home. Unless faith in every respect is kept, how can we expect men to undertake such arduous and self-sacrificing duties? This corps performed excellent service in the colony. They were raised by his Excellency Colonel Lanyon, and subsequently marched under his command against Gasiborne and the rebels in the north.

I have always had a high opinion of the volunteers themselves, and am certain that if they had only been placed under military command their services would have been far more valuable than they were. I do not altogether agree with the

XL.]

369

TROUBLES IN ALL PARTS OF THE COUNTRY. observations which Mr. Frost is reported to have made on the 16th of May in the House of Assembly :—

Most of these heroes served from love of cattle, and not from love of their country. Now that the enemy's cattle have all been appropriated the spirit of volunteering is dying out.

Affairs within the colony were now in considerable confusion. The Fingoes, our allies, were guilty of great outrages upon the unfortunate Gaikas. They went about in bands, intercepting the women and plundering them, and if they found a man in a woman's dress, they made very short work of him with assegais.

On all sides difficulties seemed to be on the increase. A war unfinished on the Kei, a rebellion in the colony, of which the proportions could not be ascertained, but reaching to our doors, a rising in Pondoland, and insults heaped upon the Government by the paramount chief Umgaikela. An outbreak in the East Griqualand location at Kokstadt; the Transvaal continually threatened by Secocoeni; and Cetewayo, King of the Zulus, actually in arms on the border of Natal, driving away the settlers, and erecting his forts upon the Boer locations.

Alarming letters were received by the Lieutenant-Governor of the Transvaal from the extreme eastern frontier by every post, and a force was then at Utrecht, protecting our borders, while the small number of Imperial troops at Pretoria were detaching men to Middleburg, and the Boers were holding seditious meetings even in the capital.

There were risings on the borders of Griqualand West, the Baralongs and the Batlapins taking the field.

About this time Mr. Molteno arrived at King William's Town. I do not propose to enter into details of what happened to him there. It is enough to say that he showed such contempt for the authority of the Governor, and enunciated such