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PIETY MISUNDERSTOOD.

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As you are afraid, why not go?" The poor Boer's reply was characteristic, at once of his faith, his simplicity, and his idea of duty, which, after all, is something higher than mere courage. "No, my friend," he said; "I have come, and I have got to go on, and do my best. I am afraid, but I will go on, and God will help me." The man, in my opinion, both then and on the next day, did his duty with honour and courage; but I cannot yet persuade my sceptical friend that this pious man was not a most horrible coward. So much for Johannes's affair.

If the President, Thomas Burgers, had known the Kafirs thoroughly, the ridiculous statements that got into circulation after his retreat from Secocoeni-to the effect that the Kafirs were victorious, and were now prepared, as the 'Scotsman's' correspondent of 4th December 1876 says, in their turn to invade the Transvaal-could never have got afloat. If the Boer Commando had been really unsuccessful in the estimation of their enemy, it would never have escaped without serious loss from the valley of Mosegu. The fact is, and was in reality then, but the President did not know it, that the natives looked on the Boers' return to their own country as the most natural and proper thing in the world. Secocoeni's town was in flames; he had seen an enemy clambering over his highest hills, burning and slaying within the stone walls of his favourite stronghold; and he considered their retreat from the fever, horse-sickness, and other disagreeables of his miserable and devastated country, a most reasonable, rational, and victorious proceeding.

Throughout the march from Secocoeni's hills to Kruger's Post, but one attempt was made-and that by but a small body of Kafirs-to molest the Commando. One man only was lost-shot dead in the President's waggon—in this socalled disgraceful flight. This phase of the question has been very clearly and accurately referred to in a letter, dated "Albemarle Hotel, 10th July 1878," written by the deputation from the Transvaal farmers, Messrs Kruger and Joubert, to her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, wherein I find the following words :—

"With respect to the third point-viz., the defencelessness of the country, the encroachments of the natives, and the failure of the war with Secocoeni-these, as well as the financial troubles, we are also prepared to a certain extent to admit, though we utterly reject the exaggeration with which they have been described, and the inferences of utter disorganisation and danger which have been drawn from them.

"We deny the inference which has been drawn from the failure to dislodge a chief from fastnesses, such as Secocoeni occupied, at the first attempt. He had been reduced to the greatest straits, and had sent to Pretoria to sue for peace, which, under the pressure of the circumstances in which the Government of the Republic found themselves, owing to the action of the British authorities in supporting the cause of the rebel chief, was ultimately agreed to upon the payment of a fine, which fine is now being enforced by the Administrator. It is utterly incorrect to say that there was any danger to be feared from Secocoeni, for it is well known that he never came beyond his own strongholds."

The Kafirs, far from being likely to invade the Transvaal, were in a condition of utter doubt and uncertainty for weeks after the great Commando had left the country, and the abandonment of the campaign by what is most unjustly termed the flight of the farmers, which occurred on the 2d of August 1876.

It was not until the 29th of September that the natives mustered courage sufficient to assume the aggressive against Fort Burgers, where, as I have told elsewhere, they failed to make any impression on the little garrison. From this latter date, as is well known, the initiative had always to be taken by the volunteers.

I knew a Bushman once, who, when in the Thornveld, far from his home, discovered that a lion intended to make a meal of him. The great brute met him in a jocose sort of way, at two or three points of his path, bounding on each occasion back into the bush, making his startled victim fully believe his time had come. When the lion had played this trick for a third and a fourth time, in much the same way as a cat might do with a cockroach, the path entered great reeds and tall grass. The Bushman, who still kept his wits about him, now determined to pay off his enemy in his own coin. Knowing the lion was in front of him, he dodged off to the right, under the wind, ascertained the whereabouts of the beast, and betook himself to a course of quiet watchfulness. The big cat, when he in his deep wisdom thought the man

A BUSHMAN'S STRATAGEM.

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should come along the path, found to his evident surprise that disappointment was in store for him. He put his head to the ground and roared with annoyance, when his eye caught sight of the Bushman peeping over some grass at him. Before he had quite made up his mind what to do, the poor little man was taking sights at him from another quarter, to which the lion of course at once directed all his attention. The Bushman now shook the reeds and showed in another place, when the powerful but suspicious animal, getting alarmed in his turn, began to think he was the hunted party. The brave little Bushman, who left no circumstance unnoticed, began to steal slowly but visibly towards his foe, who, falling into a state of utter doubt and trepidation, fairly bolted.

The Kafirs, after the retreat from Secocoeni's town, felt much as the lion did, and consequently were not dangerous to the Transvaal. The Boers, who are well aware of this fact, feel not unnaturally aggrieved at Lord Carnarvon being so easily persuaded to sanction an annexation, which was unfairly represented to him as necessary for their preservation.

In the beginning of August 1876, the President decided to contain Secocoeni within his own limits during the spring, summer, and autumn-that is, the then fast-approaching sickly season-by volunteer forces who would live in forts, stop the Kafirs from cultivating their lands, and prevent them making irruptions into the settled country. One of these forts was occupied almost entirely by Africanders, the other by men of European birth. The men who occupied these advanced positions were, by the enemies of the Republic, who now became noisy, repeatedly accused of committing atrocities, and of murdering captives and others in cold blood.

I am glad to be able to state that the British authorities, on taking possession of the Transvaal, after proper inquiry made from the enemy, as well as of the volunteers, have found no reason for believing those charges; and a distinguished officer of the Queen's army, General Sir A. T. Cunynghame, K.C.B., said, at a public banquet given in

his honour at Lydenberg, "The army which he represented was satisfied that the volunteers had done their duty with honour and courage."

In January 1877, Secocoeni sued for peace from the Republic, which was granted to him, after some demur, conditionally-on his confining his tribe within narrowed limits, and on his agreeing to pay a couple of thousand cattle as a war indemnity.

CHAPTER IV.

LYDENBERG VOLUNTEER CORPS.

The Fort-Scenes in Kafirland-Recruiting under difficulties-Our first fight -Foreign Enlistment Act-Kafir intelligence-Battle of Mount Moronè -A fatal fight-Fall of Von Schlieckmann-An ancient city-Skirmishing-Windvogel-Life amongst the L.V.C.-A night march-Kafir allies -Wild dogs-Stratagems of Kafir war-"The Gunn of Gunn"-A converted piper-Burnt alive.

I Do not think any work on the Transvaal would be complete without a sketch of the Lydenberg Volunteers, the first body of foreign troops ever employed by the Republic. Their origin was thus: When the Boer Commando determined on moving homewards, and had reached the Steelport River, about eighteen miles from Secocoeni's town, Captain von Schlieckmann, a young, handsome, and brave German, the favourite nephew of General Manteuffel, related to many Prussian notables, who had been decorated for Weissembourg with the Iron Cross, and had been aide to Count von Arnim, and who had attracted the President's attention by his reckless valour, proposed that he should raise a corps which with others should occupy the frontier, live in forts, and from them harass the enemy during the spring and summer, so as to prevent Secocoeni acquiring an undue stock of food with which to engage in a second campaign. This counsel was plainly good. It would not do to leave the border-line exposed to any raids Secocoeni might feel inclined to make. At the same time, the farmers could hardly be expected to remain on duty the whole season. It must always be remembered in favour of the farmers, that the country they inhabit is as large as France, and that they are thinly scattered over an immense area -SO

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