The Settler and the Savage Part 30

We have said that hitherto the colony, despite many provocations, thefts, and occasional murders, had lived in a state of peace with the Kafirs--the only time that they took up arms for a brief s.p.a.ce being in their defence, at Hintza's request, against the Fetcani.

Latterly, we have also observed, the British settlers had toiled hard and prospered. The comforts of life they had in abundance. Trade began to be developed, and missions were established in Kafirland. Among other things, the freedom of the press had been granted them after a hard struggle! The first Cape newspaper, the _South African Commercial Advertiser_, edited by Pringle the poet and Fairbairn, was published in 1824, and the _Grahamstown Journal_, the first Eastern Province newspaper, was issued by Mr G.o.dlonton in 1831. Schools were also established. Wool-growing began to a.s.sume an importance which was a premonition of the future staple of the Eastern Provinces.

Savings-banks were established, and, in short, everything gave promise of the colony--both east and west--becoming a vigorous, as it was obviously a healthy, chip of the old block.

But amongst all this wheat there had been springing up tares. With the growing prosperity there were growing evils. A generous and well-meant effort on the part of Christians and philanthropists to give full freedom and rights to the Hottentots resulted to a large extent in vagabondism, with its concomitant robbery. The Kafirs, emboldened by the weak, and exasperated by the incomprehensible, policy of the Colonial Government at that time, not only crossed the border to aid the Hottentot thieves in their work, and carry off sheep and cattle by the hundred, but secretly prepared for war. Behind the scenes were the paramount chief Hintza, the chief Macomo, and others. The first, forgetting the deliverance wrought for him by the settlers and British troops in 1828, secretly stirred up the Kafirs, whilst the second, brooding over supposed wrongs, fanned the flame of discontent raised among the Hottentots by the proposal of a Vagrancy Act.

When all is ready for war it takes but a spark to kindle the torch. The Kafirs were ready; the British, however, were not. The settlers had been peacefully following their vocations, many of the troops, which ought to have been there to guard them, had been unwisely withdrawn, and only a few hundred men remained in scattered groups along the frontier.

The armed Hottentots of the Kat River--sent there as a defence--became a point of weakness, and required the presence of a small force to overawe them and prevent their joining the Kafirs. At last the electric spark went forth. A farmer (Nell) was robbed of seven horses, which were traced to the kraal of a chief on the neutral territory. Restoration was refused. A military patrol was sent to enforce rest.i.tution.

Opposition was offered, and the officer in command wounded with an a.s.sagai. Hintza began to retreat and plunder British traders who were residing in his territory under his pledged protection, and at length a trader named Purcell was murdered near the chief's kraal and his store robbed. Then Macomo began hostilities by robbing and murdering some farmers on the lower part of the Kat River, and two days afterwards the Kafir hordes, variously estimated at from eight to fifteen thousand men, burst across the whole frontier, wrapped the eastern colony in the smoke and flames of burning homesteads, scattered the unprepared settlers, demolished the works of fourteen years' labour, penetrated to within twenty miles of Algoa Bay, and drove thousands of sheep and cattle back in triumph to Kafirland.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

WAR.

It was at this juncture--the Christmas-tide of 1834, and the summer-time in South Africa--that a merry party was a.s.sembled under the shade of umbrageous trees that crowned a little knoll from which could be seen the blue smoke curling from a prosperous-looking homestead in the vale below. It was a party of settlers enjoying their Christmas festivities in the open air. Hans Marais and Charlie Considine were among them, but, feeling less inclined than was their wont to join in the hilarity of the young folks, they had sauntered into the shrubbery and conversed sadly about the departure of Conrad Marais and his family, and of the unsettled state of the frontier at that time.

While they talked, an armed band of savages had crept past them unperceived, and advanced stealthily towards the party of revellers on the knoll. Coming suddenly across the tracks of these savages, Hans cast an anxious look at his companion, and said quickly--

"Look here, Charlie--the spoor of Kafirs! Let's go--"

The sentence was cut short by a wild war-cry, which was immediately followed by shouts of men and screams of women.

Turning without another word, the two friends ran back to the knoll at full speed, drawing their hunting-knives, which were the only weapons they happened to carry at the time.

On reaching the knoll a fearful scene presented itself. The Kafirs had already killed every man of the party--having come on them unawares and thrown their a.s.sagais with fatal precision from the bushes. They were completing the work of death with shouts and yells of fierce delight.

Not a woman was to be seen. They had either been dragged into the bushes and slain, or had sought refuge in flight.

With a mighty shout of rage Hans and Considine dashed into the midst of the murderers, and two instantly fell, stabbed to the heart. Seizing the a.s.sagais of these, they rushed through the midst of their foes, and, as if animated by one mind, made for the homestead below. To reach the stables and get possession of their horses and rifles was their object.

The savages, of whom there were about thirty, were so taken aback by the suddenness and success of this onset that for a few seconds they did not pursue. Then, probably guessing the object of the fugitives, they uttered a furious yell and followed them down the hill. But Hans and Considine were active as well as strong. They kept well ahead, gained the princ.i.p.al house, and secured their rifles. Then, instead of barricading the doors and defending themselves, they ran out again and shot the two Kafirs who first came up.

Well did the savages know the deadly nature of the white man's rifle, although at that time they had not themselves become possessed of it.

When their comrades fell, and the two white men were seen to kneel and take deliberate aim at those who followed, the whole party scattered right and left and took refuge in the bush.

But the friends did not fire. These were not the days of breech-loaders. Prudently reserving their fire, they made a rush towards the stables, "saddled up" in a few seconds, and, mounting, rode forth at a gallop straight back to the blood-stained hillock. To rescue, if possible, some of the females was their object. Regardless of several a.s.sagais that whizzed close to them, they galloped hither and thither among the bushes, but without success.

"Let's try yonder hollow," cried Considine, pointing as he spoke.

The words had scarce left his lips when a host of some hundreds of Kafirs, with the shields, a.s.sagais and feathers of savage warriors, burst out of the hollow referred to. They had probably been attracted by the two shots, and instantly rushed towards the white men.

Hans Marais dismounted, kneeled to take steadier aim, fired, and shot the foremost warrior. Then, springing on his steed at a bound, he galloped away, loading as he went, and closely followed by his friend.

Having reloaded, Hans pulled up and again leapt to the ground. This time Considine, appreciating his plan, followed his example, and both were about to kneel and fire when they perceived by a burst of smoke and flame that the farm-buildings had been set on fire.

In a straight line beyond, two other columns of dense smoke indicated the position of two neighbouring farms, and a third column, away to the right, and further removed from the line of the frontier, suddenly conveyed to the mind of Hans the fact that a general rising of the Kafirs had taken place. Instead of firing, he rose and remounted, exclaiming--

"Home, Charlie--home!"

At the moment a shout was heard in another direction. Turning round, they observed a body of a dozen or so of mounted Kafirs making straight towards them. To have killed two or four of these would have been easy enough to first-rate shots armed with double-barrels, but they knew that those unhurt would continue the chase. They therefore turned and fled in the direction of their own home. Their steeds were good and fresh, but their pursuers were evidently well mounted, for they did not seem to lose ground.

In the kitchen of Conrad Marais's homestead Gertie stood that day, busily employed in the construction of a plum-pudding, with which she meant to regale Hans and Charlie on their return. And very pretty and happy did Gertie look, with her white ap.r.o.n and her dark hair looped up in careless braids, and her face flushed with exertion, and her pretty round arms bared to the dimpled elbows and scarcely capable of being rendered whiter by the flour with which they were covered.

A young Hottentot Venus of indescribable ugliness a.s.sisted in r.e.t.a.r.ding her.

"The master will be here soon," said Gertie, wiping the flour and pieces of dough off her hands; "we must be quick. Is the pot ready?"

Venus responded with a "Ja," and a grin which displayed a splendid casket of pearls.

Just then the clatter of hoofs was heard.

"Why, here they come already, and in _such_ a hurry too!" said Gertie in surprise, untying her ap.r.o.n hastily.

Before the ap.r.o.n was untied, however, Hans had pulled up at the door and shouted "Gertie!" in a voice so tremendous that his wife turned pale and came quickly to the door.

"Oh, Hans! what--"

"Come, darling, quick!"

There was no time for more. Hans held out his hand. Gertie took it mechanically.

"Your foot on my toe. Quick!"

Gertie did as she was bid, and felt herself swung to the saddle in front of her husband, who held her in his strong right arm, while in the grasp of his huge left hand he held the reins and an a.s.sagai.

Poor Gertie had time, in that brief moment, to note that Charlie Considine sat motionless on his panting horse, gazing sternly towards the karroo, and that a cloud of dust was sweeping over the plain towards them. She guessed too surely what it was, but said not a word, while her husband leaped his horse through a gap in the garden wall in order to reach the road by a short cut. Double-weighted thus, the horse did not run so well as before. Considine was frequently obliged to check his pace and look back.

The stern frown on the Dutchman's brow had now mingled with it a slightly troubled look.

"Go on. I'll follow immediately," said Considine as he reined in.

"Don't be foolhardy," cried Hans, with an anxious look as he shot past.

Without replying, Considine dismounted, knelt on a slight eminence on the plain, and deliberately prepared to fire.

The pursuing savages observed the act, and when within about six or seven hundred yards began to draw rein.

Charlie Considine knew his rifle well; although not sighted for such a range, it was capable of carrying the distance when sufficiently elevated, and practice had accustomed him to long-range shots. He aimed a little above the head of the foremost rider, fired, and killed his horse. With the second barrel he wounded one of the Kafirs. At the same moment he observed that his late home was wrapped in flames, and that the cattle and sheep of Conrad Marais, which had been left in charge of Hans, were being driven off by the savages towards the mountains.

This was enough. Remounting, Charlie followed his friend, and was rejoiced to find on looking back that the Kafirs had ceased their pursuit.

"Strange," he said on overtaking Hans, "that they should have given in so easily."

"It is not fear that influences them," returned his friend, with deeply knitted brows; "the reptiles know there is a pa.s.s before us, and they will surely try to cut us off. They know all the short cuts better than I do. Push on!"

Urging their horses to their utmost speed, the fugitives soon approached a more broken country, and skirted the mountain range, through which the pa.s.s referred to by Hans led into level ground beyond. It was a narrow track through jungle, which was dense in some places, open in others.

They were soon in it, riding furiously. At one of the open s.p.a.ces they caught a glimpse of a mounted Kafir making towards a part of the pa.s.s in advance of them. Hans pulled up at once, and looked eagerly, anxiously round, while he pressed the light form of Gertie tighter to his breast.

"We must fight here, Charlie," he said, as he made for a little mound which was crowned with a few bushes. "If you and I were alone we might risk forcing a pa.s.sage, but--come; they observe our intention."