The Settler and the Savage Part 36

Colonel Smith, however, who commanded the force, distinctly told the chief through an interpreter, that if he attempted to escape he would instantly be shot.

The force consisted of detachments of the Cape Mounted Rifles, the 72nd regiment, and the corps of Guides--350 men in all.

Towards the afternoon of the day on which they marched, a circ.u.mstance occurred which justified Colonel Smith's suspicions as to Hintza's sincerity. They had reached a streamlet and encamped, when one of the guides reported to him that two Kafirs, with five head of cattle, were near the camp, and that Hintza, on the plea that they would be afraid to approach, had sent one of his people to bring them in.

On being questioned, the chief declined to give any explanation on the subject, and the Kafirs not only did not come in, as they were ordered, but made off, and carried the horse of Hintza's messenger along with them! The suspicion excited by this circ.u.mstance was increased by the evasive answers given to the Colonel's repeated inquiries as to the point on which Hintza wished the troops to march.

"We are going right," was the only answer that could be elicited from the taciturn savage.

After crossing the range of the Guadan Hills, the troops bivouacked on the Guanga, and here Hintza became more communicative, said that he wished them to march towards the mouth of the Bashee, by a route which he would point out, and that they must move at midnight. This was done, and they continued to move forward till eight o'clock in the morning, observing as they went the spoor of numerous herds of cattle that had been driven in that direction quite recently.

The men, being tired, were then halted for refreshment.

At this point Hintza became particularly uneasy at the vigilance with which he was watched.

"What have the cattle done," he said testily, "that you should want them? and why should my subjects be deprived of them?"

"Why do you ask such questions, Hintza?" replied Colonel Smith; "you know well the many outrages committed on the colonists by your people, and the thousands of cattle that have been stolen. It is in redress of these wrongs that we demand them."

The chief looked stern, but made no rejoinder. He appeared to recover himself, however, after breakfast, and was in high spirits while on the march. He rode a remarkably strong horse that day, which he appeared very anxious to spare from fatigue--dismounting and leading him up every ascent.

As the party advanced, the tracks of numerous cattle were still found leading onward, but the animals themselves were nowhere to be seen.

"You see," remarked the chief, with a touch of sarcasm in his tone as he rode beside the Colonel, "you see how my subjects treat me: they drive their cattle from me in spite of me."

"I do not want your _subjects'_ cattle, Hintza," was the Colonel's pointed reply; "I want, and will have, the _colonial_ cattle which they have stolen."

"Then," returned the chief, "allow me to send forward my councillor Umtini to tell my people I am here, that they must not drive away their cattle, and that the cattle of your nation will be alone selected."

Although it was quite evident that the chief meditated mischief it was thought best to agree to this proposal. Accordingly, the councillor, after being enjoined to return that night, which he promised to do, mounted and left the camp at full speed, accompanied by an attendant.

There was ground for uneasiness and much caution in all this, for those who knew Hintza best were wont to say that he possessed in a high degree all the vices of the savage--ingrat.i.tude, avarice, cunning, and cruelty, and his treatment of the traders and missionaries under his protection, as well as his secret encouragement of the border chiefs, fully bore out their opinion.

"Now!" exclaimed the chief in high spirits when Umtini had left, "you need not go on to the Bashee, you will have more cattle than you can drive on the Xabecca."

The path the troops were pa.s.sing was a mere cattle-track leading up hill, from the bed of the Xabecca river, among tangled brushwood, and occasionally pa.s.sing through a cleft in the rocks. Colonel Smith was the only member of the party who rode up the hill; Hintza and the others led their homes. On drawing near to the summit, the chief and his attendants mounted and rode silently but quickly past the Colonel into the bushes.

One of the guides observing the action called to the Colonel, who immediately shouted, "Hintza, stop!"

The savage had no intention of stopping, but, finding himself entangled in the thicket, was compelled to return to the track. He did so with such coolness and with such an ingenuous smile, that the Colonel, who had drawn a pistol, felt half ashamed of his suspicions, and allowed the chief to ride forward as before.

At the top of the steep ascent the country was quite open. The Xabecca river was seen in front with a few Kafir huts on its banks. Here the chief set off at full speed in the direction of the huts.

Colonel Smith and three of the guides pursued. The latter were quickly left behind, but the Colonel, being well mounted, kept up with the fugitive. Spurring on with violence, he soon overtook him.

"Stop, Hintza!" he shouted.

But Hintza was playing his last card. He urged his horse to greater exertion, and kept stabbing at his pursuer with an a.s.sagai.

The Colonel drew a pistol, but it snapped. A second was used with like ill success. He then spurred close up, struck the chief with the b.u.t.t end of the pistol, and, in so doing, dropped it. Hintza looked round with a smile of derision, and the Colonel, hurling the other pistol at him, struck him on the back of the head. The blow was ineffectual.

Hintza rode on; the troops followed as they best could. They were now nearing the huts. At length, making a desperate effort, the Colonel dashed close up to the chief. Having now no weapon, he seized him by the collar of his kaross, or cloak, and, with a violent effort, hurled him to the ground. Both horses were going at racing speed. The Colonel, unable to check his, pa.s.sed on, but before he was beyond reach the agile savage had leaped to his feet, drawn another a.s.sagai from the bundle which he carried, and hurled it after his enemy. So good was the aim that the weapon pa.s.sed within a few inches of the Colonel's body.

The act afforded time to those behind to come up. Although Hintza turned aside instantly and ran down the steep bank of the Xabecca, the foremost of the guides--named Southey--got within gun-shot and shouted in the Kafir tongue to the chief to stop. No attention being paid to the order, he fired, and Hintza fell, wounded in the left leg. Leaping up in a moment, he resumed his flight, when Southey fired again, and once more the chief was. .h.i.t and pitched forward, but rose instantly and gained the cover of the thicket which lined the bank of the river.

Southey leaped off his horse and gave chase, closely followed by Lieutenant Balfour of the 72nd regiment. The former kept up, and the latter down, the stream.

They had proceeded thus in opposite directions some distance when Southey was startled by an a.s.sagai striking the cliff on which he was climbing. Turning sharply, he saw Hintza's head and his uplifted arm among the bushes within a few feet of him. The savage was in the act of hurling another a.s.sagai. Quick as thought the guide levelled his gun and fired. The shot completely shattered the upper part of Hintza's skull, and next instant a mangled corpse was all that remained of the paramount chief of Kafirland.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

THE RESULTS OF WAR.

"Peace at last!" said Edwin Brook to George Dally, on arriving at his ravaged and herdless farm in the Zuurveld, whither George had preceded him.

"Peace is it, sir? Ah, that's well. It's about time too, for we've got a deal to do--haven't we, sir?"

George spoke quite cheerily, under the impression that his master required comforting.

"You see, sir, we've got to go back pretty well to where we was in 1820, and begin it all over again. It _is_ somewhat aggrawatin'! Might have been avoided, too, if they'd kep' a few more troops on the frontier."

"Well, Jack, the treaty is signed at last," said Robert Skyd to his brother, as he sat on his counter in Grahamstown, drumming with his heels.

"Not too soon," replied John Skyd, taking a seat on the same convenient lounge. "It has cost us something: houses burnt all over the settlement, from end to end; crops destroyed; cattle carried off, and, worst of all, trade almost ruined--except in the case of lucky fellows like you, Bob, who sell to the troops."

"War would not have broken out at all," returned Bob, "if the Kafirs had only been managed with a touch of ordinary common sense in times past.

Our losses are tremendous. Just look at the Kafir trade, which last year I believe amounted to above 40,000 pounds,--_that's_ crushed out altogether in the meantime, and won't be easily revived. Kafirs in hundreds were beginning to discard their dirty karosses, and to buy blankets, handkerchiefs, flannels, baize, cotton, knives, axes, and what not, while the traders had set up their stores everywhere in Kafirland-- to say nothing of your own business, Jack, in the gum, ivory, and shooting way, and our profits thereon. We were beginning to flourish so well, too, as a colony. I believe that we've been absorbing annually somewhere about 150,000 pounds worth of British manufactured articles-- not to mention other things, and now--Oh, Jack, mankind is a monstrous idiot!"

"Peace comes too late for us, Gertie," said Hans Marais to his wife, on their return to the old homestead on the karroo, which presented nothing but a blackened heap of dry mud, bricks, and charred timbers; herds and flocks gone--dreary silence in possession--the very picture of desolation.

"Better late than never," remarked Charlie Considine sadly. "We must just set to work, re-stock and re-build. Not so difficult to do so as it might have been, however, owing to that considerate uncle of mine.

We're better off than some of our poor neighbours who have nothing to fall back upon. They say that more than 3000 persons have been reduced to dest.i.tution; 500 farm-houses have been burnt and pillaged; 900 horses, 55,000 sheep and goats, and above 30,000 head of cattle carried off, only a few of which were recovered by Colonel Smith on that expedition when Hintza was killed. However, we'll keep up heart and go to work with a will--shan't we, my little wife!"

Bertha--now Bertha Considine--who leaned on Charlie's arm, spoke not with her lips, but she lifted her bright blue eyes, and with these orbs of light declared her thorough belief in the wisdom of what ever Charlie might say or do.

"They say it's all settled!" cried Jerry Goldboy, hastily entering Kenneth McTavish's stable.

"What's all settled?" demanded Sandy Black.

"Peace with the Kafirs," said Jerry.

"Peace wi' the Kawfirs!" echoed Sandy, in a slightly contemptuous tone.

"H'm! they should never hae had war wi' them, Jerry, my man."

"But 'aving 'ad it, ain't it well that it's hover?" returned Jerry.

"It's cost us a bonnie penny," rejoined Black.