33 2 THE HISTORY OF SEKWATI. 



Sekwati to raid the Ba-Moletshi ( Zoutpansberg). Sekwati per- 

 sonally went with him and a big impi. They killed Moletshi's men 

 and took a very large number of cattle-herds, small stock, and 

 also women and children. After the fight, when the Bapedi were 

 killing and eating the captured goats and sheep, Kadisha told 

 Potgieter : " You do not know these men of Sekwati. I know 

 them. You had better turn round and kill them also at once." 

 Potgieter agreed to this. He called Sekwati alone to his camp, 

 and turned round with all his Boers to the mass of Sekwati's war- 

 riors, standing only fifty yards away, and fired at them. They 

 fled. The Boers on horseback rode after them and brought them 

 back again. When Sekwati complained, they answered : " We 

 did this because you were killing so many goats. Although you 

 have taken the goats you ought to have brought them to us." The 

 Ba-Mpahlele, Ba-Nkoane, Ba-Mpanama suffered most by this 

 onslaught. The Boers now took all the clothes (pieces of thin 

 cloth, bought by the people from wandering Makoapa from 

 Delagoa Bay) and skins, but left the arms and shields. Now Se- 

 kwati sent all the auxiliaries home, remaining only with his own 

 men. Then the Boers said : "'All the men of Sekwati must go 

 home, but Sekwati must remain with us." So Sekwati sent them 

 home with young Sekukuni, also with some cattle and goats which 

 the Boers gave him. A few days later he went home, too. The 

 Boers also went home. Later they left Ohrigstad and went to 

 settle near Mokopane ( Piet Potgieters Rust). From there they 

 went together in a big commando of all native tribes (except 

 Mapahlele) and came to attack Sekwati at Magalies. At first 

 they were able to get up the hill of the stronghold to the top. But 

 at the last strong enclosure the Bapedi drove them out and 

 down again. The Bapedi also had guns from Moshoesh, Basuto- 

 land. The Boers surrounded the hill, keeping the Bapedi from 

 the water. They had been joined by a second detachment of 

 Boers from Lydenburg. One day they cried out, " The women 

 may come and fetch water." But wiien these came the Boers shot 

 some of them ; others had succeeded in going back with water. 

 The cattle on the hill had been dying from hunger and thirst. The 

 people sucked the stomachs of these. One night Sekukuni, 

 with the young men and girls, went down, drove in the Boer out- 

 posts and brought water up. After that the Boers no longer put 

 their night outposts near the water, and so the Bapedis had enough 

 water. A party of Boers then went round to Lolu as far as 

 Magakal, across the Olifants River, and took many herds of cattle. 

 As soon as these arrived the Boers left, one commando for Zout- 

 pansberg, the other for Lydenburg. 



After this Sekwati sent a peace-offering of elephant tusks to 

 Hendrik Potgieter, but found that the latter had just died — all the 

 women were wearing black. 



Sekwati then left Magalies and went over the Lolu to settle 

 on the Hill Mosigo, which was full of caves. There he was left 

 undisturbed until he died in 1861. 



