THE RISE AND FALL OF UPINGTONIA. 353 



expedition against the Ovampos to revenge Jordaan's 

 murder was even talked of. But ill fortune was yet to 

 cling to this ill-devised Colony. About this time 

 there came news that Rudolph du Toit, field- 

 cornet (sub-magistrate) of the new settlement, who 

 had taken up a farm near Otavi mountain, had been 

 foully slain by the revengeful Bushmen. Du Toit was 

 a famous hunter, and hitherto from his knowledge 

 of their ways and their language, had had 

 considerable influence among the Bushmen, and 

 had often employed them on his hunting expeditions. 

 Trusting in these people, he had taken a number of 

 them with him on a shooting trip as spoorers and 

 hunters ; but now, full of revenge and hatred against 

 the Upingtonians, the Bushmen when out in the 

 hunting veldt fell upon the Dutch hunter and killed 

 him, and returning to his house ransacked the place. 

 His wife and children, who were intended to be 

 enslaved, escaped at night, and by great good 

 fortune happened upon a party of traders and 

 hunters. A commando was then quickly raised 

 among the settlers, and the Bushmen, pursued to 

 their mountain places, were surrounded and attacked. 

 A hot fight, begun at grey of dawn, took place, 

 in which the Bushmen, about fifty in number, 

 lost some dozen in killed, while the Boers, only 

 about twenty strong, were weakened by two 

 deaths and the wounding of one or two others. 

 The fight had straggled from a deep ravine into 

 dense bush, and here the Bushmen, in their own 

 peculiar element, had all the best of it, and at 

 length the Boers having but half completed their 

 campaign gave up the attack and returned to the 



main settlement. 



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