Captain Struben and the Natal Magistracy 9 



in the Sovereignty (now the Free State). Gado-gado 

 was ordered to appear before the Magistrate to 

 answer to these charges. He answered that if the 

 Magistrate wanted him and felt strong enough he 

 could come to his location and fetch him ! If order 

 had to be maintained, such a challenge could not be 

 allowed to pass, so my father with one of his sub- 

 ordinate Magistrates, the late Dr. Elaine, the Field 

 Cornet, Martinus Koekemoor, a Boer by name Jan 

 Groen, with a body of native police approached the 

 head " kraal " from the mountain side at daybreak. 

 A woman gave the alarm, and the Zulus rushed out 

 armed with assegais. One aimed an assegai at my 

 father's chest, but the horse threw his head up and 

 received it on the bone of the neck behind his ear, 

 where it bent and hung, the horse turning round and 

 round in his fright. The Kaffir then rushed up with 

 a stabbing assegai, so my father shot him dead with 

 a pistol. Another rushed at Dr. Elaine who also 

 shot him, and then a general scrimmage took place, 

 thirty-two of the rebels were killed and wounded, 

 and the tribe taken prisoners to Lady smith. Again 

 there was an outcry by some missionaries supported 

 by the same paper, that " cold-blooded murder had 

 been committed, and that Captain Struben should 

 pay the penalty." The Governor and most of the 

 officials stood by him and I have letters approving of 

 his conduct, but the enmity against him was extreme 

 on the part of the one paper and the missionaries. 



Up to this time cattle were a drug in the Natal 

 market, oxen being as low as 1 and even 10/- each, 

 but pleuro-pneumonia had been imported to the 

 Cape from Holland, and notwithstanding that my 

 father placed guards at the passes in the Drakens- 

 berg, the terrible disease entered Natal and 

 destroyed two-thirds of its cattle. The cattle 



