298 EXPEDITION INTO 



inclosure, nor did they succeed in perforating* the leathern 

 doublet of a sing-le Dutchman. But the star of Moselekatse 

 was still in the ascendant. At the time of this successful 

 attack he was residing* at Kapain, fifty miles farther to the 

 northward ; and Kalipi^ having- sing-ularly enoug"h been sum- 

 moned thither only the day before^ escaped the fate of a 

 larg'e proportion of his brave but unfortunate followers. 



Had Maritz followed up the advantag-e thus g-ained^ and 

 marched at once upon Kapain, Moselekatse could not possi- 

 bly have effected his escape. Inflated by the recent success 

 of his armS; the despot was basking- in the sunshine of se- 

 curity^ little dreaming* of so sudden an invasion. Struck at 

 that moment, another blow would have completed the work 

 of destruction, and left the emig-rants to pursue their pilg*ri- 

 mag*e in safety. Blind, however, to the obvious course they 

 should have pursued, and content for the present with what 

 they had achieved, the boors secured seven thousand head of 

 cattle, and the wag*g*ons that had been taken from Erasmus, 

 with which they immediately set out on their return, by 

 forced marches ; and, accompanied by the American mis- 

 sionaries, who, whilst they reasonably dreaded the summary 

 veng-eance of the exasperated savag"e, had now no further 

 field for their labours — arrived in a few days at Thaba Un- 

 cha, without molestation or pursuit on the part of the Ma- 

 tabli. 



Mag'ical indeed was the effect which the news of this vic- 

 tory produced upon the Dutch colonists. It fanned the 

 smouldering* embers of the epidemic into a flame, and caused 

 the rag*e for emig*ration to burst forth and spread like wild- 

 fire. The promise of land unlimited, and of relief from 

 taxation, tempted hundreds whose remoteness from the bor- 

 der ads smothered the incentives which actuated the orig*inal 

 projectors of the scheme. Another class, who like the bat in 

 the fable, had been prudently watching* the turn that affairs 



