68 A PANIC. 



This statement is in exact accordance with the account 

 given by the native teacher Mebalwe, and also that sent 

 by some of the Boers themselves to the public colonial 

 papers. The crime of cattle-stealing, of which we hear so 

 much near CafFreland, was never alleged against these 

 people; and, if a single case had occurred when I was in 

 the country, I must have heard of it, and would at once 

 say so. But the only crime imputed in the papers was 

 that "Sechele was getting too saucy." The demand made 

 for his subjection and service in preventing the English 

 traders passing to the north was kept out of view. 



Yery soon after Pretorius had sent the marauding-party 

 against Kolobeng, he was called away to the tribunal of 

 infinite justice. His policy is justified by the Boers gene- 

 rally from the instructions given to the Jewish warriors 

 in Deuteronomy xx. 10-14. Hence, when he died, the 

 obituary notice ended with "Blessed are the dead who die 

 in the Lord." I wish he had not "forbidden us to preach 

 unto the Gentiles that they may be saved." 



The report of this outrage on the Bakwains, coupled 

 with denunciations against myself for having, as it was 

 alleged, taught them to kill Boers, produced such a panic 

 in the country that I could not engage a single servant to 

 accompany me to the north. I have already alluded to 

 their mode of warfare, and in all previous Boerish forays 

 the killing had all been on one side; now, however, that a 

 tribe where an Englishman had lived had begun to shed 

 their blood as well, it was considered the strongest pre- 

 sumptive evidence against me. Loud vows of vengeance 

 were uttered against my head, and threats of instant pur- 

 suit by a large party on horseback, should I dare to go into 

 or beyond their country; and as these were coupled with 

 the declaration that the English Government had given 

 over the whole of the native tribes to their rule, and would 

 assist in their entire subjection by preventing fire-arms 

 and ammunition from entering the country except for the 

 use of the Boers, it was not to be wondered at that I was 



