Chap. VL SECHELE'S LETTEK. 119 



burned the town with fire, and scattered us. Tliey killed sixty 

 of my people, and captured women, and children, and men. 

 And the mother of Baleriling (a former wife of Sechele) they also 

 took prisoner. They took all the cattle and all the goods of the 

 Bakwains ; and the house of Livingstone they plundered, taking 

 away all his goods. The number of waggons they had was eighty- 

 five, and a cannon ; and after they had stolen my own waggon 

 and that of Macabe, then the number of then waggons (counting 

 the cannon as one) was eighty-eight. All the goods of the hunters 

 (certain English gentlemen hunting and exploring in the north) 

 were burned in the town ; and of the Boers were killed twenty- 

 eight. Yes, my beloved friend, now my wife goes to see the 

 children, and Kobus Hae will convey her to you. 



" I am, Sechele, 



" The Son of Mochoasele." 



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 Avhen 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. 



Very 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 generally 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 "for- 

 bidden 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, 



