80 ATTACK OF BOERS ON BAK WAINS. Chap. VI. 



" Friend of niy heart's love, and of all the confidence of niy 

 heart, I am Sechele ; I am undone by the Boers, who attacked 

 me, though I had no guilt with them. They demanded that I 

 should be in their kingdom, and I refused ; they demanded that 

 I should prevent the English and Griquas from passing (north- 

 wards). I replied, These are my friends, and I can prevent 

 no one (of them). They came on Saturday, and I besought 

 them not to fight on Sunday, and they assented. They began 

 on Monday morning at twilight, and fired with all their might, 

 and burned the town with fire, and scattered us. They 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 wag- 

 gons they had was eighty-five, and a cannon ; and after they 

 had stolen my own waggon and that of Macabe, then the 

 number of their 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 some of the Boers themselves to the public colonial 

 papers. The only cause they alleged was that " Sechele was 

 getting too saucy." Their demand that he should be subject 

 to them and prevent the English traders passing northwards 

 was kept out of view. Soon after Pretorius had despatched 

 this marauding party against Kolobeng he was called away 

 to the Great Tribunal. His policy is justified by the Boers 

 from the instructions given to the Jewish warriors in Deute- 

 ronomy xx. 10-14. Hence the obituary notice of him ended 

 with the words, " Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." 



The report of this outrage on the Bakwains, coupled with 

 the denunciations against myself for having, as it was asserted, 

 taught them to kill Boers, produced such a panic in the 



