JJO WAR WITH THE BAKWAINS. 



lady our chief. This seemed to them a most convincing 

 proof of our sound sense. We shall see farther on the 

 confidence my account of our Queen inspired. 



The Boers, encouraged by the accession of Mr. Pre- 

 torius, determined at last to put a stop to English traders 

 going past Kolobeng, by dispersing the tribe of Bakwains, 

 and expelling all the missionaries. Sir George Cathcart 

 proclaimed the independence of the Boers, the best thing 

 that could have been done had they been between us and 

 the Caffres. A treaty was entered into with these Boers ; 

 an article for the free passage of Englishmen to the country 

 beyond, and also another, that no slavery should be 

 allowed in the independent territory, were duly inserted, 

 as expressive of the views of Her Majesty's government at 

 home. " But what about the missionaries ? " inquired 

 the Boers. " You may do as you please with them," is said 

 to have been the answer of the " Commissioner." This 

 remark, if uttered at all, was probably made in joke : 

 designing men, however, circulated it, and caused the 

 general belief in its accuracy which now prevails all over 

 the country, and doubtless led to the destruction of three 

 mission stations immediately after. The Boers, four 

 hundred in number, were sent by the late Mr. Pretorius to 

 attack the Bakwains in 1852. Boasting that the English 

 had given up all the blacks into their power, and had 

 agreed to aid them in their subjugation by preventing all 

 supplies of ammunition from coming into the Bechuana 

 country, they assaulted the Bakwains, and, besides killing 

 a considerable number of adults, carried off two hundred 

 of our school children into slavery. The natives under 

 Sechele defended themselves till the approach of night 

 enabled them to flee to the mountains ; and having in that 

 defence killed a number of the enemy, the very first ever 

 slain in this country by Bechuanas, I received the credit 

 of having taught the tribe to kill Boers ! My house, which 

 had stood perfectly secure for years under the protection 

 of the natives, was plundered in revenge. English gentle- 

 men, who had come in the footsteps of Mr. Cumming to 

 hunt in the country beyond, and had deposited large quan- 

 tities of stores in the same keeping, and upwards of eighty 

 head of cattle as relays for the return journeys, were 

 robbed of all ; and when they came back to Kolobeng 

 found the skeletons of the guardians strewed all over the 

 place. The books of a good library — my solace in our 



