BAKWAINS' REVENGE ON BOERS. 113 



former existence of a gushing fountain. No one dared 

 to enter the Lohaheng, or cave, for it was the common 

 belief that it was the habitation of the Deity. As we never 

 had a holiday from January to December, and our Sun- 

 days were the periods of our greatest exertions in teaching, 

 I projected an excursion into the cave on a week-day 

 to see the god of the Bakwains. The old men said that 

 every one who went in remained there for ever, adding, 

 " If the teacher is so mad as to kill himself, let him do 

 so alone, we shall not be to blame." The declaration 

 of Sechele, that he would follow where I led, produced 

 the greatest consternation. It is curious that in all their 

 pretended dreams or visions of their god he has always 

 a crooked leg, like the Egyptian Thau. Supposing that 

 those who were reported to have perished in this cave 

 had fallen over some precipice, we went well provided 

 with lights, ladder, lines, &c. ; but it turned out to be 

 only an open cave, with an entrance about ten feet square, 

 which contracts into two water-worn branches, ending 

 in round orifices through which the water once flowed. 

 The only inhabitants it seems ever to have had were 

 baboons. I left at the end of the upper branch one of 

 Father Mathew's leaden teetotal tickets. 



I never saw the Bakwains looking so haggard and lean 

 as at this time. Most of their cattle had been swept 

 away by the Boers, together with about eighty fine 

 draught-oxen ; and much provision left with them by 

 two officers, Captains Codnngton and Webb, to serve 

 for their return journey south, had been carried off also 

 On their return these officers found the skeletons of the 

 Bakwains where they expected to find their own goods. 

 All the corn, clothing, and furniture of the people too 

 had been consumed in the flames which the Boers had 

 forced the subject tribes to apply to the town during 

 the fight, so that its inhabitants were now literally starving. 



Sechele had given orders to his people not to commit 

 any act of revenge pending his visit to the Queen of 

 England ; but some of the young men ventured to go to 

 meet a party of Boers returning from hunting, and, as 

 the Boers became terrified and ran off, they brought 

 their waggons to Litubaruba. This seems to have given 

 the main body of Boers an idea that the Bakwains meant 

 to begin a guerilla war upon them. This " Caffre war " 

 was, however, only in embryo, and not near that stage 



I 



