CAFFER CRUELTY. 231 



tion was procured for her in the family of a respect- 

 able resident. 



At the time of our visit, a fine little girl was 

 pointed out to us, whom Mrs. Chalmers was bring- 

 ing up as a domestic. Her mother had been found 

 by some of the Missionaries, while visiting the neigh- 

 bourhood, under the following circumstances : — -On 

 coming to a deserted kraal, their attention was at- 

 tracted by the groans of some one apparently in 

 great agony. When they entered the hut an appall- 

 ing spectacle presented itself. A miserable Caffer 

 woman had been accused' of bewitching one of the 

 Chiefs, and treated with the greatest barbarity. 

 Her savage accusers having, by means of the most 

 horrible menaces, extorted from her a confession of 

 guilt, half roasted her, then covered her smarting 

 body with black ants, which had in some parts lite- 

 rally eaten the flesh from her bones ; and thus in a 

 state of torture, slow and lingering to the last degree, 

 she had been left to perish. In this dreadful con- 

 dition she was found with her little girl, who had 

 either escaped the observation of her tormentors, or 

 else they in their tender mercies had left her to supply 

 her dying mother with water, for which the cry of 

 the poor suffering creature was incessant. Our 

 countrymen, acting the part of the good Samaritan, 

 dressed her wounds, and conveyed her to their home, 

 where death speedily terminated her sufferings. 



On another occasion a strange Caffer rushed into 



