332 
SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
still further Southward, until they met a still 
stronger party of emigrants on the farm, now 
called "Vecht Laager/' (at present the property 
of Mr. Ogle,) on the Bushman's river, where 
they sustained a very serious engagement, which 
lasted throughout the whole day, but where, 
when the farmers' ammunition was nearly ex- 
hausted, luckily their last shots, from a three 
pounder which had been rigged to the back of 
one of their wagons, struck down some of the 
leading Zoolah Chiefs and forced them to a 
precipitate retreat. 
"The moment these attacks were thus re- 
pulsed, the emigrant farmers sallied out from 
their "laagers" to rescue, if possible, any of their 
friends who had been in advance, and to as- 
certain the havoc which had been caused among 
them ; when, upon reaching the stations which 
those had occupied, a scene of horror and misery 
was unfolded, which no pen can describe. All 
the wagons had been demolished, the iron parts 
wrenched from them, and by their ruins lay 
the mangled corpses of men, women, and chil- 
dren, thrown on heaps and abandoned to the 
beasts of prey. Amongst these heaps, at the 
Blue Krantz river, they found lying amongst 
the dead corpses, the bodies of two young fe- 
males, about ten or twelve years of age, which 
still appeared to show some signs of vitality. 
