42.2 TRAVELS IN 
-the same moment that indulgence was extended. So con- 
scions, indeed, are they of their wickedness, that, whenever 
they escape punishment, they conclude that the government 
no longer possesses the power of inflicting it, and that it 
spares them only because it is convenient to let them alone. 
Yet to what a wretched condition might they be reduced, 
by forbidding them all access to the Cape, and depriving 
them of gunpowder. 
IJowever desirable it might have been to apprehend and 
punish the rebels, who had instigated the Kafi^ers to acts of 
hostility against the British troops, yet it was by no means 
advisable, in order to obtain that point, to wage an unequal 
contest with savages in the midst of impenetrable thickets, 
whose destruction would have added little lustre to the Bri- 
tish arms, and been advantageous only to the very people 
who had urged them on. General Vandeleur, therefore, very 
prudently withdrew his forces, and marched them down to 
Algoa Bay, where part of them were embarked on board the 
Rattlesnake, and the rest intended to proceed to the Cape by 
easy marches. Subsequent events, however, delayed their 
departure, and rendered the presence of troops necessary at 
Algoa Bay until the evacuation of the colony. 
Having delivered over the remaining Hottentots, on the 
return of the General, and finding I could be of no further 
use, I set out for the Cape, where, after a journey of six- 
teen days, performed with two horses, 1 arrived on the 8th 
of June. 
