Chap. YI. 
SECHELE’S LETTER. 
119 
burned the town with fire, and scattered us. They killed sixty 
of my people, and captured women, and children, and men. 
And the mother of Baleriling (a former wife of Sechele) they also 
took prisoner. They took all the cattle and aU the goods of the 
Bakwains; and the house of Livingstone they plundered, taking 
away aU liis goods. The number of waggons they had was eighty- 
five, and a cannon; and after they had stolen my own waggon 
and that of Macabe, then the number of them waggons (counting 
the cannon as one) was eighty-eight. AU the goods of the hunters 
(certain Enghsh gentlemen hunting and exploring in the north) 
were burned in the town ; and of the Boers were kiUed twenty- 
eight. Yes, my beloved friend, now my wife goes to see the 
children, and Kobus Hae wiU convey her to you. 
“ I am, Sechele, 
“ The Son of Mochoasele.” 
This statement is in exact accordance with the account given 
by the native teacher Mebalwe, and also that sent by some of the 
Boers themselves to the pubhc colonial papers. The crime of 
cattle-steahng, of which we hear so much near Caffreland, was 
never aUeged agaiust these people, and, if a single case had 
occurred when I was in the country, I must have heard of it, and 
would at once say so. But the only crime imputed in the pa^^ers 
was that “ Sechele was getting too saucy.” The demand made 
for his subjection and service in preventing the Enghsh traders 
passing to the north was kept out of view. 
Very soon after Pretorius had sent the marauding party 
against Kolobeng, he was caUed away to the tribunal of uifinite 
justice. His pohcy is justified by the Boers generaUy from the 
instructions given to the Jewish warriors m Deuteronomy xx. 10-14. 
Hence, when he died, the obituary notice ended with Blessed 
are the dead who die in the Lord.” I wish he had not for¬ 
bidden us to preach unto the GentUes that they may be saved.” 
The report of tliis outrage on the Bakwains, coupled with 
denunciations against myself for having, as it was alleged, taught 
them to ki11 Boers, produced such a panic in the country, that I 
could not engage a single servant to accompany me to the north. 
I have abeady alluded to their mode of warfare, and in all 
previous Boerish forays the Idlluig had all been on one side; now, 
