DISTURBANCES AMONGST TIIE KAFFIR TRIBES. 291 
go was stopped, in consequence of the Saltpansberg 
Boers having taken the guns from four of Se- 
chele’s hunters, and beaten them about the head. 
Sechele told me I must not go that road, or his 
people would assuredly kill me, taking me for a 
Boer, as they do not venture to the wagon in the 
daytime, but murder you in your sleep. In this 
pleasant state of things, therefore, with the certainty 
of being robbed of everything if I stopped, and 
murdered if I went Kotowani’s road, I was obliged 
to take advantage of Sechele’s escort. I found that 
all these rows are owing to the war going on between 
Moshesh and the Free State Boers. Mahura — a 
powerful chief near Kuruman, on this side the Yaal 
Biver — the Bastards, Griquas, Corannas, Bakatlas, 
and a number of other tribes, have, I hear, all joined 
Moshesh’s standard ; and the latter sent messengers 
to Secliele and the Bamangwatos for their assistance 
in driving out the Boers, of whom they have already 
killed eighty. Sechele tells me he has sworn solemnly 
before God that he will fight no more unless he is 
first attacked, and therefore refuses help. I hear 
that Scoonman’s men (Boers), in the Saltpansberg 
district, surrounded a Kaffir State on the top of a 
mountain, inaccessible, or thought by the natives to 
be so, from all but one side, which was strongly 
barricaded and guarded, and scaled it at night by 
the help of rheims. The Kaffirs in the morning 
were panic-stricken, on seeing the Boers on the top 
of the berg, and great numbers threw themselves 
