large
armed force was sent out against the invaders. They were found
located--for they had built a town--near the sources of the Umtata
River. The Caffres joined with all their forces, and the Ficani were
surprised. A horrid slaughter took place; muskets, artillery and
Congreve rockets were poured upon the unfortunate wretches, who were
hemmed in on all sides by the Caffres, and the unfortunate Ficani may be
said to have been exterminated, for the Caffres spared neither man,
woman nor child. Such is the history of the Mantatees; their destruction
was horrible, but perhaps unavoidable."

"Very true," observed Alexander; "I can not help thinking that
desolating contests like these are permitted by a controlling Providence
as chastisements, yet with a gracious end; for, surely it was better
that they should meet with immediate death, than linger till famine put
an end to their misery. This is certain, that they must have been
destroyed, or others destroyed to make room for them. In either case a
great sacrifice of life was to be incurred. War, dreadful as it is in
detail, appears to be one of the necessary evils of human existence, and
a means by which we do not increase so rapidly as to devour each other.

"I don't know whether you have made the observation, but it appears to
me the plague and cholera are almost necessary in the countries where
they break out; and it is very remarkable that the latter disease never
made its appearance in Europe (at least not for centuries, I may say)
until after peace had been established, and the increase of population
was so rapid.

"During the many years that Europe was devastated and the population
thinned by war, we had no cholera, and but little of one or two other
epidemics which have since been very fatal. What I mean to infer is,
that the hand of Providence may be seen in all this. Thus sanguinary
wars and the desolating ravages of disease, which are in themselves
afflictive visitations, and probably chastisements for national sins,
may nevertheless have the effect, in some cases, of preventing the
miseries which result from an undue increase of population."

"You may be quite right, Alexander," observed Swinton; "the ways of
Heaven are inscrutably mysterious, and when we offer up prayers for the
removal of what may appear to be a heavy calamity, we may be deprecating
that which in the end may prove a mercy."

"One thing I could not help remarking in your narrative, Swinton,