reby in the course of a few days we
were able to gather something like a clear general idea of what had
happened and was still happening in the colony.

Thus it soon transpired that, in the eastern provinces, an imaginary
line drawn from the mouth of the Great Kei River through Triannon and
Bella Vista, and thence northward along the meridian of 26 degrees east
longitude to the Zour Bergen, represented the southern limit of the
savages' depredations; while beyond the Zour Bergen, to the north and
west, we were unable to learn anything definite. On the fifth day after
my arrival in Somerset East a detachment consisting of two companies of
infantry, accompanied by baggage and ammunition wagons, under the
command of a Captain Fletcher, arrived from Port Elizabeth, and encamped
within half a mile of the town in an excellent strategic position, which
they at once proceeded to entrench strongly; and there they remained
nearly a week, awaiting instructions from their general, who was
preparing a plan of campaign while moving toward the centre of
disturbance the few troops at his disposal, and collecting information.

During the week that followed the arrival of the troops we received
intelligence of several attacks upon isolated farms, and even small
villages, in the outlying and more sparsely populated districts; from
which it speedily became apparent that the regular troops, consisting,
as they did, entirely of infantry, and hampered, as they were, by their
baggage wagons, were altogether too slow-moving to be effective in
overtaking and bringing to action the nimble bodies of savages, who were
encumbered with no impedimenta of any description whatsoever excepting
their weapons--a shield, knobkerrie, and sheaf of assagais; who slept
under the stars, quenched their thirst at every stream or runlet that
crossed their path, and eat whatever came to hand, whether it chanced to
be buck, bullock, or green mealies.

Therefore it seemed, upon careful consideration of the situation, that
if the ravages of the blacks were to be stopped there was only one
course to be pursued, and that was to dispatch against them a force of
irregular cavalry composed of farmers, hunters, transport riders, and
others, men who had lived long enough in the country to become inured to
the climate and accustomed to the methods of travel in it, who could
move as independently of impedimenta as the savages themselves, and,
being mounted, as swiftly, and w