venge his death. A brother of Bezuidenhout spoke
to them, and so wrought on their feelings that a great number of the
farmers of that and the neighbouring districts ultimately assembled
under arms, with the avowed intention of ridding themselves altogether
of British interference! They went still further, and took a step which
might have been much more serious. They sent Cornelius Faber, a
brother-in-law of the Bezuidenhouts, to the Kafir chief Gaika for the
purpose of rousing that savage and his hordes to attack the Colony.

Of course the Government was obliged to frustrate such an attempt with
all possible speed. Troops were immediately sent against the rebels,
under Colonel Cuyler. One of the rebel leaders, named Prinsloo, was
captured at a critical moment, and the main body, amounting to between
three and four hundred, was finally met with. But before proceeding to
extremities, a field-commandant, William Nel, volunteered to go alone
among the rebels, and reason with them. He did so, and was so far
successful as to shake the resolution of some, for, although
disaffected, many of these men were by no means so foolish as their
leaders. Indeed, many of them had been threatened and coerced into
rebellion. Seeing the effect of Nel's remonstrances, Faber,
Bezuidenhout, and other leaders, assembled their forces at a place
called Slachters Nek, and exacted from them an oath to remain faithful
to each other until they had expelled the tyrants from the frontier.

Next morning Colonel Cuyler proceeded to attack them. On his approach
thirty or more of them threw down their arms in token of surrender; the
remainder, seeing that resistance would be hopeless, retired into the
fastnesses of Baviaans River. There they were followed and surrounded,
and an attempt was made to bring them to submission, but during the
night most of them managed to escape by familiar mountain passes.

The principal leaders, rejecting all terms, escaped with their wagons,
families, and goods to the Winterberg Mountains, bordering on Kafirland,
where they hoped to be safe; but, being followed up hotly by a body of
troops under Major Fraser, they were eventually overtaken and surrounded
in a deep kloof. Here six of them were brought to bay, among whom were
Faber, with his wife, his son--a lad of fourteen years,--and John
Bezuidenhout. These, retiring behind the wagons, a skirmish began,
which was not concluded until one of the soldiers was kil