led, another
wounded, Bezuidenhout shot, and Faber and his wife and son severely
wounded. Then the party were taken prisoners.

Subsequently fifty or sixty of the other rebels were captured and taken
to Capetown. Of these, thirty-nine of the most culpable were tried on
the charge of high treason. Six were condemned to death; the others,
after being compelled to witness the execution of their leaders, were to
undergo various degrees of punishment, according to their proved guilt.
One of the six had the capital sentence commuted to transportation for
life, and the remaining five ringleaders were executed.

LETTER SEVEN.

LION-HUNTING, ETCETERA, IN THE EARLY DAYS--BUSHMEN AND THEIR TROUBLES.

It is deeply interesting to tread in the footsteps of bold adventurous
men, and visit the scenes which have been rendered classic by their
deeds of heroic daring or of patient endurance. So I found it during my
brief sojourn in the regions of Baviaans River, where, upwards of fifty
years before, my countrymen had faced, fought, and subdued the savage,
the wilderness, and the wild-beast.

The every-day life of the early settlers of this region cannot be better
illustrated than by a brief quotation from the diary of one of them.

"_October 1st_.--Arrival of the Somerset wagon with flour, seed-corn,
etcetera. I discharged the servant Sandy from the party, gave him a
pass, countersigned by the Deputy-Landdrost, and sent him off with the
Somerset wagon towards Grahamstown. This lad has turned out to be at
once a fool and a blackguard, and quite beyond hope of reform.

"_4th_.--A sharp frost last night blighted all our early potatoes,
pumpkins, melons, kidney-beans, etcetera. It appears we had sown some
of our seed too early.

"_8th, Sunday_.--A troop of about twenty quaggas galloped through the
corner of our gardens during divine service.

"_9th_.--A herd of hartebeests passed close to our huts, pursued by a
pack of six wild dogs (_Hyaena venatica_). Fired at the latter, but
without effect. This day Mr John Rennie, being out hunting on
Hyndhope Fells, fell in with two wild Bushmen, dressed in sheepskins.
They ran off on his approach, but made no demonstration of hostility.
He came upon six hyenas devouring a hartebeest, and brought me its
skull and horns.

"_11th_.--Visited by three Boers from the Tarka--desirous of
exchanging horses and cattle for guns and ammunition. Complete