e was encamped on the Debe flats a force
consisting of upwards of two hundred men, the cattle were inclosed
nightly in a kraal, formed of bushes and trees cut down, and inclosing a
space of some forty yards in diameter. Sentries were placed round this
inclosure, in spite of whom, for two nights, the bushes had been removed
and two or three oxen taken away. There had been a slight disturbance
amongst the cattle each night, but upon inspection everything seemed
right. To prevent a third robbery, a number of Hottentots were placed
round the kraal and ordered to lie down under the bushes, and to keep
quiet. They remained nearly half the night without seeing anything,
when one wily fellow noticed a small black object on the ground at a
short distance from him, which he thought he had not observed before.
Keeping his eyes fixed upon it, he saw a movement when a sentry walked
away from it, and a stillness as he approached. The Hottentot remained
perfectly quiet until the black object was a few yards from him, when he
called out in Kaffir that he was going to shoot. The black object
jumped on its feet, whirling an assagy, but only in time to receive a
heavy charge of buckshot in the breast, followed up by a bullet, which
terminated the career of a Kaffir well-known for his daring and
cattle-stealing propensities.

That the frontier Kaffir is, in nearly every case, a rogue, a thief, and
a liar, no one will, I believe, deny; there is a great deal, however, to
be said in excuse for him. He is a savage, uneducated, and misled by
the bad example of his forefathers, and he is gradually encroached upon
by the white men, who, after a war, most unceremoniously appropriate a
certain number of square miles of territory, and tell the original owner
that he must either move on, or that he is only a squatter on
sufferance.

The Kaffir has had one or two severe lessons, showing him that he is no
match for the white man in fair open fights, and so, gathering
experience from these lessons, he now rarely runs an open risk, but
confines himself to attacks where he has every advantage of numbers and
position. His great stronghold is the bush, and without doubt he is
there a most dangerous animal. Active, unencumbered with clothing, and
his colour well suited for concealment, he glides about like a snake;
the knowledge he has gained in surprising the quick-sighted and
sharp-eared animals of his country, he now applies to the destruction o