T H E FRONTIEH, Oil AMAKÓSA KAFIRS,
" Wake, Aiimkóaa, nakc !
Anil nuisler for ihu wnr;
Tilt wiziinl nolvcs from KOÌSÌ'K BI'iikr'.
The vulture« from ofnr,
Are gathering ul Uhlsnga'a mil,
And l'"llo"iu|5 Insl our «-esUvonl way.—
l'or wpll they know, ere evciiing fnll.
They slmli have slnrions prey !"
Tin'. Aniakdsn, or Fvontier Kafirs, as they are frequently called, are those tri\)es whose ten-itory borders upon
till- Cape Colony from the Winterherg to the coast; and it is with them that European intercourse, both in peace
and war, has been far more usual than with the tribes
f a r t h e r north. It is with the Amakdsa, that the long and
saiJifuinary war called " the Kafir war," has been waged by
the Biitish Govcniineiit,—a war that originally arose from
tlie marauding attacks of the Dutch freebooters upon the
Tambookies, who plundered tliem of their cattle anil sheep,
and slaushtered many of the inhabitants. Retaliation on the
p a r t of the Kafii-s was the consequence, and a deadly hatred
against the colonists was implanted hi every breast, from father
to son,—a feebng of revenge, that every fresh outbreak only
served to strengthen and confirm. From 178(5, when the
Boors, with the assistance of Islambi, cut to pieces the
whole of the Gunuquehi clan, there ha.s been a constant
succession of wars between the Frontier Kafirs and the Cape
colonists. The Kafirs, formins marauding expeditions and
possessing themselves of the colonial cattle, are often the
aggressoi-s; hut too frequently the injustice and cruelty of
' the whites have given them just cause for revenge. In 1811,
the determination of the Colonial Government to drive the
whole of the Kafii-s beyond the Great Fish River, fi-oin a
country they had inhabited for nearly a century, and at a
period when their crops of maize and millet were all but
ripe, 1 the commencement of i • of s 5 thirty years
I cessation of hostilities lictween the whites ami the
standing—a series of campaigns, neither creditable to Britain
nor beneficial to the colonists—plungiug the settlers in
misei'y and poverty, and costing the nation three millions
of money. Indeed, up to the arrival of the present governor,
Sir Harry Smith, in the Cape Colony, no prospect of
original possessors of the soil was at all manifest; that able
general has now established peace tbroughoiil Kaffraria. by employing a system of "moral conquest," more effective
t h a n all tlic guns and bayonets for the last thirty years. Sir Harry Smith landed at Cape Town on the 1st December,
KS47, and on the 1st March, 1848, returned in trium])h to the seat of Government, having gone through the enUre
country from the Cape to Natal, and restored peace, justice, and good-will amongst all races, in the incredibly short
period of three months.
The accompanying portrait is of Macomo, the son of Gaika, one of the leading Amakdsa chiefs connected with
the late war. lie is a man of souud sense, and (Usplays a fine, intellectual forehead. Many years ago he was
driven from the Kat River, across the Chumi, wlien he was living peaceably on the neutral ground; his people died
am<ni£st the mountains from cold and hunger; his corn was left to perish, and liis cattle lost their pasturage; yet