were now aroused among the Boers, and a sense of
danger demanded a swift reprisal; no homestead was
safe if this Kafir attack was allowed to develop, every
farmer instinctively apprehended the emergency, and
soon upwards of four hundred armed burghers had
arrived at the scene of the tragedy determined on
vengeance deep and terrible. The Kafirs fled to a
huge cavern some two thousand feet in length and
four or five hundred in width, which was closely
blockaded by the Boers. Now commenced that wild
revenge which is common to man’s nature under similar
circumstances; it has been practised by the French
in Algeria, and by ourselves during the Sepoy revolt in
India. Frantic with thirst the imprisoned Kafirs
sought at night to reach the water that flows near
the cave, but were shot down in the attempt; quarter
was a word unknown, and after twenty-five days’
blockade, the cavern was entered and its horrors seen.
According to Commandant Pretorius—who would have
no interest in exaggerating the figures—nine hundred
Kafirs had been killed outside the cavern, and more
than double that number had died of thirst within it *.
Makapan himself is reported to have perished by
poison introduced in water, but the true story of the
wild vengeance will probably never be told. It was
during the blockade that the present President Kriiger
exhibited an act of that bravery which he has elsewhere
displayed. A Boer commander was shot when
standing near the mouth of the cavern, and Mr. Kriiger
volunteered to bring away the body, which he did.
This man was afterwards buried on his farm, and
I have visited the grave; it was silent and alone, as
befitted the last rest of an old voortrekker.
Some eight hours were at my disposal before the
return coach could convey me back to Pretoria, and I
seized the opportunity to visit the cavern, guided by
one who knew the neighbourhood and had once been
* The South-African historian, G. McCall Theal, who is cautious and not
biassed against the Boer, adopts these figures (‘ History of South Africa,
1854-72/ p. 30).
an English soldier. The weather was clear and hot,
we crossed large fields of maize grown by Kafirs,
who are here the only agriculturists, and as we walked
Clonia wahlbergi.
through these high and flourishing plants one was
reminded of the fields of young sugar-cane in the East.
It was in these fields that I first captured the fine
orthopterous insect, Clonia wahlbergi, and experienced
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