, >776- them ; and I am inclined to confider the being maffacred by January. . ^ ^ ~ w O thefe fellows, as one fpecies of the fudden death, againft which we are taught to pray in the Litany. I have lately been informed by a letter from Mr. Im m e l m a n , dated from the Cape, 25th of March, 1781 , that the & / r a at that time were laying wafte every thing they could meet with in the diftridfs belonging to the Chriftians : among others P r i n t s l o , my old worthy hoft, and the firit I had at Agter Bruntjes-boagte, had had the mortification to fee his new houfe burnt to the ground by thefe barbarians, after having loft his numerous herds of cattle, out of all which, he had been able to fave no more than fix oxen. A woman, of the name of K o e t s j e , had with great difficulty efcaped the purfuit o f thefe barbarians, having been obliged to leave one of her children behind her, which had been pierced through the body with feven haflagais. The lofs of the Chriftians in the article of cattle, is faid to amount to twenty-one thoufand; while, on the other hand, they could not meet with the third part of that number of cattle belonging to the Caffres, who, Mr. I m m e l m a n tells me, were led on by the Captains M o s a n and K o b a . I cannot fay whether it was either of thefe that paid us a. vifit, as I forgot to take down their names, and therefore cannot remember them fo as to be certain of them. Juft after midnight it rained, with thunder and lightning. The next morning (being the 22d) at ten o’clock, the whole party o f Caffres went away without taking leave, after having, under pretence o f felling a milch cow, tried to get a fight o f all the iron and copper which they fup- pofed I had brought with me : however, that I might not lead lead them into temptation, I ihewed them nothing but plants and infeits, which I told them were the only commodities I had of any moderate value thefe, however, I fuppofed they would hardly take in exchange for their cow, which we otherwife, on account of the ftore we fet by the milk,' would have been glad to have bargained with them for. After this they bent their courfe towards Agter Bruntjes— boogte, and were met on the road by three farmers, viz. J a c o b P o t g i e t e r , with his fon F l i p , and his fon-in-law F r a n s L a b e s k a n j e , who were coming with three Hottentots, according to agreement, to ftrengthen our party, and to enable us the better to block up and ihoot the fea-cows. As the colonifts are ftridlly prohibited from carrying on any kind of commerce with the Hottentots and Caffres, and as befides thefe peafants,' not without reafon, fufpedled the Caffre’s defigns, apprehending at the fame time, that they would at leaft ftrike a terror by their arrival, in thofe whom they left at home behind them, they at firit endeavoured todiffuade them in a friendly manner from going to the town; and afterwards had recourfe to threats, which fuc- ceeded better, affuring them, that in cafe they would not go their way peaceably, they would make a great havock among them with their fire-arms; which, in faift, as they were on horfeback, they might do without danger, by fuc- ceffively difpatching them in fmall parties, in the fame manner as I mentioned at page 143 and 154 of this volume, and of which the Caffres were not ignorant. 1776. January.
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