CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,—KAFIR WAR.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 595, 16 April 1851, Page 2

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,—KAFIR WAR.

[From the Bobart Town Advertizer, April 4.] By recent arrivals we have files to the 11th January. The colony is in confusion in consequence of an outbreak of the Karfis. The following are the full particulars :—• [From the Cape Mail.] The frontier post brings intelligence of the commencement of hostilities, by the treacherous attack of the Kafirs on the force under Colonel Mackin--11011 • The assailants were repulsed, but not without lamentable loss on the part of the troops. In all twelve were killed, including Assistant-Surgeon Stuart, C.M.R., and nine wounded, including Major Bisset, C.M.,R., and Lieutenant Catty, 6th regt., who is said to be since dead, This action took place op .the Uniondale Mission Station. It is sup. posed -by some that Colonel Mackinnon was led into the ambuscade by the Kafir police. Other most dejplorable events have occurred, fourteen soldiers of,thessth regt., three of whom had been sent on escort duty, and the other eleven sent in quest of them, were waylaid and mur-

, ,1 the Debe Flats, near Fort White. An annalling report reached Graham’s Town of the deXZtaX »iIW •“■«« Wob»n>, nisber". and Auckland, and the massacre of sex en-tv-three of their inhabitants, men, women, and children. Only two women are said to have escaPC The Kafir police had deserted, taking with them their arms, ammunition, horses, and all the properthe colony and had carried off cattle from within a mile and a halt from Gl Martial law had been proclaimed in the Eastern The Governor, when the last accounts reached Graham's Town, was at Fort Cox, hemmed in by the enemy who had possession of the whole surrounding country. , Other particulars will be learned from the following extracts. It is evident that a most desperate conflict has now commenced, which will call forth all the energies of the colonists for the assistance of their Governor, and the rescue of their brethren in the frontier districts. Most appalling information has also been received of the fate of the inhabitants of what are termed the Military Villages. These, it is stated, have been destroyed, and no less than seventy individuals, men, women, and children, murdered by these ruthless savages. We give this as the report in Graham’s Town, but with this reservation, that no written account of the massacre had reached our hand, though we are told that the fact is stated on unquestionable authority. At present his Excellency the Governor is at Fort Cox, in the gorge of the Amatola, where it is said he is hemmed in by the enemy, who, as before remarked, have entire possession of the surrounding country. All the slaughter cattle of the contractors have been taken by the enemy, and it is confidently expected that the troops will have to fall back, not merely for the protection of the colony, but in quest of supplies. The state of King William's Town is most critical, but it is hoped as Colonel Eyre with the column under his command would fall back from the Kabousie, that the inhabitants there will be protected, though at the expense of many abandoning their own dwellings, and at the sacrifice of a considerable loss of property. It is said that, in the course of the affairs narrated, the Kafirs have possessed themselves of a considerable quantity of ammunition, besides a quantity of military guns. Amidst all this it is a relief to find that the inhabitants of Graham’s Town have responded to the call made upon them to enrol themselves for the general defence. All have been mustered and armed. A nightly guard is maintained in each ward, and a strong piquet of Fingoes placed on the neighbouring heights, 200 of these people having volunteered their services, and received arms and ammunition from the Ordnance Stores. Every man in the colony will, we trust, be roused to stern, determined action. Deeply distressing is it to see the farmers flocking into the town from the surrounding country, with their families and furniture, and droves of cattle. Unfortunately there is but little pasture and a very inadequate supply of water, and hence there is but too much reason to fear that, even if the live stock is saved from the hands of the Kafirs, it will perish from starvation. Such is the state of affairs at the moment we write.

The following came to hand by the latest express from Fort Cox: —We have made a deplorable beginning. We had hoped till late last night that the worst had happened; but the destruction of the Kaffir police, with all their horses, arms, and ammunition, was the crowning mischief of the last two days. How it will end God only knows 1 We are all for the present shut up in the Post, Sir Harry and all, and likely to be for many a day to come, the roads on both sides impassable, unless for strong detachments, the Kafirs swarming about, all the cattle about the Post, including slaughter oxen, gone.

This goes by a troop of C. M. R. to Fort Hare. A pleasant Christmas we have had of it! We have not heard of the wounded at Fort White, but they were doing well yesterday. Poor Bissett was badly hit. He would have been a great loss just now. The murder of the fourteen men of the 55th, yesterday, was frightful. The Gth officers have lost all their horses, and everything they had with them. The place they were attacked in was frightful. I know it well. The wonder is they got off so well.

About five o’clock this (Saturday) morning, an express arrived from the front, the sum of whose intelligence is that the Kafirs of the tribes of Botman, Tola, and Stock are marauding the colony. The others of the Gaik as are watching and annoying the British Forces in Kafirland. Two of the Cape Corps riding an express from Fort Peddie to Fort Hare on Friday, were fired upon, and one of them shot. The other escaped- and reached his destination. Ten waggons from Peddie to Fort Hare, under the command of an escort of thirty men are said to be missing, not having arrived at a time when much overdue. Alarming apprehensions are entertained regarding the escort and the men accompanying the waggons. Last and worst. Nearly the whole body of the Kafir police, nearly 400 men, have deserted to the enemy, taking with them all their horses, ammunition, &c., and they have already appeared in the field against us. Sir Harry, in the meantime, is cooped up in Fort Cox, with about 1500 men under his command. The muster of Kafirs is estimated at 10,000 ; and their butchery of those who tall mto their hands is for cruelty almost unparalleled m the history of savau° => n « Dec. 23. b

. A? European corporal and thirteen men, engaged in picking up their wounded comrades after the engagement, have been murdered. The men, women, and children of several military villages have 'been massacred. The Kafirs are in the colony. 200 Kafirs have seized Mr - Hoole’s cattle at Committees. The Gaika portion of the Kafir police have gone over to the enemy with ? rSeS - gUns> The Kafirs are spreading themselves in the colony—and the lives of the frontier colonists are in imminent jeopardy, and our brethren inthe west may expect to hear tidings than we give tO - da y- A deadly « 5 g e for life is about to commence, and unless assistance be speedily afforded, in all human prothe iX?t ere < Wll r be S ° me placc3 a of the inhabitants. It is understood that his Excelency as represented the extreme urgency of (the case in the proper quarter at home, am/in the

meantime the people look to the Executive’ I Town in this dark hour of trial and dan Ke '. n S hfive not completed the catalogue of our ,ff ® but can only add that things are as bud us t]* SaBters > H can be within so brief a period.— Cave 7*7 *. Is Times, Extra, Dee. 28. g Latest News. —From the Cape of G o - • - [?: and Port Natal Shipping and Mercantile U r d °P e Fr Friday, January 10.—On the 22nd ult, B merset made an attempt, with a force of 230*’ ’°‘ B to open a communication with Sir Harry Sm'H E0 ’ La Fort Cox, about thirteen miles distant. h'^ 5 ‘ B repulsed by an-immense body of Kafiis,’fe posted between the two forts, and who rushed * ete B his small column and fought hand to hand P? unprecedented boldness. The column returned'? 1 P Fort Hare in good order, but with the loss off B officers —Licuts. Melvin and Gordon, 91st R H and twenty men killed; and one officer ® Borthwich, and twelve men wounded. E afterwards, his Excellency, with an escort nf ? I Cape Mounted Rifles, left Fort Cox, forced hi H without loss through the large bodies of KafirsE surrounded it, and arrived at King William’s t H a little after noon on the 31st.