SOUTH AFRICAN NEWS.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2979, 2 September 1878, Page 3

SOUTH AFRICAN NEWS.

(Pee Pbess Agency.)

r^| Cape Town, July 24. heaviest, gale etperienced here since 1865 blew with unabated violence from 9th to^ the 23rd instant; the wind was from the north-east to the north-west. The Breakwater and Robben Island offered but little resistence to the immense rollers of the Atlantic, which came straight into the harbor before such wind. The, following vessels have been wrecked :—The barques Neria, from Pention to Nantes, value £10,000; Caledonian, from Cardiff to Java, £S,OC3; Eta Loring, from Philadelphia to Japan, £15,000; Redbreast, discharged cargo, £3.500; the brigantine Jean, from the coast. £20,C30, wreck and cargo just sold for £1.930. Captain Thombs and three men* belonging to the Caledonian were drowned. . The Lusitania, bound to Australia, had to run for Simon's Bay to coal. Three clergymen and numbers of Volunteers were conspicuous for their brave exertions in saving the lives of the ■hi pwrecked crews. About eight hundred miles of railway are now in progress, estimated to cost an average of $7CZO per mile. By the deaths of the great chiefs Sandili and Dakwana the Kaffir war terminated, the tribes having sued for and obtained peace terms. The Parliament voted its thanks to all the forces, Colonial and Imperial. These thanks were conveyed by the Speaker to General Thesiger, C.8.; Commodore Sullivan, C.8.; and Commandant Griffiths, 0.M.M..; in a very impressive manner. War has, however, unfortunately again broken out ia the Transvaal. The Governor and General Thesiger proceed to the Transvaal as soon as possible. There has also been considerable fighting in Griqua Land, west. On the 4th July some thirty mounted volunteers encountered a party of armed mounted natives and-defeated them, but with heavy loss. Two officers and three men were killed, and five wounded out of the 30. Latest dates say the trading station at Boctsass wa* attacked, and that two men were wounded and all the cattle taken. The enemy retired before daybreak. A Gaika.wno was with Sahdili at.the death, says that never before have the Kaffirs been so thoroughly beaten or so completely hemmed in as at. the time Sandili was shot. He describes many hair-breadth previous escapes, and says they suffered much from cold nights; and when the mornings they went to some open place to warm in the sun, they were no sooner comfortably basking than a cry from their scouts waß heard that the enemy was advancing, and they had to run to cover. Three devoted friends offered their bodies as a shield to Sandili when his small body-guard was surrounded, but he was shot in the back as they were leading him to a safer retreat. Jackson, a volunteer, has been .sentenced to 15 years' hard labour for shooting Kaffirs while asleep. The Judge said:" If was a duty, with your superior force to have captured them, not to shoot them lying asleep before a fire. It was mean, cowardly, unmanly." Mr and Mrs Case (Grace Egerton) are having a successful season' at Grahamstown. • Natal, July 13. The Ponda, with a cargo ot flour, arrived to-day from Adelaide. At Livingstonia all the Mission staff are in good health. , Mr TberweU accidentally shot himself on the 20th of March. He was out shooting baboons, and, having wounded one, clubbed his rifle, which be had previously loaded, when the charge went off. He only lived four hours after. Meal is selling at 16s 6d to 18s 6d per 2001bs. ' .