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COLONIZATION

ensued: the Caffres, inflamed by their wrongs and the eloquence of Makanna, fought desperately; but they were mown down by the European artillery, fourteen hundred of their warriors were left on the field, and the rest fled to the hills and woods. The whole burgher militia of the colony were called out to pursue them, and to ravage their country in all directions. It was resolved to take ample vengeance on them: their lands were laid waste—their corn trampled down under the feet of the cavalry, their villages burnt to the ground—and themselves chased into the bush, where they were bombarded with grape-shot and congreve-rockets. Men, women, and children, were massacred in one indiscriminate slaughter. A high price was set upon the heads of the chiefs, especially on that of Makanna, and menaces added, that if they were not brought in, nothing should prevent the total destruction of their country. Not a soul was found timid or traitorous enough to betray their chiefs; but to the surprise of the English, Makanna himself, to save the remainder of his nation, walked quietly into the English camp and presented himself before the commander. "The war," said he, "British chiefs, is an unjust one; for you are striving to extirpate a people whom you forced to take up arms. When our fathers, and the fathers of the Boors first settled in the Zureveld, they dwelt together in peace. Their flocks grazed on the same hills; their herdsmen smoked together out of the same pipes; they were brothers, until the herds of the Amakosa increased so as to make the hearts of the boors sore. What these covetous men could not get from our fathers for old buttons, they took by force. Our fathers were