Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/146

126 History of the Cape Colony. L^^T^ movement he succeeded in capturing about a thousand head more and killed thirty-one of the herdsmen, without any loss to himself. It was at this stage, when the hopelessness of success by the rebels should have been apparent to every one possessing eyes and ears, that the Ndlambe chief Jali, son of Umkayi, and the Dushane chief Siyolo threw in their lot with the enemies of the government. Nothing could show more forcibly how similar the minds of adult bar- barians are in such matters to those of little children, who rush into acts without the slightest reflection of what the consequences may be. Jali was half a simpleton, but old Siyolo was a man of such large and varied experience in war and had suffered so much and so often in his own person for having fought against the colonial government in former years, that the smallest atom of prudence should have prevented him from acting as he now did. Jali and his men managed to make their way into the forest back of Intaba-ka-Ndoda, and Siyolo, having been joined by some of the followers of his half-brother Siwani and some men of William Shaw Kama's clan, attempted to follow him. When he reached the Debe neck, within a very short distance of his destination, he had twelve hundred men with him and a herd of cattle intended for food, but there he came in contact with a patrol of the diamond field horse, seventy-five in number, under Colonel Warren, of the royal engineers. Against well mounted men in the open field the Kaffirs stood no chance at all, their only hope of safety lay in dispersing and trying to reach broken ground, which they succeeded in doing, but left fifty-eight dead men behind, among whom were two sons of Siyolo. They were obliged also to abandon about three hundred head of their commissariat cattle. It was believed that many of those who escaped were more or less severely wounded, but of this there was of course no certainty. The women and children left behind at their kraals were collected together and sent to East