- how in consequence of this five of our mounted policemen
and one officer were killed by the Galekas; how in the next engagement the Fingos behaved much better,—so much better as to have been thanked for their gallantry; and how from that time to this we have driven poor old Kreli about, taking from him his cattle and his country,—determined if possible to catch him but not having caught him as yet. Colonial history will no doubt some day tell all this at length; but in a work so light as mine my readers perhaps would not thank me for more detailed circumstances.
On the 5th of October, when the affair was becoming serious, the Governor of the Gape, who is also High Commissioner for the management of the natives, issued a proclamation in which he sets forth Kreli's weakness or fault. "Kreli," he says, "either had not the will or the power to make his people keep the peace," and again—"The Chief Kreli having distinctly expressed his inability to punish his people, or to prevent such outrages for the future, Commandant Griffith has been directed to advance into Kreli's country, to put down by force, if necessary, all attempts to resist the authority of the British Government or to molest its subjects, and to exact full reparation for the injuries inflicted on British subjects by Kreli's people."
Read by the assistance of South African commentaries this means that Kreli's country is to be annexed, and for such reading the later proclamation as to 300-acre farms adds an assured light. That it will be much better so, no one doubts. Let the reader look at the map and he cannot doubt. Can it be well that a corner, one little corner should be kept for
