Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/106

 86 History of the Cape Colony. [1878 The area of disturbance was every week becoming ^ greater, notwithstanding the fact that in all the encoun- ters and skirmishes that took place on both sides of the Kei the Europeans were the victors. The war spirit seemed to be infectious, and clans were drawn into rebellion without being able to assign any reason for what they were doing. This, for instance, was the case with the Gunukwebes under Delima, son of Pato, whose location was near the 'Wesleyan mission station Mount Coke. They could not remain impassive with excitement all around them, and they never asked themselves the question what the result was likely to be. Many of the European inhabitants were rather pleased than alarmed when the new outbreak took place, and their language, if not their attitude, was on some occasions so hostile as to provoke a rising. The condition of things, they said, was worse than that of open war, they were being plundered to a ruinous extent, without the liberty of retaliation, they were compelled to remove their families to places of safety, and to cease their ordinary occupa- tions : better therefore that every robber on the frontier should turn rebel as well, so that an end could be put to their depredations. The defection of one prominent man, however, caused real surprise. This man was Dukwana, son of Ntsikana, who had always borne the character of being a sincere Christian, was an active evangelist, and dressed and lived in the European manner. Dukwana announced that he regarded his duty to Sandile, his chief, as taking precedence of his allegiance to the English government, and therefore he went into rebellion. He did not put off his European clothing, and he continued to hold prayer meetings and other religious services wherever he was, but thereafter he was the constant attendant of Sandile, as ready to draw trigger upon a white man as any other Gaika. Two of his sons, whose conduct when at Lovedale, however, was so unsatis-