Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/139

 1878] Suppression of the Rebellion. 119 that attacked, and many others were believed to have died afterv/ards of their vv^ounds. The Gaikas seemed to have lost their old skill in hurling assagais, for, though some of them ys!%x& several times within fifty metres distance, only one volunteer was hurt. Reports were now received that a powerful force was being collected by Tini, son of Makoma, in the Waterkloof, and that cattle thefts were being carried on in the district of Fort Beaufort to an extent that could hardly be exceeded by losses in open war. Mr. William B. Chalmers, civil commissioner of Cradock, who had been acquainted with these people since his childhood, was therefore sent by the government to Fort Beaufort to ascertain the exact condi- tion of matters, and he found things quite as bad as represented. Tini had fully a thousand Gaika warriors with him in the strongholds of the Waterkloof, where under colonial law he had been enabled to purchase ground and take up his residence. Lieutenant - Colonel Palmer, of the ninetieth regiment, whose head-quarters were at Fort Beaufort, was now directed to clear the Waterkloof, and volunteers in sufficient number were sent to make up his active force to twelve hundred men. On the 4th of March he commenced operations, but met with hardly any resistance. Tini was not the courageous guerilla leader that his father had been ; he seemed anxious only to get out of danger, and his men followed his example. He and they managed to make their escape from the Waterkloof and conceal themselves in the Amatola forest, so that Colonel Palmer without any loss scoured the strongholds held so long by Makoma in the previous war. There was not much spoil to gather, and when the huts were burned and posts were formed to prevent the return of the Gaikas, the remainder of the force retired. On the 25th of February 1878 Lieutenant-General the honourable Frederick Augustus Thesiger, C.B. (later Lord Chelmsford), arrived at the Cape as successor to