Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/143

 1878] Suppression of the Rebellion. 123 men in the forest intelligence of every movement made by the colonial forces. And still another reason was that maize was then exceedingly dear in the eastern districts, being sold at £3 a muid, or about '^d. a kilogramme. At the planting time and long after no rain had fallen, and consequently there were no crops that season, which caused the scarcity. In many parts of the country too transport was made impossible by an extraordinary plague of caterpillars, that devoured every green thing, and left the ground as bare as a rock. Where the moths came from that produced the caterpillars no one could tell, they had suddenly appeared in vast swarms in places hundreds of miles apart, and filled the air almost like locusts. These causes combined to prevent the placing of the famished women and children in concentration camps, and keeping them on the frontier. Those that appealed for food on the outskirts of the Perie were supplied temporarily from the commissariat stores, but were placed under guard and not permitted to leave until the government could decide what to do with them. The government resolved to send them to Capetown, where they would be out of the way of doing harm, and then they were taken to East London and placed on board a coasting steamer. The same course was adopted with those who were found in a similar condition afterwards, until nearly four thousand Kaffir women and children were forwarded to the west. A few old men and some cripples were dealt with in the same manner, the total number of both sexes and all ages removed to Capetown by sea during the rebellion being three thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight. The mortality during the short passage was high, as the poor creatures were in very low condition when they went on board and almost without exception suffered severely from sea sickness, but it would have been vastly higher if they had been left to look after themselves.