Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/145

 ^878] Suppj'ession of the Rebellion. 125 eyes, and they felt that they were at home once more. Home ! the land through which the Keiskama flowed could never be their home again. Many, very many of them found themselves widows, for a large proportion of the Gaika men had perished, and those that remained alive had no home except beyond the Kei. Then they became scattered, some of them took service in the frontier districts, others found their way over the Kei to Kentani, others again formed new connections with clans alien to the Gaikas. In 1879 the government sent those who had not taken service back to the east, and with this act the narrative of the removal of the families of the rebels to a distant locality ends. It seems perhaps a cruel measure, but it was necessary for the prosecution of military operations, and it certainly saved many hundreds of lives. During the remainder of March there were no further operations against the Gaikas, but some successes were gained elsewhere. On the 23rd of the month Major Elliot with some European volunteers and a band of Gangelizwe's Tembus inflicted a crushing defeat upon Stokwe, when sixty of that petty chief's men were killed, and twelve hundred head of horned cattle, two hundred horses, and two thousand sheep were captured. He and the remnant of his clan were driven out of Maxongo's Hoek, and his kraals with everything in them were burnt. On the 28th Commandant Von Linsingen with three hundred volunteers and six hundred Fingos moved towards the Tshalumna district east of the lower Keiskama to attack the Gunukwebes under Delima, son of Pato, who had gone into rebellion without being able to assign any reason for doing so, and who had since been plundering the farms in that part of the country, from which the owners had been compelled to remove. On the 31st he was successful in a skirmish and captured nearly two thousand head of cattle, and on the following day by a skilful