Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/148

 128 History of the Cape Colony. [1878 were killed, among them being the chief Jali, whose career as a rebel was thus very short. But the efforts repeatedly made to enclose the insurgents in a limited space and then deal with them always failed, because the forest was of such great extent that the Kaffirs, who could move about in it far more easily than Europeans, managed to make their way through the cordon and escape to another part. It would have needed a force ten times as great as was at any time in the field to prevent them from doing this. Much greater success attended the colonial forces operating against the hostile Tembus. Gongubela was captured, and on the 8th of April was brought a prisoner to Queenstown with thirteen of his men. In less than a fortnight later Stokwe and Umfanta were also captured, and thereafter all resistance ceased in the part of the country they had occupied. A new plan for dealing with the rebel Xosas was now adopted by Lieutenant-General Thesiger. On the 17th of April he divided the territory occupied by them into eleven military districts, each of which was placed under a commandant, with a force sufficient to prevent the rebels from having any rest. When it was found that they were congregating in any particular locality reinforcements were sent there to harass them, and their retreats were scoured by the Fingos, while at proper positions volunteers and soldiers were stationed to intercept them when they tried to get away. The Fingos, under Commandants Lonsdale, Streatfeild, and Allan Maclean became adepts in hunting the Xosas in the forest, and in securing every head of cattle intended for food, till the rebels were well nigh starved. All their women and children were gradually captured and sent to the west, some of the children so emaciated that they died after eating food. The principal drives under this system took place from the 30th of April to the 8th of May. The