Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/153

 1878] Suppression of the Rebellion. 133 whose presence the country must be freed before agriculture could be resumed or cattle be kept in safety, were apt to be forgetful of its dictates. It isr> thus very likely that Kaffirs were shot who might have been made prisoners if sufficient trouble had been taken, though there is no positive proof that this was the case. After the loss of their leaders, the rebels became bewildered and did not know what to do. They ought to have surrendered at once and trusted to the government to deal leniently with them, may be said, but in their stupefied state they could not make up their minds to do this. And so some hundreds were ferreted out and shot down as if they were noxious animals, and a few were made prisoners. The government could not long sanction this, and on the 29th of June an amnesty was proclaimed to all who would report themselves and give up their arms. The intelligence spread rapidly among the famished creature^ that if they would return to obedience their past mis- deeds would be forgiven, and a ray of light dawned on them once more. Many of them complied immediately, and with their submission the rebellion ended. No such insurrection had ever been more thoroughly suppressed. It was computed that about eight thousand men had been engaged in it — the exact number was of course uncertain — and of those more than half had been killed outright or had died afterwards of wounds. The principal chiefs who had taken part in it were all dead or in prison, and of their families and leading adherents few remained alive. Their cattle and other property of every kind had been lost, so that those of them who survived were absolutely destitute. And the object for which they had fought, the retention of chieftainship or in other words independence of European control, was irrecoverably defeated, for the government had decided that west of the Kei there should no longer be chiefs having power derived from birth alone.