Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/57

1878] called the district of Mount Frere, by the acceptance of the Bacas under Makaula as British subjects. This chief and his counsellors had been favourably reported on by the commission of 1875. The terms under which they became subjects were the usual ones: that in all civil and in petty criminal complaints suitors might bring their cases before the magistrate or the chief at their option, that there should be an appeal from the chief to the magistrate, that important criminal cases were to be tried by the magistrate, that no charge of dealing in witchcraft was to be entertained, that on every hut a yearly tax of ten shillings was to be paid, and that the chief was to receive a salary of £100 a year and his counsellors certain smaller annuities. Captain Blyth placed Sub-Inspector John Maclean, of the frontier armed and mounted police, in charge of Makaula's people until the arrival in May 1876 of the magistrate selected by the secretary for native affairs, Mr. J. H. Garner, son of a missionary who had lived with them for many years.

No clan in the whole of the territories from the Kei to Natal afterwards gave greater satisfaction than the Bacas of Mount Frere. The reports from the magistrates were uniform as to their good conduct, and on several occasions they showed by their readiness to take the field with the colonial forces that they appreciated the advantages of British protection. Yet Makaula was a son of the ruthless freebooter Ncapayi, one of the most dreaded men of his time, so much has circumstance to do in moulding the character of a Bantu chief. He lived to a very advanced age, and died in September 1906.

Early in 1878, while the colony was involved in war with the Xosas, the disaffected Griquas took up arms under Smith Pommer, a Hottentot from the Kat river, and Adam Muis, who had at one time been an official under Adam Kok. They were confident of receiving assistance from the Pondos under Umqikela, and there