Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/64

 44 History of the Cape Colony. [1875 In March 1876 Captain Blyth was removed to Kokstad, and Mr. James Ayliff was placed in charge of Fingo- land, with the title of chief magistrate. In September 1877 Mr. T. P. Pattle was stationed at Butterworth as assistant magistrate, and in October of the same year Mr. F. P. Gladwin was stationed at Tsomo in the same capacity. Nqamakvve was not provided with a magistrate at this time. In February 1878 Mr. T. K. Merriman was appointed magistrate of Idutywa. In 1875 the Tembu tribe was brought into a condition of great difficulty by the conduct of its chief. Among his concubines there was a Galeka woman, an illegitimate niece of Kreli, who had accompanied the great wife as an attendant when she went to Tembuland, and re- mained there ever since. Gangelizwe in a fit of passion inflicted very severe injuries upon this woman, and two days later ordered a young man named Ndevu to break her skull with a kerie. The murder was committed on the 25th of July 1875. On the 27th the chief's messenger reported at the residency that the woman had been four days ill with headache and pain in the side. On the 29th Mr. William Wright, who in May 1873 had succeeded Mr. Chalmers as resident with Gangelizwe, was informed that she had died. For some months previous to the murder it was known that the woman was undergoing brutal treatment, and once it was rumoured that she was dead. Kreli then sent messengers to request that she might be allowed to visit her relatives, but the resident could not induce Gangelizwe either to consent to this or to permit the messengers to see her. Gangelizwe's residence, where the murder was com- mitted, was in the neighbourhood of the ground occupied by the Fingo chief Menziwe, who was a Tembu vassal. That chief, apprehending that war with the Galekas would be the immediate consequence, declared publicly that he would remain neutral. This declaration so