Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/76

 56 History of the Cape Colony. [^^77 the thirteenth and twenty-fourth regiments arrived to relieve the seventy-fifth and eighty-sixth, which in February left to return home. In November 1876 the second battalion of the third regiment (known as the Buffs) arrived. It came out in a chartered transport named the Saint Lawrence, which was wrecked on the 9th of November on Paternoster Point, about ninety miles or one hundred and forty kilometres north of Table Bay. Fortunately no lives were lost, and on tidings of the disaster reaching the naval authorities in Simonstown some men-of-war were sent to the scene of the wreck and brought the regiment to Capetown. In March and April 1877 the eightieth regiment arrived from Singapore. The third and the eightieth were intended to relieve the thirteenth and the twenty-fourth, but owing to the condition of affairs in Natal and the Transvaal, these regiments were retained here for a time instead of being sent home. In July 1877 the eighty-eighth regiment arrived from Ireland, and in August the wing of the thirty-second left for England. There were thus five full battalions in South Africa at the time. The eighty-eighth, 760 strong, was in Capetown, the thir- teenth, 805 strong, was in the Transvaal, the eightieth, 930 strong, and the third, 563 strong, were in Natal, and the twenty-fourth, 872 strong, was stationed in King-Williamstown to be ready for emergencies and to prevent the spread of uneasiness that was prevalent among the farmers in that neighbourhood. There were also scattered about in the command some two hundred artillerymen and engineers, making four thousand one hundred and thirty officers and men of the imperial forces in this country. On the night of the 24th of August a band of Galekas crossed the border into Fingoland, and an en- counter took place close to Butterworth, when twenty- four Galekas and several Fingos were killed. Colonel Eustace, Mr. Ayliff, and Inspector Chalmers were