Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/77

 i877] The Ninth Kaffir War. 57 endeavouring to induce both sides to disperse, but could not prevent skirmishing and loss of life. On the 18th of August Sir Bartle Frere, accompanied by Mr. J. X. Merriman, commissioner of crov^n lands and public works, left Capetown to visit the frontier districts, and ascertain by personal observation the con- dition of things there. He expected to be absent from the seat of government only a few weeks, but it was many months before he saw his family again. On the 4th of September he arrived m King-Williamstown, and found that place so crowded with families of farmers that had fled there for protection, owing to the appre- hension of a general rising of the Earabe clans, that the only accommodation he could get for himself and his attendants was in the military barracks. Matters were becoming worse and worse over the Kei, so the first battalion of the twenty-fourth regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel R. T. Glynn, was dispersed at different points on the western side of the river, to prevent a raid by the Galekas into the colony. A message was then sent to Kreli that the government would hold him responsible for any breach of the peace, and expected him to cause his people to refrain from acts of lawlessness. At this critical time Commandant James Henry Bowker, who for more than seven years had been head of the frontier armed and mounted police, was obliged by ill health to resign, and in all haste Mr. Charles Duncan Griffith, who was then governor's agent in Basutoland, was sent for to succeed him, as being the officer of most experience in the force. The governor now resolved to proceed to the Transkei, and endeavour to restore tranquillity by his presence, as among Bantu a great chief can often effect wonders by his word alone. On the 15th of September, accompanied by the honourable Messrs. Merriman and Brownlee, Lieutenant- Colonel Glynn, the honourable W. Littleton, his private