Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/86

 66 History of the Cape Colony. [1877 eventually taken. Colonel Griffith reported that several ploughs and "a vast quantity of miscellaneous loot" fell to the share of the Fingos, great quantities of maize and millet were found, and twenty horses were captured. His only casualties were two volunteers wounded, while over a hundred Galekas were killed. All the kraals were given to the flames, with everything in them that could not be carried away as booty. On the 3rd of October the Active, under command of Commodore F. W. Sullivan, the senior naval officer on the station, arrived at East London, with nine officers and two hundred and seventeen men of the eighty-eighth regiment, under Major E. Hopton, and eight artillery- men, drawn from the garrison of Capetown to strengthen the posts west of the Kei. This was considered necessary to overawe the Karabe clans, some of whom were beUeved to be in such strong sympathy with the Galekas that they would rise in rebellion in case the colonial forces under Colonel Griffith met with a defeat or even a check. For this reason many of the burghers and volunteers who were coming forward for service at the front were also detained west of the Kei. It was a time of drought, which made it difficult to forward supplies of food and all other requisites for keeping forces in the field, so that Colonel Griffith had to consider how to do his work without running risks, with the fewest number of men possible. On the western side of the Kei the railway was of enormous advantage in this respect, and it was also of much service to the fighting forces by conveying everything that was needed from East London to the depot at Kei Eoad. On the 13th of October the prime minister, Mr. J. C. Molteno, arrived in King-Williamstown, which might now be considered the seat of government, as the governor, two members of the ministry, and the commander of the forces were all residing there. Mr. Molteno remained only a few days on this occasion.