Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/96

 76 History of the Cape Colony. [1877 sheep and goats, four guns, and some twenty assagais. By this time Ndimba's men, all armed, had come to the aid of their relatives, and some shots were fired, though without any one being hurt, so the police retired with what they had seized, and Mackinnon with his people and the remainder of his cattle reached a place of shelter. This affair added to the alarm in the border districts, for it was held to be the first overt act in a general insurrection. Here was armed resistance to the orders of the government, what next would happen? The military authorities hardly knew what to do. Affairs in Zululand indicated that Ketshwayo might at any moment force on a war, so that not a soldier could be withdrawn from Natal or the Transvaal, and the troops on the border were too few to do more than hold the posts of protection. It was therefore necessary that everything possible should be done to stave off an out- break, at least until such time as the colony should be better able to cope w4th it than it then was. With this view, on the 23rd of November Mr. W. B. Chalmers was sent as a commissioner to the Gaika location to endeavour to induce Mackinnon to submit. He found both Sandile and Ndimba professing to be loyal, and the latter expressed regret for what his men had done. Mackinnon kept out of sight for several days, but at length Sandile sent some of his counsellors to order him to do as the commissioner wished, and on the 2nd of December he professed perfect submission to the govern- ment and gave up fifty-five head of horned cattle, seven guns, and ninety assagais. Mr. Chalmers accepted these as sufficient to make up, with what the police had seized, the fine of two hundred head of cattle and the surrender of his arms, and Mackinnon was informed that the government was satisfied and had no other claim against him. Thus one threatening danger appeared to be averted.