Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/99

 1877] The Ninth Kaffir War. 79 Commodore Sullivan chartered the coasting steamer Florence, and all the soldiers in Capetown, a few artillery- men and engineers and one hundred and fifty men of the eighty-eighth regiment, were embarked in her and the Active. A quantity of ammunition and all the provisions that could be spared from the naval magazine were also shipped, and on the 10th of December the two vessels left Table Bay. On the 13th they reached East London, where the bar was found to be almost impassable, but on the 16th the troops and provisions were landed without mishap. A naval brigade of nine officers and one hundred and eighty-three seamen and marines was also landed, with a gatling gun, six twelve- pounders, and two rocket tubes. These were sent on to Kei road station by train, and were afterwards of great service. So thoroughly had the Cape peninsula been denuded of troops that only fifty-nine soldiers were left to guard the dockyard in Simonstown. It was considered by the government a matter of importance to keep the chief Oba out of the strife, if it could be done, not so much on account of the number of his immediate followers as of his reputation as a fighting leader. He had won renown in the war of 1850-52 as second only to Makoma in skill and daring, and had ever since been called by the Xosas Ngonyama, the Lion. His people were regarded as the most rest- less of all the Karabe clans, and as it was they who had massacred the military settlers in the Tyumie valley on Christmas 1850, the Europeans on the frontier looked upon them as bloodthirsty and treacherous to the last degree. In reality they were no worse than other un- civilised Kaffirs, and the chief himself and many of his men were by no means lacking in good qualities. There could be no question now that if Oba were to go into rebeUion every Xosa in the frontier districts w^ho might otherwise have wavered would join him, and therefore it was desirable to keep him quiet.