Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa since September 1795, Volume 1 (1908).pdf/291

 CHAPTER X.

DEALINGS WITH THE XOSAS FROM 1813 TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1819.

ATHOUGH there was a double line of military posts along the eastern border, bands of Xosas managed to make their way into the colony and plunder the farmers. To such an extent was this carried on, that in the neighbourhood of one of the posts during the four weeks ending on the 20th of November 1813 over a thousand head of cattle were swept off and five farm servants were murdered. Sir John Cradock, who was on the frontier at the time, felt himself compelled to send an armed force into Kaffirland to punish the marauders. Lieutenant-Colonel Vicars, who was then in command of the troops on the border, received the governor's instructions to "try to do something that would prove to the savages and unceasing robbers that His Majesty's government would no longer be trifled with or suffer the property of the colonists to be destroyed." An armed force was therefore to cross the Fish river, and demand restitution of the stolen cattle. If the demand was not complied with, the kraals were to be destroyed, but not an article was to be removed and the old, infirm, women, and children were not to be molested. The Xosas were to be given plainly to understand that the object was not plunder, but punishment; that the government was determined to maintain the boundary; that white men would not be allowed to cross the Fish river without leave, nor would Kaffirs be permitted to enter colonial territory without regular authority from some acknowledged chief; and that any Kaffir marauder found in the colony would be punished with death.