The Express.
London, England, 1851-07-09 00:00:00

THE KAFFIR WAR.

The Following letter, from a private correspondent
at the Cape of hlopec though repootiug some
- facts already made public, will be read with interest :
Yee two months previous to the arrival of the filiiilleeeror
, with detachments of regiments already Lire, end the Val-
with the 74th, nothing of any consequence has bees
done in Kaffreria. Colonel Mackumon has been marching
hither mad thither with his invariable 2,400 men, through
the districts that are held by the Forts White sad Cos,
now relieving the. post arid now that, and sometimes en-
&avowing to harrow the enemy " lifting " his attle.
Thor raids are far from leading us to believe that /Juba-
41cm releases the charsirteriaties of a border trooper, for
they hare hitherto bees anything Ind rimmosfal. So so-
. notonous sad dull km this eternal tread of armed melt
aawelting in and out from King Town become,
that no e can now read the rious dispatches that from
o time to tae
appear, without~
being wearied by their en-
. any uneaten ; for, eo seldom are they elearecteneed bf
anything unusual or brilliant, that the latut dispatch an
hardly be cielividerOd anything mace than • mere cello of
-thou before. Although this period Amy be said to bet. -
ten of incident, Mid the Kaffin cannot be said to ea
lost muck property, they have, rieverthelem, been rut
bendy worried and hum...et! by the Mope marching a
eountermarchiag through their country. Their crops bars
been laid waste and their villages burnt, and though the
gelds thee warted were but trilling in extent, and their
kraals but collections of rude bee-hive heti, funned of the
!wencher' of trees, and of ewe' construction, there can be o
doubt that these people have suffered very considerably,
*ad the are now in • condition in which they will be much
more likely to be brought to terms by rigorous measures
than they have been 6illee the commencement of the war.
The low country that they mostly inhabited is now blackened
with the fin that consumed their dwellings, and they them-
selves forced to n tire into the fastnesses of the Amebae
bills with their cattle, to mine those feelings of hate
towards us, with the sight of their charred and wasted
country ever before their oyes to trace that hatred man
indelitry on their hearts than ever, and, u oceseion pre-
treat' Wolf, to rush down in savage furious bands upon our
troop., apparently seeking death by our swords or bullets,
rather than lie 'loan and die of starvation among the (ad-
mires of their mountains, as they feu will be their fate.
The low condition to which they have been reduced
would hardly of Reiff have struck sufficient fear into the
hearts of the Kollin, so as to make them more easily to be
dealt with, had it not been anorupanicd by some partial
suer, wee gained over them, and some more decided ones
gamed cote their hieniLs and allies. The most coneiderable
off three was a corumandu or raid, conducted with such n-
•gear and skill by Commandant Jembert among the Tani-
bookie people, that he succeeded in taking from them no
less than 6,1100 of their cattle. Thin was followed by some
laereSlMl. of Major Wilmot in Stuck's and Seyolo's country,
sad some mere in the Keimkamota spraits, where Colonel
Eyre succeeded in capturing some cattle (about 240), and
killing some 140 of the Kaffir,. Beside,' this, Sir Harry
himself, in hi. late eleUrlooll to Fort Hare, succeeded in
thwarting the I aring intention of • great body of
Kaffirs that had determined to rewrite the Ilotten-
tot prisoners that were before the military tribunal
for being eioneenied in the hat Riser rebellion. 'lbis
measure war, done so well, that the Kaffir*, to the amount
of about 2 OW, were actually driven out of their impene-
trable bull and had to take to the open country, and they
were taught that even the bush and their mountain fest-
news cannot be considered a protection to them. llad it
sot bees for these successes, there is every reason to believe
that those of the Kafue whom* now acting with as through
fear, would have risen to assist the liaikas a their struggle,
fur, as it was, more than one chief showed an inclination to
do so, and disaffection was already spreading among our
'own people. The rebellion of Kat River was extending,
and had already embraced some of the eastern levies, with
those Cape Howard Riflemen that were under the gover-
nor's orders, who, it tented out, had been for some time in
conimunieation with the enemy, and who, there is every
noun to think, were in the habit, when in action of tiring
blank cartridge instead of ball. Indent, everything indi-
cated a war of races; the African of various shades against
the white man, tempt in the can of the Fingoes, who.
occupied with theistic feeling ,it hate towards their told me..
ten, the Kaffir', who spururil them with more than Spartia
pride, rejoiced to find themselves in arms against them
with the certainty of being able to witness their defeat.
.This spirit hail nut long evinced itself before Kreili, the an-
,prerne chief el the Kowa races, who.c territory begins at lha
Great K ye, or eaetern extremity of Kaffraria, sent WNW=
to the Illambie chiefs, l'ato and Umbels, urging the= t•
take up arms in defence of Sandal'. snit pledging his sup-
port in driving lobs the sea that detested white man, that
,was ever advancing, year by year, into his country. So
urgent was Kroili, that his mempengers assured them of the
assistance of numbers of Hottentot., who, he said, had fled
from the colony and were esperieneed in our mode of wal-
ker ; and as ni by way of showing the security of his offers,
.Ise roetruenced mwritions by burning down a military in-
herit in the neighhourhosid of his great place. Pato, -bow-
el.' r, remained deaf' to thew. iiilvencia, no doubt suspecting
that the signal of revolt would be the signal for as to seize
his property, and he still remained true to his first engage-
ment, to keep the communication up between Buffalo mouth
soil King William's Town. L mhala, on the other hand,
lent • willing tar to K advances, and would have joined
him but for the interference of hie amayakati, or councillors,
who, unwilling to engage in a fight out of which they well
knew Ow) could not come other than 'viers, told their chief
'lather laconically that they could not think of allowing him
to break his word, reminding him of his having only lately
sent a white on to "Smith" in tidier' of his friendship. This
laccilleting conduct of Umbria brought upon him the notice
of the gosernor, who called en him to give up hostage., so
that, in the event of his attacking K real, he would have
some security for hi. Food faith. 'lbis denniud was promptly
complied with, and I mhala rent two of his suns as secure
Nos for his sitting still." Krvili, still bent on throwing
big (one into the halance against England, joined his war-
Tinrs to thane of Seyolo and fillarenies, forming a combined
force of 1,0110 men, that were met by Captain Tylden, the
commandant of Craelock, at the head of • mated body of
Burghers and Finger's. who routed them entirely, with the
lows of more than 120 slain. These have been the chief ia•
ride ute that have is curved in Kalfraria up to the arrival of
the reinforce m, nts. Sir Harry has given up of late his
intention of attacking K Hill, and has resumed the patrolling
worm, wideh, now that the winter Owning in, isa most sr-
'dues duty, sleeping, as the troops have to do, in this open
air, suit perhaps on wet ground, without any tents. This
larasailig warfare will he continued till the reinforcements
are all ready to come into the fickl, whet" the Masahiko will
be stormed and the Kaffir. drisen out. Here, no doubt,
there will be • fierce and gleoarate etreintle, much cruelty
will he peepetrateil, and country laid waste; for, rather than
leave the Amatola, the Kaffir w dl hght to the last, and will
prefer death to be driven forth homelier and heelless from
Wear, that must be deaf to esi ry member of his race.
• The 7lth lege were landed at Algoa Bay, from whence
they are to proceed to join Colonel Somerset at Fort Ilare.
In the midst of all this muscling of men and munitions
of war• marching of troop% almong out of Kollin, and
"rising of rattle, one naturally pawns to ask the question—
flow is all this to end' In all thew• preparations and doings,
hi these anything whirl, when dune, any plan or scheme,
which when elevated Ss likely to lead to come settlement of
this leen protracted straggle between the Kaffir and his
White invader. Or is this war /imply progressing like other
plater way, anal carrying with it the seeds of future and
more expensive owe. As we destined fur ever to have this
bimetal struggle with the black man of South Africa; or
low long is it to last? Have we to drive him to the Moan-
lain. of the Moon, or how tar Anundly at present there
its nothing to make na hope that this will he anything like
the last we .ball have; nay, this war has even lam the
aspect of a bald struggle than arty that have gone before.
At present it is one trihr, the Claika, that, roused by the in-
sult done its chief, amens its right to live under its own
laws, and to dwell in its own country ; and it is with this
One tribe chiefly that we are now at war—it is this one,
among many and far more important ones, that we are now
to subjugate. This war will do it, and they will have to
bias the feet of England's representetive; and, after listen-
ing to a geed deal of mock heroic and rhodomontade, they
will he forted to swear a hypocritical allegiance at the point
of the sword. But so long us their country is dotted over
with our hated forts, and their old pleasant places where
they MCC herded their father.' ducks are in our hands, can
Are ,shed feeling he 1.1111,06e41 ever to die ? Will the desire to
be once more a nation cease to asiinuite them, and for ever?
Bois tilt. same feeling not rind among other tribes because
tlity hate not ',beau it un this occasion; er will it cease after
the tialtais are well lesateu ? Are we sure when this war is
over that we have staled the underground fire; or have we
Andy scotched • chance manifestation of it; and while
engaged with this, or congratulating ourselves that it is put
out, how do we know that some night • red glare in the
sky will net tell us that this great moral volcano was not
pat out, but only slumbered. In other words, when Gaika's
chief Sandilli is crushed, who can tell that in • year or two
after some chief, chafing under a yoke that he
bate.. may nut rouse Tossup Kaffirland, when England
will hare again to take the field as she has so often done
before, and with only this difference from the last, that now
she has a hl'lambie instead of a (Lake for an enemy. At
this rate we shall have a war in perpetuity, and so leave a
rich inheritance to our children's children, fur these with
whom we ere now engaged arc very far from being the
most iniportaut of South African tribes For, immediately
in their rear arc nations far more numerous and important,
—therm are the Amatemba, the Amanonda, Annieuulabe,
besides the two warlike tribes that now own the supremacy
of lloshesh and Sikowyella ; and seeing that they are all
becoming skilled in the eat of war, and some of them are
sow becoming aware of the value of establishing a coat-
inimariat. we "hall find our difficulties ever to be on the in-
mate, and it will be found that in a,hundreigyears we shall
am be very much in advance of where we now are. It be-
come' as then to change the system that we are still follow-
ing s
effete,
the teeth of facts that show it to be utterly worthless
ate
t and try to use our intelligence in devising
some oh er plan that does not involve the absurd, because
i*Peactie•ble, emiacituenen that belong to this.

THE POISONING CASE AT SOUTHWICK.—At the
Sundvriand Polk* Conn. an Thursday, Thomas Wood.
Co/adios Lyons, and Thomas Rawlings, was again
brought up, charged with administering paws ta a bay
named William Thompson. Mr. Pow. for the prosecu-
tion, mated that the mother of the boy did not wits to peer
the chafe, being convinced that the nitres mid wee not
given with is isioniows intent. Kr. Manson aimed the
magistrates AM the primers had no idea of tie power of
the acid which had has administered. The sengistrates
assieldgringri=llo4lll=nesa. —iihstrptassini