om
the Kowie convict station last Monday under circumstances of
considerable daring. While the gang was on its way to the scene of its
labours in charge of one white and two native constables armed with
loaded rifles, these scoundrels, evidently acting in concert, managed to
overpower and disarm their guardians at one stroke. Leaving the latter
terribly beaten about the head, and half dead, and taking their rifles
and cartridges, they made off into the bush. The remainder of the gang,
though they rendered no assistance, seemed not eager to re-taste the
sweets of liberty, for instead of following the example of their
comrades they returned quietly to the town and reported the incident.
Next morning early, the runaways visited an outlying vij-kraal belonging
to a Dutch farmer named Van Wyk, and there perpetrated a peculiarly
atrocious murder. The vij-kraal was in charge of a Hottentot herd, who,
hearing a noise in the kraal, ran out of his hut just as the scoundrels
were making off with two sheep. He gave chase, when suddenly, and
without any warning, one of them turned round and shot him through the
chest. The whole gang then returned, dragged out the unfortunate man's
wife and three children, and deliberately butchered them one after the
other in cold blood. The bodies were found during the day by the owner
of the place, who came upon them quite unexpectedly. They were lying
side by side, with their throats cut from ear to ear; and he describes
it as the most horrible and sickening sight he ever beheld. The herd
himself, though mortally wounded, had lived long enough to make a
statement, which places the identity of the atrocious miscreants beyond
all doubt. It may interest our readers to learn that among the runaways
were the two Kafirs, Muntiwa and Booi, who were tried at the Circuit
Court recently held here, and sentenced to seven years' hard labour each
for stock-stealing. The rest were Hottentots and Bastards.
[Half-bloods are thus termed in Cape Colony parlance.] At the same time
we feel it a duty to warn our readers, and especially those occupying
isolated farms in the Umtirara range, to keep a sharp look-out, as it is
by no means unlikely that these two scoundrels may hark back to their
old retreat, and with their gang perhaps do considerable mischief before
they are finally run to earth."

Not one atom of drowsiness in Renshaw now. The sting of the above
paragraph, like that of the scorpion, lay in