Transvaal, and went out to Natal during the darkest hours of our
Zulu troubles, seeking employment; but he was an impossible man, and
was urging the Boers to rise at the same time that he was offering
his services to me and Lord Chelmsford. Finally he settled at
Pietermaritzburg, where he was, when I last heard of him, as editor
of the _Witness_, writing anti-English republicanism and sedition
with much ability, especially when opposing the Cape Government and
its governor, whom he never forgave for warning the Boers against
following Fenian advice. When I was in the Transvaal and afterwards
I found him always connected with any opposition to the English
Government. He knew all the leaders of the simple-minded but very
suspicious Boers, and had gained their ear, so that he had no
difficulty in persuading them to reject any good advice I offered
them--'Wait-a-bit' being always the most acceptable suggestion you
can offer to a Boer.

"Directly I heard of the attack on our troops in the Transvaal, I
felt assured that my old acquaintance was pulling the wires with a
view to create a diversion in favour of his old colleagues in
Ireland.

"The attack took place apparently near the farm of Solomon Prinsloo,
one of the most bitter malcontent Boers, who was always a firebrand,
and who, when I visited the Boer camp in 1879, was with difficulty
held back by Pretorius and Kruger from directing an attack upon us
in Pretoria. I very much doubt whether, without some such external
instigation, the Boers would have broken out....

"The facts I have mentioned and many more about Aylward are on
record in Scotland Yard, and in the Colonial Office, and I am
anxious you should know the truth and not attribute too much of the
blame in this sad business to the unfortunate, misguided Boers, the
victims of his bad advice, still less to any fault of Colonel
Lanyon's administration."

Sir Bartle was right in his conjecture, for Aylward had joined the
insurgents and was one of the acknowledged leaders of Joubert's
staff.

Major-General Hope Crealock, in a letter to Sir Bartle, wrote
(January 7, 1881): "A young Irishman named S----, who knew Aylward
in Natal, and who was under my command in the Natal Pioneers, called
on me to-night and told me Aylward formerly used to boast of being a
Fenian, and vowed he would pay the English Government off for what
he had got, by raising the Boers whenever Ireland was rising; and
within the last few days