away his
independence to the Boers, and who refused in his turn to abide by
the conditions of the compact. In this fight Sekukuni was
successful, and the Boers, worsted and discontented, and believing
that the Almighty was displeased with them and with their President,
Mr. Burgers, retired from the campaign. At the same time, in the
south, Cetchwayo was itching to be on the warpath, and the general
state of affairs suggested a possible annihilation of the Transvaal
by an uncontrollable horde of natives. Things went from bad to
worse, and in October 1876 Lord Carnarvon remonstrated with the
President of the South African Republic regarding the unprovoked
barbarity of the Sekukuni war, which had again been renewed. The
reason for the interference of Lord Carnarvon is to be found in the
following despatch, forwarded by Sir Henry Barkly, the then Governor
of the Cape:--

"As Von Schlickman has since fallen fighting bravely, it is not
without reluctance that I join in affixing this dark stain on his
memory, but truth compels me to add the following extract from a
letter which I have since received from one whose name (which I
communicate to your lordship privately) forbids disbelief:--

"'There is no longer the slightest doubt as to the murder of the two
women and the child at Steelpoort by the direct order of Schlickman,
and in the attack on the kraal near which these women were captured
(or some attack about that period) he ordered his men to cut the
throats of all the wounded! This is no mere report; it is
positively true." And in a subsequent letter the same writer informs
me that the statements are based on the evidence, not alone of
Kaffirs, but of whites who were present.

"'As regards the even more serious accusations brought against Abel
Erasmus' (the Kruger's Post field-cornet), 'as specially alluded to
in my letter to President Burgers, on the 28th ult.' (viz. of
treacherously killing forty or fifty friendly natives, men and
women, and carrying off the children), I beg to invite your
lordship's attention to an account derived, I am assured, from a
respectable Boer who accompanied the expedition, and protested
against the slaughter and robbery of friendly Kaffirs, committed by
order of the above-named field-cornet.

"'Should I not shortly receive such a reply from the President to my
letters of last month, as to convince me that his Honour has taken
effectual steps to check such outrages and punish the perpet