ard, and held as hostages for the safety
of the Fingoes. He instantly despatched messengers to stop the carnage,
and said that if it continued after three hours he would shoot two of
Hintza's suite for every Fingo killed. He added, moreover, that if he
found there was any subterfuge in the message they sent--as he had
discovered to have been the case in former messages--he would hang
Hintza, Kreli, and Booko on the tree under which they were sitting.

In less than ten minutes the messengers of the chiefs were scampering
off at full speed in different directions with orders! So potent was
the power of this vigorous treatment that within the short time
specified the massacre was stopped.

But the Governor knew well the character of the men with whom he had to
deal. To have left the Fingoes in their hands after this would have
been tantamount to condemning them to suffer the revengeful wrath of
their cruel masters, who would no doubt have resumed the massacre the
instant the troops were withdrawn. Sir Benjamin therefore collected
them together, along with the few missionaries and other British
subjects who had found temporary refuge at the station of Clarkeburg.
He placed them under the care of the Reverend Mr Ayliffe, for whom the
Fingoes expressed sincere regard, and transported the whole body in
safety across the Kei.

"An amazing sight," observed Charlie Considine to a knot of his
comrades, as they reined up on the top of a knoll, and watched the long
line of Fingoes defiling before him like an antediluvian black snake
trailing its sinuous course over the land, with a little knot of
red-coats in front, looking like its fiery head, and sundry groups of
burghers, and other troops, here and there along its body, like
parti-coloured legs and claws. The length of this mighty snake may be
estimated when it is said that of the Fingo nation not fewer than 2000
men, 5600 women, and 9200 children, with 22,000 cattle, were led across
the Kei into the colony at that time.

The whole scene, with its multitudinous details, was a commingling of
the ludicrous, the touching, and the sublime. It was mirth-provoking to
observe the wild energy of the coal-black men, as they sprang from side
to side, with shield and assagai, driving in refractory cattle; the
curious nature of the bundles borne by many of the women; the frolicking
of the larger children and the tottering of the smaller ones, whose
little black legs seemed quite u