e first cave was black with smoke; the remains of the
logs which were burnt lay at the entrance. The floor was strewn with
hundreds of skulls and skeletons. In confused heaps lay karosses,
kerries, assegais, pots, spoons, snuff-boxes, and the bones of men,
giving one the impression that this was the grave of a whole people.
Some estimate the number of those who perished here from twenty to
thirty thousand. This is, I believe, too high. In the one chamber there
were from two hundred to three hundred skeletons; the other chambers I
did not visit."

In 1868 a public meeting was held at Potchefstroom to consider the war
then going on with the Zoutpansberg natives. According to the report of
the proceedings, the Rev. Mr. Ludorf said that "on a particular occasion
a number of native children, who were too young to be removed, had been
collected in a heap, covered with long grass, and burned alive. Other
atrocities had also been committed, but these were too horrible to
relate." When called upon to produce his authority for this statement,
Mr. Ludorf named his authority "in a solemn declaration to the State
Attorney." At this same meeting Mr. J. G. Steyn, who had been Landdrost
of Potchefstroom, said "there now was innocent blood on our hands which
had not yet been avenged, and the curse of God rested on the land in
consequence." Mr. Rosalt remarked that "it was a singular circumstance
that in the different colonial Kafir wars, as also in the Basutu wars,
one did not hear of destitute children being found by the commandoes,
and asked how it was that every petty commando that took the field in
this Republic invariably found numbers of destitute children. He gave
it as his opinion that the present system of apprenticeship was an
essential cause of our frequent hostilities with the natives." Mr. Jan
Talyard said, "Children were forcibly taken from their parents, and were
then called destitute and apprenticed." Mr. Daniel Van Nooren was
heard to say, "If they had to clear the country, and could not have the
children they found, he would shoot them." Mr. Field-Cornet Furstenburg
stated "that when he was at Zoutpansberg with his burghers, the chief
Katse-Kats was told to come down from the mountains; that he sent one of
his subordinates as a proof of amity; that whilst a delay of five days
was guaranteed by Commandant Paul Kruger, who was then in command,
orders were given at the same time to attack the natives at break of
day, whic