“Had the Caffres advanced in the night, there is no doubt but that they would have had possession of the place, and that with the greatest ease.  There were about 350 regular troops and a small force of Hottentots in Graham’s Town, and fortunately a few field-pieces.  The Caffres rushed to the assault, and for some time were not to be checked; they went up to the very muzzles of the field-pieces, and broke their spears off short, to decide the battle by a hand-to-hand conflict.

“At this critical moment, the field-pieces opened their fire of grape and canister, and the front ranks of the Caffres were mowed down like grass.  After several rallyings under Mokanna, the Caffres gave way and fled.  About 1400 of the bravest remained on the field of battle, and as many more perished from their wounds before they could regain their country.  Mokanna, after using every exertion, accompanied the Caffre army in their flight.”

“It certainly was a bold attempt on the part of the Caffres, and showed Mokanna to be a great man even in the failure.”

“It was so unprecedented an attempt, that the colonial government were dreadfully alarmed, and turned out their whole force of militia as well as of regular troops.  The Caffre country was again overrun, the inhabitants destroyed, without distinction of age or sex, their hamlets fired, cattle driven away, and when they fled to the thickets, they were bombarded with shells and Congreve rockets.  Mokanna and the principal chiefs were denounced as outlaws, and the inhabitants threatened with utter extermination if they did not deliver them up dead or alive.  Although driven to despair, and perishing from want, not a single Caffre was to be found who would earn the high reward offered for the surrender of the chiefs.”

“The more I hear of them, the more I admire the Caffres,” observed Alexander Wilmot; “and I may add—­but never mind, pray go on.”

“I think I could supply the words which you have checked, Mr. Wilmot, but I will proceed, or dinner will be announced before I have finished this portion of my history.”

“The course adopted by Mokanna under these circumstances was such as will raise him much higher in your estimation.  As he found that his countrymen were to be massacred until he and the other chiefs were delivered up, dead or alive, he resolved to surrender himself as a hostage for his country.  He sent a message to say that he would do so, and the next day, with a calm magnanimity that would have done honor to a Roman patriot, he came, unattended, to the English camp.  His words were ’People say that I have occasioned this war:  let me see if my delivering myself up will restore peace to my country.’  The commanding officer, to whom he surrendered himself, immediately forwarded him as a prisoner to the colony.”

“What became of him?”

“Of that hereafter; but I wish here to give you the substance of a speech made by one of Mokanna’s head men, who came after Mokanna’s surrender into the English camp.  I am told that the imperfect notes taken of it afford but a very faint idea of its eloquence; at all events, the speech gives a very correct view of the treatment which the Caffres received from our hands.