File:The history of the battles and adventures of the British, the Boers, and the Zulus, etc. in Southern Africa, from the time of Pharaoh Necho, to 1888 (1888) (14770617042).jpg

Identifier: historyofbattles02mood (find matches)
Title: The history of the battles and adventures of the British, the Boers, and the Zulus, etc. in Southern Africa, from the time of Pharaoh Necho, to 1888
Year: 1888 (1880s)
Authors: Moodie, D. C. F. Moodie, D. C. F. (Duncan Campbell Francis), 1838-1891
Subjects: South Africa : History.
Publisher: Cape Town : Murray
Contributing Library: UCLA Library, Preservation Department
Digitizing Sponsor: University of California, Los Angeles

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ance that gave rise to it. Fort Beaufort and the town of that name were then situated on the very borders of Kaffir land. Two Kaffirs, men of some importance among the tribes, stole an axe from a shopkeeper in the town of Beaufort; they were caught in the very act and secured. Criminals at the Cape are tried at the Circuit Courts about every six months; but the circuit judges do not go to all the small towns, and the prisoners from Fort Beaufort had therefore to be sent to trial at Graham's Town, a distance of over fifty miles, and the main roads from the two places ran almost parallel with the Kafir border. The prisoners were sent from Fort Beaufort in charge of constables, and when they had got about twelve miles on the road they were attacked by a body of Kafirs from across the border, and although the constables made a fight for it, they were overcome, and the prisoners were rescued by the Kafirs. It so happened that the two Kafirs, whom they were most desirous to release, were handcuffed to two
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THE WAR OF THE AXE. other prisoners, who were British subjects; and as time was precious, in order to escape with their countrymen, they murdered the two men to whom they were attached, and cut off their arms at the elbow joints in order to free the Kafir prisoners. Hence the War of the Axe. The Government demanded that the prisoners should be restored and the murderers surrendered; but the demand was treated with contempt. The young men wanted war and war they would have. First a palaver took place at Block Drift Mission Station, afterwards Fort Hare, where the then Lieutenant-Governor and senior military officer on the frontier met the Gaika chiefs, with a large retinue of their people. The Lieutenant-Governor luckily had a small body of troops with him, who were drawn up in line while the negotiations were going on, in the presence of the three Gaika Commissioners. The Kafirs were in number as ten to one; and as they were drawn up facing the troops in a great mass, they repeatedly opened out, historyofbattles02mood

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