When Sechele Understood That We Could No Longer Remain With Him At Kolobeng,
He Sent His Children To Mr. Moffat, At Kuruman, For Instruction
In All The Knowledge Of The White Men.
Mr. Moffat very liberally
received at once an accession of five to his family, with their attendants.
Having been detained at Kuruman about a fortnight by the breaking
of a wagon-wheel, I was thus providentially prevented from being present
at the attack of the Boers on the Bakwains, news of which was brought,
about the end of that time, by Masebele, the wife of Sechele.
She had herself been hidden in a cleft of a rock, over which
a number of Boers were firing. Her infant began to cry,
and, terrified lest this should attract the attention of the men,
the muzzles of whose guns appeared at every discharge over her head,
she took off her armlets as playthings to quiet the child.
She brought Mr. Moffat a letter, which tells its own tale.
Nearly literally translated it was as follows:
"Friend of my heart's love, and of all the confidence of my heart,
I am Sechele. I am undone by the Boers, who attacked me, though I had
no guilt with them. They demanded that I should be in their kingdom,
and I refused. They demanded that I should prevent the English and Griquas
from passing (northward). I replied, These are my friends,
and I can prevent no one (of them). They came on Saturday,
and I besought them not to fight on Sunday, and they assented.
They began on Monday morning at twilight, and fired with all their might,
and burned the town with fire, and scattered us.
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