Sir Harry Smith was still acting on the defensive in
Caffraria at the end of February. The theatre of warlike operations is ex- tending. A. portion at least of the Hottentot population on the Eastern frontier of the colony are in fall revolt, and acting in con- cert with the Caffres. On the North-east frontier, the Boers and Griquas of the Orange River settlement, in conibizuttion with the i troops, are engaged n active hostilities with the'Tambookies. In British Cafeteria, the Governor with 4000 troops remains stationary
at ing William's Town sending out occasional columns, who march through the country, destroying the villages burning the crops, and driving off the cattle of the natives, constantly exposed to guerilla attacks. Fort Armstrong, on the Eastern frontier, has been recaptured from the Hottentots and Caffres, but at the cost of some sharp fighting. A Commando from Colesberg has made a successful inroad into the Tambookie country. In the beginning. of February, Sir Harry Smith was complaining bitterly of the apathy of the colonists and the delay in forwarding Burgher levies; but Colonel Somerset, in a despatch of the 22d of that month, re- porting the recapture of Fort Armstrong, describes the beha- viour of the Burghers as "beyond all praise." That the settlers should have hung fire at first when called upon so soon to enter again into hostilities provoked by a system of policy over which they had no control and against which i they had remonstrated all
along, is not to be wondered at. There s to be no help from Natal, however : that settlement is itself threatened. The number
of hostile tribes is increasing ; the manner in which the war against them is waged is likely to render them desperate; and with entire fearlessness they combine the good sense to avoid any encounter with our disciplined troops in the open field.
