What was I now to do? We had not force in our own small settlement to
compel Karoo to restore her; and I was therefore obliged to buy a
trained ox, on which I rode all the way to the next British settlement,
for there are no horses in that country. There I found captain Johnstone
with three companies of the 72nd, watching the inroads of the savage
Boshesmen. He was greatly irritated at Karoo, and dispatched lieutenant
McKenzie, and fifty men along with me, to chastise the aggressor. When
the chief saw the Highlanders, he was terrified out of his wits; but,
nevertheless, not knowing what else to do, he prepared for resistance,
after once more proffering me the choice of his wives.
Just when we were on the eve of commencing a war, which must have been
ruinous to our settlement, a black servant of Adam Johnstone came to me,
and said that I ought not to fight and kill his good chief, for that he
had not the white woman. I was astonished, and asked the Kaffre what he
meant, when he told me that he himself saw my wife carried across the
river by a band of pongos, (ourang-outangs), but he had always kept it a
secret, for fear of giving me distress, as they were too far gone for
pursuit when be beheld them.
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