“We heard on the day before yesterday of the renewal of your troubles at the Cape.
“The 74th Regiment and all the drafts from Depôts that can be sent for the Regiments at the Cape will be sent off as soon as possible.
“I have told the Government that I think that another Regiment ought to be sent.
“I enclose the copy of a memorandum which I sent yesterday to Lord Grey.[208]
“Not knowing the latest or the exact state of the insurrection, I cannot say in what stations it would be necessary for you to carry on your operations, or whether with more than one Corps.
“If with only one so much the better, but it will increase the security, confidence, and tranquillity of the Colony if you should be able to keep an efficient Corps in reserve in a second line.
“Wishing you every success,
“Believe me, ever yours most sincerely,
“(Signed) Wellington.
“Lieut.-General Sir Harry Smith, Bt., G.C.B.”
It must have been satisfactory to Sir Harry to feel that in establishing his two lines of defence he had anticipated the advice of his great master.
While Somerset made a successful patrol against the combined Kafirs and Hottentots of the sources of the Kat River, and Mackinnon another in the Amatolas, there were still no signs of the submission of the enemy. Meanwhile news came of trouble with Moshesh in the Orange River Sovereignty, and the prospect of a new war there, and this was followed by a revolt of the Hottentots of the missionary station of Theopolis, 25 miles from Grahamstown. The period of six months for which the Hottentot levies in the army had been enlisted was now expiring, and there was no disposition among them to enlist again, and in this way the force would be reduced to 1800 men. Nothing could be done till further reinforcements arrived from England. “The almost general rebellion among the eastern Hottentots,” wrote Sir Harry on the 17th June, “paralyzes my movements in British Kaffraria and compels me to hold a force ready for the protection of Grahamstown.” Owing to the cutting off of the mails, his letters to his wife at Cape Town were now written almost entirely in Spanish.