THE MATABELE WARS. 746 the Somambula forest, and a strong patrol of the same troops was sent along the Shangani.

Uwini'sstronghold was broken up in the first half of September. It consistedof eight koppies. In storming the first of these the chief himself was captured. Colonel Baden-Powellbrought him before a court-martial, which condemned him to beshot on the charge of armedrebellion and murder of the settlers in his district. The sentence was executed in full view of the rebels holding the other koppies. Cut off from their watersupply anddiscouragedby the loss of their chief, they either surrendered or fled during the next few days. In thesecondhalf of the month the flying columns cleared the Shangani district and the Somambula forest at the cost of only a few small skirmishes. Everywhere the rebels werefor the most part anxious to surrender.

rescue and bring in the isolated settlers,andin these little expeditions many brave deeds were done. The districts chiefly infested by the rebels were round Salisbury and Umtali, and the road to theBeira railway and the coast from the latter place was interruptedby a chief named Makoni, who had got together a numerous following. Luckily for the settlers, the first victories had already been won over the Matabele insurgents, and Buluwayo was no longer in danger. Itwas thus possible for the authorities to divert to Mashonaland reinforcements that were already on the way to Matabeleland. The first help thus available was given by a troop of fifty volunteers from Natal under Captain Turner. By the end of June about 300 men had been hurried to Salisbury from Matabeleland,and ColonelAldersonhadarrived from the Cape to takelocalcommand,bringing with him more than 500 Imperial troops, mounted infantry, artillery, and engineers, and detachments from the West Riding and York and Lancaster regiments. The regulars came up by the Beira route, and on the way attacked and stormed Makoni's kraal, killing some 200 of the rebels andlosing only one officer (Captain Haynes) and threemen killedand five wounded.

The column cleared the road up to Salisbury, thus removing one of the chief dangers of the situation, for the district had to draw much of its supplies from the coastby the Beira route.

On October ist Baden-Powellmarched from Buluwayowitha small column chiefly madeup of Hussars and Imperial Mounted Infantry to attack the last fortress of the rebels, Wedza's stronghold in the Belingwe district. The "stronghold" was an isolated mass of granite mountains, two miles long and a mile and a half across. There were six rocky peaks or "koppies" 800 to 1,000 feet high, with the caves or kraals held by the rebels near their summits. Summoned to surrender, Wedza answered with defiance, but his hill fortress was attacked and stormed on October 13th and 16th. The 7th Hussars, after acting as cavalry in surrounding the hill, took a leading part as infantry in the actual attack. Prince Alexander of Teck was serving with the regiment. Though patrols of cavalry andmounted infantry were for some time on the movein the lately disturbed districts,the capture of Wedza's fortress may be said to have ended the war in Matabeleland. The revolt which had begun in Mashonaland in the middle of June lasted for some time longer. The call to arms had been given by some bands of Matabele, who, after their first defeat near Buluwayo, had fled into Mashonaland, and had told the Mashonas that all the whites in Matabeleland had been killed, and thatLobengula, whohad not been dead,but hidingin the north, was on his waywith a great army to occupy the country. At the call of their old masters the Mashonas rose against the settlers, and there were the same scenes of cold-blooded murder that had heralded the Matabele insurrection. The rebellion waswholly unexpected. Local corps were hurriedly enrolled, patrols went out from the towns to Colonel Aiderson's force wasgradually raised to over 2,000 men,British regulars and Colonial volunteers. Acting under the instructions of General Carrington, with whom he communicated by the telegraph wire that the rebels left standing between Salisbury and Buluwayo, he kept several flying columns in motion and broke up one by one the rebel gatherings in Mashonaland. As soon as peace was secured in Matabeleland Sir Frederick Carrington transferredhis headquarters to Salisbury. InNovember Makoni was captured and shot, and in the first half of December the last of the rebel impis dispersed, and the war was over. More than 5,000 troopshad been engagedin thesuppression of the rebellion, including some 1,200 regulars of theImperial army, besidesabout 400 friendlies. Of the white troops and such regularly organised corps as the Cape Boys, 134 had lost their lives in thecampaign, and173hadbeen wounded. ThesecondMatabele war had lasted in all more than eight months, and had proved a more serious andcostlyconflict than the first conquest of tlae country.