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Trouble was not so much brewing as fermenting on the eastern Cape frontier as we heard last episode.
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\nThe British were aware that Ndlambe and his wardoctor, Nxele, had gathered troops ready to invade the Albany region, the Zuurveld, and Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Wilshire, or Tiger Tom as he was known, had been dispatched from the Cape with reinforcements and he\u2019d arrived in Grahamstown.
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\nMeanwhile, in Graaff-Reinet, Landdrost Andries Stockenstrom had raised a large commando from amongst the Boers on the frontier. As you\u2019re going to hear, they couldn\u2019t help the people of Grahamstown, they were too far away.
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\nBut It was shortly after this that the British were told that the Xhosa warriors appeared to have disappeared.
\nWhat NXele and Ndlambe had done was to mass 10 000 men in the impenetrable Fish River ravines not far from Grahamstown in preparation for something truly audacious. Some say it was more like 6 000 warriors, but most historians believe it was more like 10 000 so we\u2019re sticking with that number.
\nNothing quite like this had ever been attempted by the Xhosa. They\u2019d attacked farms, burned crops, ambushed British patrols in the Albany thickets, raided cattle. But attacking an entire town was a novel tactic. No-one else but Nxele, or Makhanda as he was formally known, could have envisaged this \u2013 he also had broad support by now of most Xhosa, Ndlambe was behind him, so too Chungwa\u2019s son Petho who was itching to avenge his father. Remember the old man was shot out of hand by Khoe and Boer commando troops in the previous war. Bygones are never bygones when you\u2019re killing someone\u2019s father.