3-052-386 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Secokuni's Town, in the Transvaal, from the heights occupied by the 94th Regiment, November 28, 1880. 'Secokuni [Sekhukhune] was the hereditary chieftain of a tribe called the Bapedi, or sometimes the Makatees, a branch of the Basuto Kaffir nation, long ago settled in the mountain country...Our troublesome and costly warfare against this petty South African potentate has just been terminated by Sir Garnet Wolseley's adroit and successful attack, on Nov. 28, upon Secokuni's formidable stronghold in the Lulu mountains, beyond the Steelpoort river, not far from the gold-fields of Lydenburg...The Secokuni war, as well as the late Zulu war, involving an untold expenditure of British taxpayers' money, was gratuitously and needlessly imposed upon us by that most unwise, unjust, and unauthorised proceeding in April, 1877, our usurpation of the dominion of the Transvaal Dutch Republic...Our Illustration, from a sketch by Captain J. H. Poë, of the 94th Regiment, taken at a height of 500 ft. above the native town, and on the extreme right of the attack, presents a commanding view of the "Fighting Koppie," the isolated heap of rock in the centre, the British camp to the left hand, and the troops advancing from opposite sides to make their assault'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.