On the eastern border of the Cape Colony, further trouble arises between the government and the Xhosa, towards whom the policy of the Cape government is marked by much vacillation.

On December 11, 1834, a government commando party kills a chief of high rank, incensing the Xhosa: an army of 10,000 men, led by Macomo, a brother of the chief who had been killed, sweeps across the frontier, pillages and burns the homesteads and kills all who resist.

Among the worst sufferers is a colony of freed Khoikhoi who, in 1829, had been settled in the Kat River valley by the British authorities.

Inhabitants of the farms and villages take to the safety of Graham's Town, where women and children find refuge in the church.