The subject dates to the British frontier skirmishes during the War of the Axe (1846-48), or Seventh Kafir War, precipitated by the armed rescue of a Gaika who had been taken into custody for stealing an axe from a frontier trader. The warring was put down only to continue in the Kafir War which broke out in 1850. The present picture pre-dates Baines's major excursions from Cape Town and, like his other early Kafir subjects, may have been painted from officers' descriptions of the war