FOOTNOTES:[21]Arduina bispinosa.
[21]Arduina bispinosa.
[21]Arduina bispinosa.
The change of Governors did not long suspend the active operations of warfare; General Cathcart sparing no pains in thoroughly informing himself of whatever was necessary to be known, and having personally reconnoitred the Waterkloof and the Amatolas, was fully prepared by the beginning of July to carry war once more into the heart of the former stronghold, in the interminable fastnesses of which, after twelve months operations, Macomo (or, as one of our orderly Serjeants once spelt his name, "Mc,Como") was still lurking, and now gathering a daily increasing body of his tribe around him.
A "Confidential Order" appeared on the 6th of July, commanding the assembly, and arranging the disposition of three main Columns, under Colonel Buller, Lieut.-Col. Napier, and Lieut.-Col. Nesbitt, respectively.
Bruce, with fifty mounted men, had orders to lie in ambush at Mundell's Krantz, on the northern heights, above the entrance of the valley, to cut off cattle and fugitives.
As it was necessary to gain our position unseen, westarted full two hours before daybreak, and after a ride of twelve miles in the dark across the mountains, in a heavy storm of sleet, which a bitter cold wind drove right in our teeth, we dismounted, just as the friendly shades of night were beginning to fail us, at the edge of the little wood where we were to lie concealed; after some fumbling with our benumbed fingers, we removed the saddles and bridles, and picketted our horses to the trees. The rain cleared off, and as the sun rose, numbers of beautiful green and crimson touracos began chattering and screaming among the trees, flitting from branch to branch, quite close to us, as if aware that we dared not fire at them. Only one small fire was allowed for all our coffee kettles, and to prevent even that discovering our presence, a Boer stood over it dispersing the smoke with his hat.
We were not more than a mile distant from a large Kaffir village, and from the edge of our cover could distinctly see the inhabitants moving rapidly about at the first boom of artillery, the men arming themselves, and running at the top of their speed for the points of attack. Two came to within 500 yards of us to catch a couple of horses, which we had not seen before; but wishing to lieperdu, so as to have the chance of a prize, we did not fire, but watched them mount and race back to the village to prepare for the fight.
As the fire of Napier's artillery became more continuous, and the troops appeared on the heights on the opposite side of the valley, the women of the village collected in a knot watching them. As we looked through our glasses, they sat down in a large ring, under the shade of a spreading tree, and we could distinctly see them smoking and gesticulating; some perfectly naked, their sleek ebony skins shining in the sun, but the most partin black karosses, giving to the group a very Satanic appearance. Several came down to a spring, so near that we could hear them talking. It was a novel and amusing sight to look in upon a village of savages, and watch their habits unobserved.
Colonel Buller's column, easily recognised by the dark body of Rifles contrasting with the red coats, was seen moving along the southern heights of the Waterkloof and Kromme, and joining that of his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, who had ascended the mountain from the other side, with Colonel Nesbitt's column. The two then proceeded to the neck of the forest separating the Waterkloof from Fullers Hoek, and after throwing rockets into it, the First and Third Columns bivouacked for the night at the head of the Pass, having been fourteen successive hours on the march. Hardly anything could be more picturesque than our party in the little wood, the sun streaming down through trees completely covered with long drooping bunches of lichen, horses picketted round their hoary trunks; bridles and accoutrements hanging on the lower branches, and groups of men lying in the open glade, or crouched among the outer thickets, peering at the savages, or eagerly watching for cattle, which, however, never came.
In the evening Colonel Napier's Division passed close to our hiding place: the advance guard of mounted Fingoes, with their usual zeal, firing a volley into us, as we somewhat incautiously advanced to the edge of the thicket to look at our friends. We all fell flat on our faces, or jumped behind the trees; the fat Boers, in their short round jackets, lying screaming on the ground in an agony of apprehension. "Yij musst niet skiet! Yij musst niet skiet! Allamachtig! Verdamte skellums, warrum skiet yij?" Several had very narrow escapes,being spattered with mud by the balls; which struck the ground close to them. The Column halting not more than a quarter of a mile from us, and concealment being no longer necessary, B—— and I rode over to their camp, which was on the old ground of October, nine months before. The picketting pins and old kraals were still there, as also the blackened circles of the fires round which many a comrade had sat, now dead and gone. The graves of poor Norris and of our gallant fellows were undisturbed, and the grass waved luxuriantly over them.
We joined our hospitable friends of the 91st at their soup and grog; and at tattoo rode back to our bivouac, in considerable fear of being shot by our own sentries as we approached. Pushing our way through the dark shadowy thickets towards the illuminated centre, we stood in a sylvan Robin Hood scene, bright fires blazed in every direction in the warm-looking wood, lighting up the grey branches that met overhead, and contrasting beautifully with the cold clear moonlight that silvered the tree tops, through which appeared glimpses of the starry sky. The horses, with drooping heads, stood sleeping in the ruddy light; the swarthy bearded Boers, in their red woolen nightcaps, and our men in their blankets, sat smoking together by the fires.
Soon after we had lain down to sleep by the fire, rolled in our plaids, a moaning wind rushed through the trees; the moonlight vanished; a few heavy drops came pattering on the leaves; and presently the rain poured steadily down upon us. We slept however, for some hours, till thoroughly awakened by the cold, and by the wet which trickled down our necks, we got up one after another, from the soaked ground. Drawing mydrenched plaid over my shoulders, for my horse had the benefit of the blanket, I sat, for the rest of the night, by the fire, in the steaming circle of soldiers, smoking my pipe and watching the big drops that fell hissing on the glowing logs as the fitful gusts sent them rattling down from the trees. At daylight I mounted my shivering horse, and with a well soaked saddle under me, and as stiff as a poker from the wet and cold, rode over to Colonel Napier for orders. The Column was just falling in for the march, and I was to remain with fifteen men, in ambuscade for the Kaffirs who might come, as was their constant practice, to search the deserted encampment. We entered the little belt of wood, within pistol shot of the fires, and the Division moved off. Soon after its last section had disappeared over the furthest ridge, the ground was covered with enormous vultures, boom-vogels, black and white crows, and secretary birds, which stalked about within a very few yards of us. The boom-vogel is a very dark-plumaged vulture, like a turkey cock, with red wattles and a bare brown neck; they go in pairs only, and generally accompany a flock of the common vulture.
After two or three hours useless watching in a wet ditch, in wetter clothes, and on a bitter cold day, our zeal began to evaporate; and as the Kaffirs did not appear, and a look-out, whom I had sent to the top of the highest tree, reported nothing moving on the plain as far as he could see, we came out of our hiding-place; the birds, very much astonished at our appearance, took themselves off, and we marched back by a little hollow to our comrades in the wood.
Two hours afterwards, Colonel Napier's column appeared on the plain before us, the 91st in advance, skirmishing with a few straggling Kaffirs, and theartillery firing shell into the valley below. From our position we could see numbers of Kaffirs along a rising ground above the troops, out of their sight, firing on them and running from rock to rock, playing at hide and seek. It was altogether a very pretty sight, and we could not but admire the wonderful quickness and cunning of these savage sharpshooters. Observing some of them making for the krantz, as they were driven before the advancing troops, we galloped off to intercept them. The column having turned off and encamped on the ground of the former evening, B—— went down to see Colonel Napier, leaving me with the men on the hill. In a few minutes afterwards a small body of Kaffirs appeared below us driving a herd of cattle, at which we commenced firing at long rifle-range, causing such commotion among them that they broke away in all directions, several evidently hit, making directly for us, followed by about a dozen Kaffirs. A few of the Burghers, thinking to secure them, descended the steep face of the hill, but had not gone far on the flat below, when hundreds of Kaffirs came rushing in from all sides, and taking a little hollow unseen by the Burghers, tried to surround and cut them off. Calling all my men together, we opened such a steady and well directed fire on them, that they were temporarily checked, and two of them being shot dead by "the Minié Riflemen," and several wounded, they turned back again, and our too venturesome allies, made fully aware of their peril, quickly reascended the hill.
Another night of rain succeeded, with sleet and snow, and a cold searching wind, doubly severe by contrast with the intense heat of the day. When we woke in the morning, the mountain ranges, as far as the eye could reach, were white with snow. The sleet turned to rain,and the wind, piercing through our wet clothes, was so intensely chilling, that the men who had, in fact, been lying in puddles all night, were nearly helpless. At eight o'clock a welcome reprieve arrived, a party of Cape Corps from the General's column, bringing us orders to return to our quarters, which we did right willingly, and after a cold dreary ride of eighteen miles, reached Post Retief. The only casualties during the three days' operations were one man killed and one mortally wounded.
The operations on the Waterkloof, the object of which was, by continued annoyance, to drive the skulking Kaffirs out of their hiding places, were only suspended for a day or two. On the 14th we were once more patrolling our mountain ridges; the troops had again assembled at the head of the kloof, and his Excellency the Governor-General arriving with his Staff, a site was selected by the Officers of the Engineers for a permanent defensible camp and two stone redoubts at the Horseshoe, completely commanding Hermanus' Kloof, the head of the Waterkloof, and the communication between it and Fullers Hoek, as also the Kromme, and the approach from the west, and, by a mule path in direct communication with the Blinkwater camp below. Being situated on Mount Misery, and within a few hundred yards of the spot where our gallant Colonel fell, the name of Fort Fordyce was given to it.
His Excellency had already built several stone towers in different parts of the Amatola and Keiskamma districts, for the double purpose of serving as present garrisons, and becoming nuclei and defences for future villages; and their utility and value every succeeding day proved more strongly. This part of the Waterkloof being thus occupied permanently, our operations would have to be directed against the lower and less intricateparts of the valley, into which the enemy were now driven, and as a commencement, Colonel Buller with the Rifle Brigade and 60th Rifles attacked, and completely destroyed, on the 24th, the village at Mundell's Krantz purposely left for this surprise; killing many of the enemy, and taking some of their arms and ammunition, with a few cattle and horses. His only casualties were three men wounded, who were brought the following day, by a detachment of the Rifle Brigade, under Curzon, to Post Retief, which now wore the appearance of a large military hospital; the barrack square, on a fine summer evening, presenting men with bandaged heads, arms in slings, or hobbling on crutches, and two poor fellows each minus a leg.
The old routine, to which we had again returned, of patrols and escorts between the Blinkwater camp, or Mount Misery, where the new redoubts were now building, was broken in upon, by the arrival of 200 mounted Fingo Levies on a roving patrol, under Captain Campbell, who, a few miles off, had fallen in with, and killed a party of seven rebel Totties. From some women who were with them, he had learned that another party in advance, had gone on to the village at Mundell's Krantz, not being aware of its destruction, and that they would probably remain there all night. An attack was therefore determined on with our united forces, as soon as it was dark. But just after sunset, as we were getting our dinner, the Kaffirs came down on us instead, and swept off eighty head of commissariat cattle, which the herdsmen, with their usual incorrigible carelessness, had suffered to be out too late, and too far from the Post. Every one disappeared in a moment to order his horse, and get his arms. The bugle sounded the "alarm" and "assembly;" and in five minutes, some 300 men had left the gates,which were shut and barred behind us. The infantry took a short cut up the mountain, in rear of the Post, over which the enemy had gone; while two of the mounted men rode round by Mantatees Hoek, to intercept their retreat. It was a fine moonlight night, and we went at a slapping pace the whole way, up hill and down, clattering along the echoing road. At each cross path there was a temporary check while the Fingoes in advance narrowly examined the ground for spoor, and then on we went again. At the end of six miles, the greater part of the field having tailed off far behind, we saw a fire in a hollow of the plain, and pushed rapidly on towards it, several getting tremendous falls over the large ant hills which, from their peculiar hue, are not distinguishable at night. I rode right into a sawpit, near an old shieling, fortunately without injury; but it was no easy task to get out again, though I managed to do so just in time to see the Burghers in front, blazing away at some dark objects round the fire, which however, being only stumps and logs, did not return the volley. While hunting about for spoor, with a burning brand, we heard voices just over the rise. Thinking the Kaffirs were now in our hands, we crept cautiously round the eminence to surprise them, but discovered, just in time to prevent a mutual volley, that they were some of our own people. In a few minutes after these blunders, bright flashes of musketry showed where the infantry were, high up on the dark ridge of the Little Winterberg, in rear of which we had now got. The enemy was between us; and in a very short time, the whole of the cattle were recaptured, but whether with any loss to the marauders, the darkness of the night prevented our ascertaining. The fort was regained at midnight.
The veteran and gallant Commander of our Division,General Somerset, being appointed to a command in India, during this month took leave of us, and of a country which for thirty years had had the benefit of his services, and where he had commanded in three wars. He was greatly beloved and respected by his Division, and the esteem and regard in which he was held by the inhabitants were manifested by their inviting him to a public dinner at Beaufort.
About a week after this, having been left for some days in almost solitary occupancy of the Post, Bruce returned with his escort of mounted men and Burghers from Beaufort, bringing an order from the General for my appointment to head-quarters. Three days afterwards, I was quartered in Fort Beaufort. The change of temperature from the mountains to the dusty town, shimmering and dancing in the burning sun, was most disagreeable. Hot north winds from the deserts constantly prevailed, almost stifling the breath, and scorching the face like the blast from a furnace; doors, windows, and furniture cracked with the heat, and the thermometer often rose twenty or thirty degrees in a few hours.
Each morning, the streets were filled with endless droves of cattle and goats going to pasture; and strings of Fingo women with children tied on their backs, and large hoes over their shoulders, trudging to their "meelie gardens." All day long, crowds of dirty, drunken Totties of both sexes, hung round the doors of the canteens; fought, shrieked, and swore in the square; or sat in the sun smoking, picking each other's heads, and eating snuff. Naked Fingoes trotted about on oxen, and little black urchins charged through the streets on calves; while dusty post-riders and mounted patrols galloped in with reeking horses; and native escorts straggled out guardinglong trains of wagons. Towards evening, the cattle returned in hundreds; and the Fingo women re-entered the town, carrying on their heads enormous pumpkins, huge bundles of firewood, or grass. At sundown, the bugles and trumpets of the different barracks sounded "the retreat;" at dark, the cicada began his night-long ringing chirp, and, softened by the distance, the Fingoe's wild chant and monotonous drumming continued without intermission till long past midnight.
The Governor-General, whose residence and head-quarters were at Fort Beaufort, had just left with a strong escort for the Umvani, about five and thirty miles from Kreli's "Great Place," where he had summoned an assembly of troops and burghers to meet him on the 6th instant, to proceed against that Chief, who had not only refused to send in the fine of cattle imposed on him by Sir H. Smith, on the faith of his promise to pay which the troops had been withdrawn, but had insolently sent back the letter in which his Excellency General Cathcart demanded payment, and remonstrated with him on his want of good faith.
One morning not long after arriving at Beaufort, the Colonel commanding the Division sent to desire me to see him immediately. A body of Kaffirs had entered the colony at a point about fifteen miles off; and in half an hour, I was marching out of the town with about 200 men, a company of the Rifle Brigade, another of the 74th, and some Fingo Levies, to cut off the enemy's return. A march of seventeen miles, brought us an hour after dark to the ruins of Post Victoria, an isolated fort, abandoned in 1845, and afterwards burnt by the Kaffirs. We had but just lighted our bivouac fires within the square formed by the broken walls, when, to our great surprise, for we were in an uninhabited district, milesfrom house or camp, we heard a bugle at a short distance sound the "cease firing." We could only imagine it a ruse of the Rebels, who in skirmishing had latterly adopted our bugle sounds, retiring, advancing, firing, and changing direction, by the bugle-calls used in our service. But it turned out to be a patrol of the 2nd Queen's, from Fort Hare, on the same spoor as ourselves. We were now a party of five officers, and 350 men.
As the two main "Kaffir-paths" entered the colony about half a mile distant on each side the Post, I placed "forelaying parties" on them for the night, but they came in at daylight, without having seen anything, and the detachment of the Queen's marched for Fort Willshire, another deserted post. Having despatched all the mounted Fingoes to Foonah's Kloof to reconnoitre, I went with a party of infantry in an opposite direction, to see if we could strike on any spoor to guide us in our movements.
For miles the country stretched away in bush-sprinkled wavy downs, dancing in the heat, and still as death. The only living thing we saw, though the country was said to abound in game, was a solitary honey-bird,[22]that flew before us from bush to bush, returning at intervals, and calling us on in the most unmistakable manner, till it stopped at an old tree, where the Fingoes found a bee's nest in a hollow branch. Leaving the bird as much as he could manage, they brought away the rest, which they ate, comb and all.
In a little belt of wood, clothing a deep dell, the dry course of the Shishago, we came on the spoor of koodoo, boschbok, and guinea-fowl, and presently on that of a few Kaffirs and cattle, quite recent, which had a most refreshing effect on us; everybody brightened up, and the Fingoes were like new men, intently following up the faintest marks with their wonderful instinctive quickness. A few head of cattle were captured, but nothing was seen of the Kaffirs.
At night we again waylaid "the paths" without success, and next day marched through a bushy country to a ruined farm, ten miles off, commanding another favourite Kaffir path. Nothing could be more beautiful than this spot. In the centre of an open grassy glade, surrounded by wooded hills, lay a fine clear lake, formed by ledges of rock running across the Kat River, which poured over in a hundred cooling cascades, where the men revelled in the luxury of a bath after their hot march. The overhanging trees, and tall reedy fringe of the graceful papyrus, were filled withsuiker vogels, or "sugar birds,"[23]of gorgeous colouring, crimson, green, yellow, and blue, glancing brilliantly in the sun, and throwing the plumage of the numerous lories quite into the shade. It was useless to fire at them with two ounce conical balls; but so anxious was B——n to possess a specimen, that he left the water, and, without dressing, followed a pair of them with a handful of stones, from tree to tree with a perseverance which, in his state of nudity, was most ludicrous. The fine krantzes of perpendicular basaltic rock along the river were inhabited by a colony of large blue-faced baboons, with pink behinds, which added considerably to the effect of their comical gestures. Numbers of empty tortoise-shells, of immense size, lay about among the scattered bush, which was in great part cactus, euphorbia, geranium, and thorn. Returning from a stroll after our bathe, we found our three patrol-tents pitched; pewter platters, sixpenny knives and forks, and tin-tots laid out on a tarpaulin on the greensward; and a large frying-pan full of ration beef frizzling over a fire inclosed by a semicircular kraal of thick bushes. The Kaffir path, far enough out of sight of our bivouac, was againforelaidfor the night; and at 12 o'clock we went, under the guidance of a Fingo, with a handful of men to reconnoitre, and if possible surprise a favourite hiding-place of the Kaffirs among the cliffs; but, after stealthily climbing step by step up the rocks, with fingers on the trigger, found the retreat tenantless! The forelaying-party was relieved at daylight, without "anything extra," as the sergeants said, having occurred.
We afterwards learned that the Kaffirs had left the colony by a different track, but only to fall in with another ambuscade, which retook the spoil, and shot one or two of the plunderers. A long and hot march, passing through Barooka, a deserted Fingo village, brought us at mid-day to Birt's station, a deserted missionary settlement, where, from the excessive heat of the sun, we halted for a couple of hours, spreading plaids and blankets over the orange trees and large American aloes, for shelter from its rays. From thence our way lay through a solitary bushy country to Fort Beaufort, which we reached late in the afternoon.
Next day I was sent with a strong party to escort a waggon load of Minié rifles and ammunition to Fort Hare, twelve miles off. While there, a patrol of the 2nd Queen's, which had been sent to the Chumie Mountain, to cover the descent of the returning Kei expedition, unexpectedly came in, having been surrounded by the enemy and compelled to retreat. A stronger force was immediately ordered out, and my party pressed into the service. We sat down at midnight in high spirits to a hasty supper, having a march of fifteen miles to accomplishbefore daylight. The night was fine and starlight, and we trudged cheerily along the hard road, through a thick bush, the air scented with mimosa and jessamine.
At daybreak we were on an open green plain at the foot of the beautiful Chumie Mountain, whose grey timber-sprinkled crags and extensive forests excited the most lively expressions of admiration, as the rising sun beamed out upon them. We encamped at nine o'clock on the smooth green flats at the head of the Chumie Hoek, a lovely valley, surrounded on three sides by mountains clothed with verdure to the tops, and partially wooded.
Close to our bivouac were the burnt ruins of Auckland, one of the military villages destroyed by the enemy at the outbreak of the war. The silent, deserted street, down which a jackal skulked at our approach, was strewed with the bones of the massacred inhabitants.
We had scarcely formed our bivouac, when parties of Kaffirs and Rebels began to show themselves on all sides of our position; some crowning the heights above us, and others emerging from the lower edge of the bush at the foot of the mountains. A sharp skirmish took place with a few of the latter, who were driven back to their holds.
Shortly afterwards, parties of mounted Kaffirs were observed moving in our direction along the higher ridges of the Amatola chain; and a strong body of Rebels, marching in file, with "sloped arms" came in sight, following a well-mounted commander, who was attended by a mounted staff and a bugler! Taking up a strong position, high above us, looking right down into our camp, they halted and piled arms with the regularity of troops.Presently a white flag was sent to us half way down the mountain, with four or five unarmed Totties, to whom Lieut.-Col. Burns sent the garrison Adjutant and an interpreter, to see what they wanted. We watched the two approaching parties till they met. After a few minutes conversation, the interpreter was seen galloping back to the camp. He was the bearer of a request that the commanding officer would call in one or two mounted men of our party, who were too near the flag of truce, as "General Uithaalder wished to come down himself to speak to the officer, but was afraid of treachery." They were called in by the bugle, and we soon saw "the General" descending from the heights, followed by his Staff unarmed. We could distinctly see through our glasses each part of their dress and accoutrements. Uithaalder wore the braided surtout of a British staff-officer, with the red stripe down the trowsers, a red morocco and gold sword belt, a cavalry sword, and a straw hat, with black crape round it. His horse was held by an attendant a little in rear, and his Secretary was seen busy writing in a little note book. They were presently joined by several Totties, wearing the red coats of the unfortunate Sappers killed on the Koonap Hill; all in camp were burning to attack them, but our commander refused to do so, his orders being simply to encamp at the foot of the mountain to cover the descent of the expedition returning from the Kei. The conference broke up. Uithaalder and his attendants slowly ascended the mountain side, and his force moved off in a northerly direction along the ridge. The officer and interpreter returned to the bivouac. The Rebel Leader's object was to express his anxiety to come to terms, his weariness of the war, and his wish to know again on what conditions the Governor-General would make peace. He furtherannounced his intention of sending a letter the following morning for his Excellency.
Having come out from Beaufort totally unprovided for the bivouac, my men had to sleep on the bare ground without a blanket to cover them. I was fortunate enough to get the loan of a horse-rug for the night, and hitting on a comfortable hollow for my hip (an indispensable requisite for a good night's rest on the ground), was soon sound asleep on the open plain.
It was not yet quite daylight, when all were suddenly roused by the hoarse cry of "Guard, turn out!" followed by "Fall in," "Stand to your arms." We were up and armed in an instant, and stood in companies on our respective faces of the encampment, and a large moving body of black figures in blankets, and armed with assegais, was indistinctly seen approaching; just as the sentry, who had thrice challenged them without any reply, was about to fire a shot across their bows to bring them to, they yelled out, "Amafingo! Amafingo!" They were the Fingo Levies of the returning Kei expedition; the wildest looking host that can be imagined, their woolly heads covered with ostrich feathers gathered on their route, and their scanty dress fluttering in rags. They poured into our camp with their usual boisterous hilarity, greeting officers and men alike, with a friendly "Morrow, Johnnie!"
The Governor-General and the regular troops had taken a route down the other side of the mountain, and we turned our faces towards Fort Hare, where he was supposed already to have arrived. We had not gone more than a quarter of a mile, when a bugle sounded the "halt" far up on the hills, and we perceived the white flag and two or three figures rapidly descending the mountain; bringing the promised letter. As twoof our party went to receive it, the enemy's bugle above, sounded the "right incline," and keeping away in that direction, they avoided thereby, as we afterwards learned, a deep sluit, of which they were thus politely made aware. No force was to be seen to day. The purport of the letter, which was very well written in English, was to propose terms of peace without surrendering their leaders. His Excellency took no notice whatever of the proposal, and not only expressed his displeasure at the conference having taken place at all, but offered a reward of five hundred pounds for Uithaalder, dead or alive.
On approaching Fort Hare we were met by Lieutenant Lord Charles Hay, 2nd Queen's, one of the officers just returned with the Governor-General, and from him we learned that Kreli's "Great Place" had been burned to the ground; nearly 10,000 head of cattle, upwards of 100 horses, and 1000 goats, captured, and a great number of Kaffirs killed; a punishment the Chief would not soon forget, as the fine he had refused to pay was only 1500 head of cattle.
The following day, on our return to Fort Beaufort, by a lower road, through bush white over with the twining jessamine, we passed through acres of young locusts, a sight as extraordinary as that of their flight; the whole ground being hidden by a moving black mass of little insects about the size of a common house-fly, giving it the appearance of a burnt plain; as we moved onward, the bulk of them cleared away before us with a rustling sound, yet still so thick did they lie underfoot, that we crushed them in thousands.
At sunset we approached Beaufort by the smooth green down, over which innumerable herds of cattle were winding, whistled on by wild kaross-clad herdsmen, gun and assegais in hand, and entered the town through the Fingo Kraals, where swarthy maidens were milking theirgoats, saturæ capellæ; men kraaling their cattle for the night, and women of all ages—young and graceful, old and haggard, skeletons or shaking masses of fat, constantly arriving, with huge bundles of firewood balanced on their heads.
Several of the soldiers who had been wounded in the late operations, died during the hot weather, in hospital; as often as we accompanied their remains to the beautiful burying ground on the green flats outside the town, with the impressive accompaniments of a military funeral, the alternating strains of the "Dead March," and the wailing lament of the Pipes, it was impossible not to feel something unusually touching in the death of a brave man laid to his last rest so far from home and friends.
On these occasions, we invariably observed, while the crowd of Fingoes behaved with decorum and feeling, that the Totties, as we passed, displayed a malicious and gratified expression; indeed, we had it on good authority, that more than once, men and women had indulged in dancing and open rejoicing because another of the "roed batjes" (red jackets) had gone to his grave.
The head-quarter Division of the Kei expedition entered the town. The large square was filled with a host of ragged soldiers, and the streets were blocked up by bellowing thousands of cattle, while officers, out at the elbows, mounted on half starved horses; Fingoes driving oxen laden with dagha; and camp followers leading pack-horses covered with blankets, raw meat, and jingling kettles, worked their way through the moving mass. All was din and confusion, for the Fingoes would not go to their kraals, and the cattle had none to go to. They were afterwards sold by public auction in the centre of the town, and the proceeds divided among those who had formed the expedition.
FOOTNOTES:[22]Cuculus Indicator.[23]Nectarina.
[22]Cuculus Indicator.
[22]Cuculus Indicator.
[23]Nectarina.
[23]Nectarina.
On the afternoon of Sunday the 12th of September, as we were leaving church, the 73rd regiment, from King Williams' Town, under Colonel Eyre, marched through the town on their way to join the force assembling for a grand and final attack on the Waterkloof. They encamped on the other side the river, on the Blinkwater road; though absolutely in rags, patched with every description and colour of cloth and leather, many a shirt tail dangling from under the lappels of their coats, they looked most soldier-like, and marched with the greatest regularity, the Rifle Brigade band playing them through the streets.
The following day a detachment of the 74th being ordered to reinforce Colonel Eyre's column, I unexpectedly found myself in orders to join him at day-break next morning, delighted, after having shared in all the former attacks, to be in at the last. At four in the morning of the 14th we left the barrack square by starlight, and marching through the sleeping town, halted outside the line of Colonel Eyre's camp-fires as day was breaking. The troops were already accoutred, and the tents struck, and in a few minutes we were advancing through the open bush along the foot of the Kromme to the Yellow-Wood River, where we remainedtwo hours for breakfast. On one or two of the grassy ridges overtopping the forest on the mountain side mounted Kaffirs now and then showed themselves, watching our movements.
Three or four miles further on, we halted and bivouacked at the ruins of Nieland's farm, at the foot of the Pass where the severe engagement, under Colonel Fordyce, had taken place a year before.
The remaining three columns of attack, under Lieut.-Col. Napier, Lieut.-Col. Nesbitt, and Major Horsford, the two former under general command of Colonel Buller, on the north side of the Waterkloof, the latter at the extremity of the valley, were to move simultaneously at dawn next day in co-operation.
It was pitch dark, when, at four in the morning, we groped our way out of camp, the waggons and tents being left with a small guard under charge of an officer, and ascended a steep Pass which we had not visited since the severe struggle on the 9th September. As it became light, a few skulls and scattered bones were to be seen at the top of the path, though we must have passed many more lower down, where the fight had been hottest. After a stiff climb, halting frequently to breathe the men, who coughed violently, an oft remarked symptom of the telling effects of the hardships and exposures of the campaign, we reached the mountain summit, which was enveloped in a thick cold fog. We moved along the table-land towards the south scarps of the Waterkloof, the point of our operations, but the mist was so thick that we halted till the sun had fully risen, when it partially cleared off, and we observed an extended column of at least 400 Kaffirs moving along the narrow ridge connecting the Kromme heights, on which we were, with the peninsular and otherwise totallyinaccessible Iron Mountain, to take possession of its towering krantz. Colonel Eyre immediately countermarching his column, moved us rapidly forward to the attack of the Iron Mountain, and we entered a little forest path leading along the connecting ridge, and so narrow that it barely afforded room for two abreast, continually obstructing the whole column for some minutes. After an hour's gradual ascent without opposition, we crowned the height, when the enemy, firing half a dozen shots, the balls whistling harmlessly over our heads, fled to the bush below, by paths so precipitous and narrow as to be impracticable for anything but Kaffirs and baboons, leaving behind them some two or three women and several horses, which we took. By this false move on their part, the enemy was placed in our hands; the Rifle Brigade being in the valley at the foot of the mountain in front, two parties were instantly despatched by the Colonel right and left to cut off escape by either flank. We made our way down by a path so smooth and steep that only the greatest precaution prevented a headlong career after the loose stones that bounded down before us into the deep valley; the ammunition and pack-horses sliding down on their hind quarters, and the rocket troop proving very troublesome from the difficulty of keeping the heavy apparatus off the horses' necks. The kloofs and forests thus enclosed, were completely scoured, and though the enemy by dispersing, and hiding in the thickest parts of the extensive thorny bushes, succeeded in a great measure in making their escape, many were killed, seventy-one women and children captured, secreted among the cavities of the rocks at the base of the krantz, and quantities of assegais, guns, and native ornaments taken. Half a dozen Rebels, Cape Corps deserters, killed in the attackof their stronghold, were hung on the nearest trees, as examples to any of their comrades who might chance to come that way.
At the ruins of Brown's farm, in the valley of the Waterkloof, Major Horsford's column, which had marched up the valley, joined ours. They had killed a good many Kaffirs, captured some horses, burnt and destroyed many huts, and stormed and destroyed a gunsmith's shop in the rocks, fortified and loop-holed, and well-stocked with tools and materials for the repair of fire-arms.
The whole valley was smoking from end to end with burning huts, as were the heights above us, crowned with the 60th and 91st, scarcely visible from their distance.
After a two hours' rest the main column moved up the valley to the head of the Waterkloof, two parties being detached to our right, one to attack a small body of Kaffirs collected above us, and commanding our intended ascent; the other up the south scarps to intercept the flight of any dislodged parties in that direction.
After a stiff pull up the Pass, we found the 60th Rifles posted in the bush along the path covering our ascent, and on the open ground above, several more companies of that regiment and the 91st, with many old friends. Crossing the Horseshoe Flat, we entered the belt of forest dividing it from the Kromme range beyond, and found the well-remembered path lined by the 60th Rifles, who, as we passed, presented us with cigars and brandy-and-water, on the very spot where, on former occasions, we had been treated by the Kaffir Rifles to volleys of bullets. A short, but at that advanced hour, most weary march across the open ground, brought us, after dark, to our bivouac on a bleak bare ridge,where, from the rocky nature of the ground, we broke nearly all the pegs of our patrol-tents without eventually succeeding in pitching them. The following morning, by daylight, we were on the move, and separating into four bodies, again scoured the kloofs on the south side and head of the Waterkloof, and crowned the Iron Mountain, throwing rockets into the inaccessible retreats, killing several Kaffirs and burning numerous huts. The Fingoes skirmished with unusual activity, being in great awe of theInkosi Ameshlomani(the Four Eyed Chief), as both they and the Kaffirs called Colonel Eyre, from the circumstance of his wearing spectacles, to which they attributed his great vigilance and sharpness; whenever they exhibited the slightest hesitation to obey the order to enter the bush, he rode right at them, laying his jambok about their shoulders, and drove them before him into the cover. They did not, however, entertain the same respect for everybody, for, on another occasion, when a young Levy officer tried the same discipline, he was unceremoniously tumbled off his horse and pitched into a thorn-bush!
At the gorge of the Waterkloof, Colonel Eyre with his Staff and escort rode on, leaving the Column with me, with orders to rejoin the main body, four miles up the Waterkloof valley. We proceeded to the entrenched field-works just thrown up at Nels, where we halted at ten,A.M., for breakfast. The officers' pack-horses having been sent with one of the other columns, by a more practicable road, we had nothing to eat, but Captain Jesse, R.E., commanding the camp there, kindly brought us a loaf, a cold leg of mutton, and a bottle of Cape wine, absolute luxuries to fasting men. Thence we marched up the valley, which at this season, spring, was as fragrant as beautiful with flowering plants and bushes,the Boer-boon, covered with thick clusters of crimson blossom, conspicuous above every other. The larger trees along the rocky stream were alive with monkeys leaping from bough to bough. We rejoined the column at Brown's farm, and a party of Fingoes arrived at the same time with a despatch from the Governor-General, who, on the heights above, was personally directing the whole of the movements. We ascended the valley—a long line of red-coats, Riflemen, Highlanders, Artillery, Mounted Irregulars, and Fingoes; the Kaffir prisoners, with the pack-horses and mules bringing up the rear. At a point where the valley branches off into two, we took the south branch, and the Fingoes were sent up the mountain on our right to scour the bush. They continued ascending the green slopes, till scarcely visible, and then entering the forest at the foot of the perpendicular basaltic rocks, sharp firing at once began; tracing their progress by the wreaths of smoke that curled up above the dark trees, we regulated our movements below by their advance. Heavy firing was heard in the mean time from the north side of the valley. After gradually working our way to the top of the kloof, the Fingoes emerged from the forest, which ended abruptly at that point, driving before them a score or two of Kaffir women and children, and a few sore-backed horses. The women, like those before taken, had their woolly hair entwined with the claws and teeth of wild beasts, and wore karosses of hide, finely dressed, and dyed black with mimosa bark, of which all the larger trees here had been stripped. The unexpected meeting of these fresh prisoners with those previously taken was an affecting sight to witness. All were in a most wretched state of emaciation and weakness, having been nearly starved for want of food, and subsistingentirely on leaves, roots, and berries; their arms and legs were more like black sticks than human limbs. Cruel as their capture may appear, it was in reality a respite from misery and starvation, and moreover was rendered absolutely necessary, for, in their way, they were no less enemies to the tranquillity of the country than the men, acting as sentinels, commissaries, and spies, bringing food (which they might not touch), ammunition and information from our very towns and camps, most materially thwarting our efforts to bring the war to an end. The Tottie women did not appear to consider it at all a misfortune to be taken, for being unaccustomed to a bush life and its precarious means of subsistence in such times, they preferred a dry bed in a jail, with prison diet, to liberty and starvation. Our Fingo allies wished to put the prisoners to death; and were sulky at not being allowed to carry out their notions of warfare. A female prisoner, unable to keep up with the rest, was shot dead by one of these fellows before we had the least idea of his intention; so instantaneous was the act that my horse nearly stumbled over her body as it fell in the path. It required all the exertions of the officers to prevent further cruelties, nor was a stop put to them, till several of these half-tamed savages were knocked down and made prisoners of. One of the Kaffir women, with a child of a few weeks old on her back, becoming too exhausted to carry it, deliberately threw it away; it was, however, picked up by an officer, and given to a Fingo, with orders to carry it to the camp; the fellow obeying with a ludicrous mixture of disgust and nonchalance to the intense amusement of his comrades. But next morning the infant was missing, when "Johnny" being questioned as to what he haddone with it, replied with the greatest coolness imaginable, that ithad escapedduring the night.
On another occasion, one of them, when sentry over a Kaffir, was observed giving a knife to his charge, and making signs to him to cut the rheim which secured his feet to a gun-wheel; the Kaffir was in doubt for a little, but reassured by the friendly nods and signs of his keeper, severed the bands and jumped up, but only to be shot dead by the sentry, who reported the attempted escape of the prisoner.
These, and a few other like instances of barbarity which occurred, hardly any degree of watchfulness could have entirely prevented. It was also next to impossible, amongst a set of men always ready to screen a culprit, to bring home conviction to the real offender; and doubtless, many more cases of barbarity would have taken place but for the presence and exertions of the troops. Yet the Fingoes acted in accordance with the practice of savage warfare rather than from cruel or vindictive feelings; and had they and the Kaffirs alone been opposed one to the other, it is more than probable that every woman and child taken by either side would have been put to death.
After climbing the steep rocky hill at the head of the kloof, the men resting every few yards from exhaustion, we proceeded some miles further along the range, and again prepared to bivouac on the top of the mountains, but had scarcely taken up our ground, when torrents of rain descended, running into our patrol-tents before a drain could be dug round them. The men having only a single blanket, and that of course soaked through, sat all night by the fires in the storm; a keen searching wind sweeping over the mountain top, rendered thenight so intensely chilling, that sleep was out of the question, and at four o'clock when the reveillé sounded, every one was glad to be moving. The wind and sleet at this hour were even colder than before, and though we scorched our clothes on one side at the fires, the other clung to us like so much ice. At the head of the Wolfsback Pass we came up to the 60th Rifles lining the bush. They were half frozen, and envied us being on the march. The mountain tops all round were again white with snow, and on the opposite heights we could see the other Division shelling the deep intervening kloof, an unbroken forest of great extent; the effect, as the shells exploded far below our feet, was very fine. We descended the steep pass in single file, winding through the narrow forest, and halted at Blakeway's farm, where we found the sun quite hot. The almond and peach trees in the deserted garden were covered with sheets of pink blossom. A party of Cape Corps had arrived a few minutes before, under Captain Carey, with 200 sheep which they had captured in the kloof.
In an hour we were again climbing the Kromme range by another path more to the eastward, and gaining the ridge, looked down on the other side into Harrys Kloof, in the bottom of which a small body of the 91st and Cape Corps were halted; the long narrow ridge separating it from Fullers Hoek beyond was smoking from end to end with burning huts. We continued ascending the ridge up to the heights, two companies below scouring the forest kloof as we advanced by a wood path so close, that though we marched single file, the whole column had to halt every twenty yards till the front could move on, the bugles sounding thehaltandadvancefrom front to rear by companies. We came to an immense collection of burnt-out Kaffir fires, and places for sentinels onpoints commanding most extensive prospects of the beautiful country below. All round where we stood was thickly covered with pellets of chewed root. In front there was some firing, and a few Kaffirs were killed, who lay in the thickets as we came up. In one part of the shady path, we came suddenly on the corpse of a rebel deserter hanging from a tree; the blood trickling from a bullet hole in his forehead ran down his face and dropped on his toes.
No sooner had we toiled to the heights, where a detachment of the 60th Rifles was covering our movements, than we again descended by another more difficult and more precipitous path, down which men and horses slid twenty or thirty yards at once into Harrys Kloof, which was penetrated, and crossed in five different directions.
At the bottom of the descent we set fire to a very large village of Kaffir huts, and captured some horses. Part of the column being sent up the kloof by a path on the right, the rest of us, under Colonel Eyre, passed through the smouldering village, its heat almost overpowering, and penetrated to the head of the kloof, which was one dense, dark, and tangled forest up to the heights on which the tiny figures of the 60th were barely visible against the bright sky. The whole column worked through it in every direction, guided by constant bugling; the company and regimental calls of the different corps, with "advance," "retire," "right and left incline," &c.,—being all issued by Colonel Eyre, who, with a bugler of each regiment at his side, thus conducted in the most splendid style the movement of upwards of a thousand men in different bodies, unseen, through an extensive mountain forest. A few head of cattle and some horses were taken, and some of the enemy killed.
Having re-assembled at the gorge of the kloof, we marched out about a mile further where the bush was more open, and at sunset bivouacked for the night, very glad to rest our weary limbs after the severe mountain work of the last thirteen hours. From the returns sent in at night to the Colonel, it appeared that our column had killed 36 Kaffirs, taken 168 prisoners, and captured 41 horses, besides cattle.
At six o'clock next morning, we marched in a heavy rain for our respective camps, the Rifle Brigade proceeding to Nels, and we making our way round the spur of the mountain to our little camp at Nieland's, which we reached wet through about mid-day, delighted once more to enjoy the luxury of a tent.
19th, Sunday.—Prayers were read by the senior officer to the column, drawn up in the centre of the camp.
For the two following days we waited orders from the Governor-General, riding round the neighbourhood, or shooting quail and partridge. At the edge of the forest by which we were encamped, we put up a couple of the wildest old pigs imaginable, which rushed through the thicket before we had recovered from the start they gave us. In the wood we came upon a covey or two of wild cocks and hens that took to wing like pheasants; but as heavy metalled rifles carrying balls of eight to the pound were not adapted for snap-shots in thick cover, we turned our attention to pig-stalking; the game however led us further than was quite prudent to follow without a larger party, and we were obliged to abandon the pursuit. These novel varieties of game, which may in time stock the Kromme forests for future sportsmen, were, it is almost unnecessary to say, the remains of the live stock of the deserted farm where we were encamped, and which, having been left behind in the flight of the owners, had taken to the bush for subsistence.
Soon after returning to the camp, one of the sentries reported a number of Kaffirs collecting on a piece of open grass above the wood, clothing the lower part of the mountain. On bringing our glasses to bear on them, they proved to be large baboons, trooping out of the forest in a continuous string, till we counted from 150 to 200; all seemed busily engaged in searching for and grubbing up roots, at which they continued till sunset, when they returned to the cover, following an immense grey-headed old fellow that walked most pompously at their head.
On the morning of the 26th, in accordance with his Excellency's instructions to Colonel Eyre, to make a final reconnaissance of the whole of the ground of the last three days' operations, in order to ascertain its complete clearance, we again climbed the Kromme Pass, though this time by daylight. As we ascended, the evidences of the fight became more frequent; rolling skulls, dislodged by those in front, came bounding down between our legs; the bones lay thick among the loose stones in the sluits and gulleys, and the bush on either side showed many a bleaching skeleton. A fine specimen of a Kaffir head, I took the liberty of putting into my saddle-bag, and afterwards brought home with me to Scotland, where it has been much admired by phrenologists for its fine development. The trees along the path were scored by bullet marks in every direction. At the point where our unfortunate Band-master had been dragged into the bush to a fate so horrible, we involuntarily stopped for a few moments. The ridges were again traversed as before; and Colonel Eyre, separating his column into three bodies, to search the kloof and forests in and about the Iron Mountain, sent me in command of the Light Companies of the 73rd and 74th, and a few Irregulars, to search and clear the rocky krantzes opposite,and rejoin him in the Waterkloof valley. We worked through the extensive bush both along the top and at the base of the krantzes, searching all the caverns and crevices with which they abounded, and rolling down into the wood, stretching from our feet to the base of the mountain, huge blocks of stone that cleared all before them. We forced our difficult way, clambering up and down rocks thickly covered with enormous aloes in full flower, and tearing through the thorny cover, guided only by constant bugling; catching peeps now and then, from a higher crag, or through an opening in the forest, of the main column in the deep valley, slowly moving through the bush, their bugles scarcely heard, as they sounded the halt, or advance, according to our movements.
High up on the opposite mountain, the 3rd Column worked its way like ourselves among the forest-clothed crags, scaling the steepest cliffs, swarming and scrambling among huge masses of detached rock, notwithstanding the heat of the weather, and climbing higher and higher, till so diminished, as to be visible only when the sun shone on their red coats. On the other side, we looked down on Colonel Buller's column, in the Waterkloof valley, throwing rockets into the inaccessible krantzes, and skirmishing through the bush. We found the bodies of two dead Kaffirs; numerous heaps of chewed root round the old fires on every part of the lofty ledge where we were; and in the crevices of the rocks all sorts of Kaffir ornaments and utensils; and came on a village of empty huts, to which we set fire; but no Kaffirs were to be seen, high or low, so we descended the steep side of the mountain into the Waterkloof, and rejoined the column already bivouacking in the bush. With the exception of a few dead bodiesthey had met with no signs of the enemy. The whole district was cleared.
Towards nightfall the tops of the heights that towered round us were hidden in the clouds, and a drizzling rain came on, which drove us under the shelter of the scattered bushes among which we had made our bivouac. The moaning wind, that bent the tops of the higher trees, soon increased to a gale, howling along the valley, while the cold driving rain swept over us in the most pitiless manner, and with a steady determination that augured a night of it. It was in vain the shivering horses turned their tails to the storm, or the drenched and shapeless heaps of humanity, stretched on the ground, pulled their wet blankets more closely round them; for the pelting storm and searching wind were not to be avoided, and a day of excessive fatigue to the men was succeeded by a night of sleepless discomfort. We were but a degree better under our patrol tents; for though they kept the rain off above, in a great measure, the ground was so flooded, that we lay in pools of water, while myriads of fleas, (we were on the site of an old kraal, of which, however, they were the only remaining sign,) driven from the wet ground, took refuge in unusual force on such portions of our bodies as were above water mark. Our only consolation (for we had one) was that it was too cold and wet for any snakes to be about, though the valley was said to abound with them. It did not require the "rouse" to awaken us, even at the early hour of three next morning; we were too glad to be moving, and busied ourselves in feeding and saddling our shivering horses, collecting firewood, and helping our benumbed servants to pack up the patrol-tents and saddle-bags; the rain still coming steadily down, and the darkness such, that we had the greatest difficulty in finding anything once laid down onthe ground. We marched up the valley, toiling up a clayey path, or rather stream of mud, leading up to the heights, which were so completely covered by clouds, as to render it difficult to find our way; the cold intense. Crossing the "Horseshoe," we descended the steep ridge leading down into Fullers Hoek, not a living Kaffir to be seen anywhere. In the Hoek we found the 91st, under Major Forbes, bivouacked on the long grass, their drenched clothes clinging so closely to them, that they looked as if they had passed the night in the river. Half a mile further on we halted. Fancy men dripping from every thread, kneeling in the mud, with eyes watering from the thick smoke, and puffing away at a heap of wet branches, surmounted by a kettle of cold water, or with benumbed fingers trying to strike a light, and you see us halted for breakfast. In another hour we were again on foot, and after a march of twelve miles, passing on the way through the Blinkwater Camp, reached Fort Beaufort, the 73rd encamping on their former ground, while we waded the river waist-deep, and marched to the barracks.
Two days afterwards, returning from Ely, where I had been sent with an ammunition escort, we met Colonel Eyre's columnen routefor the Amatolas, whence they shortly afterwards expelled Uithaalder, killing about thirty of his people, and taking several stand of arms and 150 head of cattle; burning his Laager, and erecting a permanent defensible Post in its place.
Having a day to spare, I rode out to Lieuwe Fontein, of which Post my brother had, some time previously, been appointed Commandant, with a garrison of 74th and Mounted Levies. We had excellent buck shooting in the open bush around the station, and killed a singular diver on the vley, with curious palmated feet, the three toes being quite detached, and in form and appearancelike beautiful leaves. The situation, like most of the frontier Posts, was one that would have afforded a man of contemplative mind ample opportunity for undisturbed reflection, being twelve miles from the nearest dwelling, and not a living soul approaching the place the day long, excepting twice a week, when the post-riders met there, and the weekly train of waggons outspanned under the walls. At night, after the gates were locked and the keys brought in to the Commandant, he might sit till daylight without hearing a single sound to break the oppressive silence, except the measured tread of the sentinel and the occasional howl of a hyæna or jackal. Next evening the solitude was relieved by the arrival of the up and down mails; two small clouds of red dust rising above the scattered clumps of bush, grew nearer and nearer, till at last the two parties of mounted men were seen descending the opposite hills at the same time, and rapidly approaching the Post, their arms glittering in the setting sun. As they remained within the Post till daylight, I rode back to Beaufort with an escort; the cool refreshing morning air fragrant with the perfume of flowering shrubs. On the way I had some good sport, getting shots at a beautiful pair of blue cranes, a flock of wild duck on a vley, some wild Guinea fowl running along the road, and at some monkeys. The mail was, unfortunately, rather late getting in that morning.
About a week after this I accompanied an escort going to the fortified camps in the Waterkloof. The Rifle Brigade were quartered there, and with the 60th and 91st, which occupied the forts on the heights, effectually held what we had taken with so much labour; not a Kaffir was left in the whole neighbourhood; officers daily went out from the camps shooting alone in places where, a month before, a column would have beenattacked. The valley, in many parts, smelt most pestilentially from the number of dead Kaffirs in the bush. A puppy dog, belonging to H——, brought the arm of one into his tent unobserved, and began to play with it under the bed, a fact of which his master was soon made disagreeably conscious.
October 17th.—Lieut.-Col. MacDuff, lately appointed to the 74th Highlanders, which had lost two commanding officers in so short a time, arrived at head-quarters, and assumed the command of the regiment and the garrison. We were glad once more to have a Colonel at our head, and, not less so, one who had seen good service and hard fighting on other fields.
A few days subsequently, as we were sitting under the wide verandah in front of the mess-room, the sleepy noontide stillness of the town was suddenly broken by the "alarm" and "assembly" sounding from our barracks; the "boot and saddle" from the Cavalry stables; and thecow-horn rallyfrom the Fingo kraals. The Kaffirs had swept off a herd of cattle out-grazing, wounded one of the native police, and shot the horse of another. In a very short time I was trudging away as of old, with a party of Infantry and Levies to Post Victoria, which we reached before sunset. Here the mounted men came up with the pursuit, dispersed the enemy in all directions, and retook the whole of the cattle, our only casualty one man wounded.
I sent the cattle back to Fort Beaufort, and bivouacked for the night with the Infantry at the ruins; but it was not to be a night of undisturbed repose. We had hardly lain down when we were most savagely attacked by musquitoes; and a slapping of faces and lighting of pipes began on all sides. Having at last successfully dodged them by laying a branch over my face, and thrusting my hands into my pockets, I flattered myselfwith hopes of sleep, but a suspicious rustling among the plucked broom under my head, made my blood run cold at the idea of its being a cobra capello, and I rolled away on the other side; having got a lighted brand from the fire, one or two of the men getting up to assist me, everything was turned over with our ramrods, but no snake was found. The same noise, however, began again soon after I lay down, but persuading myself that it was some lizard or insect, I at last went to sleep. In the morning, under the warm stuffing of the saddle that had been my pillow, a fine puff adder lay coiled up.
On our way back, at sunrise, we blazed away right and left at bush buck, and pheasants which we put up in scores. The bush was very beautiful, glowing with the fragrant golden mimosa and the snowy jessamine, mingled with the blue plumbago, the cluytea, and geranium; the ground too covered with mesembryanthemum, was one sheet of glowing pink. Along the deserted grass-grown road, doves, everywhere abundant, were unusually numerous, running along the ground before us and flying on from tree to tree like flocks of tame pigeons. On gaining the more open country we found ourselves again among the young locusts, now considerably grown, and turned to a reddish brown. The scattered bushes, stripped of every leaf, were loaded with them, hanging like swarms of bees from every branch and twig; for acres together the ground was literally alive, and the "veldt" behind them bare to the very earth. The evil became worse as we approached Beaufort, where the cattle, from their numbers, were almost starving, for it was hazardous driving them to any great distance, and already they went so far from the town that a considerable part of the day was lost in taking them to and from pasture.
November 3rd.—The town to-day was thrown into excitementby a serious fray between two rival clans of Fingoes; the "casus belli" was not easy to discover, but a young lady appeared to be at the bottom of it. The extensive green flat between their kraals and the burial ground was covered by two long extended lines of men armed with "keeries," opposed to each other, and advancing or retiring as one or the other gained a temporary advantage; each Fingo carried a kaross, or blanket, over the left arm, as a shield, and a second keerie, held like the old quarter-staff, exhibiting great skill and adroitness in parrying and delivering the tremendous and resounding blows; running, stooping, and wheeling rapidly about with their whirling staves and waving blankets, yelling in savage defiance; while hosts of young women on both sides, armed with large stones, filled the air with well-directed missiles. The scene was most novel and exciting, and every one entered heartily into it.
The stronger party having driven their adversaries back on their kraal, began an attack on the huts, when the prettiest light infantry practice imaginable followed; the attacking force taking advantage of every rock, bush, and bank, their keeries in their left hand ready for a charge, assailed the defenders with showers of stones, thrown with astonishing force and precision, while they in turn kept up so hot a fire from the shelter of their huts, assisted by the women and children, that for some time neither gained much advantage, till, encouraged by a tall active young fellow, whose face and naked body were covered with blood and wounds, the assailants rushed into the kraal, laying about them right and left, knocking down and clearing all before them. The Commandant of the garrison arriving at this juncture, ordered the two principal Chiefs to put a stop to the affray instantly. One of them, a grey-headed old man, with ashort grizzly beard, ran from one to another, issuing his orders to his 'captains,' and soon the tumult ended, though the belligerents were in a very excited state. Several of the champions had been stretched senseless on the ground, one or two of whom afterwards died, and most were covered with blood. There could not have been fewer than 300 men, besides women, engaged in the affray.