CAMP UNDER THE AMATOLAS.

CAMPAIGNING
IN KAFFIRLAND
OR
Scenes and Adventures
IN
THE KAFFIR WAR OF 1851-2.

BY
CAPT. W. R. KING,
74TH HIGHLANDERS.

With Illustrations.

LONDON
SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET.
1853.

PREFACE.

The following pages make no pretension to a detailed history of the military operations of the Kaffir War. Written during leisure hours, in a lonely fort, or by the camp fire after the fatigues of the day, and mainly embracing the movements of one Division only—often of a Single Brigade or Corps—they attempt merely to convey a general idea of the country, and of the scenes and passing events of the Campaign. Should any comrade who shared its dangers and hardships peruse this account, it is hoped he will also share the feeling which first prompted the Author to record them in the Field and now to present the narrative to the public—

"Hæc olim meminisse juvabit."

Largs, November, 1853.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Ordered to the Cape—Voyage Out—Bay of Biscay—Simon's Bay

[1]

CHAPTER II.

State of the Country on Arrival—Causes of War—Commencement of Hostilities by Kaffirs—Defection of Hottentots—Outrages on Settlers

[7]

CHAPTER III.

Landing—March up the Country—Coega River—Addo Bush—Quagga Flats—Assegai Bush—Grahams Town—Insurrection at Theopolis—Night March—Destruction of Rebel Camp—Route for Kaffirland—Ecca Pass—Fort Brown—Waggon Driving—Fort Hare—Preparation for the Field

[18]

CHAPTER IV.

Advance into Kaffirland—Camp at the Amatolas—Attack on the Amatolas—Fort Beaufort—Yellow-Woods—Return to Fort Hare—Clu Clu—Camp on the Koonap River—Waggon Escort—Sand Storm

[44]

CHAPTER V.

Reit Fontein—March to Somerset—Klip Fontein—Night March to Attack the Kromme—Bivouac on Kromme Heights—Standing Camp—Escorting Commissariat Supplies—Action on the Kromme Heights—Torture of Prisoners by Kaffirs—Witch Doctors—Return to Fort Beaufort—Sickness among the Troops—The Route—Band and Mess—Fingo Levies

[75]

CHAPTER VI.

Attack on the Waterkloof—Night Ascent of the Kromme—Engagement on the Waterkloof Heights—Bivouac after the Fight—Descent into Waterkloof Valley—Operations on the Heights—Halt for Supplies

[103]

CHAPTER VII.

Fourth Attack on Waterkloof—Eve of the Attack—Advance of Colonel Fordyce's Brigade—Burning Village—Difficulties of Ground—Advantages of the Kaffirs—Fall of Lieut.-Col. Fordyce and Lieut. Carey—Carrying Position—Kaffir Skirmishers—Bivouac on Mount Misery—Transport of Wounded—The Funeral—Hospital—Death of Lieuts. Gordon and Ricketts—Clearance of Waterkloof—Descent from the Heights—General Orders—Sunday at Beaufort

[142]

CHAPTER VIII.

Cattle Lifting—Fingoes Feasting—Kaffir Habits and Religious Notions—Language, Customs, Dress, Ornaments, Food, Weapons, &c.

[161]

CHAPTER IX.

Night Attack on Camp—Disposition of Troops on Frontier—Ride into Beaufort—Ambuscade—Post Retief—Movements of General Somerset—Sunday—Life at the Post—Visit to Dutch Laagers—Patrols—Skirmish with Kaffirs under Macomo—Ruined Settler—Deserted Farms—Dutch Hospitality—Vintage—Kaffir Night Signals—Cobra Capello—Riding on the Veldt

[173]

CHAPTER X.

Kaffir Hiding-place—Bushman Paintings—Cattle Stealing—Pursuit—Locusts—Fingo "Post Party"—Maize Thrashing—Burning Plains—Success of Trans-Kei Expedition—Patrol of Koonap District—Narrow Escape—Return to Fort

[195]

CHAPTER XI.

Destruction of Kaffir Crops—News from Head-Quarters—Reinforcements from England—Wreck of the "Birkenhead"—Arrival of Tylden's Detachment at Post—Preparations for Attack on Waterkloof—Disposition of Troops—March—Skirmishing—Rifle Shooting—Operations in Waterkloof—Taking of Macomo's Stronghold—Dispersion of the Enemy—Visit from a friendly Chief—Farewell of Sir H. Smith—Shelling the Kloofs—Chase after Kaffirs—Porcupines—Blinkwater Camp—Bushneck Pass—Covering Rifle Brigade—Public Funerals of Officers of 74th—Bivouac in ruined House—Snakes—Escape from Kaffirs—Rifle Brigade Camp—Attack on Captain Moody's Escort—Grahams Town—Lakeman's Volunteers

[208]

CHAPTER XII.

Sixth Attack on Waterkloof—Movement of Troops—Peep into Kaffir Village—Rainy Season—Fort Fordyce—Gallop after stolen Cattle—Quarters at Beaufort—Movement against Kreli—Forelaying Kaffir Pass—Ruins of Auckland—General Uithaalder and Staff—False Alarm—Young Locusts—Deaths in Hospital—Return of Kei Expedition

[241]

CHAPTER XIII.

Final Attack on Waterkloof—Ascent of Pass—Operations—Kaffir Prisoners—Fingo Notions of Warfare—Bush Manœuvres—Return to respective Camps—Pig Stalking—Baboons—Reconnaissance of the Ground of the Kromme Operations—Night Bivouac on the top of the Kromme—Lieuwe Fontein and Life at a Frontier Post—Cattle Raid—Puff Adder—Young Locusts—Fingo Fight

[260]

CHAPTER XIV.

Expedition across the Great Orange River against the Basuto Chief, Moshesh—Object of Expedition—Preparations for the March—Fort Armstrong—Elands Post—Tambookie Herdsmen—Kamastone—Twa Taffel Berg—Vast Plains—Dutch Farm-house—Stormberg—Intense Cold on the Mountains—Burghersdorp—Camp by Night—First Sight of the Orange River—English Mail—Fishing in the Caledon River—Herds of Wild Game—Wildebeest Hunt—Immense Frogs—Return of a missing Officer—Dung Beetles—Platberg—Barolong Chiefs—Interview with Moshesh—Ride through Basuto Villages—Jerboas—Arrival of part of fine of Cattle—Basutos—Action at Berea—Moshesh's Letter to the Governor—Distribution of captured Cattle—Return of the Force

[280]

CHAPTER XV.

March down the Country—Christmas Day—Flocks of migratory Storks—Herds of Game—Flood in the Orange River—Narrow Escape in crossing—Return to the Colony—Fort Beaufort—Termination of the War—Homeward Bound

[321]

LIST OF PLATES.

CAMPAIGNING IN KAFFIRLAND.

CHAPTER I.
ORDERED TO THE CAPE—VOYAGE OUT.

The service companies of the 74th Highlanders were under orders to sail from Cork for Gibraltar early in March, 1851. Our heavy baggage had already been sent by a sailing vessel to anticipate our arrival, H.M.S.S. "Vulcan" lay at Queenstown ready to take us on board, and the all-engrossing topics were the cork-woods of Andalusia, yachting in the Bay of Algesiras, or the chances of future quarters among the olive-groves of Corfu; when, in consequence of tidings received by government of the serious aspect of affairs in British Kaffraria, and the urgent demands of Sir H. Smith for fresh troops, our orders were suddenly countermanded, and, at three days' notice, we were steaming out of harbour for the seat of the Kaffir war.

We weighed anchor on a bright Sunday morning, March 16th, after a hasty scramble in the short time left us to lay in stores for the additional length of voyage, and get an outfit of rifles, pistols, saddles, and camp equipage; with a few shirts, boots, and other articles for the use of the outer man, absolutely necessary to supply the loss of our unlucky baggage, by that time some hundreds of miles away in a different direction. No friends or relatives accompanied us on embarkation to say farewell; no pressing of hands or waving handkerchiefs. Lounging groups of Sunday-dressed sailors smoked and looked on in indifference; the bells rang out merrily, and the church-going crowds wended their way along the quiet sunny streets as usual.

The sister service, however, bade us a hearty farewell; having got steam up, and sails set, in less than forty minutes after the Admiral's signal, three-times-three lusty cheers burst from the manned yards and rigging of the "Ajax" and "Hogue," as we swept swiftly past, which were returned with such right good will, that we made but a very hoarse return to a last parting cheer from the forts at the mouth of the harbour.

The church bells softened and died away in the distance; streets, villas, and shipping grew indistinct; the fast-receding shores dwindled to a narrow strip; the long blue undulating line sank below the horizon; and we were fairly standing out to sea.

We steamed away, ate and drank, and preached to the fishes occasionally, as the breeze freshened rather disagreeably; until, on entering the Bay of Biscay, it began to blow in hard earnest, and by the fourth day had risen to a furious gale; mountains of waves reaching often to the yard-arms, and squalls coming on so suddenly, as to cause serious fears lest the masts should go overboard. At last it blew a perfect hurricane, with such a tremendous sea running as I had never witnessed in crossing the Atlantic before. In the height of the howling din and confusion, the tiller ropes broke, and were righted, after some time, with great difficulty. All night the violence of the storm was unabated; the sea washed the decks every other wave; the tiller ropes again gave way, and once more we were drifting before the tempest. It was impossible to stay below in such a state of peril and uncertainty, and all the officers assembled on deck. The roaring of the wind through the rigging was so deafening, that we could not make ourselves heard, and all stood in silence watching the storm. One of the sailors aloft, whose perilous position we had been remarking, was jerked off the main-topsail yard-arm, and falling on the deck with a fearful crash, was killed on the spot. The foretop-mast was sprung, and immediately afterwards the mess-room ports were stove in, and floods of water poured through, and surged from side to side of the cabin with the heavy rolling, breaking over the table at every lurch. By the glimmer of a single lamp, officers and men hazarded neck and limbs in desperate attempts to secure, and lash together, the large hampers, chests, and heavy casks of sea-stores, which were dashed violently up and down the stateroom.

After seeing all secured, and making a meal of biscuit and salt beef as we stood, bare-legged and soaked to the skin, we waded to our flooded berths, and turned in for the night, though the uproar was so terrific that it was impossible to sleep. In the midst of the din, came another astounding crash of barrels and chests broken loose; some bursting through the cabin doors as if they had been chip. Officers and men, dressed and undressed, turned out, and all were again at work lashing and making fast.

In the morning, the jolly-boat, weighing about a couple of tons, was found high above the davits, blown against the rigging, and a valuable charger of the Colonel's killed. All this time, the wind was dead on the north coast of Spain, and we were obliged to wear ship constantly, driving about between Ushant and Scilly, till at the end of eight days we had the peculiar satisfaction of finding ourselves a trifle nearer England than on the first.

"Post nubila Phœbus." After the black and angry Bay of Biscay, the sunny tropics. The gale moderated, and by the 6th of April we had entered the torrid zone; awnings were spread on deck, and the band played in the evenings, which closed with the most gorgeous sunsets. The only land seen since leaving port, was St. Antonio, one of the Cape de Verde islands, about twenty miles off, which we sighted as the setting sun lit up its rugged sides with the richest tints of purple and gold.

On the 16th we crossed the Line, where, with grave circumstance and ceremony, the uninitiated were made freemasons by Neptune and his court in person, after being well lathered with pipe-clay and mops, shaved with three-feet razors, soundly ducked, and afterwards rinsed by liberal applications of the fire-engine hose and water-buckets. On reaching the southerly "trades" we were right glad to get rid of the stifling heat, and clanking of the engine, and spread canvass once more.

A succession of tropical calms, in which we were, nearly roasted; and tropical showers, in which we were as nearly drowned, ensued. The beautiful "Southern-cross," "Centaur," and other, to us new, constellations, now shone out nightly with surpassing brilliancy; and bonetas, sharks, dolphins, Cape-pigeons, and albatrosses, with flying-fish innumerable, played around the ship day after day; some of the latter gratifying our curiosity by a visit through the ports.

After a monotonous voyage of more than seven weeks, we, one fine evening, sighted what the landsmen took to be a hazy bank of cloud in the extreme horizon, but the sailors declared most positively to be land, with so many and extraordinary maledictions on themselves and personal property generally, that they ought to have felt considerably relieved when daylight the following morning put it beyond a doubt. Long before the hour of breakfast, our usual meet, every one was on deck gazing at the distant mountains and bold headlands of the Cape, which rapidly grew more distinct as we approached them with a fresh breeze in our favour, a magnificent sea running mountains high. Late in the day the scattered houses became visible along the welcome shore, and we entered Simon's Bay.

The little town—a group of flat-roofed white and yellow houses, with Venetian shutters and wide verandahs—is prettily situated at the foot of a mountain, fringed with bushes. American aloes and cactus form luxuriant hedges round the gardens, and flourish to an immense size; picturesque groups of swarthy Malays, in huge beehive-shaped hats, or red and yellow bandanas, gazed at us from the shore, or pulled alongside, vociferating in Dutch, and offering melons, pumpkins, eggs, and fruit, for sale.

Next day we went ashore, while the women and children were being disembarked to remain behind at Cape Town, and the rest of our camp equipage was got on board, and took advantage of the opportunity to make a rapid survey of the immediate neighbourhood, and stretch our legs after nearly two months imprisonment on board ship. As we strolled along the street we were much struck with the skill and ease with which the native Africanders drove their waggons, eight and ten in hand, full trot round the most difficult corners, an assistant wielding an enormous whip with both hands; and during our rambles were delighted to find the most exquisite specimens of our greenhouse ericas wild on the mountain sides. The evening was warm and lovely, and the perfume of the creepers and flowering trees most delicious, as we walked in the bright moonlight; not a sound was heard but the rippling of the waves and the shrill cry of the cicada, and we very reluctantly left the refreshing repose of the quiet shore to go on board again.

The following morning, at a signal from the Commodore, we steamed out of the harbour, and shaped our course for Algoa Bay, a run of about three hundred miles, along a wild, and almost uninhabited coast.

CHAPTER II.
STATE OF THE COUNTRY ON ARRIVAL.

On arriving in Simon's Bay our first anxiety, of course, was to learn the latest tidings from the seat of war, which fully confirmed the unfavourable intelligence that had led to our sudden change of destination. The natives were in open rebellion, plundering the frontier farms, attacking post after post, and committing the most deliberate outrages and murders; and all the efforts of Sir Harry Smith to check them were comparatively ineffectual without fresh reinforcements, which he was now anxiously expecting.

It was at last but too evident, even to the most sanguine advocates of peace, that all hopes of such a desirable consummation being permanently effected in the colony were at end, so far as depended on any promises or treaties of the faithless Kaffirs. The experiment had been fairly tried again and again, and had as often failed. Never had there been such encouragement to hope for ultimate success as in the decided improvement and progress effected during the few years which had elapsed since the last war, after the conferences of December 24, 1847, and January 7, 1848, at King William's Town.

At the conclusion of that war it was found absolutely necessary, for the future safety and peace of the colony, to extend the frontier line of our possessions to the Great Kei River, including the large district named British Kaffraria, which, with the lately "Ceded Territory," were declared to be forfeited by the vanquished Kaffirs, as the penalty of their rebellion. In point of fact, however, they were left in possession of the country, each tribe, with their respective chiefs, being assigned to different districts, the whole under a system of government by local magistrates or commissioners, who were again subordinate to Colonel Mackinnon, the Commandant and Chief Commissioner at King William's Town. The condition on which they were allowed to retain occupation of these districts was that of declaring allegiance to the Crown, with which both Chiefs and people at once complied; and, in addition to this, and in accordance with their own laws, each Chief was made responsible for any cattle or other robberies, the spoor of which could be traced to his kraal, he having to pay the full value, and follow up the spoor as best he could. The result was, that as there could thus be no receivers, there were soon few thieves, and property became comparatively secure, order being further enforced and preserved by a body of 400 Kaffir police, regularly drilled and equipped. The blessings of order and an equitable administration of justice inspired a confidence which was gradually felt by the people to be far preferable to the arbitrary and capricious rule of their chiefs, supported as it was by the grossest superstitions and impostures; and, besides this, efforts were made to improve their moral condition, every encouragement being given to missionary exertions, and the opening of schools and places of worship, with abundant success.

Admirable however as was Sir H. Smith's system, and also its working,—for, as was remarked, nothing could be more promising than the state of the country up to the autumn of 1850,—an element was at work, the importance of which had not been duly estimated, and to which may undoubtedly be traced the origin of the subsequent war. The chiefs found their power and influence melting daily before the advance of civilization, the settled habits of peace, and the irresistible superiority of a just and duly administered government. Naturally jealous of their hereditary power, they felt it would soon be superseded; and Sandilli, their Paramount Chief, and an accomplished Kaffir diplomatist, availing himself of this state of feeling, visited all the several chiefs, and urged on them the necessity of a last struggle for their waning independence, instigating them to use every means to spread disaffection among their people. To further his views he enlisted the services of Umlanjeni, one of their Witch-doctors and prophets, in whose predictions, the most absurd and preposterous, the Kaffirs placed superstitious faith. His influence was extraordinary, and spread like wildfire among them, and the spirit of disaffection was once more deeply at work. Secret and active emissaries were sent far and wide to the Kaffirs located on the different farms in the service of colonists, with orders to desert their employers, which they promptly obeyed, absconding without warning, and in many instances leaving their property and wages behind.

At length, in spite of the reluctance of the authorities to believe in any hostile intentions on the part of the enemy, the truth of such suspicions became so apparent, that intelligence of the unsettled state of affairs, and an expected movement, was despatched to Sir Harry Smith at Cape Town. He suddenly appeared on the spot, and immediately commenced personal inquiries, and the now thoroughly alarmed colonists presented an address urging the real remedy for the apprehended disturbances,—viz., the complete deposition of the chiefs from power, by depriving them of all independent authority. In absence, however, of any "direct evidence" that they were engaged in plotting an attack, and persuaded by their specious promises and affected submission, Sir H. Smith, in his reply of October 24, 1850, said, "that reports throughout British Kaffraria were most satisfactory, the chiefs were astounded at his sudden arrival, and he hoped to arrest some of the Kaffirs who had spread the alarming reports."

His prompt and energetic appearance, though without any troops whatever, alone averted an immediate outbreak, and at a great assembly of the Chiefs at King William's Town they swore allegiance to the government, ratifying it by kissing the "stick of peace." The crafty Sandilli however refused to attend, and for his contumacy was shortly after deposed by proclamation, and on the 18th of November the Governor, after endeavouring to reassure the frontier settlers, and induce them to return to their farms, departed for Cape Town in the hopes that all would remain tranquil.

But a Commission appointed by the Governor to proceed to the country of Hermanus to investigate the numerous complaints of depredations, forwarded to Cape Town such an alarming account of the critical state of affairs that his Excellency immediately started in the "Hermes," and within less than a month from his leaving it, was again on the Frontier, landing at Buffalo mouth with the 73rd regiment and a detachment of artillery. A proclamation was at once issued for the establishment of a police, and the enrolment of a corps of volunteers for self-defence, so as to leave the whole of the military at liberty for operations.

The Kaffirs at this time, according to returns, possessed upwards of 3000 stand of arms, six million rounds of ball cartridge, and half a million assegais, with ample means of supply; a trade in gunpowder and arms having long been carried on openly and almost without restriction. Their fanatical prophet, Umlanjeni, now issued the command to "Slay and eat," which, as the usual food of the Kaffirs in time of peace is corn, roots, and sour milk, is the conventional mode with them of commencing a war, the stimulus of animal food being only resorted to, to excite their energies on such occasions; their warlike passions fairly aroused, farms were attacked in every direction, houses plundered and burned, and the police effectually resisted in their attempts to enforce the restitution of stolen cattle.

A panic spread along the Frontier, and the farmers abandoned their lands in numbers, moving with all their flocks and herds into the interior, their losses being greatly aggravated by the swarms of locusts which devoured everything before them, leaving the cattle to perish for want of pasture. Those who had the courage, or were compelled by necessity to remain, formed themselves into laagers of ten or twelve families, regularly fortifying and provisioning themselves within some of the more tenable homesteads, round which they collected their flocks.

The Commander-in-chief, on the 16th December, marched all the troops in Albany and British Kaffraria to the Amatola mountains, the object of which was to make such a demonstration as might overawe the Gaikas, without resorting to force, which was to be carefully avoided. The troops consisted of the 6th, 73rd, and 91st regiments, and the Cape Mounted Rifles, together, about 1500 strong, with the two divisions of Kaffir police. The right wing, under Lieut.-Col. Eyre, 73rd, was posted on the Kabousie Neck, accompanied by the Chief Toise; the centre column, under Col. Mackinnon, held Fort Cox, the head-quarters of his Excellency; and Col. Somerset, in command of the left wing, moved on Fort Hare.

On the 19th a great meeting of all the Gaika tribes and chiefs was held at Fort Cox, when above 3000 assembled, and were addressed by the Governor on the conduct of Sandilli, who, with his half-brother Anta, was outlawed, and large rewards offered for their apprehension. His Excellency impressed on them his determination to preserve order, and, if needful, to enforce it by the troops; but they had, no doubt, already fully resolved on war, and must have felt pretty confident in the strength of their position and forces, for on his threatening them that, in case of necessity, he could bring ships full of troops to the Buffalo mouth, he was significantly asked, "If he had any ships that could sail up the Amatolas?"

A few days later their hostile intentions were put beyond a doubt. A patrol of 580 strong, under Colonel Mackinnon, had been ordered out to the Keiskamma Hoek, where Sandilli was supposed to be concealed, in the expectation that he would surrender or fly, as the Governor was led to believe. They marched from Fort Cox on the 24th, with orders to molest no one, and were treated in the most friendly manner by the Kaffirs until they had reached a narrow, rocky gorge of the Keiskamma, where they could only proceed in single file, when a fire was suddenly opened on the column of infantry, after the Kaffir Police and Cape Mounted Rifles had been suffered to pass. The fire was most resolutely maintained for some time, and the ground was so well chosen for the attack, that the troops could not dislodge the Kaffirs until they had suffered a considerable loss, the mounted police and Cape corps being unavailable. Assistant-Surgeon Stuart, and eleven men, were killed, with two officers and seven privates wounded. The loss of the enemy was considerable.

There is no doubt that the troops were purposely led into this ambuscade by the Kaffir police, as they were themselves not only allowed to pass unmolested during the whole affair, but the next day a body of 365 deserted to the enemy, taking their wives, cattle, equipments, and ammunition, and, what was more annoying, the discipline and knowledge of our military manœuvres, both infantry and cavalry, which they had acquired from a long course of active training, at an expense, to the colony alone, of £11,000 annually. Their defection was speedily followed by that of others. This day (Christmas day) seems to have been agreed on as the commencement of a general outbreak. Martial law had been proclaimed by the governor, in consequence of the events of the day before. A party of the 45th regiment, while escorting waggons to King William's Town, was surprised on the Debe Neck, and overpowered, before they could form for defence, by a large body of Kaffirs, who barbarously murdered the whole party, a sergeant and fourteen privates, leaving their bodies on the ground, where they were found by Colonel Mackinnon's patrol, with their throats cut from ear to ear, and horribly mutilated, which was afterwards discovered to have been perpetrated before death. This party had formed a portion of the handful of troops at Fort White, and the Kaffirs at once proceeded to attack the weakened garrison, but were gallantly repulsed with loss.

Simultaneously with these attacks they consummated their cowardly treachery by a general and concerted massacre at all the military villages, under circumstances of the most atrocious and cold-blooded ferocity. These military settlers were discharged soldiers, who had grants of land assigned to them, with assistance from government on a liberal scale to start them in their farms, the condition of tenure being, that they should be ready at any time to turn out for the defence of the country, receiving good pay and allowances while on service. A number of prosperous little villages thus sprang up, and the settlers lived on the most friendly terms with the neighbouring Kaffirs, constantly entertaining them as their guests, and employing many on their farms. Of their hospitality the Kaffirs treacherously availed themselves to the full, to allay suspicion and prepare the way for the intended massacre. Hurried orders to prepare themselves for the worst had but just arrived in consequence of the attack at Keiskamma Hoek, on the previous day, when the Kaffirs rose at a signal, and massacred the inhabitants, whose guests many of them had just been sharing their Christmas dinner. The women were stripped, and escaped with difficulty, and the houses were burned to the ground. Johannesberg, Woburn, and Auckland, among others, were thus entirely destroyed, every man at the latter being killed.

The Governor himself was next hemmed in by the enemy at Fort Cox; a gallant attempt to open a communication with him was made by Colonel Somerset, with a party of the 91st regiment and Cape Mounted Rifles, but they were compelled to abandon it, being surrounded by overwhelming numbers of the enemy; and, in a most desperate hand-to-hand fight, two gallant officers, and twenty privates, of the 91st, were killed, and many wounded. Their loss, however, was amply avenged, some 200 of the enemy being left dead on the field.

On the 31st, Sir H. Smith, with a party of Cape corps, sallied from Fort Cox, and after dashing through the enemy for twelve miles, succeeded in reaching King William's Town. He immediately issued a proclamation, calling on the colonists to rise en masse, and assist the troops to expel and exterminate the Gaikas from the Amatolas, at all hazards.

The prospects of the new year opened gloomily enough; the attacks and depredations of the enemy became daily more general and audacious. The farmers entirely abandoned the country, and the roads were almost impassable from the quantity of stock which was driven in. The Gaikas were joined by the T'slambies and Tambookies, mustering not less than 15,000 strong; and Kreli, the most influential chief, was under suspicion, and his defection greatly dreaded, as he could bring a force of at least 10,000 men into the field.

At this conjuncture the ill-concealed spirit of disaffection, which had long been at work, broke out among the Hottentots of the London Missionary Station, at the Kat River, for years a hotbed of discontent and rebellion; though actually fed and clothed at an enormous expense by the government, and put in free possession of a most beautiful and fertile district, taken by us from the Kaffirs, and given to them unconditionally, yet these people were taught to believe themselves injured, robbed, and oppressed by those to whom they owed everything; and now leagued themselves with Sandilli and his followers.

The missionary settlements of Shiloh and Theopolis quickly followed their example, and the so-called Christianized Hottentots were soon among the foremost of the rebels. At Shiloh they actually garrisoned and held their chapel for some time against their Burgher forces, though they had but shortly before received the sacrament and sworn solemn allegiance. Afterwards, being joined by a party of Tambookies and Kat River rebels, they made a daring attack on Whittlesea.

As soon as Sir H. Smith reached King William's Town, he despatched an urgent demand to Cape Town for all available troops, and another appeal was made to the Burghers.

While the Governor was awaiting the collection of these reinforcements, the Kaffirs, emboldened by the delay, sent an audacious challenge to our troops to fight, backed by a body of 500 men, who, however, were signally worsted by a party of Cape corps, and Fingoes.

As soon as the Commander-in-chief had somewhat organized his forces, Colonel Mackinnon was despatched, on the 30th of January, to throw supplies into Fort Cox and Fort White, and, on the 13th of February, marched with a patrol to the relief of Fort Hare, in all of which he was successful, though after severe conflicts with the enemy.

By this time the Kaffirs had overrun the whole country, down even as far as Graham's Town and the Addo Bush, and, in every direction, were perpetrating the most violent outrages on life and property, to the utter dismay and consternation of the inhabitants; and Sir H. Smith, at the request of the English and Dutch churches, proclaimed a solemn day of humiliation on the 7th February, which was religiously observed.

Fort Armstrong, which the rebels had seized, was stormed on the 23rd of February, and taken by Major-General Somerset; and other engagements took place with the same success, especially during patrols of a force under Colonel Mackinnon.

In the beginning of March the Cape Mounted Rifles followed the example of the Kat River rebels, a party of them deserting from head-quarters, with all their arms and accoutrements; and further desertions were only checked by the promptness of the Governor, who at once paraded the regiment, and disarmed the coloured men.

On the 18th the Commander-in-chief took the field in person, and marched to Fort Hare, which was in imminent danger of an attack for the rescue of prisoners and the plunder of ammunition. By a masterly movement this was frustrated, and the enemy utterly routed with considerable loss. After this his Excellency pushed on with a rapidity which astonished the Kaffirs, and marched on Forts Cox and White; during which another spirited engagement took place, the enemy being again defeated, numbers of them killed, and above 1000 head of stolen cattle retaken.

In consequence of an atrocious case of roasting three men alive at the notorious Kat River, General Somerset, with a strong patrol, marched to the Mancazana River, where they were attacked by the enemy, who were completely defeated. Major Wilmot, R.A., also on a patrol into the Chief Seyolo's country, encountered and defeated them; inflicting severe loss, driving Seyolo out, and destroying their kraals and stores. Colonel Mackinnon and Captain Tylden had, by the latest intelligence, successfully opposed the enemy in other parts of the country, and Marassa's people; but the troops were evidently inadequate, in point of numbers, to the emergency, and the vast extent of the line of operations; and the greatest anxiety was felt, which was increased by the intelligence of Kreli's having engaged in actual hostilities, in conjunction with the Tambookies and Basutas.

Such, briefly, was the state of affairs when we left Simon's Bay; and it was with feelings of some excitement that we looked forward to joining the gallant little army, which as anxiously expected our arrival.

CHAPTER III.
LANDING—MARCH UP THE COUNTRY—FIRST BRUSH WITH THE REBELS.

On the fourth day after leaving Simon's Town, we dropped anchor in Algoa Bay, opposite the town of Port Elizabeth, which, though rather a dull-looking place at first sight, with its background of bare sand-hills, improved on better acquaintance.

Here the troops were transferred to large boats, from which again, one by one, we were all carried ashore, through a tremendous surf, sitting astride on the shoulders of naked Fingoes; tall, athletic fellows, adorned with armlets and necklaces of brass and beads, and wearing pendant in front, a most grotesque and sometimes elaborate ornament, which as much astonished our men, as it excited their merriment. Our landing on the 16th of the month was an odd coincidence, as we had sailed from Cork on the 16th of March, and crossed the line on the 16th of April.

Towards evening the whole of the troops were landed, and our tents pitched on the top of the bare bleak hill behind the town.

Most of the bedding having got thoroughly soaked in passing through the surf, many of us slept in our plaids on the bare ground, which some of the youngsters rather preferred, as a hardy soldier-like sort of thing.

Here we were detained three days, unable to procure sufficient oxen for the baggage waggons, as in consequence of a long drought and scarcity of pasture the cattle had died off in hundreds, those that survived being in such a miserable plight that two could with difficulty do the work of one in ordinary condition.

The camp was besieged from morning to night by crowds of various races, Africanders, Hottentots, Malays, and Fingoes, as different in costume as in complexion; some gaily dressed in startling cottons, with gaudy douks or bandanas on their woolly heads; others with large brass skewers stuck Chinese fashion through their long black hair; some wrapped in a simple cowhide, or dirty blanket; and many with little encumbrance beyond their brass and copper ornaments, or the naked little niggers tied on their backs. Horses of all ages and descriptions, from unbroken colts to broken-down screws, and of all colours, from a "voss" to a "blue schimmel," were paraded for sale, and trotted up and down, spurred, "jambokked," and gingered all day long. As every officer required two animals, one for riding and another for his pack-saddle, the demand greatly increased the already high prices, and we had to pay at least double their ordinary value.

On the fourth day after landing, tents were struck at eight in the morning, and we marched through the long straggling street of Port Elizabeth, accompanied for some distance out of the town by a motley crowd, screaming and dancing round the band. A long train of about thirty lumbering waggons, each drawn by ten or fourteen of the largest bullocks we had ever seen; carrying immense and most inconvenient-looking horns, brought up the rear. Naked little "voorloupiers"[1] led the teams, which were driven by dwarf Hottentots flourishing enormous bamboo whips eighteen or twenty feet in length, the incessant cracking of which was like the report of so many pistols, as they descended with volleys of Dutch oaths on the backs of the unfortunate oxen answering to the names of Schwartlande, Bluberg, or Scotlande.

The country was most monotonous, and but for such features of novelty as strange shrubs and plants presented, uninteresting enough, being little more than a succession of bare sandy flats, and low hills sprinkled with bush, here and there a large salt-pan, and occasionally clumps of aloes and elephant tree,[2] a large bush with round fleshy leaves of an agreeable acid, the favourite food of the elephant, which only a few years back inhabited the whole of this district. The sun was scorching hot; clouds of fine sand, raised by the moving column, floated round, filling eyes and mouth; and altogether the men (judging from their remarks) appeared to entertain a very indifferent opinion of Africa.

After fourteen miles we came to the Zwartkop river, and crossing the drift or ford, encamped among the scattered mimosas, bristling with gigantic white thorns, on a piece of short, smooth grass, at the foot of a hill, completely covered with aloes, drawing up the waggons in line, and knee-haltering the horses, which were turned loose to feed with the oxen till dark.

A brilliant moon rose early, and we sat round a cheerful camp-fire, smoking our first pipe in what might be called the bush; the long lines of tents and white-topped waggons peeped from among the dark trees, bright fires encircled by red coats shone everywhere; the oxen tied to the yokes lay grouped together, the horses stood sleeping, the Hottentots scraped their fiddles and screeched under their waggons, and in the distance the sentinels paced up and down their beat; while above the general hum, rose every now and then the loud laugh and merry song, finishing occasionally with the mournful howl of a jackal.

Next morning, after ascending the steep winding road cut through a forest of large African aloes, we marched to Coega River, where, learning that there was no water to be had for the next twenty miles, we were obliged, on account of the oxen, to halt for the day. We had good sport at buck-shooting, and I got a beautiful tiger's skin from a native who had but just stripped it from the carcass of its late owner.

Owing to the general reluctance that had hitherto been displayed to turning out of bed in the middle of the night to march, we were aroused the following morning at one o'clock, by the effectual but not very agreeable mode, of pulling down the tents at the sound of a bugle, without the ceremony of asking those within whether they were prepared for a public appearance.

It was still bright moonlight when we fell in, and so bitterly cold that our half-frozen fingers and toes had hardly recovered their natural warmth when we halted for breakfast, after a five-miles walk in rear of the snail-paced waggons.

After two or three hours' grazing, the oxen were inspanned, and our march continued for fifteen miles through dense bush; the laborious track ankle deep in soft sand, and so narrow in places that the waggons could barely brush through, the men being obliged to march in file. The sun was by this time intensely hot, and we were without a drop of water to moisten our lips, which were swollen and blistered by the heat. Towards noon we came to a "poort," or natural hollow between high banks covered with aloe and dwarf euphorbia, the sand thickly incrusted with salt. The reflected heat of the sun was intolerable; not a breath of air was stirring; all around was still as death, and the atmosphere so stifling that many of the men were on the point of fainting, though a few hours before benumbed with cold. Shortly we came to a muddy stagnant pool, literally hot from the noontide sun: but so great were the sufferings of the troops, that they rushed almost into it, throwing themselves down by sections on the miry banks, and greedily drinking the fetid green water.

In the afternoon we pitched our tents on a burning plain; and never did I enjoy anything so much as a bathe that evening in the gloomy crocodile-suggesting-stream, called Sunday River, whose sluggish water, overhung by deep forest, scarcely moved the twigs that dipped into it. After this refresher, we all dined together at the little lonely inn; the rooms of which were covered, from the ceiling to the floor, with the skins of lions and tigers; shot, as the host assured us, "within sight of the house." During the night, my tent pole, which had already shown rickety symptoms, gave way from the overstraining of the canvass, tightened by the dew, and down came the wet tent on our faces, nearly smothering C——n, my companion in misfortune. We cut an odd figure in the moonlight, in our shirts and red woollen caps, creeping from under the fallen tent, and in that airy costume clearing away the wreck, turning in again between our blankets on the open plain; where, at the risk of being walked over by orderly officers and stray horses, we slept soundly until réveillé, when awaking, I found every article of clothing thoroughly saturated with dew; in spite of which, it was impossible to resist laughing at the autumnal appearance of my comrade, whose nightcap, hair, and eyebrows were heavily loaded with sparkling dewdrops.

After about an hour's marching, the sun rose, and we met a returning party of traders going down to the Bay with several waggon-loads of skins, escorted by about a score of naked Fingoes. In the forenoon we arrived at Commando Kraal, where was an encampment of Fingoe Levies, stationed at the entrance of the dangerous Addo-bush, in which, a short time previously, one or two rencounters with the Kaffirs had taken place. A small party of them joined us, armed with flint-locks and assegais, and dressed in the most grotesque manner possible.

This dense and beautiful bush extends for miles on every side; its solitary depths impassable except to Kaffirs and wild beasts, hundreds of which latter roam through it undisturbed. Tigers, hyænas, wild-cats, and jackals abound; and buffaloes and elephants are still occasionally seen, of which we had convincing evidence in the fresh spoor of three of the latter, whose enormous foot-prints were distinctly visible, and made one's heart beat with excitement at the idea of being in a country where such noble beasts roamed wild and unrestrained. The waggon track was in many parts very beautiful, sometimes so narrow that the overhanging trees, covered with festoons of grey pendant lichen, met above it; in others, opening out into smooth green lawn-like patches, surrounded by brilliantly flowered trees and shrubs (as the crimson boerboon,[3] and the yellow mimosa, with its gigantic milk-white thorns); everywhere clusters of the beautiful pale blue plumbago, with numberless aloes and occasional euphorbias, rising to the height of thirty feet; the underwood filled with the "stapelia," "gasteria," and other varieties of cactus. The heat of the sun was again most oppressive, shut in as we were between walls of bush, so close, that not a breath of air found its way through. The oxen were so completely done up, that they could scarcely draw the heavily-laden waggons through the deep sand, and numbers fell, to die on the roadside, or were abandoned a prey to the wild beasts and vultures.

Halting for half an hour to rest the cattle at the top of a heavy hill, a lovely view presented itself: in the foreground, the road we had just passed, winding down into the bush below; beyond that, a vast extent of flat, thickly-wooded country; and far off, a fine chain of rugged mountains, mellowed by the purple atmosphere of the distance, into a mistlike softness.

Late in the day, we entered on an extensive grassy plain, affording a grateful relief to the eye, after the close smothering road through the bush. Three distant specks on the vast level proved, when we came up, to be as many waggons outspanned by a large "vley" or pool of water; their owners, a company of traders, cooking supper and smoking their pipes, looked a picture of ease and comfort, strongly contrasted with our dusty and way worn appearance. We saw several "duykerbok," and encamped at sunset, driving in our last tent-pegs by the light of a beautiful moon.

Across this plain, thinly covered with brown burnt-up grass, we marched the following day, for twelve miles, in clouds of fine sand, borne along by a hot wind that rendered it disagreeable and wearying in the extreme; and without seeing anything to enliven or interest, excepting a fine secretary bird and a number of tortoises; two large cobra capellas were killed, one of which bit a pet terrier-dog, that immediately began howling and barking, running round and round, falling down and foaming at the mouth. Its body swelled out enormously, and it soon afterwards died. We encamped for the night at Bushman's River, where we were only able to get a little thick stagnant water of the colour and consistence of a dose of rhubarb, and were on the road again by four, A.M.; outspanning after five miles for breakfast, by a pool of fresh water, which was most welcome, after having had nothing to drink for the last twenty-four hours but the single draught of liquid mud. While searching in the thicket for dry firewood, we came upon a colony of monkies, which highly resented our intrusion, chattering and gesticulating in the most angry manner.

Towards mid-day we came in sight of a small settlement, with the exception of the solitary inn, the first sign of human habitation we had seen for four days. The houses, seven in number, standing in the open plain, were enclosed by stockades, and barricaded with boxes, bags, chests and barrels, filled with sand, and piled up against the doors and windows; the neat little English church, about which we found the few inhabitants just assembling for divine service (it being Sunday,) was loop-holed, and barricaded within by furniture of all descriptions, an indication of our approach to the neighbourhood of the disturbed districts.

Our route the following day lay for some miles through an uninteresting succession of low, undulating grassy hills, totally devoid of tree or bush, but thickly covered with enormous ant-hills, many of them four feet high, neatly built, rounded, and baked as hard as stone.

At Assegai Bush we were met by a convoy of twenty additional waggons, sent from Graham's Town, to lighten our own, and enable us to proceed with greater dispatch. They were escorted by about fifty Fingoe Levies, armed as usual, with guns and assegais; their felt hats ornamented with the feathers of the Kaffir crane, the ostrich, vink, and lorie, jackall's brushes, or strips of tiger skin; and wearing suspended from the waist by steel chains of their own manufacture, bags or purses, called daghasacs, ingeniously made without a seam, of the entire skin of the wild cat, dossie, or monkey (the opening at the neck being the only one, through which the whole of the flesh and bone is removed); in these they carry their pipes and tobacco, the iquaka or snuff box (made of a small gourd, with bead ornaments, and horn or metal spoons attached, similar to those in use in the Highlands); with their flint and steel, charms, and other odds and ends.

Thus relieved, the oxen jogged cheerily on, and the march was prolonged several hours beyond our usual distance. At sunset, on leading our horses to drink at a small vley, near the edge of the bush, we found the fresh spoor of a tiger, the prints of his massive feet being quite plain in the mud. After nightfall we crept more slowly on; the waggons jolting and creaking heavily along the rough road, bumping up against the huge stones, and diving into the deep gullies, or "sluits," with which it abounded. At last we halted, and groping about in the dark, tumbling into jackall's holes and running into prickly bushes, managed to pitch our tents on the worst piece of ground imaginable; and, as it was out of the question to find wood, we gave up the idea of fires; though it had already begun to rain; and turned in, hoping to sleep soundly after a thirty miles march. In this we were however disappointed, for a great number of the tents blew down during the night, in a high wind, that tore up the tent pegs from the soft ground, and left us exposed to the pitiless pelting of the storm.

But all things have an end, and next morning the sun shone out as brightly as ever; and the face of the country looked fresher and greener than before. Our road led for some miles through a fine poort, or glen; shut in by high bold rocky hills, with prickly-pear, scarlet and lilac geraniums, and African aloes in full flower, growing in every nook and crevice; the steep road winding by the course of a mountain stream, along which grew hundreds of the large white arum,[4] orange-coloured salvias, and a host of other flowers; whilst chattering flocks of the bright golden green spreuw,[5] honey-birds and orioles flitted among the tall jungle, and flew from branch to branch.

After toiling some hours up a steep and most execrable road, we came in sight of Graham's Town, with the size, situation, and general appearance of which, we were somewhat disappointed. It is a straggling place, situated in the midst of a bare piece of country, surrounded by equally bare hills. We marched through the town, to Fort England, and pitched our tents on the turf-covered square, in front of the officers' quarters—detached cottages, with small gardens, enclosed by hedges of prickly-pear. Here we remained two or three days, preparing for the field, and awaiting orders from General Somerset, to whose division we were attached. Our bonnets and plaids were replaced by a costume more suitable for the bush—viz., a short dark canvas blouse; in addition, to which feldt-schoen, and lighter pouches, made of untanned leather, were issued to the men, and broad leather peaks fixed to their forage caps, forming as light and serviceable a head-dress as possible. We further provided ourselves with pack-horses, pack-saddles, patrol tents, camp kettles, saddle-bags, black servants, and a hundred other necessaries.

On Monday morning, just as the waggons were loaded, and we were on the point of marching out of the place, an express arrived from the General, countermanding the move, in consequence of information he had received of an insurrection among the Hottentots of Theopolis, a station of the London Missionary Society, and the common focus of the rebels of the district. About seventy Hottentots with their wives and families resided there, and amongst them several Fingoes. The former having been joined the previous day by other rebels and Cape Corps deserters, formed their plans and proceeded to carry them into effect next morning at day-break, by murdering in cold blood the loyal and unsuspecting Fingoes, whom they shot down as they were leaving their huts.

To chastise and disperse these rebels and murderers was the object of our suddenly altered destination; and as they had taken up a strong position at Theopolis, it was on that point the General now concentrated all his available force. Two companies of the 74th were ordered to parade immediately in light marching order (i. e., carrying their blankets on their backs, and leaving their tents behind), and accompanied by guides, the Albany Rangers and some Levies, marched at once for the scene of action. We watched them ascending the steep hills behind the barracks, until they were lost to sight, and envied them coming in for active duty. However, our time came sooner than we had hoped, for as we sat at breakfast next morning in our tents, a sudden order arrived for us to march in half-an-hour to join the former patrol. Away went breakfast things, and all was life. Knives and forks were quickly succeeded by dirks and pistols; and officers and men were fully equipped before the appointed time. After some delay in waiting for a six-pounder field-piece, some artillerymen, and waggons of ammunition, we marched away to the sound of the old bagpipes, crossed the mountain, and descended by a very steep road into a lovely little nook or basin at its foot, where we halted to rest the oxen, after five miles of very hard work; bivouacking on the grassy banks of the Kowie, in a pretty spot glowing with African aloes and salvias, and shut in by trees on every side but the one by which we had approached, where the mountain towered above us in all its beauty. Climbing the opposite ascent, we pursued our way through bush and plain for about twenty miles, halting, some time after darkness had set in, on the edge of the Brak River, where the troops were ordered to lie down for a couple of hours' rest. Determining to make the most of the time, I threw myself down at once in my plaid, on the ground, under a snug bush, and endeavoured to snatch a little slumber; but it was so bitterly cold, and the jackalls howled in such melancholy tones, that sleep was impossible for the first hour, and I could hardly believe that my eyes had been closed for more than five minutes, when awakened by the orderly sergeant, shaking me by the shoulder to rise.

It was a pitch dark night, not a star to be seen, and we marched on, stumbling against ant-hills, and walking into deep holes of ant-bears[6] at almost every step, accidents well known to all who have made night marches in this country. At length we saw, at about five miles distance, and right ahead of us, the glimmering camp fires of the other part of our force, and entered their lines at the first streak of dawn, astonishing them not a little by our unexpected appearance. We learned that a slight skirmish had taken place with the rebels, from whom several waggons had been taken. Field Cornet Grey had been killed, and Commandants Woerst and Stults, with four others of the Levies, wounded.

We remained here for the next twenty-four hours, awaiting the cover of night to make our advance upon the enemy's position, from which we were about twelve miles distant. During the day, which was exceedingly warm, we refreshed ourselves by bathing in a small stream, and eating oranges in a grove close to the camp; the trees of unusual size, covered with ripe golden fruit, from their topmost branches, down to the lowest boughs, which swept the ground from their weight. Fine bananas grew among the trees, and a profuse undergrowth of waving grass everywhere; the place having been abandoned since the commencement of the war.

Late in the day the General arrived in camp with an escort of Cape Mounted Rifles, making our force about six hundred and forty men, with eight artillerymen and a field-piece. The troops were ordered to lie down to rest at an early hour, as we were to move off to the scene of attack soon after midnight; when all were to fall in quickly and quietly, and without giving any unnecessary indication of our movement. About half-past one o'clock we were turned out; and, with a strange feeling of excitement, heightened by the novelty of our silent movements, the subdued voices of officers and orderly sergeants, indistinctly seen through the gloom gliding along the motionless ranks, I took my place.

In a few minutes we moved off; the cavalry remaining behind for a couple of hours. The road we had to traverse was most difficult, abounding for the first few miles in deep holes and innumerable ant-hills; after which, it became, if possible, worse; entering a narrow rugged descending defile, a succession of deep steps or ledges cut through a thick bush, and intersected by sluits or dry watercourses (large and deep enough, as we very soon found, to contain three or four men at once), and thickly strewn with large stones and loose rocks, over which we stumbled and fell at almost every step, five or six being frequently down at once, and often sustaining severe cuts and bruises.

The General, accompanied by the cavalry, came up just as we were descending a very steep path, down to the drift over the Kareiga, and passing us, moved on to the front. At this point, unfortunately, the forces got separated in the darkness of the night, and being unacquainted with the country, one company was completely lost in the bush; while another wandered so far out of the way as to cause great delay in commencing operations. We approached the enemy's position just as the day began to dawn, and found our advance retarded by a large barricade of newly felled trees, thrown across the narrow path at a point where the bush on either hand was perfectly impenetrable. This obstruction again delayed us a considerable time, as all were obliged to file through an opening cut through the close thorny bushes; but we got over the difficulty much more easily than was expected, and in a few minutes were formed in order for the attack, at the entrance of a fine grassy plain, perfectly circular, probably three quarters of a mile in diameter, and entirely encompassed by a belt of bush about three miles in breadth all round.

It had been originally intended to place the mounted force in position behind a stockade which they were to reach by riding noiselessly along the inner margin of the bush; but as day was approaching there was every chance of their being discovered, consequently the plan was abandoned, and they remained with the infantry, which at once entered the enclosed plain by a narrow road, and on gaining the open space took "skirmishing order;" two companies extended, two in support, and the remainder in reserve. The Cape Corps and mounted burghers were formed on the extreme right of the skirmishers, and we advanced rapidly across the plain towards the enemy's huts, in rear of which, and under cover of the bush, the Fingoe levies had been previously placed in ambuscade.

As we advanced hundreds of quail rose so temptingly, that notwithstanding our momentary expectation of meeting very different game, we were unable to refrain from exclamations, or to resist bringing up our rifles and indulging in imaginary shots, until a few real ones from the enemy quickly reminded us of the more serious business of the day. A small party of the rebels had suddenly made their appearance from a "vley" in front of our right wing, and were immediately engaged with the cavalry, some sharp firing taking place on both sides. The skirmishers were at once moved forward to cover them; and the next moment we found ourselves under fire for the first time, wondering that so many balls whistled around us, without hitting any one. On seeing our advance the rebels took to flight and made for the bush, closely pursued by the cavalry, but escaped down a wooded kloof, from whence for a time they attempted to keep up a scattering fire, occasionally appearing outside the cover to take a surer aim, and again dodging quickly behind the bushes to load, not always however sufficiently so, for our keen marksmen brought down several of them, and wounded others, which, with the assistance of one or two well directed vollies, had the effect of completely silencing their fire in that quarter.

Meanwhile we were approaching the huts on our left; and seeing that their commander (a deserter, by the way, from the Cape Corps, affecting the importance of a British officer, and issuing his written orders in due form), had drawn up his men in line fronting the huts with the evident intention of contesting the ground, we rapidly "changed direction" to that flank, the skirmishers wheeling to the left in double-quick time, and the cavalry bringing their right shoulders forward and charging towards them at full gallop. The rebels became panic stricken, fired a few random shots, killing one of the Levies, and fled to that part of the bush where our Fingoe and Bechuana allies were posted, from whom they received, to their equal surprise and dismay, a volley that killed seven or eight of their number, and drove the rest back into the open space, whence they escaped by the very outlet which was to have been held by the mounted force. Had it been so occupied scarcely a man would have escaped them. As it was, the dense and extensive bush rendered all pursuit hopeless. We therefore turned our attention to the capture of their ill-gotten spoil, taking 632 head of fine cattle, some horses and goats, all stolen from the neighbouring settlers, besides a large quantity of grain, and six waggons. The huts were well stocked with clothes, cooking utensils, native ornaments, and furniture, including the recognised property of the murdered Fingoes; these dwellings set on fire were speedily roaring and crackling like furnaces. In several were dogs that had been hit by our fire, and in one hut the exasperated Fingoes had found a wounded Hottentot left behind by his people. He prayed hard for mercy, but in vain, for one of them, whom the cruel massacre had deprived of a parent, blew out his brains before any one could interfere, exclaiming: "Wena! uyabulala ubawo bam!" (You! murderer of my father!)

While searching about the place a shot was fired at us by some fellow skulking in the bush, to the edge of which we had incautiously wandered. Gordon had a narrow escape, as the ball ploughed up the ground at his feet, and covered him with the soil. The Fingoes immediately dashed in, in pursuit, making the wood ring with their yells.

From the elevated site of the smouldering village we had a fine and unexpected view of the sea at only a few miles distance, the intervening country, grassy and well wooded, being intersected by the winding Kareiga. We bivouacked for breakfast, boiling our coffee on the embers of the huts, and spreading our rations of beef and black biscuit on the trampled grass, not many yards from the corpses of those who had fallen. A few stray Kaffirs were espied stealing away through the open bush in the valley below, and though far out of range, set all the Fingoes firing away at once in the wildest manner imaginable.

After resting for about half an hour we returned by the road we had traversed the night before, which was, of course, up-hill all the way back. It was now intensely hot; and after having marched thirty-five miles the previous day, and been on foot two nights successively, we found it heavy work, nearly all being half asleep as we staggered along the burning road. I found myself several times in a state of somnambulism, starting out of sleep as I stumbled over the inequalities of the ground, wondering for the instant where I was. Thus we plodded on till late in the evening, when jaded and weary we again reached the bivouac left eighteen hours before, during seventeen of which we had never rested. The steady and soldier-like manner in which the men performed this march, so soon after landing from a long sea voyage, deservedly elicited the commendations of the General in Orders. It was with a feeling of relief and pleasure, known only to those who have undergone the excessive fatigues of such a forced march, that we threw ourselves down to rest, and kicked the shoes off our burning feet.

It was late the following afternoon when we again halted at the Kowie River, at the foot of the mountain, and the oxen being too much exhausted to drag the waggons up, we encamped there for the night. Having neither bread nor biscuit left, we made a supper of beef and cold water, refreshing ourselves, after sleeping three nights in our clothes, by a moonlight bathe in the cold stream. Next morning all were under way at three o'clock, and before day dawned were near the top of the mountain road looking down on the fires we had left, glimmering far below in the yet dark valley. The camp at Fort England was reached in time for a somewhat late breakfast, during which we had more than enough to do between satisfying our own voracious appetites and the eager inquiries of those who had so unwillingly been left behind.

General Somerset, on his return to Graham's Town, received despatches from the Commander-in-chief of such a nature as to induce him to march us at once up the country to Fort Hare. Accordingly we struck tents next morning, though it was Sunday, and proceeded to Bothas Hill that afternoon, whence we had our first view of the lofty rugged chain of the Amatolas, gazing upon them in the blue distance, with no little interest, as our reported destination, and feeling that at last we were fairly off for Kaffirland. The view from this hill was splendid: endless chains of mountains; dark and wooded kloofs; sunny valleys, and grassy plains, dotted with mimosa; all clad in a depth and variety of colouring forming a picture as difficult to describe as to forget.

The following morning we entered the Ecca Pass, the terror of waggon-drivers and "post-riders," and notorious as the scene of many fatal ambuscades. The road winds along a deep narrow valley between high hills covered with dense thorny bush, and has a high wall of rock on the one hand, on the other a precipitous ravine, with admirable cover for Kaffirs everywhere, and is, perhaps, one of the most villanous specimens of a high road in the known world, abounding throughout its entire length with rocks of all sizes, from that of a "company's arm-chest" downwards; holes in the middle of it as deep as an ordinary horse-pond. On the one side the yawning precipices encroach on the crumbling path; while on the other some communicative driver points to overhanging crags and unapproachable cliffs, from which unsuspecting escorts and parties of horsemen are frequently fired upon by lurking bands of the enemy; with what fatal effect is evidenced by the bones and dried up hides of oxen and horses lying in the track. At a turn in the road, where only three days before a mounted express had been attacked, and four of the party wounded, we disturbed a troop of gorged vultures, which, rising from the half-devoured carcase of one of the horses, alighted on the rocks above, from the concealed crevices of which the rebels had taken aim. Within three weeks after this attack they again waylaid a like party, but with more fatal effect, two men being killed and four wounded. We were suffered to pass without molestation. The appearance of our long line, as it moved down the valley, was very striking; wild-looking Fingoes, strings of oxen and waggons, the glittering forest of bayonets, straggling Levies, pack-horses, and camp followers, winding along the hill-side, through the glowing bush, which was varied by magnificent euphorbias, rivalling forest trees in height.

Among the rocks were numbers of dossies[7] (a sort of rabbit, with a rat's head and monkey's hands) and some large baboons.

We emerged from the valley by a steep rough road, called Brak River Hill, and after a few miles level trek through a sandy country, sprinkled with thorn bushes, arrived at Fort Brown, a lonely quadrangular fortification, close to the Great Fish River, on the opposite bank of which we encamped for the night.

At the Koonap River, where we outspanned for a couple of hours next morning, two magnificent koodoo were seen, but they disappeared in the thick bush before any of the stalkers were within rifle range; one of them was a splendid fellow, as large as a mule, with long upright spiral horns, full three feet high.

From this the road for some distance ran along the base of a lofty range of cliffs called the Blue Krantz, an unbroken precipice of grey rock, at least 100 feet in height, and so perpendicular that a stone thrown from it would have fallen right among us; its summit fringed with aloes and overhanging trees, scarlet geranium springing from every crevice.

After crossing the river by two deep drifts, a few hundred yards apart, the diverging roads re-united at a deserted military post, destroyed by the enemy, and we commenced the ascent of the Koonap Hill, a long winding steep road, strewed, like the pass of the previous day, with the bones and carcasses of horses and bullocks, victims, not of savages, but of civilized cruelty; in our own case, one after another, twenty-one oxen were left dying or perfectly exhausted on the hill-side, and it was with the greatest difficulty that the remainder, weakened by long scarcity of pasture, were goaded to the top, though each waggon was drawn up by a double span, or team, driven by four or five screaming swearing Totties, who, besides their terrific whips, every cut of which left a long bare bleeding streak, used a heavy "jambok" of rhinoceros hide, six feet long, and as thick as a man's wrist at the handle, and at every stand-still, when these failed, bent the unfortunate animals' tails till they broke, biting them savagely.

The extensive range of country seen from this hill increased in beauty as we ascended the road which ran along the edge of the ravine, fringed with majestic euphorbias; in the distance deep blue mountains, and plains of red sand, then wavy bush-covered hills, and in the valley below us the winding river, and our rear guard, with their long line of waggons slowly advancing.

It was not till the afternoon that the last waggon reached the top of the ascent. No longer shaded by high wooded banks, we found the sun oppressively hot as we trekked along through endless clumps of dusty spek-boom, or elephant tree. In the evening we had a magnificent sunset view of the Amatolas; and just as night set in came to a halt (after a march of about two and twenty miles) at Lieuw Fontein (lion's spring), close to a small military post standing alone in a desolate country, and garrisoned by some Hottentot Levies, under an officer of the line, who must have had a lively time of it, as no one dare go beyond the gates, except with a strong mounted escort.

Orders were issued to march at eight next morning, a most gentlemanly hour, as all agreed, and the more cordially as the distance to be performed was only six miles, to the Kat River, to pasture the oxen, which now absolutely required rest and food. They were turned out to graze under the protection of a subaltern's guard, while we hastened to purify ourselves in the rocky stream, protected by an armed party on the willow banks; for some dozen Kaffirs in red blankets were seen on a low hill about a mile off, their attention apparently divided equally between the herds and the bathers.

After this welcome rest we resumed our march next morning, but before many miles were accomplished, the waggons in front came to a stand-still at the foot of a steep short hill. Judging from its apparently moderate height we thought the stoppage would only be brief, but to our surprise, soon observed the more knowing drivers in rear of the train begin to make deliberate preparation for breakfast, those nearer the front contenting themselves with a biscuit. Fires were made, coffee pounded, dirty bags rummaged, and lumps of raw meat drawn out, studded with copper caps and bits of broken pipe, and plentifully dusted with crumbs and powdered biscuit; and they were soon at work, tooth and nail. As for the troops, no orders having been given for breakfast, from the uncertainty of our movements, we went without.

The last forelouper had finished his scanty pickings and wiped the greasy clasped-knife on his woolly pate, the drivers had smoked out a digestive pipe, and were fast asleep under their waggons, before the "fall in" sounded, and we moved forward. We had wondered at the long delay, but were more astonished, when we came to the ascent, that it had ever been accomplished with such heavily laden waggons.

This achieved, the road was tolerably level, and we jogged on at a good pace to a ruined and deserted missionary settlement, where we were again brought to a stand by the breaking down of a waggon in the middle of a drift. There was nothing for it but to unload and carry everything to the opposite bank, when officers and men set to and spoked it out, inch by inch; the driver, meanwhile, manufacturing a new "dissel-boom" or pole out of a young tree.

On approaching Fort Hare, we were met by a large mounted party of officers who had come out to welcome us, and shortly the place came in sight, which appeared, from the hill, of considerable size, consisting of white wooden houses, and dark Fingoe huts, widely scattered round the fort. Though covering a large extent of ground, the works hardly deserve the name, being in reality nothing more than a small village of thatched mud cottages, enclosed by picketting and low walls mounting a few guns and old musquetoons.

Our arrival was greeted with lively demonstrations of joy by the coloured population, who headed the band, yelling and dancing in a state of complete nudity. Our camp, with two others consisting of Europeans and Fingoe Levies, was on a green level plain, between the fort and the River Chumie, beyond which rose a fine range of lofty mountains.

Anything more miserable in the shape of barrack accommodation than the officers' quarters in the fort can hardly be conceived; uneven floors of dried cow-dung, bending walls of "wattle and daub," smoke-blackened rafters and thatch, crazy doors, and ill-fitting windows, which exclude the light and admit in turn, wind, rain, and clouds of sand, are the characteristics of the best.

We took advantage of our stay here to ride over in a party to the scene of the engagement mentioned, which took place on the 29th December, in attempting to open a communication with the Governor, then blockaded in Fort Cox; when out of a band of only 230 men, after a hand-to-hand fight, two gallant officers, Lieutenants Melvin and Gordon, 91st regiment, and twenty-one privates, were killed, and many wounded. The ground, a thorny valley, still bore marks of the struggle: rags of uniform, and old forage-caps, with bones of Kaffirs, lay scattered about; while from the grave of the soldiers, bones were protruding, scratched up by jackalls and hyænas, which we carefully buried again in the best way we could.

About thirty Kaffir and Hottentot prisoners were confined in the fort, who sat, for the greatest part of the day, sunning themselves outside the cells, hand-cuffed, and chained two and two. The Hottentots, who had been taken at the capture of Fort Armstrong, and were awaiting their trial by court-martial as rebels, looked sulky, and scowled with a vindictive and villanous expression. The Kaffirs, on the contrary, laughed and chatted with us, through an interpreter, displaying the most magnificent teeth,—a feature common, also, to the Fingoes, and of which both are not a little proud. A fine young Fingoe was pointed out to us among the Levies, who, having had a front tooth accidentally knocked out, got it replaced by an artificial one, for which he willingly paid five-and-twenty shillings.

The resemblance between these two races is such as to make it difficult, except to those who have lived long among them, to tell one from the other. In complexion they are identical, speak the same language; both alike are tall and well made: their women, well proportioned and exceedingly graceful in carriage; to which may be added the similarity of national dress—viz., a kaross of the skins of wild beasts, a bull's hide, or a loose blanket, with earrings and necklaces of tiger's teeth, shells, or seeds; while anklets and armlets of black and white beads, tastefully worked, are worn by the women, with smooth, brightly polished brass rings reaching from the wrist to the elbow, gradually increasing in size.

The Hottentots differ in every respect from both, being very short and slightly made, lean, and with ugly yellow monkey-looking faces, very prominent cheek bones, small turned-up snub noses, and little twinkling cunning eyes, and invariably wearing European garments, though in modesty the naked Fingoe and Kaffir immeasurably surpass them.

Just as the regiment was assembling for service in the centre of the camp, on Sunday morning, we were startled by hideous yelling and cries from the Fingoe camp, whereby the service was delayed for some time. For seeing the Commandant of the garrison galloping over, followed by other officers, one and all bolted after them to see what was going on, and found the Fingoes fighting about the division of rations. There were several hundreds of them struggling like demons, in clouds of dust, yelling out their war-cry, and challenging each other. All were perfectly naked, the blood running down the black faces and breasts of many from the blows of "knobkerries," or clubs, which they applied to each other's heads with such astounding force that the very report was enough to give one a headache. Not satisfied with this, some seizing their assegais, rushed furiously into the crowd, yelling savagely, and stabbing right and left. It was with the greatest difficulty, on the part of the Commandant and the officers of the Levies, backed by the efforts of the native sergeants, that the Fingoes were at length quieted, and dispersed. Most of them were more or less marked with the fray, and several had received severe assegai wounds, to which, however, they appeared perfectly indifferent, for, twisting up a tuft of dry grass into a small plug, and stuffing it into the gash, they lighted their wooden pipes, and smoked away as if nothing particular had happened.

General Somerset arrived, and we received orders to prepare for the march on the morrow, on our way to the famed Amatolas, the Gibraltar of the Gaikas, and head-quarters of Sandilli, who was said to be strongly posted in their almost impregnable fastnesses. Commissariat and baggage-waggons kept pouring into camp all day long; arms were cleaned and examined; saddle-bags and pack-saddles, patrol-tents and cooking utensils overhauled and fitted; and all was bustle and preparation. The patrol-tent, by the way, is a canvas affair, about six feet long and three feet high, not much unlike a dog kennel, into which the owner creeps on hands and knees, and is supported by a couple of poles of about four feet high, steadied by guys and pegs, and folds up into a small enough compass to be carried under the arm, though it is generally stowed away on the pack-saddle.

HOTTENTOT WAGGON-DRIVER.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Foreleaders.

[2] Asterocarpus typicus.

[3] Schotia speciosa.

[4] Calla Ethiopica.

[5] Lamproternis nitens.

[6] Ant-eaters. Echidna.

[7] Hyrax.

CHAPTER IV.
ADVANCE INTO KAFFIRLAND—ATTACK ON THE AMATOLAS—FORT BEAUFORT—CAMP ON THE KOONAP RIVER.

Early on the morning of the 24th June, tents were once more struck, baggage packed, and the long train of waggons stood ready inspanned.

The General, with his Staff, appeared on the ground, where the whole division, amounting to 2000 men, artillery, cavalry, infantry and irregulars, stood drawn up in column; the advance and rear guards were formed; and we moved off to the inspiriting air of "Hieland Laddie," from the 74th band, which accompanied us, at the head of the column, for about a mile; when, halting by the road side (as it had to remain at Fort Hare,) the quickstep changed into the farewell melody of "Auld lang syne," as the long waving line of hardy sun-burnt troops marched steadily past in column of sections; not ceasing till all were hidden from sight in the cloud of dust that floated along the side of the hill called "Sandilli's Kop." The pipers then struck up "Over the Border," and played us across the frontier, into Kaffirland, through the whole of which the "pipes" afterwards accompanied us, inspiriting the men on many a long and weary march, and enlivening our camps with the familiar strains of the "auld country."

Our way lay through level grassy plains along the base of the Little Amatolas, whose sloping verdant sides were beautifully relieved by fine bold crags and perpendicular krantzes, or cliffs, of grey basaltic rock, and varied by deep belts of wood, marking the course of some invisible mountain stream. On these plains, the advance cavalry patrol, about a quarter of a mile ahead, fell in with some Kaffirs, with whom we saw them exchanging shots among the scattered bushes; and being ignorant of their numbers, began to feel excited, as a troop of horse, detached from the main body, gallopped forward to reconnoitre, or render assistance if needed. It proved to be a marauding party who had been surprised returning with stolen cattle, to one of their villages which we saw a little way up the side of the mountain, and on coming up we found they had recaptured forty head of cattle, and killed three Kaffirs. The corpse of one lay close to the track, his hand still clutching a bundle of assegais. A mounted party was sent to set fire to the village, where they found only a Gaika woman; the rest of the inhabitants having fled to the fastnesses above on the first alarm of our approach. Hundreds of Kaffirs were moving along the summit of the lofty heights on the right, watching our movements below; their figures appearing like specks against the clear blue sky.

A few miles more brought us at last to a halt on the Amatola Flats; where, after a continued march of above 250 miles, we pitched tents by the banks of the Quesana River, at the foot of the Great Amatolas. The sun sank behind the purple mountains in a flood of crimson; and as the darkness gathered around, and troops of wolves and jackals commenced their nightly howling, the flames of the burning village grew brighter and more distinct on the dark hill side. The heat of the day was succeeded, as usual, by a cold sharp air, and the cheerful camp-fires were quickly surrounded by men and officers; some in blanket-coats and pea-jackets, squatting cross-legged around a steaming camp-kettle; others in the midst of culinary cares, chopping wood, replenishing the fire, or lifting the pot lid to taste the soup; while those who had already dined, were enjoying their pipes. Our evenings in camp were occasionally varied, either by a round of large parties, when each guest invited brought with him his own "tin-tot," knife, spoon, and biscuit; or by musical soirées in our tents; where, with a guttering tallow candle fixed in the socket of a bayonet stuck in the ground, we sipped thick coffee and sang duets and solos with very loud choruses till a late hour, and generally with more satisfaction to ourselves than our neighbours.

The following forenoon several Kaffirs were killed in a skirmish with the Cape Corps, and their huts burnt and destroyed. The expected order was issued for the attack next day, and the division directed to be under arms at five o'clock in the morning, "to turn out without bugle sound, or any noise whatever." A camp-guard of 300 men was to be left behind under a captain; and, lastly, all lights and fires in the camp were ordered to be extinguished at seven o'clock. Till then we sat discussing the anticipated attack, when the curfew put an end to our councils, we groped our way to the dark tents, and lay down to rest in our clothes.

It was still quite dark when my servant shook me by the shoulder, and with some difficulty succeeded in making me comprehend that the troops were already "falling in," and that he wanted to pack up the blanket and plaid on which I lay. Accordingly I jumped up, and after loading the pack-horse with three days' rations, patrol-tent, kettles, and other requisites for the bivouac, we made our way, stumbling along in the dark, over tent-ropes and picketing pegs, to the parade-ground, where the first brigade was rapidly assembling. The motionless ranks were inspected as far as the imperfect light allowed, and all in silence; and at five o'clock precisely, the General having arrived on the ground, the word of command was passed on sotto voce, and we moved noiselessly away to the foot of the mountains, commencing the ascent of the Western Amatolas by the pass in front of our encampment, reaching the summit just at day-break.

Here we were halted in line along the ridge, while General Somerset proceeded with a detachment of the Cape Corps to reconnoitre the position of the enemy on the Victoria heights on our right flank. On reaching the southern point of the range his party was sharply attacked, and a brisk skirmish maintained for a time on both sides. Moving forward a column of two companies of the 91st, and three of European and native Levies, under command of Lieut.-Col. Sutton, the General returned to our brigade to direct the movements of the main attack.

We saw the smoke of the enemy's fires curling slowly up from the dark bush, on a steppe or lower ridge of the elevated range in front, and on the opposite side of a lovely valley which lay at our very feet, carpeted with the smoothest and greenest grass, and dotted with mimosa, protéa, and clumps of tangled bush. On our left towered the lofty peak of the Hogsback, the highest point of the whole chain; and below it lay a finely wooded deep ravine, down the centre of which foamed a milk-white cataract, the dark forest stretching away on either side, and filling the kloof.

In a few moments an aid-de-camp rode up with instructions for our brigade to move forward and descend into the valley below; the cavalry and pack-horses making a detour of about a mile to our left, to a point where the descent was somewhat less precipitous. After scrambling down to the bottom, we formed "column of sub-divisions," and moved across the valley, perceiving as we neared the lofty bridge opposite several hundreds of the enemy gathering on its summit, their arms flashing and glittering along the edge of the cliff in the morning sun. There was only one point at which this apparently impregnable position was accessible, and that was by a long steep exposed grassy ridge, destitute of all cover, and completely commanded from the top by a perfect fortification of huge detached rocks, behind which we could perceive the enemy strongly posted and quietly waiting our attack, confident in the security of their position. Up this formidable ascent, bare and slippery as the roof of a house, the 74th were ordered to advance and storm the natural citadel at its summit. In the meantime heavy firing, about a mile distant on our right, announced that Col. Sutton's column was engaged with the enemy in that direction; while the different corps of native Levies were moved round to our right and left flanks, those on the left skirmishing through the bush and setting fire to a number of Kaffir huts. Pushing rapidly on to the point of attack, we waded the river, and commenced the arduous ascent, up which, in spite of a burning sun, the men mounted like true Highlanders. To our surprise the enemy allowed us to come considerably within range, and we were beginning to imagine the position was abandoned, when suddenly they opened fire upon us from the shelter of the crags, sweeping every inch of the smooth approach, themselves invisible, the tops only of their black heads peeping over the rocks as they took aim, and disappearing again as instantaneously as the flash of their guns. Showers of balls whistled past us, with the peculiar ping, whit, so well known to those who have been under fire; as we mounted, we returned their fire with steady well-directed volleys every time their heads were seen above the parapet of rocks, and deployed into line under a rattling fire, and the fight begun in earnest. A private fell shot in the foot. For a quarter of an hour there was an incessant roar of musketry and whistling of bullets. As we neared the top, scrambling with hands and knees up the crags, which were now discovered to be of enormous size, and in places insurmountable; the fire became hotter, the balls striking the ground and sending the earth and gravel flying in our faces. One man fell shot through the arm and side; I passed another sitting on the ground wounded in several places, and two more awaiting the surgeon's aid; one with a shattered hand and the other a wound in the head, his face deluged with blood. Lieutenant Bruce received a shot in the arm, and a sixth man fell badly wounded in the leg.

74^TH HIGHLANDERS STORMING THE AMATOLAS.

The men's mess-tins and folded coats were grazed and torn on every side, and their firelocks shattered in their hands; in one or two instances the barrels were perforated as though they had been soft lead.

Under this fire we sent out two companies in skirmishing order, and climbing from rock to rock, exchanging shots with the enemy at close quarters, crowned the ridge with a cheer, and carried the position, driving off the defenders, who took refuge in a dense forest a few hundred yards in the rear. We now stood in their fortress, which was scattered with remains of roasted marrow bones and torn cartridge covers, the rocks stained with fresh blood. We were astonished at the strength of the position, which might have been held by a hundred regular troops against such a force as ours, with great loss to the assailants. Towards this forest (of fine timber, the first we had seen in the country), we quickly advanced across the intervening belt of turf-covered table-land. Here again they had the advantage of position; for unseen themselves, they opened a severe fire on us, killing one of our non-commissioned officers at the first volley, the ball passing right through his heart. Our Colonel and the Major very narrowly escaped, a bullet cutting through the clothes of the former by the waist; while the Major's haversac was shot through. Two more men fell wounded, and another, shot through the brain, dropped dead without a groan. The word forward was given by our gallant Colonel, who himself set the example, and we dashed into the wood under a rattling fire, and gave them another volley, which must have told severely; for though they always carry off their dead and wounded to prevent their casualties being known, we found as we advanced the bodies of five lying dead in one place, and twelve in another; and as we plunged after them into the tangled forest, the blood-spoor showed where others had fallen. The change was so great from the glare of the sunshine to the gloom of the forest, its thick foliage overhead interwoven with baboon-ropes and creepers, that we could hardly distinguish our enemies as they darted swiftly from cover to cover. Five rebel Hottentots were killed in a hole or pit half-hidden by bush. Another of our men was shot dead by a Kaffir perched in the thick branches of a lofty tree, from which he was brought down, riddled with balls, the body tumbling with a crash into the thicket beneath. A cluster of Kaffir and "hartebeest" or Hottentot huts (the former shaped like a huge bee-hive, the latter like a patrol-tent) was set fire to, without its being known, till half consumed, that they contained a number of wounded Kaffirs.

We continued skirmishing as they retired before us, dodging from tree to rock, and from rock to bush, taking advantage of every cover to give us a shot, while we kept up an incessant "independent-file-firing," as they retreated, step by step, till lost in thickets, impervious to anything but wild beasts or Kaffirs. Having driven them into their inaccessible retreats among the extensive forests clothing the higher steppes of the mountain, and inflicted a considerable loss upon them, we skirmished through a belt of wood on our right, and after completely scouring it debouched on an open, where we halted in column, and for the first time for nine hours sat down to rest our weary limbs. Here we assisted the surgeon in performing different operations on the wounded, whose cries for water were so constant, that our canteens were soon left without a drop to moisten our own lips, parched and blistered by the sun.

It was now two o'clock, and as not one of us had yet broken his fast, it may easily be imagined with what appetite we gnawed at our black biscuit. While thus engaged the enemy was observed stealing out, one by one, from the forest, and collecting on the open table-land, where our gallant fellows lay dead; and to our indignation we saw them, through the telescope, stripping the bodies, without our being able to prevent it, a deep gorge separating us; a few well-directed conical balls, from heavy metalled rifles by Egg and Purday, dispersed them at a distance of three-quarters of a mile; one was seen to fall. The party were rebel Hottentots (Cape Corps deserters), and Kaffirs, the latter perfectly naked, and armed with guns and assegais; two or three we could distinguish wearing the kaross, with head-dresses of feathers, from which fact, and their being the centre of divers knots, we concluded they were chiefs and headmen, holding councils of war.

We were joined here by the General and the rest of the forces, including Colonel Sutton's column, which had successfully attacked the enemy on the Victoria Heights, driving them from their position, and killing twenty, but with a loss of three men killed and five wounded (two of them mortally), and had burnt and destroyed two of their villages, which we saw blazing away fiercely, and sending up volumes of smoke on the Little Amatola across the valley. During our brief rest the rebels sent a messenger of truce to say they wished to surrender. Lieut.-Col. Sutton, riding out by desire of the General, held a parley with about fifty or sixty of them at the edge of the wood. They stated that they wished to leave their Kaffir allies, and requested a week to collect their own people, when they would give themselves up. But, as the General, of course, insisted on immediate surrender, and granted only half an hour instead of a week, they quickly disappeared into the forest, their object having evidently been only to gain time.

Observing the enemy again assembling on their former ground, the General ordered the 74th to return through the forest once more. As we worked our difficult way through the underwood, taking care not to lose sight of our right and left files, we kept a sharp look out every step of our way; for each thicket, hollow trunk, or jackal's hole, tuft of grass, or lofty tree, may conceal the stealthy Kaffir when least expected; in an instant the silent forest is suddenly peopled with a legion of naked savages, springing, as it were, out of the earth, with a deadly volley from their unsuspected ambuscade.

We passed the dead body of one of our men stripped naked, lying in the jungle with a ghastly wound in his chest; but having orders to advance through the belt, and join the column on the other side, it was impossible to stop to bury or remove it. When the column came up, a grave was dug for the other men; and the Colonel, on my reporting having seen the body, sent me back with half a dozen men to bring it in. We had, therefore, to retrace our steps about a quarter of a mile through the forest, at the edge of which a guard was placed to render us assistance if attacked. The magnificent trees, and the fallen trunks in various stages of decay, overgrown with creepers, or green with moss, forcibly reminded one of the backwoods of Canada. We proceeded in perfect silence, with arms ready at a moment's warning, and again came up to the body. The stems of two or three young trees, picked up by the way, and tied together by wild vine, served as a stretcher, on which we bore the body back, and without interruption, nearly to the edge of the wood. As we stopped at this point to change bearers, a sound like the sharp crack of a dry stick was heard; but as we could see no one, and a dead silence reigned around, we resumed our burden, from whose reopened wound a pool of blood had flowed where it had rested. We had just gained the open ground, when suddenly along the face of the wood there blazed a sharp fire of musketry, and the enemy sprang from every bush; our comrades of the extended company at the same moment briskly returning their fire. The balls again whistled past us, lodging in the trees with a sharp thud, or ploughing up the ground. One of our men was severely wounded in the knee, and died afterwards while undergoing amputation; the rest plunged into the forest in pursuit of the enemy, who left seven dead on the ground, carrying off many more dead and wounded. This interruption passed, we proceeded with the corpse to the grave, which the men had dug in the soft soil with their hands, billhooks, and bayonets, where we buried it with the two other bodies of the poor fellows who had fallen; and, having filled up the grave, carefully sprinkled it with dead leaves and sticks, a precaution which, as we afterwards learned from a Kaffir prisoner, was of no avail, for the crafty wretches soon found the spot, and dragging the bodies out, exposed them, as they said white men ought to be, "to the sun and the vulture."

We learned that whilst we were returning with the dead body an armed party of Hottentots came up, and sat down with Lieut. Gordon, who was posted with the company extended along the edge of the forest, and asked for bread and tobacco, stating themselves to belong to one of our native Levies, at that time at no great distance, and whom they strongly resembled in dress. Among them was a man in the Cape Corps uniform, who, when questioned as to his being on foot and in the bush, said he belonged to "troop A, Captain C——'s" and had, with several others, been ordered to dismount, and skirmish with the Levies, their horses being done up. Strongly suspecting they were rebels, but not liking to act on mere suspicion, Gordon went to request the Colonel to see them; but the moment the rascals saw them approaching the spot where they sat talking to our men, they jumped to their feet, and just as the Colonel shouted, "Shoot them down," fired a random volley, followed so instantaneously by the fire of the company that the two appeared as one report, three of the rebels falling on the spot, beside those killed and wounded at the moment we emerged from the wood.

Simultaneously with the above attack, a combined movement was effected by the 2nd division, under Colonel Mackinnon, which was separated into two columns; the first, under his own immediate command, moving from the Quilliquilli along the left bank of the Keiskamma; and the second, under Lieut.-Col. Michell, proceeding to the Keiskamma Hoek. In conjunction with the operations of the two main divisions, the troops from the garrison of Fort Cox, under the command of Lieut.-Col. Cooper, harassed the enemy in the valleys of the Keiskamma, thus "penetrating the mountains in four columns, converging to a common centre upon the principal strongholds of the enemy." A large native force, under Captain Tylden, R.E., was also placed in position on the Windogelberg, in order to prevent them making for the country beyond the Kei.

It was now near dusk, and having been out since five in the morning we were not sorry to hear the order to return to camp. As we descended the steep pass, stormed in the morning, the lines of camp-fires were seen blazing cheerfully on the darkening plain below, where the rest of the division was already bivouacked. Having again forded the river, on approaching the lines, the officers and men of the 91st came out to meet us. They had got fires lighted, and wood and water ready for our wearied men, and helping to carry in our wounded, shared their coffee with us. Whilst sitting round the fires we talked over the stirring events of the day, lamenting the fate of the brave fellows who had marched out with us that morning in as high health and spirits as ourselves, and now lay in their lonely graves on the heights above.

Shortly after nightfall it was discovered that there was no water left in camp, and, being the orderly officer, I was sent with an armed party to bring a supply from the river, about a quarter of a mile from the sentries, and (being thickly skirted with bush) a very likely ambuscade for Kaffirs, who have a taste for lurking round camps at night. We left the lines quietly, made our way across the dark plain, and soon reached the river, which we heard, rather than saw, rushing along between its shady banks. The water-party filled their load of canteens without interruption, but the return to camp, which on this side was occupied by the Levies, was rather a hazardous affair, for the Fingoes have a stupid way of firing first and challenging afterwards. As a precautionary measure, therefore, before he could see our approach, we commenced shouting "Friend!" to the sentry who had passed us out, and also been specially warned of our return; a bright flash was the immediate answer, and a ball whizzed close over our heads: down we all went flat on our faces, shouting "Friend!" more lustily than before, as a second shot was fired at us; the stir and jabber among the rest of the Fingoes, which also prevented our being heard, promised a general sortie, in which case we should be shot or assegaied to a moral, so we took advantage of the sentry's reloading to jump to our feet, and make a dash for it; to their great astonishment, rushing almost into their arms, shouting "Friend, friend, you scoundrels, friend!"

The wounded, who lay groaning all night by a fire on the open field, suffered acutely from the cold; their distressing cries, together with the unusual hardness of the ground, kept us awake a great part of the night.

We afterwards learned that the enemy's loss was considerably greater than we had imagined, several Chiefs were amongst the slain; Beta, and Pitoi Son-of-Vongya, two of great note. Sandilli, who was present, and directing the movements of his men, was very nearly taken prisoner, escaping only by creeping on his hands and knees through the thickest part of the bush.

The morning after the fight rose dull and misty, and the top of the mountain range was hidden by white fleecy clouds that rolled half-way down. Not long after daylight a Gaika woman, with a child tied on her back, approached the camp, and coolly walked about among the tents and fires, looking for anything she could appropriate.

The Kaffirs were heard on the heights, every word distinctly audible, shouting to us, "Nina Ez'innqulo! yinina ukuba niyalusa pzu kwentaba enje izinqulala?" (Halloa, you Tortoises! why do you keep us up here in the cold?) They distinguished the 74th by this soubriquet, on account of a fancied resemblance between the regimental tartan, and the chequered tortoises that abound on their plains; it afterwards became general among all the other tribes, and was not unfrequently used by our own people.

After sending off our wounded in waggons, under a cavalry escort, to the standing camp at Quesana, we again ascended the same range, though at another point, and by three different routes; the 91st and native Levies by a pass about a mile to our right; the cavalry by another, at some distance on our left; ours, in the centre, though a somewhat shorter course, was by far the steepest and most trying. The men, loaded with their rations, blankets, great coats, firelocks, and sixty rounds of ball cartridge, were so fatigued under the overpowering heat of the noonday sun, that the whole column constantly halted, literally unable to move for the moment. During our ascent, the enemy showed in small bodies on several points, but did not attempt in any way to oppose us; and all three columns met on the table land above, without having fired a shot. After marching about seven miles further, without seeing anything of the enemy, we descended into the Zanooka valley, a beautiful green basin completely surrounded by a splendid amphitheatre of high wooded mountains. The Fingoes plundered a Kaffir village of considerable quantities of maize, discovered buried in large circular holes, neatly plastered over, in the floors of the huts, to which they afterwards set fire. Here we bivouacked, while General Somerset, taking with him the Cape Corps, and Hottentot and Fingoe Levies, proceeded along the head of the Liguey Stream; where, observing a party of the enemy posted in the forest intersecting the ridge of Mount Macdonald, he moved forward to attack them with the cavalry, and after a brisk skirmish and heavy firing on both sides, drove them back, and on the Levies coming up completely routed them. Descending into the valley of the Keiskamma, he returned, by a long circuit, to the bivouac, about dusk, when the enemy began to creep in nearer, and fire long shots at the groups gathered round the blazing fires. A few bullets dropped amongst us now and then; by one of which a Levy officer was shot in the leg, as he was drinking his coffee. At length, becoming bolder and more troublesome, a party of skirmishers was sent out to disperse them; and we sat watching the singular conflict, of which nothing was visible but the two long straggling broken lines of flashing musketry; one retiring as the other advanced up the dark mountain side. The beauty of the effect was heightened by the prolonged rolling of the reports echoing among the crags.

The whole column moved out of the basin shortly after sunrise, and ascended Mount Macdonald, reaching the summit at ten o'clock, where we halted; while the corps of Levies were detached into the valley of the Zanooka to intercept the enemy's cattle, the spoor of which was traced in that direction. Small parties of Kaffirs were observed at some distance descending by different paths, into the valley of the Keiskamma, and the bivouac we had just left was soon covered with their dusky figures. The view from this elevation was most beautiful, comprising the whole of the Zanooka valley with its dark and extensive forests, sheltered glens, and smooth grassy slopes, through which wound the Tsimuka, now roaring along, foaming among masses of red rock, then lost among the overhanging trees to appear again between smooth and verdant banks, dancing and glittering in the dazzling sunshine.

The standing camp of the 2nd Division was clearly visible on a large plain about ten miles off: the troops were patrolling in the wooded valleys between us, and in communication with the General.

After completely scouring the bush at our feet, the Levies passed down the valley, skirmishing with scattered parties of rebels, and setting fire to their huts; finally returning under cover of the Cape Corps, which occupied the heights above under the immediate command of the General, with three hundred and fifty head of cattle, which we escorted along the ridges to our former bivouac of the 26th in the Amatola valley; leaving two companies of the 91st regiment to cover the return of the Levies. This they effected leisurely and without molestation, till the top of the pass was gained, leading down to the plain on which we were already bivouacked; when, just as it was growing dusk, they were attacked in the rear by a few straggling Kaffirs, who, taking advantage of the bush which commanded the pass, opened a dropping fire upon them, severely wounding the Captain of the Levies in the arm, which was afterwards amputated. The 91st fired a volley into their cover, which silenced them for a few minutes; but the Levies, exasperated by the wounding of their officer, kept up an incessant roll of musketry in spite of our bugles; which, in front of the General's patrol-tent, sounded the "cease firing" for full ten minutes. As the darkness increased the combatants were gradually lost to sight, and the flashing of their muskets grew brighter, but less frequent, till they ceased altogether. The wounded man, Captain Melville, was shortly after borne into the camp on a stretcher by the Fingoes, and the weary 91st found their fires lighted by our men, who shared their supper, scanty as it was, with their exhausted companions.

At eight o'clock on Sunday morning, unwashed and unshaven, with tattered clothes and rusty arms, we marched for our standing camp on the Quesana; climbed the face of the intervening mountain, and crossing its ridge, saw the white tents spread on the plain below, which we gained in a couple of hours, and lost no time in realizing the longed-for luxuries of a bathe and a clean shirt.

The officers left behind, had got ready a large camp-kettle of coffee, round which, tin-tot in hand, we all squatted, from the Colonel downwards, and read the General's Despatch, and the honourable mention made of our exertions.

For three days the camp remained stationary, the General being absent at Fort Hare, and the troops awaiting commissariat supplies from thence. On the 2nd July, however, we were again in motion, ascending at day-break another part of the same range as before, for the purpose of clearing the eastern range of the Victoria Heights, and of again attacking the enemy's fastnesses in the forests at the southern point of the Hogsback.

After a tedious climb, we gained the top of the path, and looked down on the plain we had just left, where the pack-horses and mules, like pigmies, wound along towards the foot of the ascent. We halted for a couple of hours on the top of a lower ridge, extended in skirmishing order, lying down among the rocks and shrubs along the edge, looking down into the dense bush below, in which were numerous scattered kraals. From these, as the Fingoes crashing through the underwood were heard advancing through the cover, firing, yelling, and setting everything combustible in flames, the naked Kaffirs stealthily crept, unaware of the sharpshooters above.

In the meantime, a party of the 91st and European Levies attacked the forest stronghold at the southern point of the Hogsback, and thoroughly cleared it of the enemy, burnt their huts, and obliged the inhabitants to take refuge in the highest fastnesses of the lofty Chumie. Two large villages, which, from being of the same colour as the rocks among which they stood, had hitherto escaped our notice, now broke out in flames, sending up into the still air clouds of heavy white smoke, which were seen twenty miles off. The Fingoe and Hottentot Levies, who had been despatched down the valley of the Amatola, burning every kraal on their way, came on a lair, or hiding-place, from which we on the heights could now see the Kaffirs hastily escaping in an opposite direction, their chief, Oba, "son-of-Tyali," plainly discernible riding off amongst them, just as the patrol reached the place; so sudden and unexpected was the discovery and attack of this retreat, that everything was abandoned, and Tyali's wives and children, and those of Oba and other Kaffir grandees, were taken prisoners. A large quantity of karosses, arms, ornaments, and skins, were taken, also the chiefs head-dress of cranes' wings (the insignia of rank), with the full-dress jacket and cap presented to him by Sir H. Smith. The whole of the kraals were burnt to the ground. The captured women were marched through our ranks shortly afterwards, on their way to the General: their stately carriage and dignified step were most striking, as they moved haughtily along with the indescribable ease and grace of manner peculiar to both Kaffir and Fingo women. Having been examined and interrogated to little purpose by the General's interpreter, they were set at liberty, and wending their way back towards their kraal, now a heap of smoking ruins, descended the hill, and were soon lost to sight in the bush below.

The pasturage round our standing camp having become particularly scanty, we moved, the following morning, to the N'caga, or Yellow-Woods, three miles distant.

Just as we had pitched tents, the English mail arrived; and as the welcome news spread like wildfire, hurrying from all sides, we flocked towards the panting post-horses, and as the dusty leather bags were emptied on the grass, crowded eagerly round for the anxiously-expected letters, considerably bewildering the Camp-Sergeant-Major by our zealous assistance in sorting them. Those lucky enough to get letters from home retired to their tents, or to the shade of some tree beyond the bustling camp, to enjoy them—the disappointed vowing never to write home again. The escort with the mail had been attacked in the Ecca valley; the officer in charge (Ensign Gill, C.M.R.), having had his horse shot under him, one of his men killed, and two wounded.

We were permitted to rest in camp next day, though parties of Fingoes were out in all directions, burning and destroying the deserted Kaffir kraals. The whole afternoon they kept pouring into camp laden with their spoils; large quantities of amazimba, Kaffir corn,[8] ornaments, head-dresses, and every kind of Kaffir traps and toggery. Several women were also brought in prisoners, but sent about their business after an interview with the General's interpreter, much to the disappointment of their Fingoe captors, who, finding they were not to have the pleasure of putting them to death as they had anticipated, and highly incensed at their being allowed to return unharmed to their own people after the trouble they had been at in taking them, followed the liberated captives out of the camp, heaping on them every curse and abuse in the Kaffir vocabulary, and thrashing them with their keeries (long heavy sticks), which, however, was summarily put a stop to by us, as soon as noticed.

The part of the camp allotted to these most zealous allies presented a variety of novel and striking scenes. On all sides the eye encountered black fellows of stalwart frame, arraying themselves in the ornaments and insignia of despoiled Inkosi and Amapakati,[9] singing to themselves in a deep guttural chant, and dancing in a slow jerking step to some monotonous measure. In a wide clear space a ring of some three score of these athletic forms, blankets and karosses thrown aside, began a war-dance to the strange chorus of their deep voices, accompanied by regular tapping on a shield of ox-hide. The performers shook their gleaming assegais in the air, and jerked their supple frames to and fro, lifting their feet alternately, or jumping with both, as they sung, in perfect harmony, a wild air, swelling from a low organ-like hum to the full power of their lungs; hissing like serpents, and creeping with bent bodies round and round, and in and out, as if on the spoor of the enemy; then breaking out into cries and yells, stabbing furiously at the imaginary victim in their centre, and shaking their bodies backward and forward, from the knees upward, till the perspiration streamed from every pore. Each verse of the war-song, which was an improvised commemoration of their late achievements, was given by a single voice in a loud recitative, and then caught up by the whole in an astounding chorus,

Ezani, ezani nina Amaxosa,
Sobula noko,—sobula noko,—
Sobula-lá, no-kó![10]

In another quarter, round a large iron pot of boiled Kaffir corn, a knot of gormandizers were collected, throwing handful after handful of the swelled and steaming grain down their throats with a steady perseverance perfectly astonishing; while stretched around lay others, watching them with looks of mingled helplessness and envy, their own stomachs already gorged to the utmost limit.

A party of headmen and older warriors, seated cross-legged in their tents, ceremoniously smoked the dagha-pipe, a kind of hookah, made of a bullock's horn, its downward point filled with water, and a reed stem let into the side, surmounted by a rough bowl of stone, which is filled with the dahga, a species of hemp, very nearly, if not the same, as the Indian bang. Each individual in the circle receives it in turn, opens his jaws to their full extent, and placing his lips to the wide open mouth of the horn, takes a few pulls and passes it on. Retaining the last draught of smoke in his mouth, which he fills with a decoction of bark and water from a calabash, he squirts it on the ground by his side through a long ornamented tube in his left hand, performing thereon, by the aid of a reserved portion of the liquid, a sort of boatswain's whistle, complacently regarding the soap-like bubbles, the joint production of himself and neighbour. It appeared to be a sign of special friendliness and kindly feeling to squirt into the same hole.

For a few shillings and a little tobacco, we obtained a number of handsome ornaments taken from the huts of some of the members of the Gaika Royal Family, such as bracelets, karosses, &c., with the singular head-dresses, umnqwazi, made of otter skin and beautiful bead work, which are the insignia peculiar to female royalty in Kaffirland.

Next day we returned to Fort Hare, and encamped on the plain at some distance from the walls. Here we expected to have had a short rest after the incessant marching and countermarching of the last few days, as the morrow would be Sunday, but were doomed to be disappointed, for soon after sunrise tents were again struck, and as the early chapel bell tolled for first service, we marched through the straggling village of Alice, the clean Sunday dressed settlers wishing us "God-speed," and the young Fingoes, as usual, dancing round our Pipers in ecstasies of delight. The 91st were left behind to garrison the Fort.

After a hot and dusty march we halted at noon to rest the oxen, near the ruined and deserted settlement of Ely, one of the military villages destroyed by the enemy at the commencement of the war; the houses of wattle and daub still standing, though without doors or windows, appeared, from the numerous articles left in them, such as spades, axes, bayonets, assegais, bridles, and kettles, to have been most precipitately abandoned. A march of some miles further, and we encamped towards evening, about a mile from Fort Beaufort, within sight of the foreign-looking little town with its surrounding clusters of neatly built Fingoe kraals. Next morning we passed through the town, where there are large excellent stone-built barracks, and some snug-looking staff-quarters, with cool verandahs, and high hedges of prickly-pear, enclosing green compounds, adorned with shady trees and large American aloes. It was broiling hot, and we were followed, as usual, by hundreds of Fingoes and Hottentots, while others huddled round their kraals in motley groups, and in every stage of undress—old shrivelled patriarchs, with blear eyes and grizzly heads; haggard witches, with long withered breasts hanging down to their waists; mothers suckling the children tied on their backs; men, as an apology for dress, covering one shoulder with a short kaross; and women, with the most incredible posterior development, whose sole attire was a skin or kilt tied round the waist, reaching barely to the knee; while scores of naked little imps, with enormous stomachs, scuttled about in every direction.

Crossing the Kat river, by a stone bridge, a curiosity in this part of the world, we marched through an uninteresting bushy country, to Clu-clu, where we halted and pitched our camp, half the tents being hidden from one another by the mimosa bushes. Though one of the commonest, this is certainly one of the prettiest trees of the country; its light and graceful form, bright green feathery foliage, golden clusters of globular blossom, filling the air with the most delicious perfume, and bristling array of gigantic white thorns, from three to six inches long, thickly studding every twig, make it at all times a striking object. Fortunately there was plenty of shade, and we lay till sundown under a fine tree, enjoying the unusual repose. The greater part of the native Levy attached to our brigade joined here, having marched from Fort Beaufort, after many parting cups, in a very independent and jovial manner, and contrived to shoot their officer on the road.

7th.—At daylight, we were awakened by a pouring rain pattering heavily on our patrol-tents, and congratulated ourselves that we were not likely to march; but in less than five minutes the bugle sounded "strike tents," and the operation of pulling up pegs immediately commencing, we had to bundle out and arrange our toilet in the storm. The rain having put out every fire, and the unexpected march upset the calculations of servants as well as masters, there was no coffee to be had, and we marched without it.

A party of Cape Corps, which had been out during the night, returned with two hundred sheep, and seventy head of cattle, having killed several Kaffirs. Four miles marching across a plain, bounded on the left by fog, and on the right by the dark range of the Kromme, covered by a canopy of heavy white clouds, brought us to our halt for breakfast, by the so-called Yellow Wood River, a large gully, containing here and there small pools of water, its course marked across the otherwise bare plain by a belt of the large willow-like trees,[11] from which it derives its name. We discovered here the corpse of one of the enemy killed by the Cape Corps party, and not far off a wounded Kaffir, brought to this point by his comrades, whom, it seemed, we had nearly surprised at their fires, on which the meat was still cooking, or rather, burning. The wounded man wore round his neck a fine string of tiger's teeth, which one of the Levy officers cut off and gave me. On seeing the knife approach his throat, the poor fellow thought it was all over with him, and clasping his hands, with a deep groan, closed his eyes. He appeared as much relieved as surprised to find he had only lost his necklace. The Fingoes, as usual, wanted to kill him, but were prevented by the officers, who left the dying warrior some bread and water, and placed him under the shade in an easier posture.

The sun now shone bright and hot. Our way lay across the steaming plain, on which clumps of mimosa again began to appear; here and there the blackened ruins of some unfortunate settler's house showed traces of the destroying enemy. Towards sunset we came to another green belt of trees that for some time had formed the only break in the parched and level plain, and crossed the deep Koonap River in separate bodies, simultaneously, at four or five different points, by narrow slippery ledges of rock running across it, and forming small waterfalls, over which several of the men slipped into the intervening pools, and, of course, got a thorough ducking.

Soon after the camp was pitched, a party of our cavalry, whose firing we had seen on the hills, came in with three hundred sheep and a few oxen and horses, (belonging to the owner of one of the ruined farms,) which they had retaken from the enemy, seven of whom they had killed, losing one man.

8th.—Parade at six, A.M.; bitterly cold, the ground white with hoar frost, and the water in our tents incrusted with ice; by nine o'clock it was warm to inconvenience, and, in the sun, scorching hot. We wandered, gun in hand, along the wooded banks of the river, where we put up several large monkeys and green and crimson parrots. An iguana was shot by Gordon, about three feet and a half long, just as it was wriggling down the bank to reach the water. Our patrols again returned from a successful pursuit after marauders, recapturing one hundred sheep and seventy head of cattle, with a loss of three on the side of the enemy.

In two or three days the scanty pasturage, what with the scorching sun and the hungry cattle, had become so miserable as to compel us to change our camp. Accordingly, on the 11th, we struck tents and moved further up the river, halting near a deserted station, or Post. Four empty roofless houses, and a chapel without doors, were all that remained of it. The former still contained some common broken furniture, which the men borrowed; and benches, tables, and arm chairs, were placed round the camp fires, forming the oddest scene imaginable. The Fingoes, in their ignorance, made a like use of the fittings of the chapel; the pulpit was found at one of their fires, converted, with the aid of a blanket or two, into a snug sort of kennel; it was, of course, immediately ordered back by the Commanding-officer, in double-quick time, together with the font, in which they were grinding coffee with a round stone.

For two or three days we remained in camp, and our time was occupied in parade and drills, the "extension motions" greatly amusing the Fingoes, who seemed to imagine that the squads of men, swinging their arms, and balancing themselves on one foot, were performing a solemn war dance.

Macomo was at this time reported to be in the neighbourhood with a large hostile force, and a party was sent out against him, before daylight on the 14th, consisting of five companies of the 74th Highlanders, a six-pounder howitzer, two hundred Cape Corps, and the Levies. The patrol was absent two days, and went through some hard work, having to drag the gun, by hand, up the steep and narrow Water-Kloof-Pass, and lift it bodily over large felled trees, placed across the path by the enemy. A number of Kaffirs were seen, and the artillery was brought to bear upon them; owing to the nature of the cover in which they took refuge, the effect could not be ascertained, though from the precision with which the shells were dropped, their loss must have been considerable. On our side the casualties were two men killed and one wounded, a couple of horses also being killed.

On the morning of their return I was sent with an escort of one hundred men to convey to Fort Beaufort a train of waggons, containing a quantity of spare arms and accoutrements to go into the ordnance store, with some slaughter oxen for the use of that garrison, and to bring back commissariat supplies for the camp. We were joined on the way, for the sake of protection, by a burgher fleeing from his farm, with his wife and family, and three thousand sheep. We soon neared the spot where, about a week ago, the wounded Kaffir had been left; two or three asvogels, or vultures, skimmed heavily along the ground from a black object, which proved to be his body, already half devoured.

On the approach of evening we halted on the open, drawing up the waggons in a circle, with their dissel-booms outwards. The fires were lighted in the inner space, and the sentries posted about fifty yards outside, with an outlying picquet of Fingoes, for the night was pitch dark, and the neighbourhood infested with Kaffirs, to whom our flocks and herds were a great temptation. Wrapped in a plaid, I sat by the fire contemplating the scene within our little encampment; on one side the soldiers chatted merrily and carelessly over their supper; on the other were the Fingoes, jabbering in their strange dialect; some cutting up lumps of meat with their sharp assegais, and others lying round the fires in wild groups; while the Hottentot drivers, and fore-loupers, sat under their own waggons smoking apart; the whole brightly illuminated by the blazing fires reflected from the circular wall of white covered waggons. One by one, the men dropped off to sleep, and I was soon left to my own thoughts, surrounded by motionless forms rolled in blankets.

On going the rounds at ten o'clock, I found the Fingoe Levies had very coolly left their posts, and were sleeping comfortably by the picquet fire among their comrades. Calling their sergeant, an immensely big fellow, he rushed to the fire, and kicked up the slumbering figures one after another, overhauling them without ceremony by arms and legs, sorting and turning them over like a creel of fish, shouting all the time at the top of his voice. Having found the delinquents, and awarded them "extra guards" as a punishment, with a threat of the jambok, or still more dreaded stoppage of rations, in case of further offence, we marched them back to their posts giving them to understand, that as they would be visited every half hour, it would be advisable to keep a good look out.

What with the angry and incessant barking of the dogs, the uninterrupted bleating of sheep, and the loud snoring of the oxen, all attempts to sleep were in vain. So I sat up, and squatting by the fire, amused myself with piling on fresh wood, wishing by the way, as the picture of old Horace occurred to me—

"Ligna super foco large reponens," &c.,

that I could lay my hand on some of the "quadrimum merum," to render the comparison a little more happy.

At three o'clock the moon rose, and I awoke the bivouac by shouting—"Inspan." Instantly all were alive; the Hottentots tumbled out of their waggons, the men jumped to their feet and folded their blankets, the sentries were called in, and in ten minutes we were "trekking" across the plain. As we descended the little hollow of the Clu-clu, enveloped in a thick fog, the change was most extraordinary, the chilly raw air striking through us instantaneously, and as suddenly ceasing on our emerging from it on the opposite side. In many places the bush by the wayside glowed with bright scarlet clusters of the bignonia,[12] which wreathed among the trees. Suddenly Fort Beaufort opened on us, in the centre of a green plain below, the fine mountains of the Elandsberg and Tyumie forming a noble background.

We found the town looking wretchedly dull and deserted, the garrison being reduced to a small detachment only of the Cape Mounted Rifles, besides the Levies.

The Commandant ordered the Commissariat to have the waggons loaded by dark, as the General had directed their return by moonlight.

We accordingly started at nine o'clock the same evening, but with only half the original escort, the Fingoes not making their appearance at the appointed time, their invariable custom on such occasions, remaining behind, making merry in the kraals of their friends, with a glorious disregard of time, and orders. An attack was fully expected, as well on account of our reduced numbers and heavily-laden waggons as from the fact that our errand and return were as well known to the enemy as ourselves. At midnight we halted to let the oxen graze for a couple of hours, while the men threw themselves down on the grass to snatch a little sleep. At two we were off again. Dark glens, hill, dale, and bush, were passed without interruption, and we were once more on open ground. The encampment having been moved during our absence, I rode forward with the Conductor (a most valuable assistant, attached to each train of government waggons), for about two miles, cantering from one rise to another, looking out for the fires, which we at last discovered at a considerable distance, and turning back, put the waggons on the right track, and reached the camp at daylight.

For a week we remained stationary, patrols going out almost daily to different parts of the neighbourhood to check the enemy, who would suddenly appear in the most opposite directions; one day, for instance, attacking a train of waggons in the Mancazana, and killing seven of the escort; and two days after, firing on the post riders between Fort Beaufort and Graham's Town, killing six on the spot, and wounding three others.

Those of us who remained in camp amused themselves with quail shooting, or with reading under the shade of the yellow-wood trees. Hundreds of turtle-doves swarmed in every direction; and though at first there were some scruples about killing them, they were soon remorselessly shot and converted into pigeon pies. Monkeys and brilliantly-plumaged touracos, or crested parrots, of a dark green, with purple and crimson tails and wings, filled the belt of the wood along the river with their discordant chattering.

One morning, in beating for quail along a reedy sluit, or watercourse, we came on the corpses of some of the Kaffirs killed during the late patrols, which, half devoured by vultures and jackals, lay festering in the jungle.

For three days we endured the misery of a sand storm. The hot air was filled with clouds of fine red sand, driven by a burning wind, and shutting out every object at a few yards' distance, blinding the eyes and stifling the breath, while it not only penetrated the tents, covering everything with a thick red coating, but even found its way into every box and valise. Nothing can be more wretchedly uncomfortable than one of these inflictions, unluckily but too common. The skin becomes dry and hot; an irresistible lassitude is felt, accompanied with headache; the face and hair are red with sand, which, to complete the discomfort, finds its way even under one's clothing. No one ventures out who can possibly avoid it, though even a house is but a partial protection, the closest-fitting doors and windows failing to exclude the finer particles, as the red hue of the furniture quickly shows. Those who, like ourselves, had no choice, braved the storm, with heads bent down and eyes half shut, or shielded by wire goggles with dark blue glasses, giving a most comical aspect to the wearer.

The sand storm at last blown over, we saw in the evening a dense smoke rising about two miles off. A reconnoitring party discovered that the enemy had set fire to the grass, a common expedient with them to oblige us to abandon a position inconvenient to themselves, by destroying the pasturage, and a mode of ejectment so effective, as generally to have no remedy but to trek.

As night advanced, the spectacle was really grand, and all turned out of their tents to look at it; the whole plain, for miles in extent, being one sheet of flame, tinging the sky with a lurid red.

FOOTNOTES:

[8] Holcus Caffrorum.

[9] Chiefs and councillors.

[10] Come on—come on, you Kaffirs!—
We will kill you—we will kill you!

[11] Taxus elongatus.

[12] Tecoma Capensis.

CHAPTER V.
REIT FONTEIN—STANDING CAMP—MARCH TO SOMERSET—ACTION ON KROMME HEIGHTS—RETURN TO FORT BEAUFORT.

Having been thus served with notice to quit, we stayed but two days longer, and then struck tents and marched across the dreary charred plain for nine miles; our clothes, hands, and faces soon becoming as grim as the blackened ground, from which clouds of impalpable ashes rose at every step.

We halted at a deserted farm house called Reit Fontein, having had several shots by the way, at duykerbok and koran,[13] a species of bustard, highly and deservedly esteemed; its flesh, when roasted, is very like that of the wild turkey of North America.

The encampment was formed near the house, a short distance from a garden, containing a spring, by the side of which grew a large clump of bamboo-looking reeds, upwards of twenty feet in height; whence the name of the place. The neighbourhood abounded with duyker, bosch, and steinbok, small varieties of the antelope tribe, found singly or in pairs, in the more open bush; as also paauw,[14] another of the bustards, about the size of a pheasant, with black head and breast, and finely mottled wings and back; and parties of us went out almost daily after them, Baird generally making the best bag.

On the 6th I started with Bruce and 200 men for Somerset, seventy miles distant, to convoy ammunition, and bring back cattle for our commissariat. The halt for the first night was on the Koonap, in which we had a most refreshing bathe. The Fingoes, lower down, swimming and splashing about like porpoises; the instant they came out of the river they were as dry as ever, the water running off their shiny skins as from a duck's back. On the second day we entered a vast level sandy plain, unbroken except by immense ant hills, thousands of which dotted its surface as far as the eye could reach, fresh ones constantly coming in sight as we advanced. A deserted farm-house, one or two of which we passed each day, at long intervals, served as our hotel at night. We established ourselves in the empty echoing rooms, lighting fires in the grates, collecting the scattered chairs and tables, and spreading our plaids on the cartel bedsteads.

Our march next morning was still over immense plains, stretching to the horizon. We came on more farm-houses, abandoned like the rest, in consequence of the outrages of the enemy, and looking the pictures of ruin and desolation; doors and windows broken, dried carcases of sheep and oxen scattered about the front, with rusted implements of husbandry and broken furniture; and gardens overgrown with rank waving grass.

The first herd of springbok was here seen bounding away from us; and, though hopelessly out of shot, greatly excited our sporting ardour. Late in the afternoon we came once more to inhabited dwellings; where, however, we were not equally at home as in the untenanted ruins of the previous night. We drew up our waggons at the door of a Dutch Boer's house, in a deep hollow, where was also a little camp of Mounted Levies, for whom we had brought a supply of ammunition. As neither the Boer nor any of his family spoke a word of English, and we were in the like predicament as to Dutch, and German was useless, our greeting was in dumb show, and we bowed to each other and shook hands in solemn silence. Several Dutch families who had fled from their farms, were living here in their waggons, which were drawn up together for mutual protection, close to the house, their flocks and herds grazing in common. This lively place was called Klip-Fontein.

One of our Fingoes was caught at dusk by the sentry stealing biscuit from the ration waggon, and was soundly flogged by his own comrades—for being found out!

After an early cup of coffee from the Dutchman, who, with that exception, was uncivil and surly, we wound our way up the steep path, and again pursued the track across the sandy plain. The sun rose magnificently behind a distant range of blue mountains. Lots of partridges were flushed at every few yards, and afforded excellent sport for about two hours, when we came suddenly to the edge of the table-land, from which we looked down on a beautiful scene, the more novel and refreshing by contrast with our late march. Instead of the parched and arid plains we had been traversing for three days, a fine valley lay at our feet, thickly wooded, stretching north and south, and bounded by a range of grassy mountains, rising out of forest, and crowned with grey cliffs. Countless acres of prickly-pear, contrasting with the dark bush, spread across the valley, and strips of bright red earth appearing between, gave to the whole an indescribable warmth and sunniness. We descended for about a mile; the cry of the wild pintado resounding on all sides; then passed through a perfect grove of prickly-pear, eight or ten feet high, and having crossed the Baviaans River at the Roed-Waal drift, so called from the perpendicular red banks of the stream, rested under the shadow of the cactus for breakfast, the sun shining fiercely. Whilst the servants were boiling the kettle, we enjoyed a bathe in the cool rocky river overhung with trees, the clear water tumbling and foaming over huge boulders, taking one's thoughts back to Tweed-side and the bonnie salmon streams of old Scotland.

Several farm-houses, fired by the Kaffirs, were smoking at a distance, in the peaceful looking valley; and further down we found the road strewn with grain, thickly trampled, and stained with blood; while from under a cairn of loosely piled stones, close by among the bushes, peeped the head and shoulders of a corpse. An old man, a ruined settler, whose house had been destroyed by the enemy, had been trekking this way the day before with his sons, and his last waggon-load of grain, when they were waylaid by the Kaffirs, who cruelly murdered two of the defenceless party. Such outrages on the heart-broken settlers were almost of daily occurrence; often exasperating them to savage fury, but more frequently reducing them to helpless despair.

After five and twenty miles' march, we halted at a drift on the Little Fish River, about a mile from Somerset, which is a pretty cluster of white houses, gardens, and orange trees, at the foot of a beautiful green mountain. This was our resting place for two days while waiting the arrival of the oxen, hourly expected, on their way from the Orange River district, and which we were to escort back for the use of the troops. In the neighbourhood is a large and celebrated orange grove, which we visited. It lies at the entrance of a deep ravine in the mountain, and as we rode up, the sun shone on thousands of ripe oranges, lemons, citrons, shaddocks, and natches, a very small and peculiar flavoured kind of orange. The trees, which were of great size, bent under the weight of fruit, and down the long avenues the branches almost met overhead. Fingoe boys, armed with guns, were protecting the fruit from monkeys, as lads at home watch the corn-fields.

At the Tronk, which we visited with the Civil Commissioner, we saw about twenty or thirty Kaffir prisoners. It was Sunday, and they were all assembled in a large room, heavily chained, dressed merely in a blanket, and listening, with becoming attention, to a Fingoe preaching in their own language the full, flowing, and sonorous tones of which, with the singular clicks occurring in every other word, sounded both melodious and striking. A Kaffir boy was handed over to us as a prisoner, to be taken down to General Somerset, for sentence. He had been taken a few days before, by a Commando, which had fallen in with, and attacked a band of marauders, of which he was the only one who escaped. Though not more than sixteen years of age, he carried a gun and a bundle of assegais. He had been spared by the Commandant, at the request of his after-rider, who begged the boy's life from the hard-hearted Boer, as a reward for his own long and faithful services. He was a handsome quiet lad, and when reassured, through the kindness of our men, who gave him a pipe and tobacco, with plenty of food and a seat at the fire, he seemed quite happy. His name was Uyanina, and he told us, through our interpreter, that his father and two brothers had been killed in the Amatolas; and, in a quiet tone, said that he hoped we would not kill him, as he wanted to go back to his mother. He was told that his life was safe, but that as he could bear arms, we could not let him loose again until after the war; with which assurance he appeared perfectly satisfied, and lay contentedly smoking the strongest tobacco all day long. In due time the cattle arrived, driven by a party of strange, ragged, wild-looking Gonahs, and one thousand sheep and seven hundred oxen were bleating and bellowing around us. The Contractor (having provided himself with a few rounds of dry sheep's dung, as markers) counted them over to our commissariat agent, depositing one of the pellets in his right hand as each hundredth ox rushed through the two trees between which they were all driven singly.

As we returned the cattle suffered severely from want of pasturage; not a blade of grass was to be seen, and our horses, which had nothing to eat but the leaves of trees and shrubs during the day, when tied up at night devoured sticks, wood, dry dung, or anything chewable. On the plain we had the good fortune to fall in with several herd of springbok; their beautiful appearance and graceful agility delighted us, as they leaped into the air, clearing twenty feet at a bound. A party of Dutch Boers jagging them and firing above, drove a herd in our direction, giving us some splendid shots. I kept the head of one, and amused myself in the evening by the camp fire, at Klip-Fontein, by preparing it as a specimen. The tongue, liver, and heart, made an excellent fry, though the flesh is generally dry and tasteless, and requires all the cook's art to render it at all equal to tolerable venison.

More herds were seen the following day, and we galloped after them, over the level plain, for miles, without a check, cutting them off at angles, and getting long shots every now and then. A brilliant full moon illuminated our bivouac, and the Fingoes got up their customary dance, which they always celebrate at the change; though no longer new to us, it had lost none of its wild interest. A hundred and fifty fine brawny fellows, throwing off their blankets, joined in the strange chorus, dancing and leaping, and brandishing their gleaming assegais in the bright moonlight.

The afternoon following found us in camp again after an absence of eight days.

Patrols and escorts went out daily in every direction, and "light drill," morning and evening, occupied those who remained behind.

To make our quarters a little more comfortable, we set to work and built high circular hedges or kraals of green boughs round our fires, the narrow entrance facing the tent door. After levelling the enclosed space, we furnished them with camp tables and stools, for the tents, what with the sun and the flies, were unbearable during the day, and were used only for sleeping in. The swarms of common house-flies that collected in our tents were really wonderful, the canvas was literally black with them, as well as every dish and can, the moment they were placed on the table; as soon as the sun rose, one was awakened by a cloud of them settling on one's face, fighting in one's ears, and buzzing in one's hair; making the most amiable men give way to harsh language. At last we were obliged to blow them up, once or twice a day, either by surrounding a tempting heap of ration sugar with a train of powder, or by hoisting a charge to the top of the tent, on a board stuck on the point of a claymore, though this plan had the disadvantage of sometimes setting the canvas on fire, and invariably covering the performer with a shower of singed flies.

We were frequently visited by whirlwinds, which caused a little variety in the camp; a cloud of sand would come eddying along, tear up a kraal, sending the bushes flying in every direction, whisk the men's caps off their heads, whirl loose papers, shirts, and other articles high into the air, level two or three tents, and sail away in an opposite direction, leaving its course through the camp distinctly marked by the track it had cleared.

Towards the end of the month it fell to my lot to escort a large train of commissariat waggons to Graham's Town, fifty miles off. On the Koonap hill, we passed the dead horses of the post-riders, shot there on the 23rd of July, and saw the marks of the bullets scored along the rocks. When in the middle of the Ecca valley we spied a large body of red coats, who, as we neared each other, proved to be a party of the 91st, among whom were some old friends. Soon after parting with them, a number of Kaffirs showed themselves on the hills just above us, watching our movements.

Further down the valley a bosch-buck and a wild boar fell to my rifle; the latter was a splendid fellow, with an enormous head; he must have been at least five feet and a half in length, and two feet and a half high, and had besides his two immense tusks, a singular bony protuberance on each cheek. The Fingoes cut him up in a very few minutes, and resumed their march, each with a joint or lump of meat over his shoulder, spitted on his gun. This valley is said to be a favourite resort of the boar, on account of the immense quantities of the strelitzia regina, on the roots of which it feeds; we observed many newly grubbed up; the bush glowed with its handsome red flowers. On outspanning to feed the oxen, a body of Kaffirs showed themselves, and hovered round the cattle with a pretty evident intention of making a sweep of them; but perceiving we were on the alert, thought better of it, and took themselves off.

The waggon drivers, who are the most insolent and disagreeable men in the world to have anything to do with, having refused to obey the order "to inspan," the Fingoes were sent to bring in their oxen, and two of the most refractory drivers being dismissed on the spot, from the Government service, the rest inspanned at once, and by the afternoon we entered Graham's Town.

Here we were detained three days, when we set out on our return with a six pounder gun-carriage and limber, and a large train of waggons laden with biscuit, rice, coffee, salt, tobacco, and all sorts of supplies for the troops on the Frontier. Another of the English drivers proving refractory and grossly insolent, was hand-cuffed with a rheim, and marched a prisoner between a couple of Fingoes, passing the next three nights in the cells at the military posts on the road, a piece of martial law which had a most salutary effect on the rest of these independent gentlemen.

On our last day's march, just as evening was drawing in, we came upon the fresh spoor of a body of Kaffirs, not ten minutes old, the print of the bare feet being quite sharp in the fine dust. Its direction was across the track towards a patch of bush commanding the road. The waggons closed quickly up, the men examined their locks, flank patrols of Fingoes were thrown out in advance, and all were on the qui vive; but the enemy, who delight only in surprises, did not show, and the camp at Reit Fontein was reached without adventure. Once more patrols were our occupation by day, and forelaying parties, or ambuscades, by night; marauding rebels were constantly fallen in with, and killed, and cattle and horses recaptured.

General Somerset, with a detachment of the 74th and Cape Corps which had accompanied him into the distric of Albany, was at this time actively engaged in following up the enemy in the direction of Riebeck, Hell-Poort, and the Zuurberg hills, and on the 30th of August attacked a considerable body of them on New-year River, where they had taken up a strong position in a very difficult and rugged kloof, dislodging and dispersing them with great loss, besides recapturing 160 head of stolen cattle and some horses.

Two days after this affair the 2nd Queen's regiment, just arrived in the country, under Lieut.-Col. Burns, had a sharp brush with Botman's and Seyolo's people in the Fish River bush, with several casualties on both sides.

The Kaffirs in our neighbourhood having become, during the General's absence in Albany, unusually bold and troublesome, stealing cattle, murdering and destroying on every side, Lieut.-Col. Fordyce, 74th Highlanders, then commanding the field force in the General's absence, determined to check their daring conduct by attacking them at once with his whole available force in their expected position on the Western Kroome range. We marched from our camp a little before sunset on the evening of September 7th, so as to reach the top of the hill under which we were encamped, just at dark, and thereby prevent our movement being observed by the enemy's scouts. After marching about seven miles in the dark across a level plain, myriads of fire-flies flitting along the ground, we halted at the ruins of a farm, on the Klu-Klu River, belonging to a Mr. Gilbert, whose narrow and extraordinary escape a few months before from the hands of the Kaffirs deserves mention. He was riding with two others from Graham's Town to Fort Hare, when they were waylaid; his companions escaped, but his own horse being shot he crept into the bush, successfully evading the search of the Kaffirs, who passed and re-passed his place of concealment, and at last sat down to smoke within a few yards of his hiding-place, their dogs all the while snuffing about. When at length they moved away, he took off his boots to prevent the snapping of rotten sticks betraying him, and listening at every painful step, worked his way through the thorny bush, and with his feet dreadfully lacerated eventually reached Fort Hare, where he had been given up as dead.

The ruined house was reconnoitred, and we were told to lie down and take what rest we could till midnight, to be ready to turn out at a moment's notice. The horses were picketed to the broken fence of a grass-grown pleasure-garden, and the men lay down by companies in the farm-yard, with their arms piled in front of each rank. As fires were forbidden, we groped about in the dark among the fallen ruins, and made the best resting-places we could on the heaps of broken slates and brick-ends covering the floors of the blackened chambers, to which the starry sky served as roof. At midnight we were joined by Lieut.-Col. Sutton and a party of Cape Corps and mounted Levies from Fort Beaufort, making up our force to 550 infantry and 103 mounted men.

At two in the morning we marched out of the melancholy desolate place across the open for about seven miles, toward the position supposed to be occupied by the enemy, and reached it just at daybreak, when we discovered that the Kaffirs had abandoned it, and that the large fires reported in this direction had only been burning grass. After a short halt, while this reconnaissance was being made, and during which we felt the cold most intensely, the whole column was counter-marched, and proceeded in an easterly direction along the foot of the mountain range for about three hours, when a halt was made for breakfast at Blakeways, a deserted farm, beautifully situated in a warm sheltered glen, finely wooded, through which the Wolf River wound its way. Numbers of boschbok, disturbed by our approach, were seen scudding across the open flat. While at breakfast an alarm was given that a large body of Kaffirs was descending the hill in our direction; but they proved to be a part of the Fort Beaufort Fingoe Levy taking a short cut to join us. The long dry grass among which we were halted caught fire, and burned so rapidly as to threaten to surround the column, roaring and crackling on every side; and we had to decamp in a hurry to avoid being blown up or shot by the fire reaching the men's ammunition or muskets. Here it was ascertained that the greater part of the enemy were in the Waterkloof, Blinkwater, and Fuller's Hoek, and therefore, as it was out of the question to attempt openly attacking those strongholds with our inadequate force, Lieut.-Col. Fordyce determined on gaining the top of the Kroome Heights at this boundary of the range, and, bivouacking there till dark, make a descent by night, on whichever point might prove advisable.

At once, therefore, we began to ascend the steep face of the mountain, the heat of the sun most intense, not a breath of air stirring, and after two hours' stiff climbing, reached the edge of a forest spreading up the higher ranges. Its shade was most refreshing. From this point we were obliged to proceed in single file, as the steep and difficult path became so narrow; leading along a sharp crest like the ridge of a roof, on each side of which was a wooded precipice, the base of which was lost to sight in the deep ravines beneath. On reaching the summit of the mountain a fine view lay spread before us, the tops of the forest trees below looking like small bushes. Through an opening in the mountain tops we caught a peep of the distant sunny plain, with the white houses of Fort Beaufort and the winding Kat River. Our own position was a lofty table-land, clothed with grass and surrounded by bush, the edges of the forest running up from the valleys below. On one side was the Waterkloof, on the other the head of the Fuller's Hoek, from which we were separated by a broad belt of forest stretching right across the mountain-top. A single path led through it, difficult and narrow; and its entrance was guarded by a number of Kaffirs, who appeared to be waiting our advance. But this was not our intention, for at mid-day we were halted in a little hollow, through which ran a small stream; and here our march was to be suspended till dark.

The guards were mounted on two commanding ridges, the sentries posted, and the men lay down to rest, or lighted fires and prepared to cook their rations, to which they had added the flesh of two Kaffir oxen just captured; the cavalry horses were knee-haltered and turned out to graze close round,—and all was repose.

We had with us, through a misunderstanding, our Band-master, Hartung, who had left Fort Beaufort with Lieut.-Col. Sutton's party under the impression that it was proceeding to the camp at Reit Fontein, which he was anxious to visit. On finding how different its destination, he repeatedly expressed his annoyance, and his apprehension of an engagement. We had not long been here when a party of officers who had gone up with their glasses to the top of one of the ridges, came quickly down and ordered the men to get under arms at once, as the Kaffirs were approaching in hundreds, running full speed from every quarter. Instantly all was activity; the men sprang up from their rest, horses were driven in, accoutrements hurried on, the untasted contents of soup-kettles emptied on the grass, and pack-horses loaded with incredible dispatch.

In the meantime, being Officer-on-duty, I doubled out with the advance guard, speedily extending, in skirmishing order, along the ridge, above which the enemy were advancing, and with whom the next moment we were exchanging shots at very short range. They were almost hidden by the long grass in which they crouched to fire, and their numbers being overwhelming, the reply we made to their fire was but a temporary check, so that we were soon being gradually forced back, when Captain Duff came rapidly up with a company of the 74th, and reinforced our line of skirmishers; the whole fixed bayonets, charged the enemy's line with the Highland shout, and drove them back into the bush.

The column, which had got under arms with the greatest celerity during this skirmish, now came up, and the Colonel formed the whole infantry in extended order, with the right on the head of the Wolf's-back Pass, and the left "thrown back," the 74th being placed on either flank, with the irregular infantry in the centre; Lieut.-Col. Sutton, with the cavalry, remaining for the present in the rear as a support. The enemy, who had again advanced on the open plain during this movement, now came on in hundreds, running and yelling out their war-cry till within range, when an uninterrupted fire rattled along the lines on both sides, though, as we were well covered behind the ridge, we had no casualties beyond Colonel Fordyce's charger being shot under him.

An immensely big Kaffir was noticed rushing down the opposite ridge, which was not more than 800 yards distant, and running at full speed across our line of fire; unmindful of a shower of balls that fell around him, and at his very feet, he kept straight on towards our right as though he bore a charmed life, shouting, and encouraging the others to follow, as he headed them in an attempt to gain the Pass, and turn our right flank by moving along the edge of the forest. But in this they were foiled by Colonel Fordyce, who immediately ordered the line "to take ground to the right," while the mounted force, galloping to the front, gave them a volley from their carbines that told among them severely. For half an hour we maintained a sharp skirmish with only a loss of three killed and as many wounded, when the enemy retired on the forest, leaving us in undisputed possession of the ground. As so much ammunition had been expended it was useless now to wait for night and make our intended descent; the cavalry, therefore, was dispatched to the head of another pass, to hold it till our arrival. Macomo himself, at the same moment, conspicuously mounted on a white horse, led about 300 mounted Kaffirs to secure the same point, in which object, however, they were defeated. As soon as we began descending the Pass, the enemy again rushed in from all points, lining the forest through which it led.

The road being exceedingly steep, narrow and rugged, the cavalry in front marched down at a foot's pace, the infantry following, and the Fingoe Levies bringing up the rear. The enemy concealed in the thick bush opened fire upon us the moment we entered the pass, wounding one of our men. We returned their fire whenever the smoke showed us where they lay, and thus continued our descent, with a desultory fire on both sides, till about half way down, when they showed in still greater force, filling the bush on both sides of us. The Fingoes in the rear now evinced their fears so strongly as to encourage a party of Kaffirs, armed with assegais, to rush in among them. This completed their panic, and firing right and left, at random, they hurried headlong down the narrow path en masse upon our rear with such force as to knock down and trample on many of our men, while by crushing through the ranks they hindered the others from loading. Emboldened by this, the main body rushed from their cover, hurled a discharge of their lighter throwing assegais, and then (with the heavier kind, used for stabbing), threw themselves upon us. Our steady fellows had little to depend on but their bayonets, to the use of which they had fortunately long been regularly trained, and now used most effectually. The underwood swarmed with Kaffirs, they were perched in the trees, firing upon us from above, and rushed from the bush below in hundreds, yelling in the most diabolical and ferocious manner, hissing through their white teeth; their bloody faces, brawny limbs, and enormous size, giving them a most formidable appearance.

The narrow road was crowded with a mass of troops, Levies and Kaffirs, the ringing yells of the latter heard above the din of the firing. Some wrestling with the men for their firelocks, were blown almost in pieces, and many were felled and brained by the butt-ends of clubbed muskets. Our gallant fellows fought most bravely; one man, with an assegai deeply buried between his shoulders, singled out its owner, and shot him through the head with the weapon nearly protruding through his chest; a grenadier killed four Kaffirs with his own hand. The huge fellow already mentioned appeared suddenly among us, and seizing a soldier in his powerful grasp, hurled him to the ground; but the man jumping to his feet in a moment, buried his bayonet in the fellow's back, and he fell dead on his face. Three Kaffirs had caught one of our men by the blanket folded on his back, and were dragging him into the bush, when the straps slipping over his shoulders, released him, and he threw himself, unarmed, on the nearest, and wrestled with him for his assegai, both rolling over and over, scuffling on the ground, the well-greased body of the Kaffir giving him the advantage over the dressed and belted soldier, whose death wound was, however, amply avenged. The ground was soon thickly strewn with the black corpses of the enemy; a score lay in the path, and here and there the lifeless form of a dead or dying Highlander, eight of whom fell, while as many more were wounded. Fighting our way through hundreds of the infuriated savages, we effected the descent of the pass; by the time we had reached the foot the enemy's fire had almost ceased.

On gaining the open ground, we extended and moved leisurely along the plain, the Kaffirs contenting themselves with remaining at the edge of the bush on the rise of the hill, a dense red mass of some two thousand men; a few scattered parties dodging from tree to tree, fired long shots, which fell far short, and to which we made no return, our ammunition being nearly expended.

Our total casualties, were fifteen men and four horses killed, and fourteen men wounded. Many of the men's arms and accoutrements were shattered and perforated by balls. Lieutenant Corrigan was so stunned by a bullet which passed through his forage cap, as to be partially unconscious for some time. Hartung was reported missing, and great fears were expressed for his safety; yet, as he had not been seen to fall, it was hoped he might have taken to the bush, and escaped. The unfortunate chance which brought him out against his will, and his evident foreboding the whole morning, added to the general feeling of anxiety about him.

We marched slowly across the plain towards the deserted farm we had left in the morning; for now that the excitement was over, we felt the full fatigue of such uninterrupted exertion, and dragged our limbs heavily along; the groans of the wounded and the shadows of evening increasing the gloom of the dreary scene. It had been quite dark for some time when we reached the welcome ruin. A mounted express was despatched for more ammunition, and a waggon to convey the wounded to the camp. Having disposed of them as comfortably as it was possible in the mean time, and lighted fires, we threw ourselves once more on the slates and brickbats, after having been on foot for seventeen hours.

During the night the waggon arrived; and at three o'clock we were roused from our rough but reluctantly-quitted beds, and shivering with the cold, which at this hour is most intense, moved off towards Reit Fontein, more asleep than awake, and in about two hours and a half arrived in camp, nearly done up.

Further inquiries among the men about poor Hartung confirmed our worst fears. He had been seen by several endeavouring to lead his horse, and was repeatedly advised to leave it, but refused, as it had been a borrowed one. A bugler stated, that soon afterwards he had seen him wounded by an assegai and then seized by half a dozen Kaffirs, who dragged him into the bush. His fate was not difficult to conjecture, and proved afterwards to have been more horribly cruel than our worst suspicions had suggested. It was elicited from some Kaffir women, taken prisoners shortly afterwards by Lieut.-Col. Eyre's column, that the unfortunate man had been brutally tortured for three days, cut with assegais, and daily deprived of a joint from each toe and finger, till death terminated his dreadful sufferings. Their accounts were but too truly confirmed by subsequent evidence taken before the Civil Commissioner of Beaufort, from another prisoner, Numkani, a Kaffir girl of N'pai, who detailed the tragic particulars as follows:

"I was living with the sister of my father, in the Kat River country before the war. When the war broke out, I went with her to Waterkloof; she had three sons, who went there to fight; they were all alive when I came away from Waterkloof, about three moons since. Before that, I heard of a white man having been taken prisoner on the mountains of the Kroome; I heard that he was killed by the Hottentots. I also heard that he was taken to Macomo, and that Macomo sent for one of his sons, Kona, a headman named Queque, and some Hottentots. Macomo ordered the man to be killed. He was taken away and stripped, and Queque took his clothes. I saw him wear them after; the coat was dark, I cannot say what colour. I heard say that the men cut his arms and legs. He was two days in that state; the flesh was not quite cut off, but was left hanging to his body. They then cut * * * and gave him his own flesh to eat. They killed him at last by shooting him. I did not see this, but I heard the men often talk about it. I heard that the white man spoke, and said they must not kill him; and that he was begging for his life. I heard that the women danced round him, and were merry; they were Kaffir women. They also beat him with keeries. I heard the men and women singing a war-song when dancing round the white man. He had his hands tied behind him by one of Macomo's sons, named Kona, and the Hottentots; he was lying in the sun all day, and placed in a hut for safety at night. I was out gathering gum the day that the Hottentots first cut the man with a knife; he was tied with a long rheim, and the end was fastened to a tree. This I heard: when they cut his arms and legs, he bled much; he was lying on his side; he screamed when he was cut. They took off a joint of every finger every day while he was alive, and after the flesh of his arms and legs had been cut. I left Waterkloof a long time since, and came to Fort Beaufort. I left Waterkloof because I was starving."

The mark [symbol] of Numkani.
J. Stringfellow, Res. Mag.

Such were the fetish-like cruelties perpetrated by these savages; nor can one wonder at their barbarity when they are hardly less brutal towards those of their own race and kindred. When a chief or great man of a tribe is seized with sickness, the 'witch-doctor,' with forms and incantations, dooms some poor wretch to death, on pretence of his having bewitched the ailing man; his flocks and herds are forfeited to the chief, and his children left beggars and fatherless.

One instance may suffice to give an idea of their savage ferocity, and spare the repetition of outrages on the poor settlers, or those unhappy enough to fall into their hands.

"The same Kona, some years before, having fallen sick, a 'witch doctor' was, according to custom, consulted, to ascertain the individual under whose evil influence he was suffering; and, as usual, a man of property was selected, and condemned to forfeit his life for his alleged crime. To prevent his being told of his fate by his friends, a party of men left Macomo's kraal early in the morning to secure the recovery of the sick young chief by murdering one of his father's subjects. The day selected for the sacrifice appeared to have been a sort of gala day with the unconscious victim; he was in his kraal, had just slaughtered one of his cattle, and was merrily contemplating the convivialities of the day before him, over which he was about to preside. The arrival of a party of men from the 'great place' gave him no other concern than as to what part of the animal he should offer them as his guests. In a moment, however, the ruthless party seized him in his kraal; when he found himself secured with a rheim around his neck, he calmly said, 'It is my misfortune to be caught unarmed, or it should not be thus.' He was then ordered to produce the matter with which he had bewitched the son of his chief; he replied, 'I have no bewitching matter; but destroy me quickly if my chief has consented to my death.' His executioners said they must torture him until he produced it, to which he answered, 'Save yourselves the trouble, for torture as you will I cannot produce what I have not.' He was then held down on the ground, and several men proceeded to pierce his body all over with long Kaffir needles. The miserable victim bore this with extraordinary resolution; his tormentors tiring, and complaining of the pain it gave their hands, and of the needles or skewers bending. During this time a fire had been kindled, in which large flat stones were placed to heat; the man was then directed to rise, they pointed out to him the fire, telling him it was for his further torture, unless he produced the bewitching matter. He answered, 'I told you the truth when I said, save yourselves the trouble; as for the hot stones, I can bear them, for I am innocent; I would pray to be strangled at once, but that you would say I fear your torture.' Here his wife, who had also been seized, was stripped perfectly naked, and cruelly beaten and illtreated before his eyes. The victim was then led to the fire, where he was thrown on his back, stretched out with his arms and legs tied to strong pegs driven into the ground, and the stones, now red hot, were taken out of the fire and placed on his naked body—on the groin, stomach, and chest, supported by others on each side of him, also heated and pressed against his body. It is impossible to describe the awful effect of this barbarous process, the stones slipping off the scorched and broiling flesh, and being only kept in their places by the sticks of the fiendish executioners. Through all this the heroic fellow still remained perfectly sensible, and when asked if he wished to be released to discover his hidden charm said, 'Release me.' They did so, fully expecting they had vanquished his resolution, when, to the astonishment of all, he stood up a ghastly spectacle, broiled alive! his smoking flesh hanging in pieces from his body! and composedly asked his tormentors, 'What do you wish me to do now?' They repeated their demand, but he resolutely asserted his innocence, and begged them to put him out of his misery; and as they were now getting tired of their labour, they made a running noose on the rheim around his neck, jerked him to the ground, and savagely dragged him about on the sharp stones; then, placing their feet on the back of his neck, they drew the noose tight, and strangled him. His mangled corpse was taken into his own hut, which was set on fire and burnt to ashes. His sufferings commenced at ten A.M., and ended only at sunset!" These are the people whom an Exeter Hall spouter compares to "the ancient Scots fighting for their homes and hearths."

Two days after our return to camp, information arrived of a severe and disastrous affair in the Fish River bush the day following the Kroome action. It had occurred between a patrol, under Colonel Mackinnon, and the allied Rebels and Kaffirs in that district, one of their strongest and most dangerous retreats. A party of our forces, having got separated in the thick bush, was cut off, one officer (Captain Oldham) and thirty-one rank and file being killed, and twenty-three wounded in the 2nd Queen's, with one officer killed and one wounded in the Levies, besides several men. The enemy, who by the way used fierce dogs to pull down the troops, had suffered considerably, and the following day were attacked and routed by Lieut.-Col. Eyre with heavy loss, after a sharp engagement, in which two of his officers, Lieutenant Walters and Ensign Thursby, were wounded.

On the 12th, General Somerset, who had broken up and dispersed the enemy in the Albany district, and recovered a number of cattle, returned to his head-quarter camp with our two companies and the Cape Corps, which had been with him, bringing also a detachment of the 12th regiment, just arrived from the Mauritius.