NIGHT ATTACK ON CAMP.--POST RETIEF.
On the night of the 20th, the Kaffirs who, since their unsuccessful
raid, had been constantly hovering about in small parties on the hill
sides, watching our cattle and our movements, treated us at midnight
with a volley into the middle of our encampment, which woke us suddenly
from our first sleep; the bugles sounded the "assembly," and we had
to tumble out of bed. As I groped about in the dark for my clothes, I
felt a peculiar sensation of unprotectedness, in my night-shirt, as
the balls whistled past the tent, not having been under fire before in
that costume; something of the same sort of feeling prompted B----r,
on a later occasion, in crossing the enemy's line of fire, to pull his
jacket collar up on the exposed side of his face as a protection. After
several frantic attempts to unhook my tent door, tightly contracted by
the dew, I had to crawl out below, and found the men drawn up on their
own lines as if they had been there all night. A few shots were fired
from the river bank, which however did no harm, and were silenced by
the sentries without our aid; the skulking thieves, frightened at the
hornet's nest they had disturbed, taking themselves off at once. In
five minutes after we were dismissed, the camp was still as death, and
in the morning I felt uncertain, on first waking, whether the whole had
not been a dream.
His Excellency the Governor-General was at this time preparing a force
to move across the Kei into Kreli's country, to punish that chief for
robbing the traders, treacherously harbouring the fugitive Kaffirs
and their cattle, and while professing the most friendly feelings and
intentions towards us, aiding and abetting a war with which he was in
no way identified.
That the Colony might be properly defended during the absence of so
large a portion of the army as must necessarily be required for such
an expedition, the following dispositions of the troops were ordered
to be at once carried into effect for the formation of the frontier
line of defence,--the 74th Highlanders and 91st regiment, with the
Local Mounted and Fingo Levies, to be posted in Fort Beaufort and
the district, under Lieut.-Col. Yarborough; the 12th regiment with
detachments of Irregulars, as a line of patrol from Fort Brown to
the mouth of the Great Fish River, under Lieut.-Col. Perceval; and a
detachment at Fort Peddie, under Major Wilmot, R.A. This arrangement of
course broke up our standing camp, and in the general movement of the
troops, I found myself under orders for Post Retief, in the Winterberg
Mountains, to accompany Bruce, appointed to that command; the
detachment of the 12th, then garrisoning it, rejoining their regiment
in the Albany district. As it was probable we might be imprisoned in
that solitary place for six months at least, cut off during the absence
of the expedition from all communication with the world, and as we
had nothing with us in camp beyond the clothes on our backs and the
contents of our saddle bags, it was necessary to make some preparation
for our change of quarters, and having to march for our destination
at daylight next morning, I set off at once with a mounted servant
for Beaufort to get such supplies and necessaries as were absolutely
required, taking advantage of the escort just starting with the mail.
After hastily performing my errand and with some difficulty getting
a waggon and oxen to return with me, I found to my annoyance that
owing to the indolence or probably intended treachery of the driver,
who kept me waiting two hours for his oxen, I was too late to join a
party going out to the camp with waggons, and there being no escort
to be obtained from Fort Beaufort, I had no alternative, as our early
march from the Blinkwater next morning rendered my return that evening
imperative, but to start a little before dusk accompanied only by the
servant. We had got about half way or a little more, and had entered
the most bushy and dangerous part of the road when it fell nearly
dark, the sheet lightning becoming most brilliant. I rode along by the
side of the oxen in the narrow track, and was in the act of lighting
my second cheroot, when a volley was suddenly poured into us from the
bush along the edge of the river on our right, so close as to blind
me for an instant with the flash; one of the oxen, which were on my
left, dropt down dead, and two more rolled over wounded, while the
waggon was struck in half a dozen different places; the rest of the
terrified cattle faced round kicking and plunging, got their legs over
the trektow, and wound themselves into an inextricable mess. The driver
and leader, one a Totty, the other a Ghonah, either purposely or from
fear refused to assist in extricating them, and when I threatened them
with my pistol, bolted into the bush on the other side of the road and
disappeared. Left to our own devices, we made an ineffectual attempt
to cut out the dead and wounded oxen from the trektow with a blunt
tobacco knife, the Kaffirs firing at us from the bush all the time, but
found it utterly impossible; they now completely surrounded us, forming
across the road in front and rear, and firing in quick succession, one
shot striking the cantle of my saddle, and another wounding my horse in
the head, which made him almost unmanageable; it was madness to stand
to be shot at by so many guns, so we determined to make a dash for the
camp, and with a shout rode right at the fellows in front, who as I
fired my second pistol jumped aside and let us pass, though a parting
shower of bullets, as we galloped off, made the dust fly from the road
under our horses' feet. In less than five minutes after reaching the
camp, a party of Fingoes had turned out, and quickly getting a span
of oxen together, we returned to the rescue of the unfortunate waggon
at a sharp trot, most of the Fingoes keeping up with the horses the
whole two miles. Though the oxen were gone, our speedy return prevented
the rascals destroying or ransacking the waggon, from which they had
only taken a box of cheroots and a case of brandy; the former, as
we afterwards discovered by their spoor, they had chopped up into
tobacco, and on the latter they had got so drunk that they lost two of
the bullocks, which, as Bruce and I had to pay for the missing ones
out of our own pockets, we were only too glad to recover. The dead ox
was quickly skinned and cut up by the Fingoes, who, finding to their
surprise I did not want it for my own use, regarded the affair from
that moment as a great lark, and sat up all night eating beef. To
ourselves the result was not so satisfactory, having subsequently to
pay £70 for the oxen.
After accomplishing the ascent of the Blinkwater Pass, which we had
hoped not to have seen again for some time, we, late the next day,
came in sight of the little fort, which in the setting sun, with its
background of green and purple mountains, distinctly defined against
the clear sky, looked now as bright and cheerful as it had loomed dark
and gloomy on our former melancholy visit.
Our approach caused an evident commotion in the little garrison, to
whom our coming, and their consequent "relief," were entirely unknown.
About 800 yards from the post, a quantity of old trampled wheat-straw
was pointed out to us, scattered along the roadside, where it had
been left by the enemy, since the 6th of February, on which day they
had thrashed out a whole stack in sight of the fort, at that time
occupied by the Burghers and Dutch, with their families and herds.
A party of about 700 or 800 Kaffirs and Hottentots, who had first
attacked the post, took possession of the little water-mill out of
musket shot from the walls, and their women, to the number of about
150, coolly commenced thrashing out the corn, which they took away
with them in a waggon, while the men from the cover of the rocks and
some old quarries, kept up a constant fire on the fort, the interior
of which from its absurd position, was entirely commanded and raked
from a hill within half musket range, so that no one dare move across
the yard, or show himself within the walls. The besieged inmates were
almost entirely without food or water, having hurriedly taken refuge
from their adjacent farms on the first alarm. Three days afterwards,
relief arrived; Commander Bowker, with 250 men, fell upon the enemy in
rear, and drove them off after a fight of three hours. The walls and
gates showed innumerable bullet marks, thickest round the windows and
loop-holes, and in many the balls still sticking in the woodwork.
Post Retief was formerly a farm house (parts of which are still
remaining, and built into the present walls of the fort) belonging
to Piet Retief, a distinguished Field Cornet of the Winterberg
district, who, while in treaty with Dingan, king of the Zulus, for
a grant of territory, near Natal, for the settlement of the Dutch
Border colonists, of whom he was Governor and Commander-in-chief,
was barbarously murdered with his companions, by that prince, in the
beginning of 1838, and while actually partaking of his treacherous
hospitality.
We found the interior space, or barrack-square, almost impassable
after rain, having been used for many months as a cattle kraal, the
dung lying two or three feet thick. The removal of this was at once
commenced upon, and men and waggons were busily employed each day until
the steps up to the quarters, were again brought to light, and the oxen
were no longer able to look in upon us at mess. The vrouws with their
dirty children, pigs, poultry and lumber, were bundled out of the Fort;
the rooms whitewashed and converted into soldiers' quarters once more;
the private dung-heaps at each door made into one large conglomerate
outside the walls, and the place put into thorough order in less time
than it would have taken one of the lazy Dutchmen to comprehend the
possibility of such a reform.
On the 30th of November, General Somerset arrived with about 500 men,
at Whittlesea, the most remote of the frontier posts, and the following
day, having been joined by Captain Tylden's force, marched through
Tambookie Land to the Umvani, where, on the 3rd of December, he was
joined by Colonel Mackinnon's party from King William's Town, making
his force amount to about 3000 men, with three guns. Lieut.-Col. Eyre
with about 1000 men moved, two days later, on the missionary settlement
of Butterworth, so that the enemy's attention being first attracted
to the General's Division, the move on that station might be effected
without danger to the inhabitants from Kreli's people, and the two
forces then moved along the course of the Kei co-operating with each
other.
On Sunday we had divine service performed by the Rev. J. Wilson, a
clergyman of the Church of England, who having been a resident in the
beleaguered fort, had, like Patrick Walker at the siege of Derry,
taken his share of duty with the little garrison, mounting guard, and
standing sentry with his musket like the rest. The best of the men's
barrack rooms served for a church, and a large hand-bell having been
rung outside to summon the few settlers living within musket-shot
of the walls, the gates were locked. The walls of our humble church
were hung round with battered arms, patched accoutrements, and water
canteens, haversacks, and all the equipments of the field; the
congregation of soldiers and settlers was large and most attentive;
the "prayers for the ending of the war," and for the "sick and wounded
within these walls," forcibly reminding us of our position, so
different from that of the congregations at that hour assembled in the
peaceful villages at home.
The change from the field to quarters was so great that we could not
get over the novelty of sitting down, to chairs and tables at our
meals, or sleeping on a bedstead and between sheets, and at first
felt much astonishment each morning on awaking to find ourselves in
bed in a barrack-room, though the said barrack-room was nothing more
than four whitewashed walls, a floor of unhewn stones, a roof of naked
rafters well browned with wood smoke, decorated, just over my bed, with
a couple of swallows' nests, the birds having taken a dirty advantage
of the broken window. The sense of suffocation at night, after so many
months sleeping in the open air, was such that we found it impossible
to sleep without every door and window wide open.
Our circle consisted of Bruce and myself; Dr. Warden the
assistant-surgeon; the worthy Chaplain, and a commissariat officer,
Mr. Hedley; totally isolated from the world, except at long intervals,
we were now locked up in the little mountain fort 5000 feet above the
level of the sea, and, with the exception of a few Dutch Laagers,
thirty miles from any human habitation but those of hostile Kaffirs.
Our little force was not more than seventy rank and file.
We had not been here more than two or three days, when the Kaffirs
swept off a Boer's cattle grazing about three miles off; we saw them
through the glass ascending the steep side of the lofty Didama, but as
they were already more than half way up, and the distance to the foot
of the ascent was at least four miles, we had to content ourselves
with watching them; for by the time we could have got about half way,
they would have been safely hidden in the extensive Zuurberg forest,
on the other side of the ridge. There were about forty Kaffirs urging
the cattle up the mountain side, and we could distinguish the forms of
others covering their ascent, and crowning the crags on the summit.
In the evening, soon after dark, as we sat smoking and chatting round
the open hearth, on which blazed a cheerful wood fire, often very
acceptable in the evenings of this lofty region, distant shots were
heard, and the sentry on the walls reported firing at the nearest
Laager, about a mile off, and at the same time two Burghers, living
close outside the gates, having been admitted, brought word that the
enemy were attacking the Laager, and they would all be cut off without
immediate assistance. Bruce, accordingly, sent me off at once with a
party of twenty-five men: the night was so dark, that when outside the
gates we hardly knew which way to move, until the flashes of muskets
in the direction of the Laager showed us to what point to steer. On
approaching the place, the moon, which had been hidden by a mass of
dark clouds, suddenly shone out clear as day, and at the same moment
we were fired upon from the rocks on our left, just above the huts
of the Fingo herds, a few balls whistling past us, though after our
shots in reply no one dead or alive was to be seen. Having with some
difficulty satisfied the suspicious Dutchman on sentry, we passed
along the side of the house, which was pierced with narrow loop-holes,
the windows being all bricked up, and leaving the men outside for a
few moments, I was admitted through some out-works of timber and mud
walls, likewise crenelled for musketry, and found myself in a large,
low, dirty room, with sacks of meal and corn, furniture, barrels, and
all sorts of supplies piled on every side, and a crowd of Dutch men,
women, and children, the former in round jackets and broad-brimmed
hats, with cow-horn powder flasks at their sides, and immense roers in
their hands, all jabbering at once; while the latter squatted round the
fire half dressed, or peeped out of the different beds allotted to each
family.
It appeared that the Kaffirs had endeavoured to carry off the sheep and
cattle from the kraal, but the unexpected resistance, and our equally
unlooked for reinforcement, had obliged them to abandon the attempt.
After the proferred "bidgte sopie," or wee dram of "Cape Smoke," which
it would have been bad manners, if not bad taste, to have refused, we
crossed the stream at the garden foot, and made our way to a second
Laager, a mile further, where firing had also been heard; one of the
Boers accompanying us as guide, and hailing the sentries in Dutch and
Kaffir on our approach. Here they were more strongly fortified, a
flanking block house and "covered way" rendering the defences complete.
As at the last farm, we found all the people sitting up in a state of
fear and excitement, the Boers and roers as before. Several Kaffirs
had shortly before been seen hovering about; the dogs giving tongue in
a manner not to be mistaken; but after making a circuit of the whole
place, we found no one, and having shown ourselves sufficiently in case
any of the enemy should be lurking about, we returned to the house. The
people were delighted to have the troops with them in such an isolated
position, and were very anxious that a part at any rate should remain
all night; the "sopie" had again to be taken and no heeltaps; waiting
till the setting moon dipped behind the hills, and all was once more
in darkness, we silently moved off by a bridle path, and without a
sound or a word regained the fort, so that any spies lurking about the
Laagers could not possibly tell we were not still there.
For some days we made patrols in different directions round the
country, constantly meeting with a magnificent pair of secretary birds,
which appeared to move in a circle of about a mile radius from the
post, and became like familiar friends. We visited the remaining two
of the inhabited houses, the inmates of which we found in a state of
barricade and constant alarm, guns loaded and capped standing in the
corners of the rooms, and the labourers working close to the house
with their roers by their sides; and one day made an excursion with a
waggon to a ruined school-house, in a lonely position at the foot of a
lofty mountain, from which we took the liberty of borrowing the forms
and tables for our unfurnished lodgings in the Fort. Nothing could be
more desolate and melancholy than the deserted building; the doors
creaked in the wind, swallows and grey spreuwe had built their nests in
every corner of the schoolroom, forlorn spelling books and catechisms
lay strewed about the ground, imprinted with the footsteps of wolves
and jackals, and the broken windows were darkened by a rank growth of
jungle and weeds.
One day soon after this, as we were returning from covering the descent
of a mounted patrol into the Kat River valley, getting occasional
shots as we wound along a Kaffir path, round a higher ridge of the
Didama, at Oribee and Rheebok, two Kaffirs were detected peeping over
the tops of some detached rocks, which lay on the smooth green slope
of the mountain side; we galloped in a few seconds across the short
intervening space, but quick as we were they had disappeared in the
most mysterious manner, and nothing was to be seen of them beyond a
few foot-prints, which could not be traced, and three horses, of which
we made prizes. While wondering whether they had sunk into the earth
or vanished in air, several distant shots fired in quick succession,
attracted our attention to a hill about a mile off, behind the fort,
and on bringing our glasses to bear on the distant puffs of white
smoke, we were astonished to perceive a large body of Kaffirs, mounted
and on foot, engaged with our outlying picquet, and a few Burghers.
Away we went full "tripple" down the mountain side, at the risk of
rolling head over heels to the bottom, dashed across the small stream
at a flying leap, and spurred up the steep banks to the post, where
we found the "alarm" signal flag flying, the gates locked, and the
troops under arms. While Bruce brought on the infantry at the double,
Hedley and I galloped up the hill and joined the Burghers, who, vastly
outnumbered, were getting the worst of it, and retiring slowly before
the enemy, who could not have been less than 300 at the very lowest
computation, a third of them mounted. About 200 of their force pressed
on the right of our little line of some two and twenty, while the
remainder hovered round the left, and our only wonder at the moment
was that they did not close upon us and annihilate the whole, which
they might soon have done; but the Kaffir has a particular dislike to
open plains and hand to hand fighting; this, and the bold determined
bearing of the burghers, alone preserved us. Still it was impossible
to hold our ground against such odds; we were being gradually driven
back by their heavy fire, and our right flank was on the point of being
turned by a fresh body of the enemy, who suddenly made their appearance
from the krantz below, and rushed yelling onwards, till the party of
infantry appeared over the rise, when they were seized with a panic,
and took to flight, the whole of the force following their example,
while we on horseback pursued them at full gallop, firing into them at
close quarters, and driving them over the edge of the krantz down into
the Koonap valley, killing and wounding many. As they scampered down
the steep rocks at our feet, crossed the little basin, and clambered
up the opposite rise, dodging among the mimosas, to get a parting
shot, we brought down many of them, counting above a dozen as they
were carried off, dead or severely wounded, thrown across the backs of
their horses or their comrades' shoulders. The chief, Macomo, who was
distinctly visible on his white horse, high up on the mountain side,
with a sort of staff round him, shouted constantly to his people,
sending mounted Kaffirs to communicate his orders to those fighting;
but when he saw his men flying he moved higher up, his white charger
grew smaller and his voice more indistinct, until he was lost to sight.
Our only casualties were a _dog_ killed, and a horse wounded.
It afterwards turned out that while we were thus engaged, a smaller
party of Kaffirs had taken advantage of the opportunity and driven off
a span of trek oxen, grazing at some little distance down the valley.
By the time we had returned and discovered the fact it was too late to
think of following them.
We found occupation and amusement for some time in surveying and making
maps of the country; improving our defences, removing detached rocks,
filling up the small quarries, of which the enemy had taken such
advantage during the siege, and building a flanking bastion, enfilading
the two unprotected faces of the fort.
For some weeks we had constant thunder and lightning every evening, at
times most terrific, at others distant, when the sheet lightning was
magnificent, continuing till eclipsed by daybreak; and we sat every
night on the _stoep_ or raised verandah, in front of our quarters,
watching the dazzling coruscations, which flashed and flickered each
moment over the whole face of the dark sky, showing for an instant
the lofty rugged grey peak of the Didama, the sentries on the wall,
and every loop-hole--leaving all in utter darkness next. On one such
night a brighter flash discovered to one of the sentries the creeping
black forms of two or three Kaffirs, making for the cattle kraal, a few
yards only from the walls. Without firing, as at the best he could only
have hit one, the sentinel quietly left the _banquette_, and reported
it to the Sergeant of the guard. We were on the stoep, enjoying the
deliciously cool midnight air after a blazing midsummer day, and
instantly snatching our rifles from the pegs in the passage, joined
the guard, and having quickly got about a score of fellows out of
bed, posted two or three at each loop-hole, with their muskets, which
had a most absurd effect as the lightning showed them standing round
the walls in their shirts, with bare legs, in solemn silence. These
arrangements having been made in less time than it takes to describe
them, by a bright flash we fired a volley at three Kaffirs whom we
saw at the kraal, when half a dozen more jumped up from different
spots, and by the flickering blue light we saw them move across, and a
volley blazed the whole length of the wall, doubtless to their great
astonishment, as all had been still as death till that instant. From
the quantity of blood spoor found next morning, many must have been
severely wounded, if not killed.
Immediately below the fort was a glorious orchard, full of peach,
nectarine, apricot, fig, plum, and pomegranate trees, the branches
literally weighed down with the glowing load of ripe fruit, which
almost as thickly strewed the grass beneath. In our constant patrols,
at every Dutch Laager and ruined farm that we came upon for miles
round, we found the same; and as the Boers at the former were most
pressing, and the owners of the latter had abandoned them, we
everywhere got as much fruit as we could conveniently eat, and the men
were, many of them, expiating their over indulgence by diarrhoea.
The ripe fields of corn, sown in hopes of a peaceful harvest, waved
uncut in many of the more distant valleys, but nearer to the post, the
English Burghers and Dutch Boers mutually assisted in the harvest,
working with their ammunition pouches on, and guns and arms within
reach. To aid these half-ruined farmers, Bruce allowed about twenty
of the soldiers to assist in reaping until all was secured, and our
men worked most willingly all day in the heat of the sun, afterwards
volunteering to help a poor old fellow who, unable to give his labour
in return, was not helped by his neighbours; reaping and getting in his
corn for him, as well as the produce of his little garden. Poor old
Hayes had seen better and brighter times, had come out to the country
with considerable means, and commenced farming with great energy on a
large scale, but he had met with a series of reverses, and the total
destruction of his property by the Kaffirs, at the commencement of
the present war, which completed his ruin, had affected his mind. He
lived at the foot of the walls in a small Kaffir hut; but in spite of
his rags and poverty, he carefully treasured up a memento of bygone
prosperous days,--in a small box he still preserved his old scarlet
hunting-coat. Too proud to the last to accept charity, the only way in
which we could relieve him was by purchasing our vegetables from him
at a liberal price. Shortly after this, his hut one night caught fire
and was burned to the ground before any water could be got; he looked
on in utter helplessness, as if overwhelmed by this crowning disaster.
When the roaring blaze was over, and nothing remained but a heap of
smouldering ashes, he was gone, and we all supposed had been taken
by some of his neighbours to their dwellings for the night. In the
morning he was found in his little garden, lying on his face, cold and
dead.
To a Peace Congress, or an Aborigines Protection Society, such a
history would suggest itself as a special retributive Providence on
the unjust aggressor; for to such philanthropists the real object
of sympathy would of course be the gentle Kaffir and the oppressed
Hottentot. Still, it is unhappily but one out of many a colonist's
history, not the less sad because unknown.
Many of the Burghers, who from the scarcity of forage could not any
longer feed their extra horses, brought them to us, offering the use of
them for their keep; and Bruce happily conceived the idea of mounting
as many of his men as he could thus procure horses for, and in a very
short time had at his disposal a party of most serviceable mounted men,
an invaluable assistance in our position in this open country.
The scenery from and around the post was of a character totally
different from anything we had before seen in the country. In place of
the endless bush and wooded kloofs and hills were smooth grassy plains,
and mountains verdant to their broken summits. The Didama, in front of
the fort, rose abruptly to a vast height, crowned by a sharp-pointed
peak of most rugged and fantastic form; on the left stretched the
flat-topped range of the Winterberg, on which, from our verandah,
ostriches and hartebeest were occasionally seen with the glass; and
bounding its western extremity rose the lofty and remarkable "Great
Winterberg" (seen from all points, and equally visible at Botha's Hill,
near Graham's Town), white with snow, which glistened in changing hues
of rose in the setting sun.
In the valley at the foot of the nearer range were some romantic
kloofs in which were the ruins of several farm houses, which must have
been fine situations in time of peace, warm and sheltered, luxuriant in
vegetation, with orangeries, vineyards, and orchards of peaches, figs,
and nectarines, shut in by green, sloping mountains, on which their
cattle found excellent grazing, and well supplied with water from the
rocky burns which bubbled down from the hills to the river in the lower
valley. Now these lately prosperous and peaceful homes were burnt and
blackened ruins, the four walls alone standing, the orchards overgrown,
and rusted implements of husbandry strewed about, or left as they
had been used on the day of flight or attack. One, in particular, at
Hartebeest Fontein, deserves mention, belonging to a veteran tar, named
Smith, who had served under Nelson, and been for many years a prisoner
in France, where he had married a French girl, whose history was as
eventful as his own, and who still lived with him at Post Retief, and
shared his misfortunes at threescore and ten. The house bore ample
marks of a desperate conflict and resistance, the walls being literally
riddled with balls, some three or four hundred at the very least. The
attack had lasted nearly thirty hours, the little band of fifteen or
sixteen defenders, under the direction of the gallant old tar, then
upwards of seventy, never leaving their posts at the loop-holes the
whole time; only one of their number was killed, and so gallant and
determined was their resistance, that the enemy at last abandoned the
capture or destruction of the house as impracticable, and retired,
carrying off, however, nearly 1000 sheep, and all the cattle, horses,
and corn.
At the only other farm house near us, beside those mentioned in our
night expedition, on a former page, the windows were bricked up,
leaving only a few narrow loop-holes; we found the proprietor a
perfect specimen of a Dutch Boer, with the universal round jacket and
broad-brimmed hat, sitting on the stoep in front of his solitary house
smoking the usual green-stone pipe in solemn silence. Saluting us with
a "Goen dag, Baas," as we rode up, he requested us to walk in; so
dismounting, we entered a large comfortless room, with a stone floor,
dimly lighted by the narrow loop-holes, and half filled with sacks of
meal, and heaps of Indian corn. His vrouw, of course, was sitting, as
usual, in a large chair, doing nothing; but he hospitably produced
the Cape Smoke, which was made from figs, and as we drank our sopie,
we patiently listened to a long account of his losses and grievances,
having already acquired sufficient Dutch to converse fluently and
understand all he said. After duly reciting all his troubles, which
by the way had not affected his bodily frame much, he led us into the
vineyard, where we found abundance of the most deliciously flavoured
grapes, one sort, called the "honey-pot," especially so, and of immense
size. The vineyards are of considerable extent, and the vines kept in
standard bushes about the size of a large gooseberry tree.
The manufacture of Cape wines, Pontac, and Cape Smoke, is very
considerable; the latter is a kind of whiskey, of a peculiar, and to
many, disagreeable flavour. The best is obtained from grapes, though
it is also made from figs and peaches. At all the farms were large
vineyards; those in the vicinity of the post carefully tended, but
a few miles distant, at the deserted houses, grew in wild untrimmed
luxuriance, the ripe grapes dropping to the ground unheeded.
The vintage is an odd and picturesque scene; strings of Fingo women
and girls, bear baskets of white and purple grapes on their heads to
the vats, where the men tread them out, singing monotonous ditties,
while the big drops of perspiration fall plentifully from their shining
faces, and mingle with the rich juice oozing from between their black
toes.
One of our daily patrolling parties returned on the 19th with a boy
and a couple Hottentot women prisoners. They had been robbing a
neighbouring farm, and were caught returning to the Waterkloof with
their skin-sacks filled with half-ripe fruit and vegetables. We got out
of them on cross-examination, that on the day of their last attack,
when we pursued them with twenty horsemen only, that they had five
Kaffirs killed on the field, and nine others, Kaffirs and Totties,
wounded, several of whom had since died. We also learned that the enemy
were meditating an attack upon us that night or the night following.
In consequence of this warning, the truth of which there was no reason
to doubt, we brought the cattle within walls at sunset, doubled the
sentries after tattoo, and kept a sharp look out. About midnight the
silence was gradually broken by the cries of night-hawks and hyænas,
and the barking of jackals answering each other far and near round the
walls, which, however, were in reality the signals of savages apprising
their confederates of our unexpected state of preparation. After a
time, the sounds, so admirably imitated, grew less frequent, till they
died away altogether. The morning showed us the soft ground marked on
three sides of the fort with the prints of bare feet and veldt schoenen.
Every evening we continued to be visited by most appalling storms of
thunder and lightning, but generally without rain. The continued peals
rolled and echoed in a most imposing manner among the surrounding
mountains. A Hottentot boy was killed one afternoon by the lightning.
Christmas Day had now come round, but instead of snow outside, and a
roaring fire within, it was a roasting, broiling midsummer day, too hot
to stir till after sunset, when we sat on the stoep unbonnetted and
in shirt sleeves, smoking far into the night, listening to the shrill
chirp of the cicada and piping of the bullfrog, and talking of home and
distant friends. We had neither wine nor grog to drink to their health
and happiness, but pledged them cordially in coffee.
The Boers reporting a body of rebels to be living in one of the
deserted farms of the Koonap valley, we set out with a party of
mounted men to look them up; but, as far as the object of our ride was
concerned, we had our trouble for nothing. We went round the foot of
the hills by an extremely difficult path, along the face of a steep
declivity overhanging the rocky bed of the river; up steep shingly
ascents, and down steps or ledges of rock four or five feet deep, our
horses jumping nimbly down after us, as none but Cape horses could.
The farm was tenantless, and still as death, though there was plenty
of spoor quite fresh; a small fire was still smouldering in one of the
roofless chambers, and the ground under the fruit trees, which were
perfectly stripped, was thickly trampled. The rebels had decamped, and
were probably looking down on us from the mountain crags above.
We killed here an immense cobra capello, which rose erect a full yard
above the long grass; spreading out his broad flat hood, he darted most
savagely after a dog, and at a pace I should have thought impossible
for anything in the form of a snake. Returning by the hill, we put up a
fine leopard, or, as it is invariably called, a tiger, and got several
shots as it bounded down the mountain side, but, from the extraordinary
way in which it doubled and leaped, we all missed it.
December 31st.--A convoy of waggons from Fort Beaufort, with supplies
for our garrison, having come within a few miles of us, and stuck fast
at the foot of a steep mountain road, called Botha's Rant, we went down
at dawn with all the available force that could be spared, to their
assistance. Each waggon had to be unloaded before it could be moved a
single foot up the steep slippery path, and the men had every sack and
barrel to carry up to the top of the hill.
Taking advantage of the additional force of this escort, we made a
patrol into Kaal Hoek, where parties of rebel Hottentots were said
to be living on the deserted farms. Bruce, with about two hundred
infantry, took up a position a few miles from the Post, on a high
hill commanding the country below; while I, with a party of about
twenty-five mounted men, made a circuit through the valley from south
to north, encountering some very bad and dangerous ground. Several of
the party got severe falls in deep holes hidden by the long waving
grass that reached to our saddle girths; one entirely disappeared,
horse and all, in a collection of holes made by the ant-bears, and
dislocated his wrist. In fact, it was always rather nervous work
riding over these plains, which every body does at a canter; for,
independently of the fall, if one happens to be in the rear of a party,
the chances are ten to one against the accident being noticed; and
then, as the horses usually take themselves off on such occasions, the
unlucky rider is left on foot to the mercy of lurking Kaffirs, and
probably with some bodily hurt, or a broken rifle. This may account for
the rate at which such parties invariably ride, as every one tries to
keep his horse well up in front.
In our progress each deserted farm was surrounded and carefully
examined; but, though the spoor was plentiful, it was nowhere less than
two days old, and no one was to be found. The crops had been carried
off half-ripe, and every fruit tree stripped bare. We came in our route
on the remains of the Tottie woman accidentally killed by the Dutchmen;
her skull and a few rags were all that was to be seen. After a circuit
of about thirty miles, we returned to the Post, where we found one
of our men, M'Linden, at his last breath; he died very soon after,
having been ill only a few hours. Two days previously he had helped
in building a wall of loose stones round the graves of our departed
comrades buried outside the fort, and now, before our work was half
completed, he had found his last resting-place in the same enclosure.
He was a brave soldier, and we followed his body to the grave with real
sorrow.