1878--THE GAIKAS AND PERIE BUSH
British and Dutch Volunteers--Brabant--Bowker, a Colonial Staff
Officer--Gaika woman sells her child for a shin bone of
beef--Volunteers return home--The Tutu Bush--Saltmarshe
killed--Stevens wounded--A brave Colour-Sergeant--Redvers
Buller slides down a cliff--Death of Sandilli.
The General’s intention was to drive the Gaikas from the Gwili-Gwili
Mountain, the north-west end of the range, where most of them were,
towards the south of the Buffalo Poort, where a line of our people
awaited them. The Keiskamma Hoek column, composed of 300 Whites (85
being soldiers) and 300 Fingoes, was to climb the rugged western face
of the mountain, begin and direct the attack, while Commandant Frost
with 500 mounted men was to ascend from the direction of St. Matthew’s,
north-east of the Hoek, and join hands with me. Streatfield with 250
Fingoes was to ascend the Rabula Height, and Captain Brabant with about
200 Whites was to go up from Bailie’s Grave and follow in support of
the right of Wood’s column. Troops were placed east of the mountain to
prevent the Gaikas going towards the Kei.
On the afternoon of the 16th, when riding towards Kabousie Nek to
concert measures with Commandant Frost, I met him riding with Major
Buller to call on me. He lived near Queenstown, whence he had brought
500 Burghers, many Dutchmen. He was for a South African farmer wealthy,
and in addition to great moral courage his personal cool bravery was
remarkable even amongst daring spirits. I saw him watch unmoved his
eldest boy, serving as a Burgher, fired on at close quarters by a
Kafir. The lad escaped, though the stock of the carbine he was aiming
was cut in twain by the Kafir’s bullet. Frost later, from his place in
the Legislative Assembly, criticised in strongly worded adverse terms
the Burgher system of using untrained Levies without discipline.
Having arranged our concentration for daylight on the 18th, I rode
southward to Bailie’s Grave to impress on Captain Brabant the part
he was to play in the drive, as to ensure success he must wait until
we passed him. At sunset on the 17th, Mr. Bowker and his troop of
Grahamstown farmers had not arrived. Mr. Barber with 50 Cradock men,
many being Dutchmen, had been for some days at the Hoek. Their leader
was over six feet high, strongly built, with a fine handsome face, and
such frank manners as to render all duties with him a pleasure.
At 9 p.m. I paraded my little Force, Mr. Bowker having arrived.
Above the Hoek our Fingoe scouts had counted over 1000 Gaikas on the
Gwili-Gwili Mountain, and I had seen enough of the climb, 2000 feet
above us, to have made me uneasy, but that our Fingoes were within
300 feet of the crest, which I hoped to reach at daylight, while the
Gaikas were still chilled by cold. Although the entire distance was
only 8 miles from the Hoek, the actual ascent was severe, and would in
daylight, if opposed, have been costly in lives. Leaving at 10 p.m., we
marched in single file through thick bush up a path so steep and rugged
as to oblige us to dismount at 1 a.m. Messrs. Lonsdale, Barber, and I
led, and without having halted we reached the crest only at daylight,
climbing the last 300 yards through boulders of rock which a dozen
determined men might have held for hours.
Fourteen days of very hard work combined with little sleep had brought
a return of my neuralgic pains, which, although not severe, obliged
me to take doses of chloral and bismuth, and foreseeing that I might
be on the mountain for three days, I took the precaution of getting a
large bottle from a doctor in King William’s Town, who enjoined me on
no account to finish it until the third day. When we started my pain
was worse, and it increased as I climbed, with the result that when we
reached the top of the mountain and I sat down on a stone to rest, I
had finished the bottle, and was tormented with acute thirst. I asked
each Burgher as he came up for a drink, but there was not one of them
who had put any water in his bottle of “Cape Smoke,” and so I had to
endure the thirst until, the day having broken, we moved on, and came
to a stream.
The Gaikas retired from the clear plateau of the Gwili-Gwili Mountain,
and after breakfast Barber’s and Bowker’s Colonials and Streatfield’s
Fingoes descended into a deep ravine which intervenes between
Gwili-Gwili and Rabula Heights, whence the Burghers emerged late in the
afternoon, exhausted by their climb.
Captain Brabant had an easier ascent, up which, indeed, we took waggons
two months later. When he gained the crest at daylight, he saw two
miles below him, to the eastward, some Kafirs and cattle in an open
glade, and advanced till he had dense bush on either hand.[144] The
Kafirs opened fire, and Brabant fell back with some slight loss,
Streatfield, who went to help Brabant out, having an officer killed.
This impatient disregard of orders spoilt the General’s plan. Late that
evening a path across the intervening ravine was found, which Frost’s
men and the Hoek columns crossed next day. The night was cold; most of
the men had a blanket, but as we were carrying three days’ food, the
officers had left their blankets below. I personally did not suffer,
for Mr. Lonsdale emerged from the Bush at sundown, near Brabant’s
bivouac, too tired to attempt to return, so Captain Nixon, Royal
Engineers, and I sheltered under the Magistrate’s waterproof sheet.
When we were having our coffee before advancing next morning, Captain
Nixon, who had given me much aid as a Staff officer, warned me that
he had overheard the Burghers say that they intended to refuse to
enter the Bush. I took no notice until the men were falling in at
daylight, when the two Leaders came to me, saying that the men declined
to go into the Bush, as it was not a fit place for Europeans, and
they suggested that the driving of the main valley should be done by
Fingoes. I replied, “I do not agree with you; we have got our orders,
and you are to take your men through the Bush.” “But the men will not
go, they are all determined.” “Well, gentlemen, I shall write to the
General that you refuse to obey orders, and having sent off my letter I
shall go in with this company of the 24th Regiment. We shall probably
not do the work as well as you can, but if I become a casualty I do not
envy your position.” I said no more, and in a quarter of an hour the
Burghers entered the Bush, from which they did not emerge till late
in the afternoon, when some of them, hearing I was going through the
ravine to the south end of the range, where Captain Brabant had been
repulsed, formed a guard round me so that I could not be hit except
through the bodies of my escort. Until they went home, we never had
another difference, and they endeavoured to anticipate my wishes.[145]
Next morning Commandant Frost and his men followed the Hoek column
across the ravine, and bivouaced in the glade whence Captain Brabant
was driven on the 18th of March; Brabant moving a mile farther south on
the mountain range. As we advanced the Kafirs disappeared in the Bush,
followed by Mr. Lonsdale and his Fingoes. Neither Kafirs nor Zulus
fight on two successive days, unless compelled to do so.
When Lonsdale’s Fingoes went down the Buffalo Poort, 500 women and
children came out of the Bush as the Fingoes advancing came near
them. The poor creatures had nothing on except a blanket, and this we
were obliged to remove to search for powder and lead, which many of
them carried. When the operations ceased for the day, I was willing
to let them return to their husbands, as I could not feed them; but
they refused to go back, not knowing where they would find their men,
and moreover fearing ill-treatment at the hands of the Fingoes.
The starving women sat on a hill which rose from the plateau on the
mountain for twenty-six hours, and suffered severely from cold and want
of food. I was called to them, as one wished to complain to me of a
Dutchman who she said had taken away her child. The Dutchman, who was
in Commandant Frost’s Contingent, admitted he had the boy, but added
that he had given its mother a shin bone of beef for the child; this
the mother acknowledged, but she was unwilling to give back the beef
even to obtain her boy. I compromised the matter to the satisfaction
of both parties, by giving the man five shillings for his beef and
restoring the child to its mother.
There was another woman with a baby apparently on the point of death,
and I gave its mother a small bag of biscuits. When we carried out the
same operation on the 8th May, about half the number of women came
out of the Bush, and on seeing them I said to the interpreter, “Why,
Paliso, here are some of the same women.” “Oh no, master; these are
Seyolo’s, and the others were Sandilli’s women.” “I can see identically
the same women,” I replied, and accosting a young woman with fine
eyes, I talked to her through the interpreter for a few minutes, and
then asked her if she was up in the same place last moon. “Yes,” she
replied. “Is the woman here who had the sick baby?” “Yes, she is eight
or ten farther down.” “Well, I recognise you--do you recognise me?”
She looked steadily at me, and replied, “No; all White men’s faces are
exactly alike.” Which is the reproach we level at the Kafirs.
On the 20th a thick fog prevented our seeing more than 40 yards, so
movements of troops became impossible, and many of the Gaikas passed
out of the Perie Bush unseen by us on the mountain or by the troops
who were guarding the roads 2000 feet below us. Frost and I went
to Brabant’s bivouac, and arranged a drive for the 21st March. The
Hoek column was to line the path which led to Haynes’ Mill; Frost
was to remain on the crest near Brabant’s bivouac, to prevent Kafirs
breaking back towards Gwili-Gwili; while Brabant, who knew more of the
Perie Bush than any other Colonial present, was to descend the other
precipitous side and work eastwards towards the path lined by the Hoek
column.
Brabant had greatly underrated the difficulties of his task. He entered
the Bush at 8 a.m., and almost immediately came on a precipice, down
which his men swung themselves on monkey ropes.[146] He failed to move
eastwards, and after a determined effort emerged at 5 p.m. on the plain
almost due south of where he entered the Bush, consequently neither
Frost’s men nor the Hoek column saw a Kafir, and at sunset I sent the
troops down the mountain, having there no food for men or horses.
The apparent result of our three days’ operations, and four days’
residence on the mountain, was not commensurate with the discomfort we
underwent. We killed an unknown number of Gaikas, took several horses
and some cattle, with 17 casualties, Whites and Blacks, but on the
other hand the Gaikas had never before been harassed in the Buffalo
Poort.
When the troops descended, I rode down the mountain and round by
Bailie’s Grave to General Thesiger’s camp at Haynes’ Mill. About
6 miles from the camp I came on a small Draft recently landed,
consisting of a young officer and a dozen men, on their way to join the
Headquarters of the battalion. Their waggon had broken down, and they
were in a state of excitement, having just killed a Kafir. After a few
minutes’ conversation, I went on to the General’s camp, but missed him,
he having gone round by the eastern side of the mountain to see me. I
dined with the General’s Staff officer, and at half-past nine, with a
bright full moon, started back on a well-worn waggon track. When we got
about 80 yards from the waggon, four shots rang out sharply, striking
the ground at my horse’s feet. The two orderlies Frontier Light Horse
unslung their rifles to fire back, but I stopped them, and on riding
up found the small Draft, which apparently had not yet recovered from
their excitement, had mistaken us for a party of Kafirs coming to
attack them. The Musketry Instructor of the battalion was living with
me as a guest, and had told us the day before we went up the mountain
of the great improvement he had effected in the shooting of the men. He
was consequently much chaffed when it became known that the Regimental
Armourer and three first-class shots had missed four horsemen at 80
yards distance.
I had been in the saddle several days from 4 a.m. till 7 p.m., and
rode throughout the night of the 21st-22nd March, when my horse died
of exhaustion. The work told on me, and I had to go to bed for three
days, having a high temperature. I was at duty again, however, on the
27th, when we received orders for another drive. The General went
up the Cwengwe Valley to Mount Kempt, leaving the direction of the
operations in my hands, regarding which the Staff officer, Captain F.
Grenfell,[147] wrote, “The Lieutenant-General gives Colonel Evelyn Wood
the greatest latitude for these operations.”
Commandant Frost having joined the General’s column, which consisted
of two companies of the 24th Regiment, with two guns, at Mount Kempt,
was sent round from the north-east to ascend the Gwili-Gwili Mountain.
Captain Brabant, placed under my orders, was to ascend the Rabula
Heights. On this occasion the orders were executed, but the result of
the operations was meagre, for the Gaikas evaded us; we now pitched our
camp on the mountain plateau, and our presence annoying the Gaikas even
more than the drives, as they could not emerge from the Bush to bask in
the sun and graze their cattle.
The next week we saw but little of the Kafirs, for all the White
men were employed in cutting broad paths in the Bush, while the
Fingoes were carrying our tents and baggage up the mountain. When we
had got enough food up, we tried another drive, but the result was
unsatisfactory; the paths, however, annoyed the Gaikas, as they could
not drive their cattle across the glades without being seen, and thus
some fell into our hands immediately.
Nearly all the Burghers had now gone home: they disliked being on the
mountain, where their horses suffered from cold. They had enlisted
for three months, a month of which was to be allowed for the return
journey, and although in deference to the General’s wish they had
stayed on for another drive, their patience had now become exhausted.
Like all amateur soldiers, they varied greatly in quality. Many were
landowners, well off, and serving for the love of their country; others
were men attracted by the pay of 5s. per diem, which was more than they
could earn in the towns and villages or on farms. To the reproach
that they were leaving before the fighting was over, they replied, “We
got leave from our employers for three months; if we stay on, will the
Government guarantee us work, if our employers refuse it?” And to this
reasonable question no answer was obtainable.
On the 5th April, 700 Fingoes having arrived from the Transkei
District, the General arranged another drive, to start from Mount
Kempt, where he took up his position, straight down the Buffalo Poort
to Haynes’ Mill. The Fingoes were, however, undisciplined, and fired
away twenty rounds a man, without any adequate results. It is only fair
to state that they had no such leader as had the Hoek Fingoes in Mr.
Lonsdale, whose men were not given more than five rounds for a day’s
operations. We moved that morning at 4 a.m., and were in our assigned
positions at six, and after eleven hours, in which 1500 Fingoes
searched the Bush while the soldiers lined the paths, the result was
indeed incommensurate: 3 Gaikas killed.
When I returned to the Hoek late at night, I heard that Captain
Warren,[148] Royal Engineers, with a troop of the Diamond Field Horse,
had been surrounded by 1500 Kafirs, and arranged to start at 3.30
next morning to his relief. Sleep was impossible, for Mr. Streatfield
arrived at midnight, and Mr. Lonsdale at 2 a.m., and it was necessary
to concert with these gentlemen the movements of the Fingoes westwards.
I heard at daylight, when at Bailie’s Grave Post, the correct story of
Captain Warren’s skirmish the previous day; he had skilfully ambushed
Seyolo,[149] whose men fled. On the 4th April, Seyolo induced the tribe
to rise, and with 500 men was seen crossing the Debe Flats early on the
5th April, making for the Tutu Bush. Captain Warren concealed about
50 men in a hollow, from which they fired with effect. Seyolo charged
bravely, but 20 of his men fell, and the tribe scattered in the Bush,
leaving many of their wives behind.
I anticipated the General would come down from Mount Kempt, and so
waited for a couple of hours, when he appeared, and approved of my
suggestion that I should go westward, and prevent the Kafirs breaking
out north-west to the Amatola Basin. At Burns Hill I found a company of
the 90th Light Infantry, and two miles farther off I heard of another.
Ordering the men of both companies to eat, and parade as soon as
possible in shirt sleeves, they marched off within an hour, going up
the Makabalekile Ridge. I preceded them with 8 men, my personal Escort,
and picked up near Burns Hill 80 Fingoes and 80 Hottentots. I carried
them on with me, leaving orders for two Squadrons of the Frontier
Light Horse, coming from Bailie’s Grave, to follow me. The Bush on
the Makabalekile Ridge extends for about 1500 yards, then there is an
undulating plateau, named Tutu, extending a mile from east to west, and
a mile and a half from north to south, the plateau being bounded on its
east side by a deep ravine running practically north and south, called
the Zanyorkwe. Just as my 8 men arrived, riding in extended order,
a body of Kafirs ran out of the ravine, but were driven back by my
escort, and the Fingoes coming up, I extended them at intervals along
the edge of the Bush. When two hours later the Frontier Light Horse and
a company of 90th Light Infantry arrived, I sent them down into the
Bush, and was superintending these movements when I saw the Fingoes,
whom I had left fairly steady, running rapidly. Cantering up to them,
I soon perceived the reason: bullets were striking all around them,
the line battalion on the high ground to the east of the Intaba Indoda
Ravine having mistaken the Fingoes for Kafirs. As I led the former back
to the edge of the Bush, hoping that the Regiment, which was only 1400
yards off, would recognise I was a European officer, the Artillery
dropped a shell 40 yards from us; I noticed the Fingoes, like myself,
had not the same fear of shells that they had of the bullets, and after
three or four minutes the firing ceased, except for an occasional
over-shot fired at Seyolo’s men, who were in the Bush close underneath
us. We learned next day that the Transkei Fingoes had disappointed the
General, for they were driven back three times, and for several hours
left the body of two of their White officers in the hands of Seyolo’s
men.
I lost four horses, which was provoking, but in a manner which made me
admire the audacity of the Kafirs. After I had re-established my line
of Fingoes, some 20 Gaikas ran out in the open, from a spot where the
Fingoe line was weak. The position was awkward, because I had nobody
with me except my personal escort of 8 men and the horse-holders of the
Frontier Light Horse, the other men being all below in the Bush. When
we fired, the horses broke away from the horse-holders and careered
over the plateau, four of them running northwards in a narrow glade
where the Bush closes in on either hand. The horses chased by my
orderly ran close to the trees, from which Gaikas darting out pulled
them into bush so dense that our men who were in the ravine, and later
emerged close to the place, saw neither Kafirs nor horses.
At nightfall we marched back to Burns Hill, where I had to provide
food and shelter for the hungry, coatless companies, 90th Light
Infantry. They sheltered in the Mission Church, and as there were
sheep close at hand, lumps of mutton were soon broiled on the fires.
Next day Lonsdale’s and Streatfield’s Fingoes moving from the Rabula
Valley through the Tutu Bush, killed 20 of Seyolo’s men with but few
casualties, while with the 90th companies and Frontier Light Horse
I held the plateau. On the following day the Fingoes advancing from
the Rabula, with two companies of the 90th and Frontier Light Horse,
again went through the Tutu Bush and drove out some of Seyolo’s men,
who, after a skirmish with the General’s small Force, then encamped at
Bailie’s Grave, succeeded in getting across to the Buffalo Range. Next
day I heard that another small tribe had broken out and were making for
the Tutu, and I followed them with a few mounted men, but only overtook
their women, the men escaping into the Zanyorkwe Ravine.
Now for about three weeks the Rebels remained unmolested, and Seyolo
appreciating the situation, coming down from the Intaba Indoda
Bush, destroyed all the Fingoe huts within two miles, carrying off
large supplies of food and cattle. On the 23rd April he attacked
Streatfield’s Fingoes, but was beaten back, although they were obliged
to shift their camp, as it was too close into the Bush.
Captain Bowker,[150] whose men had all gone home, came to me as a
Staff officer, and was very useful in many ways, as I was new to the
country. He told me a great deal that was interesting, and was one of
those who agreed with me as to our obligations in sparing Kafirs who
no longer resisted. Many of the Colonists with whom I had talked had
disagreed with me on this subject, alleging that as the Kafirs never
spared us we should treat them in a similar manner. Several said to me
on the Buffalo Mountains, “You don’t understand; the women you want to
feed would gladly inflict nameless tortures on you if you were their
prisoner.”
The Volunteers having gone home, the General was now left with only one
battalion and two guns, for the Transkei Fingoes being untrustworthy
had been disarmed. We could not satisfactorily clear the Intaba Indoda
Range with Lonsdale’s men, and so for three weeks the Gaikas were
unmolested. The broken country in the valley of the Zanyorkwe River,
about 6 miles from north to south, and 10 miles from east to west of
the ravine, is clothed with thick bush, the densest part of which gives
its name, Tutu, to all the adjoining woods. The neck of land connecting
the Kafirs’ stronghold with the Buffalo Range, 4 miles farther east, is
generally speaking covered with bush, with an opening of a mile near
Bailie’s Grave; thus our difficulties were greatly increased by the
vicinity of these two natural strongholds of the Gaikas.
The General had urged the Colonial Government to collect more
Volunteers, and I was instructed to raise all the Fingoes I could in
the District to the north-west of King William’s Town, Tini Macomo,
son of Sandilli, and Chief of the Fort Beaufort District Gaikas, being
then in the Tutu Bush. General Thesiger took me to Fort Beaufort, and
being satisfied there were no armed rebels in the District, ordered
the 90th Light Infantry to Burns Hill, to work under my command, the
Lieutenant-Colonel remaining at Fort Beaufort, in command of some
Hottentots.
I was glad to see the Water Kloof, of which I had read a good deal. It
appeared to our forefathers very difficult, but they never penetrated
the Perie Bush, with which it cannot compare as a natural stronghold
for the Black man. The Water Kloof ravines are not nearly so deep
or rugged as are those in the Perie, and the Bush is broken up by
intervening patches of cultivation.
At the end of April the General’s preparations for driving the Tutu
Bush were complete. He was to direct the operations on the eastern,
and I on the western side; he kept under his own command the 2nd
24th Regiment, some Fingoes, 4 guns and White Volunteers under Von
Linsingen, who had raised also 600 loyal Kafirs. Generally speaking,
Bowker’s Rovers were to hold the mouth of the Zanyorkwe Ravine,
Lonsdale and Streatfield were to move from it, with the two companies
of the 90th Light Infantry under Major Hackett up through the Bush,
while Von Linsingen was to advance from Debe Flats, and join me on the
Tutu Plateau, which I was to gain by passing up Makabalekile Ridge,
with three companies of my Regiment, and about 100 men of the Diamond
Field Light Horse, and a company of Hottentots.
On the evening of the 29th April, Seyolo, who was aware of our
operations, undertook to hold the ridge himself against me, and boasted
that he would capture the guns if they were taken up the Bush path. He
commanded on the Tutu Plateau, while Tini Macomo was to hold the Tutu
Bush itself.
At daylight on the 30th, the General having got into position on the
eastern crest of the Zanyorkwe Ravine, shelled the rebel bivouac. Tini
Macomo at once dispersed into the Tutu Ravine, while all Seyolo’s men
hastened westwards to support their piquets, who were already ambushed
on the Makabalekile Ridge. It was covered with bush from 150 to 200
yards wide, from north to south, and extended for 1500 yards, through
which the attacking Force had to pass before it reached the open
plateau.
The General had written to me on the 29th, saying he expected to see
me on the plateau half an hour after daylight, to which I replied, “I
will start in good time, but I shall not be there so early if Seyolo
knows what to do.”
One of the best companies in the battalion was commanded by Captain
Stevens, who was fortunate in having an excellent Colour-Sergeant.
It was the last company to come in from Fort Beaufort, and I invited
Stevens and his Subaltern, Lieutenant Saltmarshe, to mess with me. I
gave them a good dinner at seven o’clock on the 29th, and awoke them
soon after midnight, when they, being young, consumed a 2 lb. tin of
Cambridge sausages and a couple of chops. Saltmarshe seeing that I took
nothing but a cup of cocoa, said to me chaffingly, “You don’t eat,
sir; are you nervous?” I said, “Yes; but even at your age I could not
breakfast heartily at 1.15 a.m., having dined at 7 p.m. the previous
evening.” At dinner-time, Stevens, who had been intimate with me at
Aldershot, had asked whether he might lead the Attack, and I replied
that such was my intention. I was somewhat later in getting into
position than I had intended, for after extending a company on either
side of the timber-waggon track, which was about 6 feet in breadth, I
was obliged to post personally a company and two guns which I intended
to fire along the southern crest of the Tutu Plateau, on which I knew
that any Kafirs reinforcing those already on the Makabalekile Ridge
would pass. The Officer commanding the company was short-sighted, and
so unfortunately was the Lieutenant in command of the two guns, and
although later several bodies of Kafirs passed within short range
not a round was fired at them. When I cantered up, after placing the
guns, Stevens said, “You promised we should lead, and you have left
us behind.” “Yes,” I said, “but now come on.” Riding in front of the
company, I led it on the track into the Bush. We had scarcely got 100
yards when a fine stalwart Kafir advanced as if to shake hands; he
had apparently heard the guns moving on the flank, and did not see
us until I told one of the men to shoot him. Fire was now opened on
either side of the path, on which the company was advancing in file,
and I told Stevens, who was in front, to press on. As he did so, Mr.
Saltmarshe ran after him, but catching him by the collar as he passed,
for I was still mounted, I said, “Go back to the rear.” “Why?” he
asked, somewhat impatiently. “Because I order you;” then seeing from
the lad’s face he felt the rebuke, I added, “I do not want, my boy, all
my eggs in one basket.” Ten minutes later, when we had advanced 400
or 500 yards, or one-third of the distance to the plateau, the firing
increased in intensity, especially on the northern side, although
nearly all the bullets cut the trees, and at one time my pony’s back
was covered with leaves, which fell like snow in a winter scene at a
theatre. The Gaikas approached closer and closer, till a Kafir, almost
touching Stevens, fired, and knocked a big hole in his face. I was
sitting in the centre of the company, and beckoning to Saltmarshe, as
his Captain was carried away, said, “Now it is your turn.” I noticed
that, although his face was set, and he was still eager to fight,
yet the fall of his friend had sobered him, for he asked in a quiet
voice, “What am I to do, sir?” “Go to the head of the company, fire two
or three rounds, then advance 50 yards and drop again.” He had made
one advance only, when a Gaika fired so close to him that his chest
was knocked away by the charge. The Rebels now made a rush, and the
Hottentots, who were on the southern side of the path, whence there
came but little fire, ran down the path, carrying with them half a
dozen of my men, who had been near Saltmarshe. Colour-Sergeant Smith, a
little man, so short that I often wondered who could have enlisted him,
had a heart entirely out of proportion to the size of his body, using
most opprobrious language to the men, led them forward again.
I sent back for Major Cherry, who was in command of the detachment, as
the company was now without officers. At that moment Captain Stuart
Smith, Royal Artillery, asked if he might bring up a gun, and on my
saying I was afraid we should not get the horses clear of the muzzles,
he observed cheerfully, “Oh, it does not matter if we shoot them;” and
in a couple of minutes he had two guns unlimbered, and firing case
into the Bush close on the ground from whence most of the fatal shots
had come. Major Cherry now led on the company, and in a few minutes
the Gaikas drew off, and we got on to the plateau with but little
further loss. I then reaped the advantage of my ride the previous day
to Alice (Fort Hare), where I had bought several yards of calico,
for with a strange want of forethought the signalling equipment had
been left at Cape Town. I was now able to report to General Thesiger
across the ravine, for we were standing only 1600 yards apart, and the
Gaikas had been driven below the plateau into the ravine. This fight
ended disastrously for Seyolo’s men; our columns converging at the
common centre, met them as they tried each avenue of escape, and after
nightfall, crossing the King William’s Town-Keiskamma Hoek road, they
took refuge in the Perie Bush.
When we were on the mountain plateau in March, we felt the want of
guns, to prevent the Kafirs coming out to bask in the sun without
taking the trouble to attack them, so I was anxious, now we had to
follow Seyolo’s men, to take the 7-pounders up, although I had been
told it was utterly impossible to get anything on wheels up the face
of the Rabula Mountain, which looks at a distance precipitous. Captain
Stuart Smith, under the orders of Major Harness, Royal Artillery,
accomplished the feat. He hooked in 48 oxen, and then, putting a
pair of staunch wheelers in front, attached them to the horns of the
leading pair of oxen. The horses, although often on their knees, kept
the oxen in a straight line, and the whole team, urged by some twenty
Africanders with long whips, eventually got both guns up to within 100
feet of the crest, whence they were hauled up by a company 90th Light
Infantry. We began work after nightfall on the 7th, and by daylight on
the 8th were on the mountain: with 4 companies 90th Light Infantry, 2
guns, the Frontier Light Horse, and 1500 Fingoes. Sandilli and Seyolo
had been warned of our attack by the so-called loyal Kafirs, and the
actual number of Gaikas killed was less than in other drives; but a
determined attack led by Major Redvers Buller so demoralised the Rebels
that they never again attempted to resist white men. Buller, with a
Squadron Frontier Light Horse, following some straggling Kafirs on the
wooded precipice overlooking Haynes’ Mill, was fired on, and though he
drove the enemy from the edge of the Bush, they held some rocks 50 feet
down, and a few men sat in high trees, which enabled them to fire on
the plateau.
Just as I arrived from another part of the elevated plateau, which
consisted of a series of terraces, Captain McNaghten, Frontier Light
Horse, fell mortally wounded. Major Buller reported that there were
only 30 Kafirs immediately below him, the man who shot McNaghten
being in a tree farther westward along the precipice. He explained
that most of the enemy were behind a big rock, 40 feet down, a place
so steep that you could not go down without holding on, or sliding,
so it was difficult to turn them out as I wished, and he demurred to
the inevitable loss of men in the operation. I suggested that it was
only the first man down who was likely to be shot, and signalling to
Captain Laye,[151] who was on a terrace 200 feet below me, he brought
up his company. While he was climbing up, I told Commandant Lonsdale to
take his men into the Bush and extend them higher up the valley, and
Commandant Maclean to do the same farther westwards, with orders to
work round the spot where the Kafirs were lying concealed. I explained
the operation and its dangers to Captain Laye, telling him he was to
sit and slide down the rock, ordering one of his most trustworthy men
to keep close to him. Just as the company, which had extended while in
“dead” ground, approached the edge of the precipice, Buller jumping
up, shouted, “Frontier Light Horse, you will never let those redcoats
beat you,” and forming himself into a toboggan, he slid down, under
fire, which fortunately passed over his head, and most of the Kafirs
disappeared before he regained his footing.
Coincident with Buller’s slide, some of Lonsdale’s Fingoes arrived at
the rocks, and getting below the Gaikas, they were caught as in a trap,
but selling their lives dearly, killed two of our men. The Fingoes
lost a few men, and an old woman came to me with a large hole in her
face, a bit of the jaw-bone having been shot away. She was unconcerned,
however, and when I proposed to hand her over for Medical aid, declared
she would much sooner have a plug of tobacco to chew. A young Fingoe
had an altercation with our doctor, a Colonial, and I was appealed to
to settle the dispute. Two of the Fingoe’s fingers had been shot off
by slugs from a Gaika’s gun, and the hand was in such a mash that the
doctor wished to amputate the fingers at the second joint. My coloured
soldier objected strenuously, and said that if he might have six weeks’
leave he would come back again. And so he did. His cure, which was
that ordinarily adopted by the Natives in such cases, was peculiar.
Returning to his village, he was pegged down on the ground, the maimed
hand being buried in the earth, without any bandage or dressing upon
it, and the man was not allowed up until it had healed over. It was,
however, an unpleasant sight, for all the ragged bits of skin remained,
and the man would have had a more useful hand if he had submitted to
the doctor’s operation.
From this time till the end of May, the object of the Gaikas was
to evade our men. Forty or fifty Fingoes worked through Bush which
required 500 men on the 18th March, and daily the small parties killed
a score of Rebels.
In the third week of May, Major Buller nearly caught Sandilli in his
cave, where he lived unmolested throughout the war of 1851–52; there
was, however, a back exit, to us then unknown, by which the old man
escaped. Major Buller, with two companies 24th Regiment, the Frontier
Light Horse, and Lonsdale’s Fingoes, remained near the cave for forty
hours, which prolonged visit caused Sandilli to move northwards.
From the 12th March, when I left King William’s Town, I scarcely ever
slept for two nights in succession on the same spot. Constant work,
shortness of sleep, and the great alternations of temperature, often
over 40° between midnight and noon, and the want of nourishing food,
told on me. I was unwell on the 10th May, but the General being 80
miles away, visiting the Transkei, the 3000 White and Black soldiers
on and around the Buffalo Range were under my command, so I stayed on
the mountains until a high temperature and pulse 104° obliged me to go
down. For a fortnight the glands in my groin, armpits, and neck had
swollen; my skin peeled off like a mummy, and chilblain-like openings
appeared on my hands. I gave four Hottentots, who are more intelligent
than Kafirs, £2 to carry me down to the Rabula Valley, where Dr.
Alcock, my Aldershot Doctor, thus diagnosed my case: “Overwork, want
of sleep and of nutritious food.” Milk and eggs every four hours, with
“All night in,” soon restored me, and on the 27th I accomplished a long
ride, involving many hours in the saddle.
The Gaika Rebellion was now over: Tini Macomo in the Water Kloof,
Seyolo in the Fish River Bush, and Sandilli in the Perie, were hiding
in caves. On the 29th May a patrol of Lonsdale’s men skirmished with a
few Kafirs near Mount Kempt, and were startled at the resistance, until
they recognised amongst the slain Dukwana, an elder of the Emgwali
Mission, who had shot several of our officers, and was now killed
in protecting the flight of Sandilli. He fell mortally wounded, and
with his death the rebellion ended. He had fought in 1835, ’46, ’48,
’51-’52, and had always previously escaped. A fortnight after his death
ladies were riding about unescorted where no small armed party could
have ventured since March, and in three months what we may hope was the
last Gaika revolt had been suppressed.
The number of Regular troops employed by General Thesiger in
suppressing this outbreak was far less than those engaged in 1851–52,
but we never had the same number of Gaikas under arms against us, and
the area was smaller; and we had the great advantage of telegraphic
communication, the wire having been carried through Kaffraria by the
Director of Telegraphs, Mr. J. Sivewright,[152] with considerable
danger to himself and Staff. In the wars of 1847–48, 1851–52, the
Kafirs always got their news before our troops; now the position was
reversed, and Mr. Sivewright’s daily bulletins, posted at all telegraph
stations, checked nearly all disaffected chiefs. The Galekas, after
a defeat, sent to the Gaikas announcing a victory, and calling on
their cousins to rise, but the messengers were disconcerted by the
Gaikas describing the Galekas’ defeat. Moreover, tactics had undergone
a change. When the 90th Light Infantry came under my command, the
battalion had received an order, emanating from Headquarters, Cape
Town, that it was never to be employed in the Bush. In 1851–52, Colonel
Eyre, with the 73rd Regiment, broke this established rule, to the
immense disgust of Kreli, who in the quaint words of the interpreter
excused a defeat by saying, “No two men stop one Bush; one man come,
other man go.” To enter the Bush boldly in the face of Kafirs is not
only the most efficacious, but the safest method. I can only recall one
out of the many White leaders shot in 1878 who was killed in the dense
Bush. In nearly every case our loss occurred just outside the Bush, or
in paths from unseen foes.
By the middle of June the Regular Troops were concentrated, and
the Volunteers recently collected were sent home. I was ordered to
prepare the 90th Light Infantry for a march to Maritzburg, in Natal.
I was offered at this time the command of the Colonial Forces, to
be organised into three battalions, with a salary of £1200 and £300
travelling expenses; I considered the offer until I learnt the Colonial
Government did not intend to let the Commandant nominate the battalion
Commanders. I had been tempted by the pay, but on the other hand wished
to command the 90th Light Infantry, and not being allowed to suggest my
own choice of subordinates settled the question.
General Thesiger was generous in his praise. In his Despatch, dated
King William’s Town, 26th June 1878, he wrote:--
“From the 9th to the 29th May the troops under Colonel Evelyn Wood
gave the Rebels no rest.
“Para. 62. Colonel Evelyn Wood, V.C., C.B., 90th Light Infantry,
on Special Service in South Africa, has had command of a separate
column of Imperial and Colonial troops, from the time that I
assumed the direction of Military operations in the Field. I cannot
speak too highly of the good service rendered by this Officer. He
has exercised his command with marked ability and great tact. I am
of opinion that his indefatigable exertions and personal influence
have been mainly instrumental in bringing the war to a speedy close.
“I would beg to draw attention to those officers who are especially
brought to notice by Colonel E. Wood.
“(Signed) F. THESIGER.”
He wrote to me on the 21st June, “I have written to His Royal Highness
I could never have succeeded if it had not been for your active and
energetic aid.”