WHAT I SAW IN KAFFIR-LAND
WHAT I SAW IN KAFFIR-LAND
BY
SIR STEPHEN LAKEMAN
MAZHAR PACHA
“MILITIA EST POTIOR. QUID ENIM?”
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MDCCCLXXX
_All Rights reserved_
PREFACE.
This book contains extracts from the daily record of impressions made
on my mind, by men and events, as we performed together our allotted
parts, in one short tragical episode at the Cape. Very little has been
omitted; nothing has been added. It is a simple narrative, taken from
the Book of my Life, of which, if it is not the opening chapter, it is
at least one of the first.
If by my observations I have hurt any one’s feelings, this may have
been caused by these persons having ruffled mine. If I have said but
little good of any one with whom I have been brought into contact, it
is because I failed to perceive any more than I have mentioned. The
reader will be able to some extent to judge whether or not this has
arisen from my want of perspicacity, or from their incapacity.
I can only add, that this narrative is true. I have thought, in having
it published, that it might interest those who seek by reading some
information about the realities of life in this artificial world of
ours, wherein time-serving hypocrites present themselves so often as
shams when Heaven and country call for men.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Attached to the French military staff in Algeria--The
Minie rifle--Interviews with the Duke of Wellington
and others--War at the Cape--I offer my services--Red-tape
difficulties--Start for the Cape, 1
CHAPTER II.
Land at St Vincent--Shooting excursion on the island--Strange
dream--Narrowly escape shipwreck--Arrive at
Sierra Leone--Interview with the Governor--Official
ceremonies--Visit the Bishop--Official insignia--St
Helena--Neglected state of the house where Napoleon
died, 6
CHAPTER III.
Arrive at the Cape--Valuable assistance from local authorities--A
corps of volunteers formed--General Sir Harry
Smith’s difficulties--Damaged state of stores and ammunition--Obliged
to invent a Minie ball--Happy Jack--The
composition of the corps--Reflections--Colonel
Neville Chamberlain--His present of a sword and its
subsequent history in Turkey, 14
CHAPTER IV.
First attempts at discipline in corps--Prepare to start for
the front--Difficulty of getting men on board ship--Review
and sham fight--First feats of arms--Embarkation--Arrive
at Fort Elizabeth--Onward march towards
Graham’s Town--First encampment in the Bush--Mutiny
and punishment--Further advance--Panic and
flight, 25
CHAPTER V.
The Dutch and English settlers--First trial of the Minie at
the Cape--I part with Happy Jack--March into Graham’s
Town--The officers of the corps--Colonel Cloëte--Shortcomings
of the service--The commissariat--Ordered to
Fort Beaufort--Arrive at headquarters, 43
CHAPTER VI.
My report to General commanding on state of the road--Offend
the staff, but receive present of charger from
General--Surprised at close proximity of Kaffirs--Offer
to take nearer view--Am snubbed in consequence--Assigned
post of advanced-guard in general attack under
General Napier--Ascent of the Water-kloof--Ordered to
dislodge Kaffirs from Horse-shoe line of Bush--In action--
Hesitation--Success--Second attack under artillery-fire--The
Minie rifle again--Kaffir devotion--Their nature, and how to
fight them--Am thanked in general orders, 51
CHAPTER VII.
Another combined attack--Small results--Capture of Mundell’s
Peak--Thanked a second time in general orders--Example
of tenacity of life--Building forts--The descent
into the Water-kloof--Reproaches--Disregarded advice--An
attack and the consequences--In danger and unable
to procure assistance--Relieved from all interference by
other commanding officers--Receive written thanks of
General commanding--Receive additional command of
new company of Fingoes--I assert my right over prisoners--Johnny
Fingo--A skirmish--Savage indifference to
physical pain--Night fighting--Treachery, 63
CHAPTER VIII.
Formidable attack on Water-kloof--The “Blacksmith’s
Shop”--Slightly wounded over the eyebrow--Dictate
report to Colonel Cloëte in presence of General--I am
omitted in general orders--Proceed to Graham’s Town to
request revision of the order--Interview with General
Cathcart--Receive general order to myself--Offers of
grants of land for the men who wished to settle--Remove
to Blakeway’s Farm, 79
CHAPTER IX.
Kaffir characteristics--The cruelties of war--No real sympathy
between black and white--Kaffir cruelties--Night
attack on a Kaffir village--Wounded prisoner--“Doctor”
Dix--Kaffirs become rare--Capture of Noziah, Sandilli’s
sister--Suspicious death of her attendant--Sergeant
Herridge, 91
CHAPTER X.
Noziah at Blakeway’s Farm--Becomes a favourite with the
men--Wishes to reconcile me to her brother Sandilli--Expedition
sent out to find Sandilli and arrange for an
interview--Return after twenty-three days’ absence
go with Noziah to meet her brother--Sandilli’s war-council--Angry
reception--I obtain a hearing--Sandilli’s
reply--Offers to meet General Cathcart and make
an explanation to him--Demoralising effect of exposing
life in fighting, 107
CHAPTER XI.
Return of General Cathcart from Basutoland--End of the
war--Sporting adventures--Loving tortoises--Evening
reveries--A sudden attack from an unknown enemy--Plans
for his capture--Unsuccessful--Another attempt--Night
vigils--Close quarters--Death of the leopard--Wild-boar
hunting--Baboons--My pack of hounds--They
are attacked by baboons--Poor Dash’s fate--Snakes, 118
CHAPTER XII.
Kaffir knowledge of surgery--Manners more artificial than
natural--Peace concluded with Sandilli and Macomo--Indifferent
character of the treaty of peace--The corps
disbanded--Thanks of Commander-in-chief--Return
towards the Cape--Addresses from the inhabitants of
Fort Beaufort and Graham’s Town--Engineering tastes--Sam
Rowe--The Mary Jane--I embark for Cape
Town, 140
CHAPTER XIII.
Arrival at the Cape--Opinions on the war there--The conversion
of the heathen--Baptism of a recent convert--Converted
Jews in Bucharest--The Metropolitan of the
Greek Church and an English bishop--The voyage home--The
Arethusa--Noziah visits Cape Town to bid me
good-bye--African trophies--Reflections on the actual
state of the Cape, 155
CHAPTER XIV.
St Helena--Ascension--Monkeyish pranks in the “horse”
latitudes--Young Ben’s fate--An Irish wake on the line--Narrow
escape--The Mauritius steamship--Ocean visitors--A
westerly gale--Sight the white cliffs of Brighton--Salute
the native soil--A greedy mouthful--A dark
impression--Direct attention of Government to neglected
state of Napoleon’s late residence in St Helena--Obtain
reply in 1855--Desire to obtain active military employment--Delays
of the Horse Guards authorities--My reception
there, 171
CHAPTER XV.
Start on a mission to the East--Visit Gallipoli, and report
upon it to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe--Report on the
entire seaboard of the Dardanelles--Visit the Turkish
army on the Danube, and report on its condition--Winter
travelling in ball-room dress--Return to Constantinople--The
Embassy there--The War Ministry at home--Their
incapacity--Am offered a knighthood, but decline
the honour--The Eastern question--The difficulty
of regenerating the Turks by foreign interference--Their
moral degradation--My knighthood is decided
upon--Journey to Windsor--Lords Palmerston and
Aberdeen--Monologues with predecessors in armour--The
ceremony--Conclusion, 192
WHAT I SAW IN KAFFIR-LAND.
CHAPTER I.
ATTACHED TO THE FRENCH MILITARY STAFF IN ALGERIA--THE MINIE
RIFLE--INTERVIEWS WITH THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON AND OTHERS--WAR
AT THE CAPE--I OFFER MY SERVICES--RED-TAPE DIFFICULTIES--START
FOR THE CAPE.
In the year 1847 I was attached to the French staff in Algeria, and
during several expeditions, both against Arabs and Kabyles, I became
deeply impressed with the great superiority of the Minie rifle over the
old smooth-bore. On my return to England I did all I could to enforce
on the military authorities the advantages of this new weapon.
The Duke of Wellington gave me to understand, in several interviews he
honoured me with, that he was perfectly satisfied as to the principle
on which the Minie was constructed, but hesitated in giving effect to
this opinion, on the conviction that the rapid twist of the rifling
would so increase the recoil as to render this new weapon useless to
the British soldier.
His Grace frequently observed, “Englishmen take aim, Frenchmen fire
anyhow;” and no man could stand fairly up to harder kicking than old
Brown Bess already gave.
General Browne, to whom the Duke handed me over for any further
information I might have to impart, thought, after lengthened
investigation, that the weapon was a good one for taking long shots
from ramparts, but scouted the idea that it would ever be useful for
active service in the field.
Colonel Airey, to whom General Browne confided me, asked if the Duke
had really examined the gun; and on my assuring him that he had done so
on several occasions, expressed his surprise at his Grace’s having had
so much patience. This naturally brought my interviews to a close with
the military authorities.
Shortly afterwards the war broke out at the Cape, and the British army
was, as usual, being kneaded into shape. The process, however, was so
disintegrating, that the authorities at home were anxiously looking out
for fresh food for powder. I therefore volunteered my services, under
the condition that the men that served under me should have the Minie
rifle. After much consideration, I was kindly told that I might order
two hundred rifles at my own expense; and the military authorities
would allow me to enlist two hundred volunteers--also at my own
expense--and afterwards give us a free passage to the Cape, to go and
shoot, and be shot at by, the Kaffirs.
I accepted the offer as to the rifles, but declined to enlist the
men in England. I need not say, that having no staff to aid me in
enlisting, and no barracks to put the men in, the task was impossible.
It was finally agreed that I was to engage the men at the Cape, and
clothe them, the Government giving rations and pay as in the army.
I at once ordered fifty double-barrelled rifles of Messrs Barnett &
Sons, Tower Hill, London, and one hundred and fifty single barrels on
the same principle, of Messrs Hall, Birmingham. The rifles were soon
ready; but the military authorities insisted on lengthy trials to burst
them--to prove, I suppose, that they would be more dangerous to those
who used them than to those they were used against. The cartridges also
underwent innumerable trials: it was supposed by long-headed gentlemen
at Woolwich, that the iron caps in the base of the bullets might be
so struck that a spark could be emitted, the cartridge explode, and
the engineer be hoisted by his own petard. Colonel P---- of the 12th
gravely surmised the possibility of one man communicating the danger
to another; upon which Mr Jeffrey, of marine-blue fame, laughingly
remarked that the battalion in that case would begin file-firing by
shooting themselves off instead of their firelocks. These, and other
equally reasonable suppositions, kept me in England, until I began to
fear, from the accounts of slaughter sent home, that there would not be
a Kaffir left to try my guns upon. However, as I knew from experience
that despatches intended for a public a long way off were apt to be put
in a very trumpet-speaking style, and how that through a little bit of
brass a little puff can make a big noise, I started for the Cape in the
good ship Harbinger, still in the hopes of proving the usefulness of
this new weapon.