"Another year has opened its pages in the book of life, and the record
of the Kaffir war promises nothing in the shape of peace. Our enemy,
instead of being subdued, appears more obstinate than ever, and deeply
intent on every device that can thwart our purpose and forward his own.
"When the Kaffirs first began to make concessions, I was of opinion that
they were willing to submit to any terms at the moment, in order to gain
time to plant and reap. The result has been what every one experienced
in the Kaffir character ought to have anticipated. We have dealt too
mercifully with the treacherous and cruel foe; cruel he is by nature;
witness his brutality even among those of his own colour, nay, his own
blood. Some say he is not cowardly; it is certain he meets death at the
last moment calmly, and he has a peculiar pride in bearing pain and
annoyance at all times with apparent indifference. A Kaffir will not
raise his hand to remove a fly from his face; and, as he rubs his skin
with clay and grease to protect it from the effects of the sun, these
attract the flies, and I have known a savage sit for hours in the sun
with his cheeks and brow covered by these tormenting and fidgetty
insects, without attempting to remove them. It must be allowed, though,
that a Kaffir skin more resembles the hide of some powerful animal than
the skin of a human being. In the early part of this war, some person
procured the entire skin of a Kaffir, and had it treated in the same way
that leather is first prepared for tanning. I am told that the texture
is at least three times the thickness of a white man's, and I see no
reason for doubting the assertion.
"The Kaffir has neither generosity nor gratitude, which are invariably
the attributes of a brave nature; he will not meet his adversary openly,
unless he has the advantage immensely in numbers, as in Captain Sandes's
case. When there are some thousands, to one helpless or unarmed man,
they will annihilate him without mercy. The Kaffir has no genuine
pride, for he will submit to any personal degradation to obtain his
ends; in short, he is an ignoble foe, and we gain no more credit, or
profit, in fighting such an enemy than if we were endeavouring to
circumvent an army of baboons. The Kaffir warriors move from kloof to
kloof, from drift to drift, with their provisions in their pouches, or
deposited at certain distances in the bush, while their women contrive
to support themselves in the neighbourhood of the British camp, making
occasional excursions to see their relatives in the field, to furnish
them with useful intelligence and gunpowder. Where the latter is
obtained is, professedly, a mystery! The resources of the Colony
present temptations to those who have long lived by trading in the
country beyond the Kei; and, although provisions have not been forwarded
along the coast, small vessels have made their way to the mouths of the
rivers between Waterloo Bay and Natal. A report, founded on good
grounds, is abroad, that the Kaffir women have lately been employed in
conveying ammunition to their friends, by means of pack-oxen, from Algoa
Bay to the interior of Kaffirland, right through the Colony. This is by
no means improbable, when the territory is so vast, and the population
scattered, and comparatively small.
"There is little doubt that the Resident Agent at Block Drift now sees
the uselessness of endeavouring to carry out the late arrangements of
Government with regard to `British Kaffraria.' How he ever supposed
such measures could succeed must remain a puzzle to all acquainted with
the Kaffir's nature! `I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of
Christ,' is an appeal which the South African savage, in his present
state, cannot be brought to understand.
"January 6th.--We have the old story from the field; the troops have
been patrolling, and have rescued two thousand head of cattle from the
I'Slambies. The 6th, under the command of Colonel Michell, have had
their share in this foray. Much sickness continues to prevail. The
cunning Pato has again succeeded in eluding pursuit, although Colonel
Somerset hemmed him in. The gallant Colonel, while moving through a
mist with a party of troops, came suddenly on his enemy. The surprise
of seeing Pato's panther-like face, as the gloom cleared for an instant,
elicited an exclamation from Colonel Somerset, as he drew his pistol
from his holster, and Pato escaped into the bush ere the shot could take
effect. At the time the despatches were written, only one part of the
troops had crossed the Kei, and our private letters mention that the
rivers were rising fast. Those who were on the eastern bank, had only a
few days' provisions with them, and they may be cut off from all
communication with the troops on this side for two or three weeks.
"News from England.--Orders have been received to this effect:--the
27th, 90th, and 91st Regiments are to embark for England immediately, if
they can possibly be spared. The 90th are to march to Graham's Town at
once, and onward to the coast. I despair of our removal with the 91st.
Sir Henry Pottinger is daily expected on the frontier. The 27th and
91st Regiments will no doubt be detained till his arrival, and what his
movements may be it is impossible to know."
On the 12th of January, Sir Peregrine Maitland arrived at Graham's Town,
from the frontier, on his way to Cape Town, bringing with him the
intelligence that two thousand head of fine cattle had been captured
across the Kei by Colonel Somerset's division; this was a second
recapture in less than a fortnight, and under considerable difficulties.
But the grand capture, of six thousand head, was made afterwards, and
on the 17th of January, Colonel Somerset crossed the Kei at the imminent
peril of his life, but the patrol, with all the cattle, were unable to
ford the stream, which was still rising with such force that nothing
could stand against the torrent. All provisions and supplies were cut
off, and the troops had nothing but a few mealies (Indian corn) to
subsist on. Three men were drowned on the morning of the 15th:
Serjeant-Major Ritchie, 7th Dragoon Guards, and two of the Cape Corps:
and Mr Allen, Assistant-Surgeon of the Cape Corps, was only saved by
disengaging himself from his horse and swimming ashore.
The command of the troops on the frontier now devolved on Colonel
Somerset, until the arrival of General Berkeley. The efficiency of the
Colonel for such a command has been fully proved during this long and
harassing war.
On the 19th of January the force made its way across the Kei, with eight
thousand head of cattle, captured in Kreli's country. The Kaffirs hung
upon the rear, disputing each drift and passage with the troops. In
crossing the Kei, a serjeant of the 6th, and a private of the Cape
Mounted Rifles, were shot by the enemy.
Having recaptured so much cattle, Colonel Somerset now determined to
fall back towards the Colony, and on the 19th he issued an order,
warning those in command of posts and divisions, to be as vigilant as
ever in their observations of the enemy's movements, as hostilities had
not ceased.
Meanwhile, sickness prevailed among the troops in the field and still
increasing. Rheumatism, camp-fever, and dysentery, reduced the subject
of them to a deplorable state of debility, and it was melancholy to see
young men, who had been scarcely three months in the Colony, brought to
positive decrepitude from these sufferings.
"February 6th.--The 91st are under orders to proceed from Fort Peddie to
Graham's Town, for the purpose of preparing for embarkation for home.
"The `Thunderbolt' steamer, having on board Her Majesty's Commissioner,
Sir Henry Pottinger, and Lieutenant-General Berkeley, the Commander of
the Forces; in rounding Cape Recife, on the 3rd of February, struck upon
a sunken rock, sprung a leak, and it is feared will go to pieces with
the first south-easter. The disappointment of the 90th, who were
waiting at Algoa Bay for this vessel to convey them to Cape Town for
final embarkation, may be will imagined. The old soldiers who stood
eagerly watching her approach, set up a universal shout as they saw her
coming round. What must have been their feelings when they beheld her
run right ashore?
"The appearance of the 90th on leaving the Colony is so totally
different to what it presented on its arrival here, that it goes far to
prove the good effect of the Cape climate on constitutions debilitated
by Indian service. Under every disadvantage of fatigue, privation, and
a residence under canvas during an African summer, with the thermometer
at times 157 degrees in the open air, the 90th, on their march from
Graham's Town to the coast, presented a perfect picture of a regiment of
British veterans.
"We lately saw them in our evening ride, as they toiled up a steep hill
before us with their long line of waggons and dusky waggon-drivers. How
cheerful they looked! I envied them as I turned my horse's head back to
the land of banishment and anxiety! I could not help uttering the
words, `Happy 90th, God speed you!' aloud, as the last waggon passed us,
and an old soldier, with a bronzed cheek and grey hair, saluted our
party, by way of `Thank you for your good will!' How little they
anticipated their disappointment at Algoa Bay!"
It is not long since we rode a few miles on the Fort Beaufort road to
see the cattle that had been captured by Colonel Somerset's division
across the Kei. We reached the bivouac just as the sun was declining.
The cattle, seven thousand in number, were gathered into a dense mass,
and surrounded by their guards. I never see a poor patient-looking Cape
ox, that I do not think of the strife continually existing here for the
sake of its race. The mass of cattle was a Smithfield show; but the
tents round it--the huts contrived to hold one person--being a few
bushes and a piece of tattered canvas, the fires where the Hottentots
and their vrouws cooked their suppers, the piled muskets, the picquets
and scouts turning out for the night, and the pack-oxen, apart from
their fellows, and so tame as to be pets and playmates of the boys who
watched them, presented an extraordinary sight, particularly in that
strange light between the setting of the sun and the reign of the moon.
This crowd of cattle had been brought into the Colony with great speed
and security, by the levy in command of Captain Hogg, 7th Dragoon
Guards; and, as was anticipated, the enemy followed them, in various
parties, through the different passes between Kaffirland and our own
territory. Fortunately, Captain Hogg and his people had been too swift
and careful in their movements to be circumvented even by Kaffirs, and
the cattle was distributed to the farmers without delay.
We took another ride one day, which created sad sensations. Above the
Drostdy barracks, on the western side of Graham's Town, is a succession
of hills and undulating plains. We chose our path along the open
ground, being a vast irregular space, evidently very fertile, for the
turf was gay with beautiful wild flowers. Gigantic mountains, piled one
above the other, formed the background of this noble amphitheatre. Here
and there a hill was clothed in patches of deep green, and on its summit
waved a few small trees, but there was no dense bush, and two or three
farms dotted the plains, many miles in extent.
"These farms have probably been secure from the Kaffirs during the war,"
said I.
We reached one of them. Although it had escaped the brand of the
savage, it looked desolate. The owners had only returned within a few
days. They had not deserted it till the last moment; their cattle had
been stolen and their herds wounded, their land was untilled, and the
little watercourse was choked with rubbish. We passed on to the farm a
short distance beyond it. The settlers, a man and his wife, perfectly
English in appearance, but pale and harassed, stood surveying their
miserable homestead. This, too, from its open position, had escaped the
brand; but the windows were shattered, the door swung on imperfect
hinges, the steps were broken and grass grew between them; the little
garden laid waste; and, as if in mockery, a scarlet geranium streamed
garishly over the crumbling embankment; rank weeds filled the place of
other plants under the broken boughs of the apricot trees, and a few
poor articles of furniture which had been borne away to Graham's Town,
on the family flitting, stood in the open air, awaiting more strength
than the exhausted mistress of the place could command. Her husband had
been trying to bring a piece of ground into some sort of cultivation,
but it was heavy work; the long droughts had parched the earth, and the
mimosa fence was scattered over the face of the patch, which had once
yielded vegetables.
We asked them if they, too, had lost their cattle? The man smiled, as
he said, "Yes;" he seemed amused at our supposing it could have escaped
the hands of the robber. The woman sighed, and answered that two of her
herds had been killed, and her son had had a narrow escape of being
shot. "We did not like to stay after that, Ma'am," said she, "and we
have been many months in Graham's Town. I'm sure I don't think we are
safe now, in spite of all the fresh soldiers we've got in the country,"
she continued, casting a frightened glance towards the gloomy mountains
behind the homestead, "but we are all ruined, and things can't be much
worse, so we may as well take our chance."
The colonists, who are the best judges of the benefits conferred on them
by Colonel Somerset's exertions in their behalf, have come forward to
bestow a solid testimony of their gratitude towards him, by setting on
foot a subscription for the purchase of a piece of plate, setting forth
that "The inhabitants of Albany, impressed with the great service
rendered them by Colonel Somerset during the Kaffir war, by his rapid
march from Block Drift into Lower Albany and other parts of the
district, thereby relieving the inhabitants from imminent danger, and in
some cases from almost certain destruction, from the wrathful hands of
an invading enemy, and further for his services rendered to the Colony
in general by his great exertions in the field, it is proposed to
present him with a piece of plate, as a mark of their esteem and
gratitude."
The march alluded to, of such importance to the safety and he lives of
the unfortunate settlers, was "made on his own responsibility." By this
"forced march," says the Graham's Town Journal, February 13th, 1847,
"Colonel Somerset saved Theopolis, Farmerfield, Salem, Bathurst, and
other places in Lower Albany, from probable destruction."
On the departure of his Excellency Sir Peregrine Maitland from the
frontier, the troops fell back from the Kei to the Buffalo, where
Colonel Van der Meulen assumed the command of a division, consisting of
four companies of the Rifle Brigade, beside his own regiment, the 73rd,
two guns, seventy Cape Corps, a squadron of the 7th Dragoon Guards, and
a chequered group of Provisionals. This division encamped amid the
ruins of what once promised to be a flourishing town, named by Sir Harry
Smith, King William's Town; the site having been taken possession of by
him in the name of William the Fourth, in 1835; but it was subsequently
abandoned.
Here, then, among these memorials of the last war, the troops are
building huts and bowers for themselves. The heat is intolerable. The
walls of Sir Harry Smith's abode are still standing, and the old garden
contains some excellent fruit trees, planted probably under the
direction of Lady Smith, the interesting Spanish heroine of some
charming sketches of the Peninsula, and the favourite of the African
frontier. Lady Smith, of kindly memory, would live in the hearts of
those who knew her, even were she not connected with one of the heroes
of the late conquests in India.
Fort Peddie has been strengthened, and is now the head-quarters of the
6th Regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Michel. Besides the 6th, Colonel
Michel has at his disposal a troop of Dragoons, a party of the Cape
Corps, and some companies of the Rifle Brigade.
The 91st are scattered far and wide at outposts and bivouacs. The light
company, under Captain Savage, are in Colonel Michel's district,
patrolling between Post Victoria (abandoned and resumed within eight
months) and Fort Peddie. The Grenadiers, under Captain Ward, are on
their march to the neighbourhood of Hell's Poort, to intercept
cattle-lifters. The levies have been dismissed, or dispersed of their
own accord; the flank companies of Her Majesty's 91st are employed in
their stead!
The Beaufort Division is under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel
Johnstone, 27th Regiment, and consists of the 45th Regiment, under
Lieutenant-Colonel Erskine; the reserve battalion 91st,
under Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell; 7th Dragoon Guards, under
Lieutenant-Colonel Richardson, and a Burgher Force, under Major Sutton,
Cape Mounted Rifles.