Position of laager shifted—Massacre of the Ross and Fourie
families—Remains of some of the Fouries found—Advance on Matabele
scherms and find them deserted—Visit the scene of yesterday's
fight—Burn kraals and return to camp—Bury two men killed in
yesterday's fight and the remains of the Fourie family—Find the
remains of the Ross family—March down the Insiza valley—Burn
a large number of kraals—Colonel Spreckley's column captures
cattle and donkeys—Remains of several murdered Europeans
found—The murder of Dr. and Mrs. Langford—Column sent to the
Filibusi district—Return to Bulawayo—I visit Essexvale—A scene of
desolation.
On reaching the laager, Van Rensberg and myself, backed by Mr. Cecil
Rhodes, were very anxious to have the base camp moved at once to the
kraal near to which we had captured the woman in the early morning,
and then at once attack the impis we had seen that same afternoon
with as large a force as could be spared from the laager. However, as
Captains Grey and Van Niekerk had then not yet returned, Colonel Napier
thought it would be better to move the laager round the hills to the
vicinity of the Insiza river and attack the rebels from that side on
the following day.
This plan was at once acted upon, and the Scouts and Africanders
turning up just as we had inspanned, we moved round the broken country
in which the Matabele had taken up their positions, and camped in open
ground beyond it, on a small stream running into the Insiza river.
Early the following morning we moved to the bank of the river itself,
just opposite the spot where a Dutchman named Fourie had been building
a house for a Mr. Ross, whose temporary residence whilst the house was
being built could be seen still standing on a rise some mile and a half
farther down the river.
At the latter end of March Mr. Fourie had been living here with his
wife and six children, whilst Mr. and Mrs. Ross with an adopted
daughter named Agnes Kirk were occupying temporary dwellings some
little distance away from them. These eleven people—two men and nine
women and children—were all murdered on the outbreak of the rebellion,
Miss Johanna Ross being the only survivor of her family, and owing her
escape to the fact that at the time the murders were committed she was
on a visit to friends living near the main road, who, having received
warning of the rising, took her with them to Mr. Stewart's store at the
Tekwe river, where they were relieved by Captain Grey and his men on
Thursday, 26th March.
With others I went down to the scene of the massacre of the Fourie
family early in the morning and found the remains of four people—a
woman and three children, the body of Mr. Fourie and those of three of
the children being missing. The murders had evidently been committed
with knob-kerries and axes, as the skulls of all these poor people
had been very much shattered. The remains had been much pulled about
by dogs or jackals, but the long fair hair of the young Dutch girls
was still intact, and it is needless to say that these blood-stained
tresses awoke the most bitter wrath in the hearts of all who looked
upon them, Englishmen and Dutchmen alike vowing a pitiless vengeance
against the whole Matabele race.
At about ten o'clock a force of about 300 men under Captain Grey was
despatched to the scene of yesterday's fighting, Colonel Napier and
staff taking up a position with a seven-pounder gun on the top of a
hill which commanded the valley in which we had seen the two small
herds of cattle on the preceding day. I was placed in charge of the
infantry division, which, spread out in skirmishing order, formed the
centre of the line of attack.
After what had been seen that morning of the ghastly remains of the
Fourie family, every one was most eager to come to close quarters with
the Kafirs, but we were not able to do so, as, although we found the
scherms where they had slept, with the fires still burning in them,
the impis had left apparently at daylight in the morning, and it was
impossible to tell in which direction they had gone, as their camp was
surrounded by rough stony hills, on which their footsteps had left no
trace. As the number of their scherms showed that the rebels must have
been at least a thousand strong, I don't quite know why they did not
wait for us and have another day's fighting, the more especially as
they had been successful in repulsing about one hundred mounted men of
the Scouts and Africanders on the previous day. I am half inclined to
think that several rocket signals sent up from our laager during the
early part of the preceding night, to notify our whereabouts to Colonel
Spreckley, may have had something to do with their unexpected retreat,
or possibly a peep at our laager at daylight may have given them an
exaggerated idea of our numbers. At any rate they were gone, and the
blow which might have been struck at them on the afternoon of the day
before was now not struck at all.
On the site of the engagement of the previous morning between Grey's
Scouts and the Africanders and the one section of the Matabele, we
found the body of Parker, absolutely stripped of clothing, even to
the socks, and riddled with assegai stabs inflicted after death. The
corpse was carried back to camp, together with that of Rothman, which
latter, as it had been carried to some distance from the scene of the
fight, had not been found and mutilated by the Kafirs. The Matabele
must have removed their dead, as none were lying on the hill-side
below Parker's corpse, where many had been seen to fall. However, in
a small kraal situated just under the hills and within a mile of the
scene of the fight, we found a Kafir lying stretched out on his back
close to the door of a hut, who could not long have been dead, as his
body was still warm, and his limbs quite limp. He had evidently been
wounded during the fight, the bullet having passed through both thighs,
and broken the right femur. Then I suppose he had been carried or had
crawled to the village where we found him lying, and a cord tightly
twisted round his neck showed that he had been strangled shortly before
our arrival on the scene. Whether he had thus compassed his own death
on hearing or being informed of our approach, or whether he had been
strangled by a friend to prevent his falling into the hands of the
white men, I cannot say, but as, besides having been strangled, he
had a fresh assegai-wound in the right side, I fancy that he had been
killed by his friends, who had fled at our approach and were unable to
carry the wounded man with them.
Besides this man, another was found in a dying condition—a young fellow
of two or three and twenty who must have been some one of importance,
as his friends had made a stretcher of oxhide lashed to poles, on which
to carry him. They seem to have been surprised in the act of carrying
him away, as the stretcher was first found, and then the wounded man
was seen crawling away at a little distance, but he was nearly spent,
having been shot right through the chest, and died soon afterwards. His
shield and assegais, and many little personal belongings, were found
tied on to the stretcher.
After having burnt a few kraals and picked up a flock of sheep
and goats and a stray cow or two, we returned to laager very much
disappointed that we had had a ten-mile walk for nothing, so far as
meeting with the rebels was concerned. The Hon. Tatton Egerton (M.P.
for Knutsford) accompanied us on this outing, walking and shouldering
a rifle with the rest of us, and unless I am very much mistaken no
one was more eager to let off his piece at a Kafir than was he. In
the afternoon a military funeral was accorded to the bodies of Parker
and Rothman, and also to the poor scattered remains of the Fourie
family, which having been carefully collected were all buried in one
grave dug close alongside that in which the two dead troopers had been
placed. The funeral service was read by the Rev. Douglas Pelly, who was
attached to the Salisbury contingent.
After the service was over I took a few men of the Africander Corps,
and some friendly Matabele with a stretcher, and went off to collect
the remains of the Ross family. These we found had been scattered and
dragged about in every direction by dogs or wild animals. We could
find no trace of Mr. Ross, and it is quite possible that he had been
murdered at some distance from his homestead. The broken skull of a
young woman which we found close to the door of one of the huts must
have been that of Miss Agnes Kirk, but of old Mrs. Ross all we found by
which to identify her was a mass of long grey hair, the skull having
disappeared. Besides these sad relics we also found the remains of
three children, the one a boy by his clothes, and the other two, little
girls, their fair hair being still plaited into several short plaits
in the Boer style. These three poor children must have been members of
the Fourie family who had probably been visiting the Rosses on the day
when the murders were committed.
Thus, of the eleven people murdered here some remains of all were
found, except of Mr. Fourie and Mr. Ross, and these being the only
men were very likely led away on some pretext, such as looking at
cattle, and murdered at a distance from their dwellings where there
was no chance of their getting hold of rifles or revolvers. Then,
the men being disposed of, the noble savages came down fearlessly to
the homesteads and smashed in the heads of the women and children
comfortably and at their leisure.
On Sunday, 24th May—the Queen's Birthday—we continued our march down
the Insiza valley, burning a large number of kraals as we advanced.
All these kraals had only just been deserted by their owners, and
they were all full of grain, while, in addition, in every one were
found articles of some kind or another which had been taken from the
homesteads of white men. All the grain that could not be carried with
us was destroyed as far as possible. In many of the kraals were found
large accumulations of dried meat, and many dried skins of bullocks,
cows and calves, proving that the rinderpest had been brought into this
district by the natives since the outbreak of the rebellion, and had
been playing havoc amongst their cattle.
As we advanced, burning kraal after kraal, on the northern slope of
the range which runs to the south of and parallel to the course of the
Insiza river, column after column of smoke continually ascending into
the clear sky from the southern side of the hills let us know that
Colonel Spreckley's column was devastating the murderers' country on
his line of march as effectually as we were doing on ours.
On the following day we still pursued our way unopposed down the Insiza
valley, burning kraal after kraal, but never seeing a sign of the
native inhabitants, who had evidently received timely notice of our
approach and fled into the hills. On the morning of Wednesday, 27th
May, we reached the Belingwe road at about nine o'clock, and were soon
joined by Colonel Spreckley's column which had been waiting for us a
little farther down the road. Colonel Spreckley's force had had no
general engagement with the enemy, but his scouts had captured about
seven hundred head of cattle and twenty-three donkeys. They had also
found the remains of several murdered Europeans, amongst whom the
bodies of a miner named Gracey and those of Dr. and Mrs. Langford and a
Mr. Lemon were recognised. Mr. Gracey's body lay just outside his hut,
but he had evidently been killed when lying on his bed inside, as a
blanket still lying there was soaked through and through with blood.
The case of Dr. and Mrs. Langford is one of the saddest of the many
sad episodes of the late native insurrection in Matabeleland. They had
been married but a short time, and had only left the old country three
months before the rebellion broke out. Unfortunately fate ordained that
they should reach Bulawayo, and leave it in order to take up their
residence in the Insiza district, just before the outbreak. Thus they
were suddenly surprised by a party of murderous savages when travelling
in their waggon. Mr. Lemon was with them, and his body was found lying
close to that of Dr. Langford; but poor Mrs. Langford's corpse was
discovered some two miles away under the bank of a stream flowing a few
hundred yards below Mr. Rixon's farmstead. It looked as if when first
attacked the two men had held the murderers at bay, and given Mrs.
Langford time to run on to Mr. Rixon's house in the hope of obtaining
assistance. But when she reached the homestead she found it unoccupied,
Mr. Rixon having left the day before. The poor woman then probably
waited at the house for the husband and friend that never came, and
then knowing that they must have been killed took refuge under the
bank of the river which ran below the house. Here she seems to have
lain hidden for some days at least, as she had made a sort of bed of
dry grass to lie on under the bank, and as a pie-dish was found beside
her body, she probably visited the house at nights to get food of some
sort. The agony of mind this poor young woman must have suffered, one
shudders to think of. But at last the Kafirs found her, and then, poor
soul, her troubles were nearly at an end, for they lost no time in
killing her. They appear to have stoned her to death, as her skull was
terribly shattered and some large round stones taken from the river-bed
were lying beside her corpse. None of her clothes had been removed, and
two rings were still on her finger, on the inner side of one of which
were engraved the words "Sunny Curls, Mizpah."
On the afternoon of the day on which the columns rejoined, the Insiza
river was recrossed by the ford on the main road leading from Belingwe
to Bulawayo, and on the following day, 27th May, the Salisbury
contingent, reinforced by sixty men of Gifford's Horse, left the
Bulawayo column, and went off southwards with the intention of visiting
the Filibusi district, where it was thought that an impi might be met
with, and thence making their way to Bulawayo by the road which passes
Edkins' store, where it may be remembered a number of white men were
murdered at the first outbreak of the insurrection. As soon as the
flying column under Colonel Beal had left us, Colonel Napier gave the
word to inspan, and an hour later the remainder of the troops under his
command were on their way back to the capital of Matabeleland, which
was finally reached after an uneventful journey on Sunday, 31st May.
As on the road home the column passed near the northern boundary of
my Company's property of Essexvale, I asked and obtained leave from
Colonel Napier to pay a visit in company with Mr. Blöcker to the
homestead where I had been living in the midst of an apparently happy
and contented native population at the outbreak of the insurrection.
Leaving the camp at daylight, just as the mules were being inspanned
for the morning's trek, we reached the scene of our agricultural
labours after a two hours' ride, only to find that the house was
absolutely gone, literally burnt to ashes, there being nothing left
to mark the spot on which our pretty cottage had once stood but the
stone pillars and solid iron shoes on which it had rested. The roof
of the stable had been burnt too, as well as all the outhouses, and a
waggon, under which last wood must have been piled in order to set it
alight. The only building which had not been destroyed was the kitchen,
which, having been built very solidly of stone with an iron roof,
was practically fireproof. The mowing machine and rake had not been
touched, nor had the ploughs been interfered with. In the vegetable
garden we found any amount of cabbages, cauliflowers, onions, carrots,
parsnips, beetroot, tomatoes, etc., which had ripened since the natives
had left, and we loaded up our horses with as much as they could carry.
The potatoes had all been dug up by some animals, probably porcupines.
We visited some of the native villages close round the homestead, but
found them entirely empty, having been probably deserted since the time
when the Matabele burnt my house down. After having off-saddled our
horses for a short time, we rode back with our load of vegetables to
the column, which we found laagered up some six miles farther along the
road than where we had left it in the morning.