CHAPTER XII. SIXTH ATTACK ON THE WATERKLOOF--UITHAALDER--RETURN OF EXPEDITION AGAINST KRELI.

The change of Governors did not long suspend the active operations of warfare; General Cathcart sparing no pains in thoroughly informing himself of whatever was necessary to be known, and having personally reconnoitred the Waterkloof and the Amatolas, was fully prepared by the beginning of July to carry war once more into the heart of the former stronghold, in the interminable fastnesses of which, after twelve months operations, Macomo (or, as one of our orderly Serjeants once spelt his name, "Mc,Como") was still lurking, and now gathering a daily increasing body of his tribe around him.

A "Confidential Order" appeared on the 6th of July, commanding the assembly, and arranging the disposition of three main Columns, under Colonel Buller, Lieut.-Col. Napier, and Lieut.-Col. Nesbitt, respectively.

Bruce, with fifty mounted men, had orders to lie in ambush at Mundell's Krantz, on the northern heights, above the entrance of the valley, to cut off cattle and fugitives.

As it was necessary to gain our position unseen, we started full two hours before daybreak, and after a ride of twelve miles in the dark across the mountains, in a heavy storm of sleet, which a bitter cold wind drove right in our teeth, we dismounted, just as the friendly shades of night were beginning to fail us, at the edge of the little wood where we were to lie concealed; after some fumbling with our benumbed fingers, we removed the saddles and bridles, and picketted our horses to the trees. The rain cleared off, and as the sun rose, numbers of beautiful green and crimson touracos began chattering and screaming among the trees, flitting from branch to branch, quite close to us, as if aware that we dared not fire at them. Only one small fire was allowed for all our coffee kettles, and to prevent even that discovering our presence, a Boer stood over it dispersing the smoke with his hat.

We were not more than a mile distant from a large Kaffir village, and from the edge of our cover could distinctly see the inhabitants moving rapidly about at the first boom of artillery, the men arming themselves, and running at the top of their speed for the points of attack. Two came to within 500 yards of us to catch a couple of horses, which we had not seen before; but wishing to lie perdu, so as to have the chance of a prize, we did not fire, but watched them mount and race back to the village to prepare for the fight.

As the fire of Napier's artillery became more continuous, and the troops appeared on the heights on the opposite side of the valley, the women of the village collected in a knot watching them. As we looked through our glasses, they sat down in a large ring, under the shade of a spreading tree, and we could distinctly see them smoking and gesticulating; some perfectly naked, their sleek ebony skins shining in the sun, but the most part in black karosses, giving to the group a very Satanic appearance. Several came down to a spring, so near that we could hear them talking. It was a novel and amusing sight to look in upon a village of savages, and watch their habits unobserved.

Colonel Buller's column, easily recognised by the dark body of Rifles contrasting with the red coats, was seen moving along the southern heights of the Waterkloof and Kromme, and joining that of his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, who had ascended the mountain from the other side, with Colonel Nesbitt's column. The two then proceeded to the neck of the forest separating the Waterkloof from Fullers Hoek, and after throwing rockets into it, the First and Third Columns bivouacked for the night at the head of the Pass, having been fourteen successive hours on the march. Hardly anything could be more picturesque than our party in the little wood, the sun streaming down through trees completely covered with long drooping bunches of lichen, horses picketted round their hoary trunks; bridles and accoutrements hanging on the lower branches, and groups of men lying in the open glade, or crouched among the outer thickets, peering at the savages, or eagerly watching for cattle, which, however, never came.

In the evening Colonel Napier's Division passed close to our hiding place: the advance guard of mounted Fingoes, with their usual zeal, firing a volley into us, as we somewhat incautiously advanced to the edge of the thicket to look at our friends. We all fell flat on our faces, or jumped behind the trees; the fat Boers, in their short round jackets, lying screaming on the ground in an agony of apprehension. "Yij musst niet skiet! Yij musst niet skiet! Allamachtig! Verdamte skellums, warrum skiet yij?" Several had very narrow escapes, being spattered with mud by the balls; which struck the ground close to them. The Column halting not more than a quarter of a mile from us, and concealment being no longer necessary, B—— and I rode over to their camp, which was on the old ground of October, nine months before. The picketting pins and old kraals were still there, as also the blackened circles of the fires round which many a comrade had sat, now dead and gone. The graves of poor Norris and of our gallant fellows were undisturbed, and the grass waved luxuriantly over them.

We joined our hospitable friends of the 91st at their soup and grog; and at tattoo rode back to our bivouac, in considerable fear of being shot by our own sentries as we approached. Pushing our way through the dark shadowy thickets towards the illuminated centre, we stood in a sylvan Robin Hood scene, bright fires blazed in every direction in the warm-looking wood, lighting up the grey branches that met overhead, and contrasting beautifully with the cold clear moonlight that silvered the tree tops, through which appeared glimpses of the starry sky. The horses, with drooping heads, stood sleeping in the ruddy light; the swarthy bearded Boers, in their red woolen nightcaps, and our men in their blankets, sat smoking together by the fires.

Soon after we had lain down to sleep by the fire, rolled in our plaids, a moaning wind rushed through the trees; the moonlight vanished; a few heavy drops came pattering on the leaves; and presently the rain poured steadily down upon us. We slept however, for some hours, till thoroughly awakened by the cold, and by the wet which trickled down our necks, we got up one after another, from the soaked ground. Drawing my drenched plaid over my shoulders, for my horse had the benefit of the blanket, I sat, for the rest of the night, by the fire, in the steaming circle of soldiers, smoking my pipe and watching the big drops that fell hissing on the glowing logs as the fitful gusts sent them rattling down from the trees. At daylight I mounted my shivering horse, and with a well soaked saddle under me, and as stiff as a poker from the wet and cold, rode over to Colonel Napier for orders. The Column was just falling in for the march, and I was to remain with fifteen men, in ambuscade for the Kaffirs who might come, as was their constant practice, to search the deserted encampment. We entered the little belt of wood, within pistol shot of the fires, and the Division moved off. Soon after its last section had disappeared over the furthest ridge, the ground was covered with enormous vultures, boom-vogels, black and white crows, and secretary birds, which stalked about within a very few yards of us. The boom-vogel is a very dark-plumaged vulture, like a turkey cock, with red wattles and a bare brown neck; they go in pairs only, and generally accompany a flock of the common vulture.

After two or three hours useless watching in a wet ditch, in wetter clothes, and on a bitter cold day, our zeal began to evaporate; and as the Kaffirs did not appear, and a look-out, whom I had sent to the top of the highest tree, reported nothing moving on the plain as far as he could see, we came out of our hiding-place; the birds, very much astonished at our appearance, took themselves off, and we marched back by a little hollow to our comrades in the wood.

Two hours afterwards, Colonel Napier's column appeared on the plain before us, the 91st in advance, skirmishing with a few straggling Kaffirs, and the artillery firing shell into the valley below. From our position we could see numbers of Kaffirs along a rising ground above the troops, out of their sight, firing on them and running from rock to rock, playing at hide and seek. It was altogether a very pretty sight, and we could not but admire the wonderful quickness and cunning of these savage sharpshooters. Observing some of them making for the krantz, as they were driven before the advancing troops, we galloped off to intercept them. The column having turned off and encamped on the ground of the former evening, B—— went down to see Colonel Napier, leaving me with the men on the hill. In a few minutes afterwards a small body of Kaffirs appeared below us driving a herd of cattle, at which we commenced firing at long rifle-range, causing such commotion among them that they broke away in all directions, several evidently hit, making directly for us, followed by about a dozen Kaffirs. A few of the Burghers, thinking to secure them, descended the steep face of the hill, but had not gone far on the flat below, when hundreds of Kaffirs came rushing in from all sides, and taking a little hollow unseen by the Burghers, tried to surround and cut them off. Calling all my men together, we opened such a steady and well directed fire on them, that they were temporarily checked, and two of them being shot dead by "the MiniÉ Riflemen," and several wounded, they turned back again, and our too venturesome allies, made fully aware of their peril, quickly reascended the hill.

Another night of rain succeeded, with sleet and snow, and a cold searching wind, doubly severe by contrast with the intense heat of the day. When we woke in the morning, the mountain ranges, as far as the eye could reach, were white with snow. The sleet turned to rain, and the wind, piercing through our wet clothes, was so intensely chilling, that the men who had, in fact, been lying in puddles all night, were nearly helpless. At eight o'clock a welcome reprieve arrived, a party of Cape Corps from the General's column, bringing us orders to return to our quarters, which we did right willingly, and after a cold dreary ride of eighteen miles, reached Post Retief. The only casualties during the three days' operations were one man killed and one mortally wounded.

The operations on the Waterkloof, the object of which was, by continued annoyance, to drive the skulking Kaffirs out of their hiding places, were only suspended for a day or two. On the 14th we were once more patrolling our mountain ridges; the troops had again assembled at the head of the kloof, and his Excellency the Governor-General arriving with his Staff, a site was selected by the Officers of the Engineers for a permanent defensible camp and two stone redoubts at the Horseshoe, completely commanding Hermanus' Kloof, the head of the Waterkloof, and the communication between it and Fullers Hoek, as also the Kromme, and the approach from the west, and, by a mule path in direct communication with the Blinkwater camp below. Being situated on Mount Misery, and within a few hundred yards of the spot where our gallant Colonel fell, the name of Fort Fordyce was given to it.

His Excellency had already built several stone towers in different parts of the Amatola and Keiskamma districts, for the double purpose of serving as present garrisons, and becoming nuclei and defences for future villages; and their utility and value every succeeding day proved more strongly. This part of the Waterkloof being thus occupied permanently, our operations would have to be directed against the lower and less intricate parts of the valley, into which the enemy were now driven, and as a commencement, Colonel Buller with the Rifle Brigade and 60th Rifles attacked, and completely destroyed, on the 24th, the village at Mundell's Krantz purposely left for this surprise; killing many of the enemy, and taking some of their arms and ammunition, with a few cattle and horses. His only casualties were three men wounded, who were brought the following day, by a detachment of the Rifle Brigade, under Curzon, to Post Retief, which now wore the appearance of a large military hospital; the barrack square, on a fine summer evening, presenting men with bandaged heads, arms in slings, or hobbling on crutches, and two poor fellows each minus a leg.

The old routine, to which we had again returned, of patrols and escorts between the Blinkwater camp, or Mount Misery, where the new redoubts were now building, was broken in upon, by the arrival of 200 mounted Fingo Levies on a roving patrol, under Captain Campbell, who, a few miles off, had fallen in with, and killed a party of seven rebel Totties. From some women who were with them, he had learned that another party in advance, had gone on to the village at Mundell's Krantz, not being aware of its destruction, and that they would probably remain there all night. An attack was therefore determined on with our united forces, as soon as it was dark. But just after sunset, as we were getting our dinner, the Kaffirs came down on us instead, and swept off eighty head of commissariat cattle, which the herdsmen, with their usual incorrigible carelessness, had suffered to be out too late, and too far from the Post. Every one disappeared in a moment to order his horse, and get his arms. The bugle sounded the "alarm" and "assembly;" and in five minutes, some 300 men had left the gates, which were shut and barred behind us. The infantry took a short cut up the mountain, in rear of the Post, over which the enemy had gone; while two of the mounted men rode round by Mantatees Hoek, to intercept their retreat. It was a fine moonlight night, and we went at a slapping pace the whole way, up hill and down, clattering along the echoing road. At each cross path there was a temporary check while the Fingoes in advance narrowly examined the ground for spoor, and then on we went again. At the end of six miles, the greater part of the field having tailed off far behind, we saw a fire in a hollow of the plain, and pushed rapidly on towards it, several getting tremendous falls over the large ant hills which, from their peculiar hue, are not distinguishable at night. I rode right into a sawpit, near an old shieling, fortunately without injury; but it was no easy task to get out again, though I managed to do so just in time to see the Burghers in front, blazing away at some dark objects round the fire, which however, being only stumps and logs, did not return the volley. While hunting about for spoor, with a burning brand, we heard voices just over the rise. Thinking the Kaffirs were now in our hands, we crept cautiously round the eminence to surprise them, but discovered, just in time to prevent a mutual volley, that they were some of our own people. In a few minutes after these blunders, bright flashes of musketry showed where the infantry were, high up on the dark ridge of the Little Winterberg, in rear of which we had now got. The enemy was between us; and in a very short time, the whole of the cattle were recaptured, but whether with any loss to the marauders, the darkness of the night prevented our ascertaining. The fort was regained at midnight.

The veteran and gallant Commander of our Division, General Somerset, being appointed to a command in India, during this month took leave of us, and of a country which for thirty years had had the benefit of his services, and where he had commanded in three wars. He was greatly beloved and respected by his Division, and the esteem and regard in which he was held by the inhabitants were manifested by their inviting him to a public dinner at Beaufort.

About a week after this, having been left for some days in almost solitary occupancy of the Post, Bruce returned with his escort of mounted men and Burghers from Beaufort, bringing an order from the General for my appointment to head-quarters. Three days afterwards, I was quartered in Fort Beaufort. The change of temperature from the mountains to the dusty town, shimmering and dancing in the burning sun, was most disagreeable. Hot north winds from the deserts constantly prevailed, almost stifling the breath, and scorching the face like the blast from a furnace; doors, windows, and furniture cracked with the heat, and the thermometer often rose twenty or thirty degrees in a few hours.

Each morning, the streets were filled with endless droves of cattle and goats going to pasture; and strings of Fingo women with children tied on their backs, and large hoes over their shoulders, trudging to their "meelie gardens." All day long, crowds of dirty, drunken Totties of both sexes, hung round the doors of the canteens; fought, shrieked, and swore in the square; or sat in the sun smoking, picking each other's heads, and eating snuff. Naked Fingoes trotted about on oxen, and little black urchins charged through the streets on calves; while dusty post-riders and mounted patrols galloped in with reeking horses; and native escorts straggled out guarding long trains of wagons. Towards evening, the cattle returned in hundreds; and the Fingo women re-entered the town, carrying on their heads enormous pumpkins, huge bundles of firewood, or grass. At sundown, the bugles and trumpets of the different barracks sounded "the retreat;" at dark, the cicada began his night-long ringing chirp, and, softened by the distance, the Fingoe's wild chant and monotonous drumming continued without intermission till long past midnight.

The Governor-General, whose residence and head-quarters were at Fort Beaufort, had just left with a strong escort for the Umvani, about five and thirty miles from Kreli's "Great Place," where he had summoned an assembly of troops and burghers to meet him on the 6th instant, to proceed against that Chief, who had not only refused to send in the fine of cattle imposed on him by Sir H. Smith, on the faith of his promise to pay which the troops had been withdrawn, but had insolently sent back the letter in which his Excellency General Cathcart demanded payment, and remonstrated with him on his want of good faith.

One morning not long after arriving at Beaufort, the Colonel commanding the Division sent to desire me to see him immediately. A body of Kaffirs had entered the colony at a point about fifteen miles off; and in half an hour, I was marching out of the town with about 200 men, a company of the Rifle Brigade, another of the 74th, and some Fingo Levies, to cut off the enemy's return. A march of seventeen miles, brought us an hour after dark to the ruins of Post Victoria, an isolated fort, abandoned in 1845, and afterwards burnt by the Kaffirs. We had but just lighted our bivouac fires within the square formed by the broken walls, when, to our great surprise, for we were in an uninhabited district, miles from house or camp, we heard a bugle at a short distance sound the "cease firing." We could only imagine it a ruse of the Rebels, who in skirmishing had latterly adopted our bugle sounds, retiring, advancing, firing, and changing direction, by the bugle-calls used in our service. But it turned out to be a patrol of the 2nd Queen's, from Fort Hare, on the same spoor as ourselves. We were now a party of five officers, and 350 men.

As the two main "Kaffir-paths" entered the colony about half a mile distant on each side the Post, I placed "forelaying parties" on them for the night, but they came in at daylight, without having seen anything, and the detachment of the Queen's marched for Fort Willshire, another deserted post. Having despatched all the mounted Fingoes to Foonah's Kloof to reconnoitre, I went with a party of infantry in an opposite direction, to see if we could strike on any spoor to guide us in our movements.

For miles the country stretched away in bush-sprinkled wavy downs, dancing in the heat, and still as death. The only living thing we saw, though the country was said to abound in game, was a solitary honey-bird,[22] that flew before us from bush to bush, returning at intervals, and calling us on in the most unmistakable manner, till it stopped at an old tree, where the Fingoes found a bee's nest in a hollow branch. Leaving the bird as much as he could manage, they brought away the rest, which they ate, comb and all.

In a little belt of wood, clothing a deep dell, the dry course of the Shishago, we came on the spoor of koodoo, boschbok, and guinea-fowl, and presently on that of a few Kaffirs and cattle, quite recent, which had a most refreshing effect on us; everybody brightened up, and the Fingoes were like new men, intently following up the faintest marks with their wonderful instinctive quickness. A few head of cattle were captured, but nothing was seen of the Kaffirs.

At night we again waylaid "the paths" without success, and next day marched through a bushy country to a ruined farm, ten miles off, commanding another favourite Kaffir path. Nothing could be more beautiful than this spot. In the centre of an open grassy glade, surrounded by wooded hills, lay a fine clear lake, formed by ledges of rock running across the Kat River, which poured over in a hundred cooling cascades, where the men revelled in the luxury of a bath after their hot march. The overhanging trees, and tall reedy fringe of the graceful papyrus, were filled with suiker vogels, or "sugar birds,"[23] of gorgeous colouring, crimson, green, yellow, and blue, glancing brilliantly in the sun, and throwing the plumage of the numerous lories quite into the shade. It was useless to fire at them with two ounce conical balls; but so anxious was B——n to possess a specimen, that he left the water, and, without dressing, followed a pair of them with a handful of stones, from tree to tree with a perseverance which, in his state of nudity, was most ludicrous. The fine krantzes of perpendicular basaltic rock along the river were inhabited by a colony of large blue-faced baboons, with pink behinds, which added considerably to the effect of their comical gestures. Numbers of empty tortoise-shells, of immense size, lay about among the scattered bush, which was in great part cactus, euphorbia, geranium, and thorn. Returning from a stroll after our bathe, we found our three patrol-tents pitched; pewter platters, sixpenny knives and forks, and tin-tots laid out on a tarpaulin on the greensward; and a large frying-pan full of ration beef frizzling over a fire inclosed by a semicircular kraal of thick bushes. The Kaffir path, far enough out of sight of our bivouac, was again forelaid for the night; and at 12 o'clock we went, under the guidance of a Fingo, with a handful of men to reconnoitre, and if possible surprise a favourite hiding-place of the Kaffirs among the cliffs; but, after stealthily climbing step by step up the rocks, with fingers on the trigger, found the retreat tenantless! The forelaying-party was relieved at daylight, without "anything extra," as the sergeants said, having occurred.

We afterwards learned that the Kaffirs had left the colony by a different track, but only to fall in with another ambuscade, which retook the spoil, and shot one or two of the plunderers. A long and hot march, passing through Barooka, a deserted Fingo village, brought us at mid-day to Birt's station, a deserted missionary settlement, where, from the excessive heat of the sun, we halted for a couple of hours, spreading plaids and blankets over the orange trees and large American aloes, for shelter from its rays. From thence our way lay through a solitary bushy country to Fort Beaufort, which we reached late in the afternoon.

Next day I was sent with a strong party to escort a waggon load of MiniÉ rifles and ammunition to Fort Hare, twelve miles off. While there, a patrol of the 2nd Queen's, which had been sent to the Chumie Mountain, to cover the descent of the returning Kei expedition, unexpectedly came in, having been surrounded by the enemy and compelled to retreat. A stronger force was immediately ordered out, and my party pressed into the service. We sat down at midnight in high spirits to a hasty supper, having a march of fifteen miles to accomplish before daylight. The night was fine and starlight, and we trudged cheerily along the hard road, through a thick bush, the air scented with mimosa and jessamine.

At daybreak we were on an open green plain at the foot of the beautiful Chumie Mountain, whose grey timber-sprinkled crags and extensive forests excited the most lively expressions of admiration, as the rising sun beamed out upon them. We encamped at nine o'clock on the smooth green flats at the head of the Chumie Hoek, a lovely valley, surrounded on three sides by mountains clothed with verdure to the tops, and partially wooded.

Close to our bivouac were the burnt ruins of Auckland, one of the military villages destroyed by the enemy at the outbreak of the war. The silent, deserted street, down which a jackal skulked at our approach, was strewed with the bones of the massacred inhabitants.

We had scarcely formed our bivouac, when parties of Kaffirs and Rebels began to show themselves on all sides of our position; some crowning the heights above us, and others emerging from the lower edge of the bush at the foot of the mountains. A sharp skirmish took place with a few of the latter, who were driven back to their holds.

Shortly afterwards, parties of mounted Kaffirs were observed moving in our direction along the higher ridges of the Amatola chain; and a strong body of Rebels, marching in file, with "sloped arms" came in sight, following a well-mounted commander, who was attended by a mounted staff and a bugler! Taking up a strong position, high above us, looking right down into our camp, they halted and piled arms with the regularity of troops. Presently a white flag was sent to us half way down the mountain, with four or five unarmed Totties, to whom Lieut.-Col. Burns sent the garrison Adjutant and an interpreter, to see what they wanted. We watched the two approaching parties till they met. After a few minutes conversation, the interpreter was seen galloping back to the camp. He was the bearer of a request that the commanding officer would call in one or two mounted men of our party, who were too near the flag of truce, as "General Uithaalder wished to come down himself to speak to the officer, but was afraid of treachery." They were called in by the bugle, and we soon saw "the General" descending from the heights, followed by his Staff unarmed. We could distinctly see through our glasses each part of their dress and accoutrements. Uithaalder wore the braided surtout of a British staff-officer, with the red stripe down the trowsers, a red morocco and gold sword belt, a cavalry sword, and a straw hat, with black crape round it. His horse was held by an attendant a little in rear, and his Secretary was seen busy writing in a little note book. They were presently joined by several Totties, wearing the red coats of the unfortunate Sappers killed on the Koonap Hill; all in camp were burning to attack them, but our commander refused to do so, his orders being simply to encamp at the foot of the mountain to cover the descent of the expedition returning from the Kei. The conference broke up. Uithaalder and his attendants slowly ascended the mountain side, and his force moved off in a northerly direction along the ridge. The officer and interpreter returned to the bivouac. The Rebel Leader's object was to express his anxiety to come to terms, his weariness of the war, and his wish to know again on what conditions the Governor-General would make peace. He further announced his intention of sending a letter the following morning for his Excellency.

Having come out from Beaufort totally unprovided for the bivouac, my men had to sleep on the bare ground without a blanket to cover them. I was fortunate enough to get the loan of a horse-rug for the night, and hitting on a comfortable hollow for my hip (an indispensable requisite for a good night's rest on the ground), was soon sound asleep on the open plain.

It was not yet quite daylight, when all were suddenly roused by the hoarse cry of "Guard, turn out!" followed by "Fall in," "Stand to your arms." We were up and armed in an instant, and stood in companies on our respective faces of the encampment, and a large moving body of black figures in blankets, and armed with assegais, was indistinctly seen approaching; just as the sentry, who had thrice challenged them without any reply, was about to fire a shot across their bows to bring them to, they yelled out, "Amafingo! Amafingo!" They were the Fingo Levies of the returning Kei expedition; the wildest looking host that can be imagined, their woolly heads covered with ostrich feathers gathered on their route, and their scanty dress fluttering in rags. They poured into our camp with their usual boisterous hilarity, greeting officers and men alike, with a friendly "Morrow, Johnnie!"

The Governor-General and the regular troops had taken a route down the other side of the mountain, and we turned our faces towards Fort Hare, where he was supposed already to have arrived. We had not gone more than a quarter of a mile, when a bugle sounded the "halt" far up on the hills, and we perceived the white flag and two or three figures rapidly descending the mountain; bringing the promised letter. As two of our party went to receive it, the enemy's bugle above, sounded the "right incline," and keeping away in that direction, they avoided thereby, as we afterwards learned, a deep sluit, of which they were thus politely made aware. No force was to be seen to day. The purport of the letter, which was very well written in English, was to propose terms of peace without surrendering their leaders. His Excellency took no notice whatever of the proposal, and not only expressed his displeasure at the conference having taken place at all, but offered a reward of five hundred pounds for Uithaalder, dead or alive.

On approaching Fort Hare we were met by Lieutenant Lord Charles Hay, 2nd Queen's, one of the officers just returned with the Governor-General, and from him we learned that Kreli's "Great Place" had been burned to the ground; nearly 10,000 head of cattle, upwards of 100 horses, and 1000 goats, captured, and a great number of Kaffirs killed; a punishment the Chief would not soon forget, as the fine he had refused to pay was only 1500 head of cattle.

The following day, on our return to Fort Beaufort, by a lower road, through bush white over with the twining jessamine, we passed through acres of young locusts, a sight as extraordinary as that of their flight; the whole ground being hidden by a moving black mass of little insects about the size of a common house-fly, giving it the appearance of a burnt plain; as we moved onward, the bulk of them cleared away before us with a rustling sound, yet still so thick did they lie underfoot, that we crushed them in thousands.

At sunset we approached Beaufort by the smooth green down, over which innumerable herds of cattle were winding, whistled on by wild kaross-clad herdsmen, gun and assegais in hand, and entered the town through the Fingo Kraals, where swarthy maidens were milking their goats, saturÆ capellÆ; men kraaling their cattle for the night, and women of all ages—young and graceful, old and haggard, skeletons or shaking masses of fat, constantly arriving, with huge bundles of firewood balanced on their heads.

Several of the soldiers who had been wounded in the late operations, died during the hot weather, in hospital; as often as we accompanied their remains to the beautiful burying ground on the green flats outside the town, with the impressive accompaniments of a military funeral, the alternating strains of the "Dead March," and the wailing lament of the Pipes, it was impossible not to feel something unusually touching in the death of a brave man laid to his last rest so far from home and friends.

On these occasions, we invariably observed, while the crowd of Fingoes behaved with decorum and feeling, that the Totties, as we passed, displayed a malicious and gratified expression; indeed, we had it on good authority, that more than once, men and women had indulged in dancing and open rejoicing because another of the "roed batjes" (red jackets) had gone to his grave.

The head-quarter Division of the Kei expedition entered the town. The large square was filled with a host of ragged soldiers, and the streets were blocked up by bellowing thousands of cattle, while officers, out at the elbows, mounted on half starved horses; Fingoes driving oxen laden with dagha; and camp followers leading pack-horses covered with blankets, raw meat, and jingling kettles, worked their way through the moving mass. All was din and confusion, for the Fingoes would not go to their kraals, and the cattle had none to go to. They were afterwards sold by public auction in the centre of the town, and the proceeds divided among those who had formed the expedition.

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