the way we had come, but down the line, straight down to our right. This served to break our line a lot and create a gap between the 7th and 8th men. Seeing that there was no chance of making a stand where we were, I shouted to the men to move back and rally in the _donga_ lower down. Knowing that unless the centre were checked in some way, the enemy would cut us up before we could get back to the _donga_, I emptied my carbine (magazine) into the main lot at about twenty yards distance and about seventy from where I was afterwards lying. This served to check them for a minute or two and I took advantage of it to run after the men. While doing so, I slipped another cartridge into the breech of my carbine and had just succeeded in doing so, when I ran into another lot of the enemy who had charged between the _donga_ and myself (_i.e._ between where I first fired on the enemy and the position at which we rallied), as if to partly surround the party in the _donga_. I thereupon fired five shots at them with my revolver as I ran towards my men. The enemy broke, and left, as I thought, a clear line to the _donga_, where I could hear Fraser's voice calling out, 'Here we are, Sir!' Just then a Native rose from the low bush in front of me, _i.e._ between me and where I heard Fraser's voice. He had a stabbing-assegai and some sort of weapon--it seemed like an old muzzle-loading gun. He raised the assegai, but as he did so, I snapped at him the last shot in my revolver and he fell. As he fell, another Native appeared suddenly on my left--I think he had been behind a small tree. He was within stabbing distance before I noticed him, my attention having been engaged with the other man. I had no time to aim my carbine, merely being able to swing it up and parry his thrust. I narrowly escaped being wounded, for the assegai just grazed the right eyelid (I thought my eye was out, as the blood flowed over my cheek and almost blinded me). Catching my foot in something I fell, but the slope of the ground being very steep, I succeeded in throwing myself right over. I turned over purposely and, in so doing, again faced my adversary. Swinging my carbine forward, I pulled the trigger, not, however, with the ordinary finger, for which there was no time, but with my little finger which happened to be in position at that instant. The shot struck the man in the chest and he fell forward past me on my left about seven yards from the east edge of the _donga_. I remarked that this man had bound round his forehead a broad band of Turkey-red, as well as a stiff peak of red over the centre of the forehead.[224] The first of the other two had a narrow strip of red cloth round his forehead. I also noticed that a great number of the remainder of the enemy had Turkey-red round their heads. Recovering my footing, I ran down and leaped into the _donga_, where I found Fraser, Woolnough, Alexander, Holmes, Flynn and Hawkins. The rebels seemed to surround us