Baden-Powell of MafekingFletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith)
History
Baden-Powell of Mafeking
Fletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith)
Baden-Powell of Gilwell, Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, Baron, 1857-1941; Generals -- Great Britain -- Biography
"The Matabele as they ran kept stopping behind bushes to fire. Now and
again they tried to rally, but whenever a clump of them began to form
or tried to stand, we went at them with a whoop and a yell, and both
spurs in, and sent them flying. Of course, besides their guns they had
their assegais. Several of our horses got some wounds, and one man got
a horrid stab straight into his stomach. I saw another of our men fling
himself on to a Kafir who was stabbing at him; together they rolled on
the ground, and in a twinkling the white man had twisted the spear from
its owner's hand, and after a short, sharp tussle, he drove it through
the other's heart.
"In one place one of the men got somewhat detached from the rest, and
came on a bunch of eight of the enemy. These fired on him and killed
his horse, but he himself was up in trice, and, using magazine fire, he
let them have it with such effect that before they could close on him
with their clubs and assegais, he had floored half their number, and
the rest just turned and fled. And farther on a horse was shot, and, in
the fall, his rider stunned. The niggers came looping up, grinning at
the anticipated bloodshed, but Sergeant Farley, of Grey's Scouts, was
there before them, and, hoisting up his comrade on to his horse, got
him safe away.
"Everywhere one found the Kafirs creeping into bushes, where they lay
low till some of us came by, and then they loosed off their guns at us
after we had passed.
"I had my Colt's repeater with me--with only six cartridges in the
magazine, and soon I found I had finished these--so, throwing it
under a peculiar tree, where I might find it again, I went on with my
revolver. Presently I came on an open stretch of ground, and about
eighty yards before me was a Kafir with a Martini-Henry. He saw me and
dropped on one knee and drew a steady bead on me. I felt so indignant
at this that I rode at him as hard as I could go, calling him every
name under the sun; he aimed,--for an hour, it seemed to me,--and it
was quite a relief when at last he fired, at about ten yards distance,
and still more of a relief when I realized he had clean missed me. Then
he jumped up and turned to run, but he had not gone two paces when he
cringed as if some one had slapped him hard on the back, then his head
dropped and his heels flew up, and he fell smack on his face, shot by
one of our men behind me.
"At last I called a halt. Our horses were done, the niggers were all
scattered, and there were almost as many left behind us hiding in
bushes as there were running on in front.
"A few minutes spent in breathing the horses, and a vast amount of
jabber and chaff, and then we re-formed the line and returned at a
walk, clearing the bush as we went.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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