Once more able to mount my horse, I rejoined our patrols, which were fully occupied in pursuing and waylaying the enemy, who, in small detached parties, made their appearance first on one side, then on another, in vain attempts to seize the government cattle; upwards of a thousand head being generally kept here in reserve. On clear bright days we were tolerably secure, as we could then discover with the glass, the solitary blanketted spy, perched on some lofty crag of the Didama or little Winterberg; but when their summits were hidden, and the clouds rolled half way down their sides, and hung there motionless, we were all on the _qui vive_, for the crafty Kaffirs, creeping down under the vapoury cover, would exchange shots with the cattle guard, or herdsmen, even though they did not venture to make a dash for the cattle. [Illustration: ANCIENT BUSHMAN PAINTINGS.] FOOTNOTES: [17] A little round hill surmounted by rocks. [18] Madden, in his Travels, states that the use of pounded locusts as flour, is common among the Arabs. [19] Euplectes Oryx. [20] "Wait-a-bit" thorn. CHAPTER XI. DESTRUCTION OF KAFFIR CROPS--FIFTH ATTACK ON WATERKLOOF. Sir H. Smith, on the return of the Kei expedition, having laid his plans for clearing the Waterkloof of the enemy, who had collected there during his absence, issued a public proclamation in the early part of this month, February, ordering all Burghers on the frontier, between twenty and fifty years of age, to assemble by the 9th of next month, under the old commando system, to aid the troops in expelling the enemy from their stronghold; warning all colonists at the same time that, failing compliance, themselves must bear the responsibility of their apathy. Notwithstanding this incentive, which one would hardly have supposed necessary for men the safety and preservation of whose families and private property were at issue, they made, generally speaking, a most mean and pitiful response to the command. One or two districts, that of Albert in particular, being alone exceptions to what Sir H. Smith termed their "melancholy shuffling." At the latter end of the month, the troops were despatched, armed with scythes, old swords, and reaping hooks, to destroy the half ripe crops of the Kaffirs in the Amatola country, from whence they obtained the supplies that enabled them to carry on the harassing war. Immense quantities were destroyed at the sources of the Upper Keiskamma, in the "Wolf's Den" (Sandilli's _home-farm_), in the Gulu valley, the Amatola basin, the Zanooka valley, and the Chumie, including the 'gardens' of the chief Soga, the treacherous murderer of the military villagers in that district.