After the quiet and solitude of Post Retief, the streets and stores of the town looked wonderfully gay and bustling. An amusing scene occurred at the hotel, where a large party of officers, whom various duties had called in from the field, were dining together. Among the party was a civilian, a Mr. C--r, just out from England as a volunteer, who, it appeared, had accompanied Captain Moody's ill-fated escort, with the intention of seeing service on the Frontier. In the attack at the Koonap Hill, he had escaped through the bush, and wisely secreted himself in the chimney of the deserted house, but notwithstanding this judicious precaution, narrowly escaped being shot as a Kaffir, when, begrimed with soot, he ventured down from his hiding-place, on the arrival of the detachment from Fort Brown. This story, humorously related by Major H----, with sundry embellishments, in happy ignorance that the hero of the tale was one of the audience, in fact his _vis-à-vis_, convulsed the whole table with laughter, which he naturally attributed to his own facetiousness; when, on winding up with an announcement that "the gallant volunteer had returned to Graham's Town, having had enough of it," the identical individual announced himself, sending us into a perfect roar at the sudden change in the face of the Major, who, however, quietly requested that he might not be called out, as he should infallibly take to the flue. While here, I rode out with a party of officers of the Garrison to visit my brother, who was with a small detachment of the regiment at Niemand's Kraal, a deserted farm, nine miles off. The house, which was little more than a shell, stood alone in a hot sandy little valley, surrounded by bush-covered hills, abounding in game of all kinds. Half a dozen tents were pitched round the walls, which had been loop-holed for musketry. The lower rooms, the windows barricaded with stones, were occupied by the men, and the two upper ones by the officers; the rough walls hung with arms and accoutrements. We luncheoned on wild boar steaks, and returned to Graham's Town. Two days afterwards Graham's Town was enlivened by a novel reinforcement for the Frontier. Mr. Lakeman, a gentleman whose love of military enterprise had carried him through the Hungarian and Algerian wars; and who had just brought out from England, at his own expense, Minié Rifles, clothing and accoutrements for 250 men, arrived with such volunteers as he had been able to raise in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. They were a most extraordinary contingent; all equipped in leathern helmets, and with "crackers" and frock-coats of the same stuff; many of them dare-devil fellows ready for anything, and all admirably cut out for bush work.