Campaigning in Kaffirland; Or, Scenes and Adventures in the Kaffir War of 1851-52King, William Ross
History
Campaigning in Kaffirland; Or, Scenes and Adventures in the Kaffir War of 1851-52
King, William Ross
South Africa -- History -- Frontier Wars, 1811-1878
up to the heights, which were so completely covered by clouds, as to
render it difficult to find our way; the cold intense. Crossing the
"Horseshoe," we descended the steep ridge leading down into Fullers
Hoek, not a living Kaffir to be seen anywhere. In the Hoek we found the
91st, under Major Forbes, bivouacked on the long grass, their drenched
clothes clinging so closely to them, that they looked as if they had
passed the night in the river. Half a mile further on we halted. Fancy
men dripping from every thread, kneeling in the mud, with eyes watering
from the thick smoke, and puffing away at a heap of wet branches,
surmounted by a kettle of cold water, or with benumbed fingers trying
to strike a light, and you see us halted for breakfast. In another hour
we were again on foot, and after a march of twelve miles, passing on
the way through the Blinkwater Camp, reached Fort Beaufort, the 73rd
encamping on their former ground, while we waded the river waist-deep,
and marched to the barracks.
Two days afterwards, returning from Ely, where I had been sent with
an ammunition escort, we met Colonel Eyre's column _en route_ for the
Amatolas, whence they shortly afterwards expelled Uithaalder, killing
about thirty of his people, and taking several stand of arms and 150
head of cattle; burning his Laager, and erecting a permanent defensible
Post in its place.
Having a day to spare, I rode out to Lieuwe Fontein, of which Post my
brother had, some time previously, been appointed Commandant, with a
garrison of 74th and Mounted Levies. We had excellent buck shooting in
the open bush around the station, and killed a singular diver on the
vley, with curious palmated feet, the three toes being quite detached,
and in form and appearance like beautiful leaves. The situation, like
most of the frontier Posts, was one that would have afforded a man
of contemplative mind ample opportunity for undisturbed reflection,
being twelve miles from the nearest dwelling, and not a living soul
approaching the place the day long, excepting twice a week, when the
post-riders met there, and the weekly train of waggons outspanned under
the walls. At night, after the gates were locked and the keys brought
in to the Commandant, he might sit till daylight without hearing a
single sound to break the oppressive silence, except the measured
tread of the sentinel and the occasional howl of a hyæna or jackal.
Next evening the solitude was relieved by the arrival of the up and
down mails; two small clouds of red dust rising above the scattered
clumps of bush, grew nearer and nearer, till at last the two parties of
mounted men were seen descending the opposite hills at the same time,
and rapidly approaching the Post, their arms glittering in the setting
sun. As they remained within the Post till daylight, I rode back to
Beaufort with an escort; the cool refreshing morning air fragrant with
the perfume of flowering shrubs. On the way I had some good sport,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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