An unusual number of Hottentot women accompanied the train; and as of late their conduct had excited much suspicion in Beaufort as well as in the field (for numbers infest all the camps, a nuisance to everybody but the Cape Corps men and waggon-drivers, from whom they are inseparable), the Colonel had made some inquiries as to their movements; and obtaining very unsatisfactory replies, ordered them to be searched by the Fingoes, who set to work at once with a mischievous alacrity. To the indignation of all, quantities of ammunition were found secreted in their bundles and on their persons, for the undoubted purpose of being clandestinely conveyed to the Rebels. On one woman ninety-five rounds of government ammunition were found; on another, eighty; others had smaller quantities; and one carried a canister of loose powder, and a bullet-mould and turnscrew. They must either have stolen or obtained the ball-cartridge from the Hottentots at Beaufort in government pay; and how and to what extent the practice was carried on, became a question of serious consideration. It was with the greatest difficulty the women were rescued from the infuriated Fingoes, who would have assegaied them on the spot but for the interference of the officers; they were sent back prisoners to Beaufort. By these wretches the enemy was provided, not only with means for destroying us, but of keeping themselves in absolute comfort. Ammunition and food it was accidentally found had been regularly forwarded to them by the Tottie women of our own camps, fed, by the way, at the government expense, who, under pretence of collecting firewood in the bush, hid their supplies in certain assigned spots, whence they were to be secretly taken away at night by the rebels. Late in the afternoon our long train reached the bivouac in torrents of rain, which again poured down with a steady relentlessness that soon flooded the camp, and we made up our minds for another wet night. On rising, at three o'clock next morning, we found little pools of water collected in the hollows indented in the soft ground by our hips and shoulders. We fell in, and stood for half an hour in the ranks ankle deep in the mud, waiting for the waggons to move on, shivering like men with ague, our fingers so benumbed that we could scarcely hold our rifles. After creeping along for about half a mile we came to a complete stand-still at a small rise, the road being too slippery for the oxen, which cannot draw on wet ground, and we had to return to our bivouac once more.