The Cape and the Kaffirs: A Diary of Five Years' Residence in KaffirlandWard, Mrs.
History
The Cape and the Kaffirs: A Diary of Five Years' Residence in Kaffirland
Ward, Mrs.
South Africa -- History -- Frontier Wars, 1811-1878
panic-stricken inhabitants galloped hither and thither, endangering
people's lives and wearing out their horses, causing a stir and
excitement equally useless and alarming. The appearance of the town on
one Sabbath morning was wretched beyond description. The bell for
prayers rang from our roofless church, the Independent Chapel being lent
to us as a place of worship, while the church of the established
religion was undergoing repairs. A crowd of Fingo and Hottentot
picquets were assembling in the streets, groups of people stood about
talking, and others passed on to the place of prayer with careworn
faces. At every opening, the sappers and miners were busy blockading
the streets, and parties of armed Burghers came galloping in with fresh
tidings of ruin, murder, and devastation. The return of Colonel
Somerset's division probably checked the advance of the enemy upon the
town, where the greatest fears had been entertained for the magazine,
containing the gunpowder belonging to the merchants. It must be added,
that the energies of those who were willing to join in the work of
defence had been considerably damped by a disastrous circumstance, which
had occurred during the absence of the troops in Kaffirland.
Mr Norden, a merchant, having been appointed to the temporary command
of the Yeomanry Corps [Note 2], which, it must be remembered, there had
been but little time to organise, led his men out, on the 25th of April,
to a valley a little beyond Graham's Town, where it had been ascertained
that a number of Kaffirs were lurking. He was a dashing, enterprising
man, always ready to lead whenever a leader was wanting. On reaching a
spot commanded by a krantz, or cliff, he divided his corps into two
bodies, directing one to the right and the other to the left, with one
of which he advanced towards a thick bush. On Mr Norden approaching a
mass of rock, which served as an ambush for one of the savages, he was
shot through the head, and fell dead. The wretch who shot him was
immediately brought down by the musket of one of the Yeomanry; but
others rushed on the murdered man, and dragged away the body. The
Yeomanry Corps being thus divided, the numbers of the foe unknown, and
the sun just setting, it was deemed imprudent to attempt the capture of
Mr Norden's remains from the Kaffirs at that moment. The following
day, the body was observed placed in a conspicuous position on the
krantz, probably as a decoy; and on Monday, the 27th, a large body of
the inhabitants, a few of the Cape Corps, and a remnant of the 90th--in
all amounting to about 200 men--headed by Colonel Johnstone, 27th
Regiment, Commandant of the town, went out, and brought back the mangled
body of the brave man whose life had been so miserably sacrificed. The
bereaved family of Mr Norden must ever be looked on by the people of
Graham's Town with feelings of deep and grateful interest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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