In the course of a few days I had raised a barricade round my camp strong enough to resist any number of Kaffirs; and having thus secured a good base of operation, began to look about me as to how I could best make use of it for offensive movements. Colonel N----, the officer who commanded the regulars left on the heights, did not at this time interfere in any manner with my proceedings, so I was left perfectly free, and decided that, with the small body of men at my disposal, night attacks were the only reasonable operations to be undertaken with any hope of permanent success. The Kaffir, lithe, supple, and vicious as a snake during the heat of the day, loses much of his treacherous energy at night. Ignorant and superstitious, he would be already half conquered by further increasing his dread of darkness; while the white man during the refreshing coolness of night was at his best at the Cape; and bugle-sounds allowed him to be governed almost as easily as during the day. I accordingly proceeded cautiously to accustom the men to the work. We now received in camp a copy of a general order thus worded:-- “HEADQUARTERS, FORT BEAUFORT. “General Napier speaks in the highest terms of the discernment and gallantry displayed by Captain Lakeman, and the bravery and good conduct of his men on this their first engagement with the enemy. (Signed) “A. J. CLOËTE, _Quartermaster-General_.” This was very gratifying, and we determined to obtain still further recognitions of services rendered. In the course of a month we had so far created a panic by our night attacks, that the Kaffirs evacuated the whole of the table-land surrounding the Water-kloof, and retired to the valley and rocky recesses below. CHAPTER VII. ANOTHER COMBINED ATTACK--SMALL RESULTS--CAPTURE OF MUNDELL’S PEAK--THANKED A SECOND TIME IN GENERAL ORDERS--EXAMPLE OF TENACITY OF LIFE--BUILDING FORTS--THE DESCENT INTO THE WATER-KLOOF--REPROACHES--DISREGARDED ADVICE--AN ATTACK AND THE CONSEQUENCES--IN DANGER AND UNABLE TO PROCURE ASSISTANCE--RELIEVED FROM ALL INTERFERENCE BY OTHER COMMANDING OFFICERS--RECEIVE WRITTEN THANKS OF GENERAL COMMANDING--RECEIVE ADDITIONAL COMMAND OF NEW COMPANY OF FINGOES--I ASSERT MY RIGHT OVER PRISONERS--JOHNY FINGO--A SKIRMISH--SAVAGE INDIFFERENCE TO PHYSICAL PAIN--NIGHT FIGHTING--TREACHERY. Another attack on a still grander scale than the last was now decided on at headquarters; and the Commander-in-chief, General Cathcart, with several thousand troops, guns, &c., were accordingly assembled on the heights overlooking the kloof. It was, however, a somewhat tame affair. We merely marched round the heights, and only attacked a small Kaffir village on the edge of a promontory, called Mundell’s Peak, that advanced like a wedge into the middle of the above-named kloof and almost divided it in two.