Chapter VI (2)

We marched early in falling sleet, to join the other brigade, on the ridge facetiously denominated "Mount Pleasant." Several large Kaffir fires were seen on the heights on the opposite side of the Waterkloof valley, the smoke hanging heavily in the damp air. The tops of the distant mountains and most of the nearer peaks were white with snow that had fallen during the night, and the breeze from that direction blew so bitterly cold on our saturated clothes, that we were perfectly benumbed in our light marching dress, which, though warmer than agreeable under the mid-day sun, was a very indifferent protection against such weather. On reaching the bivouac of the brigade in occupation, we found they had suffered much more than ourselves; the chill wind swept unbroken over the bleak exposed ridge which was covered with snow, and the trenches which the men had dug before the rain came on, to sleep in under shelter of the earth thrown out of them, were full of water. A consultation took place between the two Commanders as to the advisability, or rather practicability of making any movement in such weather. During this, partly to keep themselves warm, and partly to commemorate the death of an unfortunate Kaffir spy whom they had just assegaied, the Fingoes gathered in a circle and performed a war dance, with unusually savage yells and gesticulations. The rain was evidently determined to make a day of it, and about eleven o'clock we were driven back again to our old bivouac,--of the very sight of which we were thoroughly weary. It had been visited during our absence by the Kaffirs, the spoor of whose bare feet was traceable round nearly every fire, on which we found they had been roasting the offal of our slaughtered cattle, and actually eating the bones, which were gnawed off, as if by large dogs. The sloppy ground, after twenty-four hours' rain, and trampling of men, horses and cattle, had become a perfect bog, in which we sank at every step; and with the driving rain, which, like a white cloud, came sweeping across the bleak plain till it dashed in our faces, with the fitful gusts of wind that scattered the ashes of our wretched fires in every direction, our day's halt was anything but a lounge. One of our men, wounded in the fight of the day before, died in the afternoon, and was buried near the graves of Norris and the other brave fellows interred here. The pitiless rain changed only for sleet at night, and the men suffered very much, their blankets having been completely soaked as well as their clothes for many hours, while the ground was unfit even for the cattle and horses to lie on. In the morning we found ourselves whitened over with hail and sleet, the fog so thick that all operations, were out of the question, and another day in this cheerful spot was before us. All day long the belt of wood rang with the sound of the axe; Officers and men, for the sake of exercise, busily occupied themselves in cutting down trees, chopping up and carrying wood for the fires; those that could not borrow an axe or bill-hook, made fires round the standing trunks and burnt them down, when the branches were torn off and carried smoking to the camp, and piled on the fires, which at last burned up, high and cheerily, in spite of the descending deluge.

As there appeared to be no chance of the weather improving, the General determined to move the following morning at all hazards. The troops mustered without bugle call, and silently took their places, the blazing fires casting a bright ruddy light on the dripping ranks, standing motionless in the heavy rain in which the men had lain all night without a murmur. At five we moved off, and after an hour's march through very long grass reached the edge of the heights above the Waterkloof valley, into which we at once descended, scrambling down a tremendously steep rocky path leading abruptly into the deep glen, the advanced sections of the 12th looking like Lilliputian soldiers far beneath, as the breaking daylight showed them already landed at the bottom. Having re-formed our ranks, we proceeded up the valley to attack the new position taken up by the enemy on the southern head of the Kromme range. The big guns and musketry on the heights above our left told that the other brigade was already engaged, and soon after, as we got further up the valley, we saw heavy clouds of smoke rising from the huts they had fired. On reaching the point where the valley branches into two, we took the road leading up the one on our right, and presently came on a village prettily situated, and indeed almost hidden in the bush; the Kaffirs had but barely escaped, and one or two lurking in the bush were caught by the Fingoes; a small body of them were also seen creeping on hands and knees through the long grass over the crest of an opposite hill, and a party of our horse dashed after in pursuit, and cut them off. We ascended the mountain by a steep winding road; the rain had at last ceased, and the sun was now overpoweringly hot, though a few hours before we had thought it impossible to be too warm. We worked our way through two belts of wood on the ridge without finding any recent spoor of the enemy; and after marching some distance across the grassy table top of the Kromme came to the little basin, on several previous occasions the scene of our bivouacs. The 91st regiment detached from Michell's Brigade, which now held the belt of forest on the top of the range, between Fullers Hoek and Waterkloof, came through the forest in our front and reinforced the column, when we advanced on the enemy's position, and entering the bush had a sharp skirmish, killing several Kaffirs and capturing some horses, after which there being no further opposition, or, indeed, any one to be seen, we returned in a heavy shower to the flat, and bivouacked for the night.

Before dawn we entered the belt of forest separating us from the other brigade, and met with no obstruction; the bush was still as death, and at the top of the path leading out of it lay the corpses of the Kaffirs killed on the 14th. The stench was intolerable. It was impossible to remove them, and as they lay right along the centre of the narrow track we had to file singly past them. A few yards further on lay the clean picked skeleton of the Serjeant of the 12th, killed at the same time, which was recognised by the fragments of his red coat, torn to pieces, and trampled in the dirt by the hyænas and jackals, which invariably attack white flesh in preference to black. Just at the edge of the wood on the open, lay many dead Kaffirs, and the putrifying carcases of four horses shot on the above occasion; we were nearly all ill from the continued insufferable stench, and hurried along to escape it.

We now stood on the N.W. corner of the Horseshoe, and on the site of the principal Kaffir village; the ground was covered with the remains of burnt and levelled huts; native utensils and ornaments lay about, burnt dogs and dead horses, and here and there the corpse of a Kaffir or Tottie, with hundreds of flattened bullets and fragments of exploded shells that had torn up the rocks around. In front of the position was a line of small stone breastworks, ingeniously constructed of loose rocks, built up about three or four feet high, and from three feet, to twenty, in length, invisible at musket range, on account of their similarity to the rocky ground on which they stood.

We halted for some time here, and the sun was so blazing hot that we stretched blankets over the stands of piled arms, as a shelter from its burning rays; in front of us, rising in the distance above the dark forest that sloped abruptly into the valley below, stood the grand and lofty Winterberg, its lower ranges of a deep purple tint, the higher white with snow. Along the front of the forest the huts were totally destroyed, but just within its shelter we found many still standing, untouched and quite deserted, also cattle kraals and stables, made of young trees, felled and twined in and out between the larger standing ones; in the huts were all sorts of odd things--calabashes, beads, bridles, hatchets, karosses, bags of seeds and of the red clay with which they cover their bodies, rheims, large pieces of the root of the Noë-boom root, peeled for food; two or three litters of blind puppies, jealously guarded by half-famished curs; quantities of sheep-skins and piles of bullocks' horns, and all kinds of minor rubbish, with several bullet moulds, and a quantity of newly-cast balls. The trees around were scored with bullet marks high and low, and many shivered into splinters by the shells; one or two large and recently-made graves were found, and a sickening odour arose from the thick underwood, where there must have been many more bodies hidden among the tangled thickets. While clambering among the huge masses of creeper-grown rock, which were rudely thrown together in every size and form, among the forest trees growing out of their clefts, I accidentally observed, half covered by the wild vine, a narrow opening between two enormous crags, and peeping in with some trouble, found, to my astonishment, a cave or chamber capable of holding a dozen or fifteen men, the floor covered with grass matting and sheep-skins, while the entrance was naturally concealed by a clump of thick bushes. From such hiding places our troops were shot down by unseen enemies, and officers picked off at the head of their astonished men.

At noon a mule waggon was sent over to us from the General's party, across the "Horseshoe," containing a supply of meal, which, as we had not tasted food since the previous evening, was at once made into a sort of water porridge, and greedily devoured; an order arriving for us to move up to the support of the 2nd Queen's hotly engaged just in front, we took our half-emptied mess-tins in our hands, eating the parboiled mess as we went along. We were extended and lay down among the loose rocks in support, the firing heavy on both sides and stray shots each moment falling among us or striking the stones and flying off with a ringing _whirr_. For more than an hour we impatiently lay here inactive, though under fire. The 6th took up a flanking position in a clump of large trees and opened a steady fire on the enemy; the 2nd were then withdrawn, and retired through our line, their faces begrimed with gunpowder, bearing one dead and one wounded man. As soon as they were clear of the range, the artillery of the 2nd Brigade opened fire on the Krantz; the Kaffirs, however, maintained their ground, and greatly annoyed the 6th by a dropping fire from invisible marksmen. Shortly after, the howitzers of the other column were brought round to the south front of the position, all the guns were going at once, and in a few minutes completely drove the enemy from their stand in the rocky cover, scattering and killing the groups that kept appearing in front. A round shot striking a rock, ricocheted obliquely, and passed between our regiment and the 12th, and close to two officers, but fortunately did no harm, and went bounding and crashing through the forest, clearing its terrific course with a humming roar. The enemy completely dislodged by the infantry from their fastnesses in the bush, and now driven from their successive rallying points, by the admirable practice of the guns, under Lieutenant Field, were seen in the distance retreating over the hills and down the valleys in every direction towards the Kromme Forest, the women carrying large bundles on their heads, a sure sign of their "trekking."

Late in the evening we returned to our bivouac, and long before daylight were again trudging across the dark mountains. At dawn we came to the top of the Wolfsback Pass, and as we halted for a few minutes to allow those in front to file into its narrow shady path, we discerned, on the opposite hill across the dark intervening kloof, two or three fires, and a few Kaffir scouts creeping along its elevated ridge, in a stooping posture, though plainly visible to us against the brightening sky. We made our way down through the steep forest, and reached the ruined farm-house at the foot of the mountain, where we had halted for breakfast about six weeks before, and seeing no signs whatever of the enemy in these forests, in which it was thought they had taken refuge, again ascended the range by a path a little more towards the eastern extremity, and crossing its ridge, descended into the valley called Fullers Hoek. This is a deep wooded kloof of the Blinkwater, till lately in the territories of Hermanus, who found its thick forests and almost inaccessible retreats so favourable for the concealment of the horses and fat cattle of the colonists, that he was at last deprived of it by the Government, and allotted a more open tract of country in its stead, belonging to a burgher, named Fuller, who, taking possession of the Chief's valley, gave it the name it now bears. The General having moved down into the Blinkwater, with the artillery and horse, co-operated with us, as we scoured through the scattered bush, with companies extended right across the glen, clearing the cover from one end to the other, as we advanced, burning and destroying all the cattle kraals and huts in our way. Some Kaffirs, on the summit of a lofty perpendicular precipice crowning a steep wooded mountain on our left, shouted to us to let the kraals alone, and one of them gave us a song! they were far beyond rifle range.

At noon we reached the camp near the ruins of the old Blinkwater Post, and found the 45th regiment, the 60th Rifles, the Artillery, Marines, and Cape Mounted Rifles, already encamped. Commissariat supplies were sent up to Lieut.-Colonel Michell's Brigade, left in position on the Heights, at the head of the Waterkloof. A party of us rode into Fort Beaufort, and the 60th marched in in the evening, on their route back to King William's Town. We all dined together at the very humble inn, and slept at night on the chairs, tables, and floors, lots being drawn for an antiquated wooden billiard-table, in consequence of its superior accommodation.

We were to have returned with commissariat waggons next day, to the camp, but having mistaken the hour, I was left behind, and had to follow them alone. The road enjoyed no very desirable reputation, but as they could not have got more than three or four miles, I trusted to my horse's speed for that distance, and having ridden at a quiet pace for the first mile, set spurs to him at the entrance of the bush, and dashed along at a rate that would have made me a very difficult flying shot. When half way through the bush, four or five armed Hottentots stood, about two hundred yards before me, whom I at once concluded were some of the Levies belonging to the waggon escort, and congratulated myself on having so soon overtaken them. My horse's foot striking with a sharp click against a stone in the deep sandy road, made them look round, when to my surprise they all bolted into the bush and disappeared; but for this lucky panic, I should, the very next moment, have ridden into the midst of the Rebels, who must, no doubt, have thought that I was at the head of a party. Before they had time to discover their mistake I was round the next turn, and about a mile further on came up with the train.

"Winkel waggons" had come out to the camp, and the "winklers," or private traders, sold everything they had, from black sugar and meal to sardines and pickled salmon, at the most absurd and extravagant prices; the soldiers lavishly spending their accumulated pay in coffee, bread, and other comforts, which was rather encouraged than otherwise, as preventing the drunkenness that would otherwise ensue the first time they got into quarters.

In the evening the mail arrived from Beaufort, having seen several parties of Rebels on the road lurking among the bush and rocks, and on the hill-sides; the return-bag was despatched with a double escort, and an order issued forbidding any one to go into Beaufort without a proper escort. A Kaffir spy, found prowling in the bushes close to the camp, was chased, and for some time eluded discovery, having disappeared in a most sudden and mysterious manner at the edge of the river; he was, however, finally detected by the quick eye of one of the Levies, who, holding up his finger, quietly pointed to a small motionless black object on the water, near the branch of an old tree; this was the nose of the Kaffir, but so still and motionless was the muddy water that when the Fingo raised his firelock, and took a long steady aim, every one was ready to roar with laughter at the expected "sell;" bang went the old flint musket, and to their surprise the Kaffir leaped up and dropped again with a heavy splash into the blood-stained water.

The waggons had brought our tents, which we had now been without for nearly three weeks, and the camp was pitched with the greatest alacrity, and in half the usual time. Markers were placed and "covered," their bayonets stuck in the ground, streets marked out, and tents brought from the waggons; in a moment there was a hammering of pegs on every side, the tents were stretched out on the ground of each line or company, and at the sound of two notes on the bugle the whole rose up in their places; what had seemed confusion became the most exact order, and the bare plain was suddenly transformed into a canvas city, the whole being completed in less time than it took the wood and water parties to bring fuel from the neighbouring bush, or fill the camp-kettles at the river.

Heavy rain again came on in the evening with every prospect of a steady continuance, and, though in tents, we were now quite indifferent to it ourselves, we could not but pity the poor fellows on the heights, exposed to the full violence of the storm. We were in for another "three days rain."

The enemy having entirely abandoned the position, Colonel Michell's Brigade marched down into the Blinkwater during the afternoon of the 31st; they had seen the spoor of Kaffirs and cattle trekking out of the district, and had taken some Kaffir women prisoners, who stated that there were only a very few of their people still lurking in the bush, looking after the wounded whom they were unable to remove, and had secreted in their undiscoverable and inaccessible retreats in the twenty square miles of forest that clothe this rugged range of mountains. Some rebel Hottentot women had also been captured, who represented themselves as wandering lambs of the scattered flock of a Mr. Reid, of the Kat River London Missionary settlement. They were very dirty--disgustingly so--and were barely covered by their filthy rags; they were set at liberty, and advised to leave that part of the country as soon as possible. Several horses had been taken by this brigade, and amongst them we recognised that of our lamented Band-master, taken on the 8th of September, whose coat was also found in one of the huts.

The gallant brigade, literally in rags, marched steadily through our camp for Fort Beaufort in the storm of wind and rain, many with bare feet, and their thin and scanty clothes, so tattered as to be hardly decent. They had suffered very much in their exposed position, diarrhoea and dysentery having laid up whole sections.

For the next three days the rain never ceased for one minute, and the ground became so thoroughly saturated that the floors of our tents were as wet as the flooded plain outside. The wet trembling horses, with drawn-up bellies, and the damp soldiers, with turned-up trews, splashing about amongst the long rows of soaked canvas, looked nearly as wretched as the shivering blanket-covered Fingoes that crouched round the smoky fires.