In the afternoon we started again with our newly–received supplies, to overtake Poore and the rest of our party, the men who had brought the supplies meanwhile returning to the waggons. Before leaving the neighbourhood, however, we got up a grand sham fight, and we fired volleys and independent firing. This was done with the idea of alarming the rebels in the bush, and of letting them know that we were here in some force, and probably firing on their friends; they would therefore probably not venture out at this end of the bush, and the other end was meantime being taken care of by Ridley and his party. Late that night we rejoined Poore, tired out, and heartily glad to turn in to sleep.
The Horse Guard
Vedettes are invariably posted in different directions while the horses are grazing, to ensure their not straying, and to guard against their surprise and capture by the enemy.
18th September.—Our usual daily march goes thus: Reveillé and stand to arms at 4.30, when Orion’s belt is overhead. (The natives call this “Ingolobu,” the pig, the three big stars being three pigs, and the three little ones being the clogs running after them; this shows that Kaffirs, like other nations, see pictures in the constellations.) We then feed horses—if we have anything to feed them with, which is not often; light fires and boil coffee; saddle up, and march off at 5.15. We go on marching till about 9.30 or 10, when we off–saddle, and lie up for the heat of the day, during which the horses are grazed, with a guard to look after them, and we go on breakfasting, bathing, and in theory writing and sketching, but in practice sleeping, at least so far as the flies will allow. At 3.30 saddle up and march till 5.30, off–saddle and supper; then we march on again, as far as necessary, in the cool hours of the early night. On arriving at the end of our march, we form our little laager; to do this we put our saddles down in a square, each man sleeping with his head in the saddle, and the horses inside the square, fastened in two lines on their “built–up” ropes. To go to bed, we dig a small hole for our hip–joints to rest in, roll ourselves up in our horse–blanket, with our head comfortably ensconced in the inside of the saddle, and we would not then exchange our couch for anything that Maple could try and tempt us with.
This morning we started as usual at 5.15, and continued our way northward down the Shangani. We were now getting into a more tropical climate, and slender palm trees began to vary the woodland scenery, and dwarf palms and ferns abounded among the smaller bush. Everywhere we found spoor of big buck, and also of lions.
At last we came to the spot where we considered it desirable to leave the Shangani and strike across through the forest to get to the Gwelo River, where we should be in a position to cut off the retreating enemy. The map showed this to be a distance of about twenty–five miles; but the maps of this district are naturally not to be relied upon, since it has only been very sketchily surveyed, if surveyed at all. We had not left the Shangani a mile behind us before we came across a small affluent stream, and here we came on the spoor of natives not twenty–four hours old. As we were rising the bank of this stream, we saw a woman on the path. She was too frightened to move, or even to speak, when we had captured her; but she had a baby on her back, and, seeing that I began to play with the child instead of eating it, as she had probably expected, she found her tongue, and was able to answer our inquiries. She told us that she belonged to a party of M’tini’s impi, which was camped a short distance farther on in the bush; and she told us that the party that we had already surprised in the thick bush on the Uvunkwe was also the other portion and headquarters of that impi. While we were talking, one of the men said he saw a native running across the veldt. Galloping in that direction, I came across the spoor of a boy, which I followed till I ran him to earth in a thick bunch of grass, where he was lying completely hidden. On questioning him, he corroborated what the woman had said. He was a plucky youngster, and faithless to his friends, for he at once volunteered to guide us to the spot where they were camped, and showed but little alarm on being hoicked up on to the front of one of the hussars’ saddles. Dividing ourselves into two parties, we went forward in the direction indicated, and, passing a ruined farmstead on our way, we presently got into a tract of thick bush, and came suddenly upon a kraal in the heart of it. The people in the kraal were taken completely by surprise; they had not time to take up their arms, but dashed into the jungle, eager to make their escape. The hussars were, however, too quick for them, and, diving through the bush at a splendid pace with drawn swords, they succeeded in surrounding them before they could get away, and brought them all back into the kraal. Our detached party, in making a wider movement round this kraal, came upon a second, and similarly captured it and its occupants, together with a goodly flock of goats.
We then took our prisoners back to the water–place, and, as our horses were rather tired with their morning gallop, we halted there to take our midday rest. Our prisoners showed no signs of being sorry at their capture; in fact, they appeared rather glad than otherwise. The women built us shelters from the sun with branches and palm leaves, the men killed and cut up goats for us to eat, the children lit the fires and boiled the kettles; and so we made a peaceful, friendly–looking party.