“Wilson from Victoria—Alan Wilson, with eighteen men, went across the Shangani River on the King’s spoor. We understood that the King was deserted all but a few hundred men, and Major Wilson was to see how the land lay. His idea was to get the King that night if possible and bring him in; but when he reached the scherms it was too late and too dark to do anything; only, he saw that the numbers round Lobengula had been underrated, and that the natives were threatening and hostile. He sent Napier back with information to Major Forbes for reinforcements, but Major Forbes did not think it safe to move that night and sent Captain Borrow instead with twenty men. Ingram and I had already gone on ahead and joined Wilson, and when Borrow reached us we were camped out in the bush about half a mile away from the King’s scherms. We lay there all night under arms, in pitch darkness and drenching rain; we could hear the voices of the natives in the bush round us. Several hours of the night Major Wilson and I spent in trying to find three men who were lost. They had got separated from the rest of us, and Wilson wouldn’t rest till he knew they were all right. It was so dark that I had to feel for the spoor with my hands, and eventually we found them by calling out their names continually but very softly, and we got back to camp together.
“With the first glint of dawn we saddled up and rode down to the King’s waggon again, and Major Wilson called in a loud voice to Lobengula to come out and surrender. Immediately we were answered by the rattle of guns, and a heavy fire! They had evidently been ‘laying’ for us. We dismounted and returned the fire, but as soon as the natives began trying to get round us we mounted and retreated about six hundred yards, when we again dismounted and returned the fire from behind our horses. Then as they began to take to the bush round us we rode off again. Two of our horses had been shot, so two horses had to carry double.
“We rode slowly down the spoor made by the King’s waggons the night before, Major Wilson and Captain Borrow behind us consulting as to what to do. Major Wilson then called me and asked me to ride back and get the main column to come on at once with the Maxims. I rode off with two other men, and we hadn’t gone a hundred yards when hordes of Matabele rushed out on us from the bush ahead, waving their assegais and yelling. We galloped to the left where the river lay, and by hard riding got away through a shower of bullets.
“When we got to the river we found it in flood, and we had to swim over. Of course, it was too late then for the main column to cross.
“Immediately after we got away from the last lot of natives we heard Wilson and his party come up to them, and heavy firing commenced. I looked back just before we got out of sight and saw that our fellows were surrounded.
“There must have been thousands... our men in an open space without cover of any kind... surrounded by those shouting, ferocious devils mad for revenge!
“They were the pick of our forces—the very flower—thirty-four of the finest fellows in the country—in the world!”
He paused a little while, and his throat moved in a curious way that fascinated my eyes, so that I could not think about his news, but only about what was choking him.
“It is still hoped that some of them escaped. But I don’t think so... It is true that some of them might possibly have got away—if they had tried. By hard riding those with the best mounts might, but they were not the kind of men to leave their chums. No: you can take it from me they fought it out there—side by side—to the bitter end.
“But before that end came you can believe that they put up a fight that the natives of this country will never forget. I guess they showed those devils how brave men can die.”