[71]. Our total losses at Majuba were 6 officers killed, 9 wounded and 6 prisoners; non-commissioned officers and men, 86 killed, 125 wounded, 53 prisoners.
[72]. The official reasons, or rather the official excuses, for the loss of the day, are a transparent gloss, intended to hide gross mismanagement on the one hand and a panic-stricken retreat on the other. They are the following, extracted from the Gazette: (1) The slopes below the brow of the plateau were too steep to be searched by our fire, and cover existed up to the brow; (2) the rocky ridge we occupied in second line, though the best we had time to hold, did not cover more than fifty yards to its front, as the plateau rolled continuously to the brow; (2a) the men were too exhausted to intrench, and hardly fit to fight; (3) when the Boers gained the last ridge ours had to descend almost impassable slopes, and many were shot in doing so.
[73]. Boer commandment at Bronker’s Spruit.
[74]. Sixty-six officers and men killed sixty seven wounded, and nine missing.
[75]. Mrs. Charles Garnett.—A Visit to the Leper Hospital of Bergen.—“Sunday Magazine,” May 1886.
[76]. In the last session of the Natal legislative council the vote for Langibalele’s support was reduced from £500 per annum to £50. He has now returned, but has only to thank the financial state of Natal for his “ticket of leave!”
[77]. See Appendix.
[78]. He showed that the “record” of the trial, which lasted four days, was simply an ex-parte statement of evidence taken from witnesses, called by the crown, examined by the crown prosecutor and cross-examined by nobody! Not a single witness was called for the defence, the prisoner having been kept in solitary confinement from the time of his arrival (Dec. 31st), and not allowed to speak to any one, white or black, who might try to find witnesses for him.
[79]. Native term for wiping out their enemies.
[80]. Warriors not being allowed to marry until they had drawn blood on the battlefield.