Hark!—the gun booms from the battery above. What a volume of sound rolls through the heavy air! Another blast from the bugle, taken up and echoed back by others! Another sound of cannon from a piece of artillery, within three hundred yards of us! How the windows rattle!—how the roof shivers! We are all up and astir—the children laugh, and cry, and look bewildered—and the monkey hides whatever is most wanted—and the doors fly open, and there are—not Kaffirs—only terrified women and children seeking refuge.
I was in some alarm, from the dread of muskets going off in the hands of the people unaccustomed to the use of them; but had less fear of Kaffirs than on the previous night, as we had no cattle in the Drostdy Square, and it is for that booty alone that they will risk life recklessly; so some of us went up stairs, and sat between the windows, and the servants placed mattresses against the shutters below.
Then there was a gathering together of all the fighting men that could be collected, and a sorry show they made in the way of numbers. A heavy fire was kept up along the hills, and still the farms and bush blazed on; but no Kaffirs entered the town, so we retired a little after midnight, the younger members of the party deeply regretting that we had been alarmed for nothing. No Kaffirs! What a pity after such a commotion! In such stirring times, the young, though naturally kind-hearted, have little thought for the ruined settler, the miserable widow, the motherless parents, the devastated land.
Some cattle had been fought for, and captured by the Fingoes on the Bathurst road, about two miles from Graham’s Town. Hence the alarm!
The murder of Mr Norden, which I have before alluded to, was the next event of painful importance, and the inhabitants of the town maintained a vigilant and defensive position until the arrival of Colonel Somerset’s division, on the 29th. Colonel Somerset’s presence, with his serviceable band, inspired the settlers of Lower Albany with confidence, and he remained scarcely two days for rest and refreshment of men and horses, ere he again started for the bush. He had made such arrangements at Beaufort as had enabled him to move without waggons, those heavy incumbrances to troops in South Africa, and wisely diverging from the Ecca pass, had completely eluded the Kaffirs. He again prepared to start, equally unencumbered, to clear the eastern side of the heathen marauders. Immense mischief had been already dome, but there were yet many settlers whose lives and property awaited succour, and Colonel Somerset led his division to a point where they could work at once, and with the best effect. The force consisted of 150 of the Cape Corps, a detachment of the 7th Dragoon Guards, parties of the Cradock and Albany Burghers, under their respective commandants, and two light field-pieces, under Captain Browne and Lieutenant Gregory, R.A., making altogether a force off 800 men. The Cape Corps cheered heartily as they defiled through Graham’s Town, taking the road to Woest’s Hill, it being intended to occupy the old position of Major Frazer, Cape Regiment, at Lombard’s post, so celebrated in Kaffir warfare, and by which great part of the eastern division of the colony might be protected.
Volumes might be filled were I to detail half the miseries to which the colonists had been subjected during the operations of the troops in Kaffirland. None but those who have experienced it, can have an idea of the nature of the foe to which they were exposed.
The Kaffir, at the first onset, is perhaps less ferocious than cunning, and more intent on serving his own interests by theft than on taking life from the mere spirit of cruelty; but once roused, he is like the wild beast after the taste of blood, and loses all the best attributes of humanity. The movement of a body of these savages through the land may be likened to a “rushing and a mighty wind.” On, on they sweep! like a blast; filling the air with a strange whirr—reminding me, on a grand scale, of a flight of locusts. An officer of rank, during the Kaffir war of 1835, was riding with a body of troops across the country, when suddenly his attention was arrested by a cloud of dust; then a dark silent mass appeared, and, lo! a multitude of beings, more resembling demons than men, rushed past. There were no noises, no sound of footsteps, nothing but the shiver of the assegais, which gleamed as they dashed onwards. The party of soldiery was too small to render an advance prudent, and though it is not improbable the Kaffirs observed the detachment of troops, from which they were distant scarcely half a mile, they did not stop on their way. They were bent on some purpose, and would not turn aside from it.
The same officer described to me a scene which had struck him particularly when, on an expedition far up the country, many years ago. His regiment was bivouacked along the ridge of a chain of hills during the night. At dawn, he rose to reconnoitre, and, looking below, beheld, as he imagined, an immense herd of cattle. As the sun advanced, lighting up the valley, a solitary figure stepped out from the supposed herd, and springing on an ant-heap, waved an assegai, and probably spoke, though nothing could be heard. Each shield of bullock’s hide then gave up its armed warrior, who had been sleeping beneath its shelter; the wild chant of the Fingoes filled the valley with strange harmony; and, in a few minutes a phalanx was formed, in readiness for the approach of the troops, to whom these Fingoes were attached as allies. They have well repaid the white man’s good will.
Although the Fingoes were the slaves of the Kaffirs till Sir Benjamin D’Urban, the good, the true, the generous, and the brave, released them from their bondage; and, although the Kaffirs to this day denominate them their “dogs,” the Fingoes are in many respects their superiors; and during this war we had ample opportunity of judging of their patience, bravery, and fidelity. The mode of warfare of these two tribes, for they cannot be considered distinct nations, is in some respects different. The Kaffir goes forth to battle besmeared with red clay, simply arrayed with his kaross, armed with his musket and assegai, and accoutred with his pouch and sack, for ammunition, plunder, and provisions.
The appearance of a body of Fingoes, if less terrific, is more imposing. Their heads are ornamented with jackals’ tails, ostrich plumes, beads, wolves’ teeth, etc. Across their shoulders is flung a skin, and around their waist is girt a kilt of monkeys’ tails. The chief, as among the Kaffirs, wears a tiger-skin kaross, and their rain-makers, who are at once wizards, doctors, and councillors, are most fearfully grotesque in their costume.