For some time after this the Kaffirs continued inactive, and made no more incursions, while the Governor confined himself to organising the new levies, and providing for the security of the country during the absence of the army.
On the 6th of February 1835 a patrol from Fort Willshire, which had been reinforced by the Albany Burger Force and the Bathurst Yeomanry, discovered that a large body of the Kaffirs, estimated at 3000, had passed into the Fish River Bush, and next day Captain Jervis, with 120 men, proceeded to “Breakfast Key,” and following the spoor (foot-marks), soon saw the Kaffirs, who kept up a well-sustained fire on the patrol as it approached the Bush. On being reinforced, however, by the George Burghers from the camp at Somerset Mount, and a three-pounder, the patrol succeeded in taking all the cattle that the enemy had brought up for his subsistence, thus inflicting on him a very severe blow.
The Kaffirs, however, retreated lower down the Fish River Bush, and near Trompetter’s Drift fell in with a party of the Port Elizabeth Yeomanry, and killed eight of their number, with a loss on their part of only nine men—relatively speaking, a very small proportion. On the 8th, the Grenadier Company of the 75th regiment relieved Captain Jervis and the Light Company at Fort Willshire, which was marched that night to Breakfast Key, and next day formed part of the Force under Colonel Smith, which, on the following day, cleared the Bush of the Kaffirs, who retreated across the Keiskamma. The Government notice reports the loss of the Kaffirs as 150 killed, and our loss as 9 killed and 11 wounded. Sergeant Burt was the only man of the 72nd that suffered at this time: he had somehow unaccountably fallen a few paces in the rear of his company, and was immediately overpowered. Colonel Smith pursued the Kaffirs with his whole force, and a camp was formed at Macomo’s Old Kraal, to which, on the 11th of March, the Light Company proceeded; and on the 18th it was joined by the rest of the regiment.
The Governor, having confided the protection of the colony to Lieut.-Colonel England, and the 75th regiment, with some local corps arrived on the 28th at the camp on the Brak River to which the troops at Macomo’s Kraal had moved on the 25th. On the day after the Governor’s arrival he issued an order distributing the army in four divisions, as follows:—
1st Division—Lieut.-Colonel Peddie near Fort Willshire; two guns Royal Artillery, the gunners of which, as well as the guns attached to the 3rd division, were selected from the 72nd regiment; the 72nd Highlanders; a detachment of the Cape Mounted Rifles, under Major Lowen; the 1st battalion Provisional Infantry; and the Swellend Burgher Force.
2nd Division—Lieut.-Colonel Somerset on the Clusie; two guns Royal Artillery; Cape Mounted Riflemen; Burgher Force; George Burgher Force; Uitenhage Force; and Albany Force.
3rd Division—Major Cox, 75th Regiment, Block Drift; two guns Royal Artillery; detachment of Cape Mounted Rifles; 2d Battalion Colonial Infantry; Beaufort Burgher Force; and the Kat River Legion.
4th Division—Field-Commandant Wyk, at Tambookie Vley, consisted of the Cradock and Somerset Burgher Forces.
On the 30th of March, the first division, with the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief, broke up the camp at the Brak River, simultaneously with other divisions, at their various points, entered Kaffirland at Execution Drift, above Fort Willshire, and encamped that night on the Kebeca. The next day, April the 1st, this division encamped on the Debè Flats, and on the evening of the 2nd, Captain Jervis was despatched with the Light Company to the Upper Amatola, where he joined Major Cox, with the Kat River Legion, on the 3rd. These, with their combined force, succeeded in killing several Kaffirs, and taking 800 head of cattle, many horses, and immense flocks of goats, which were sent into the Debè Camp on the 4th, Major Cox following with his whole division. On the 3rd the first division left the Debè, penetrated to the fastnesses in rear of T’Slambie’s Kop, and not meeting with the enemy in force, returned to the camp the same night, having succeeded in killing some stragglers, while the force sustained a loss of one man killed and one wounded. On the 6th the army left the Debè, and the third division entered the Keiskamma Hoek, while the baggage and supplies marched with the first division to the Buffalo.
The first division encamped on the left bank of the Buffalo, where Fort Beresford was afterwards built, and the second division encamped about three miles further down the river. Early on the morning of the 7th, Captain Murray, with 100 men of the regiment, and three companies of the First Provincial Battalion, was despatched to the principal ridge of Buffalo Mountain, with the view of intercepting any Kaffirs that might be retreating from the third division, which was advancing from the Keiskamma Hoek, and from the fourth, which was advancing from Klip Platts across the Bontebok to the rear of the mountains. About daybreak they came to a high, rugged cliff, called Murray’s Krantz, and here found 600 chosen Kaffir warriors, under the guidance of Tyali, son of Dushanie, awaiting the attack, under the mistaken notion of the impregnability of their position.