The long ranges of mountains, which completely separate the coast-line from the interior, here stand out in magnificent relief, and although they are at a distance of fifty to seventy miles, they present a sharply defined outline in the morning air, their ravines, watercourses, and terraced heights appearing with almost supernatural distinctness. Here is a country where the light is rich and brilliant, where the atmosphere is surpassingly bright and clear, and the scenery bold, spacious, and grand. The characteristic beauty of light in South Africa is not seen in its blending with manifold forms of cloud so much as in the full and even splendour with which it penetrates the air. Distant objects, that in a less brilliant atmosphere fade away in hazy outline, stand out with perfect distinctness. Let a spectator place himself at a distance of twenty or thirty miles from the Drakenberg, or any of the big ranges of this country, and contrast the effect he will obtain with that he would experience with Snowdon, Mangerton, or any of our home mountains at a similar distance. Small boulders, cavernous hollows in the rocks, patches of bush at the head of the kloofs, at an elevation of 2000 or 3000 feet, are seen with the naked eye without difficulty. A northern mountain at home, at either of these elevations, will appear in more or less of hazy outline with all details of face and profile obscured, but here in the clear atmosphere of Zululand, the very direction of the watercourses, the curves of the kloofs, and, indeed, every bold wrinkle on the face of the slopes of the mountains can be most clearly discerned.
We must now leave Crealock building his forts and making his roads, while we turn our attention to the movements of Newdigate and Wood.
Every facility had been given to Crealock's (1st) Division to make the first forward movement on the king's kraal. Lord Chelmsford considering that after the difficulties General Crealock had encountered it would be only fair to him and to those under his command to give him every chance of winning first blood in the final attack. However, the coast sickness proved so fatal to Crealock's transport train that he was utterly unable to take advantage of Lord Chelmsford's generosity, and it was to the 2nd column that the final honours of Ulundi fell. On Saturday, the 21st inst., General Newdigate with this column reached the right bank of the Umlatoosi, while Evelyn Wood, with his strong flying column, had slightly preceded him, and had encamped a little lower down on the left bank. Newdigate's brigadiers were Glynn and Collingwood, with Marshall in command of the cavalry; and his corps were two batteries of artillery and an ammunition column, the 2nd company of Engineers, the King's Dragoon Guards and 17th Lancers, the 21st, the 1-24th, 58th, and 94th Regiments, Shepstone's Horse, No. 3 Troop, and the Mounted Natives. This force made up 1870 Europeans, 530 Natives, and eight guns. Wood's field state of this date gave the Gatling Battery, the Engineers, the 13th, 90th, and a wing of the 80th Regiment, with Buller's Cavalry, consisting of the Mounted Infantry, Frontier Light Horse, Transvaal Rangers, and Wood's Irregulars, making a force of 2192 Europeans, and 573 Natives, four guns and two Gatlings. These two columns, therefore, gave Lord Chelmsford a compact and admirably-welded and homogeneous body of 4062 Europeans, 1103 Natives, 12 guns, and two Gatlings, and with this force he justly considered that he held Ulundi in the hollow of his hand.
On the day following (the 22nd), while Newdigate, whose oxen much required it, gave the division a holiday in camp, Wood pushed on about four miles, taking care to note every bush, rock, stream, and salient point en route. The march was through a mixture of jungle, long grass, and occasional outcrops of granite, mixed with unpleasant-looking boulders of grey sandstone, but which would have been well appreciated by an engineer for the construction of a permanent work of defence. Ten small streams were passed, besides tributaries of the Umvolosi, and many tracks of buffalo and elephant were seen, while some of Wood's enthusiastic sportsmen were positive they could at times hear the well-known trumpet of the latter in the jungle. The road then led along a narrow valley, flanked by rocky hills on either side. On the banks of the stream which flowed in this spot some deserted kraals were seen, with broken utensils, stone fireplaces, and small pits where mealies were stored and still left. The huts which composed these kraals were not built in the same way as others they had seen, but seemed constructed with more skill and an eye to greater comfort. First of all were stout posts planted in the ground, and the interstices filled up with clay. The roof, instead of being of the general umbrella shape, was flat, and with a slight slope to the front; and the rafters were covered either with sheets of bark or with bushes and grass, over which was spread a thick coating of earth. Sweet potatoes, cut in slices, pumpkins and gourds, and other vegetables of a succulent nature, were laid on some of the roofs to dry for the winter's provision. The interior of these huts had, instead of one, as is usual in Zululand, two, and sometimes three divisions. The first contained a small raised space for a bed-place, covered with hides, and here was the almost universal African fireplace, consisting of the three cones of clay, which in many instances are hollow, and form a most ingenious oven. The only cooking utensils were earthen pots, nearly everything in this part of South Africa being prepared for eating by boiling. In the next division lambs and goats were kept, and the innermost one was used as a granary, where corn is stored in "lindo," band-boxes made of bark, with the lids carefully luted on with clay. These lindo are sometimes of enormous size, and are sufficiently large to contain a dozen or more sacks. Light is admitted only through the one door, which also provides the sole means for the escape of smoke, and as a consequence the rafters and walls are black and shiny, and the cobwebs with which they are festooned are loaded with soot. Among the rafters walking-staves, and knobkerries, assegais, and other primitive weapons of war, are usually stored, so as to get them good and due seasoning by the smoke. The largest of the villages was clean and surprisingly well-built, said to be after a model one made by the late King Panda. It was surrounded by a stockade, in addition to the outer walls of houses, and the part where the chief had evidently lived was divided off from the rest of the village, and was also the gateway. The gates were heavy slabs of wood, hewn out of the solid trunk, and those wanting to enter could only go up to the principal gate one at a time, as a wing of palisading projected on either side in the form of a long U, with holes to use assegais through, so that it would be no pleasant attempt to try to force an entrance against the will of the dwellers therein. There were some other smaller doorways in the outer walls of the house, forming part of what might be termed the enceinte, which closed in a sort of portcullis fashion. A number of heavy logs had holes in their upper ends, and the wall plate was rove through them. When the doorway is open, these logs are triced up inwards and out of the way, and when closed the outer sides of the lower ends butt, as it were, against a strong fixed log, and are secured by a strong movable log inside.
On the 23rd, Brigadier-General Wood halted, still on the left bank of the Umlatoosi, for the purpose of building a fort, which was to be held by two companies of the 58th, two of Harness's field-guns, and some irregular cavalry. The outlines and profiles were soon traced by experienced though not professional engineers, and on the evening of the same day the place was securely defensible.
The spot chosen by Wood to build the fort is on the Umlatoosi, and in a position naturally of great strength, for the river there makes a rapid bend and affords a ready means of both banks being swept and commanded from the work. A rude and most insecure bridge, formed of a couple of huge trees, already existed, but this was now under water, while the strength of the current was so great when the survey was being made that several of Wood's men were washed off, and only saved themselves by catching at bushes on the bank. In the centre of the stream there is an island, and upon this an outwork was constructed. This island is situated amongst numerous rapids and cascades, breaking out from the rocky hillside. The difficulties of getting across seemed at first sight almost insuperable, but after a time it was discovered that there were places where it was possible to jump from rock to rock, and then to wade through the rapids themselves on narrow shelves, holding meanwhile "like grim death" by ropes of creepers, stretched from side to side for that purpose. It will be, of course, understood that a single false step, or the snapping of the creeper-rope, at these points would be fatal, for nothing could save the traveller in that case from being dashed to pieces amongst the rocks beneath. The stream below this was about fifty yards wide, very deep, and running like a sluice. Happily a passage was effected without any casualty. Looking back from the other side a most striking sight is presented by this mass of water bursting out of the precipitous hillside, and broken by the rocks and little bushy islands into foaming cascades. Many small streams are passed, which occasionally flow for some considerable distance in subterranean channels. They work in amongst loose stones, covered with soil and vegetation, the underground portions of their course being sometimes not more than forty yards of their length, while in other instances they seem to have disappeared altogether, and no doubt help to supply those mysterious fresh springs which are known to exist even on the beach at Port Durnford.
The eastern portion of the Umlatoosi district, and that leading to the sea is moderately level, with rocky hills, on the summits of which are situated the villages of the chiefs; but as the western portion is reached, the country breaks into mountains of every shape and form, amongst which the more numerous are needles and cones of granite. In the foreground the hills are of red sandstone, crowned with groves of magnificent trees, festooned with jasmine and other sweet-scented creepers. Many of the rivers appear to have been crossed in former days by bridges, constructed either by the Zulus or by the missionaries, or possibly by both. Poles were planted in the bed of the stream, and upon others lashed at the top smaller poles and branches were laid to form the footway. When first constructed these were doubtless secured to the cross-pieces by lashings, but by this time they had rotted away, and consequently afforded but a very precarious foothold.
Between the 24th and the 26th both columns—that is to say, the headquarters and Wood's—advanced but six miles, but Buller was not more idle than Wood, as, while the latter was building a fort to hold a couple of hundred men in the heart almost of a formidable enemy's country, the former had patrolled in almost every direction to the front, rear, and both flanks. On the 25th Buller and his "merry men" were in the saddle and away more than nine miles to the front, and by noon there came an orderly, "bloody with sparring, fiery red with haste," who brought news that "Redvers," with his usual good fortune, had pounced upon about seventy or eighty Zulus busily engaged in grass-burning, to bother the advance in regard to grass for the horses and oxen. Buller made extremely short work of these fellows, whose surprise was so complete that the whole lot might have been annihilated if humanitarian principles had not interposed. As soon as the grass was effectually saved, Buller proceeded on a few miles, and, although watched here and there, suffered not the slightest molestation. The same evening (25th) Buller came back from his own camp to the headquarter camp with full information in regard to the five kraals that had been observed on the 24th in the district of Usipexi, which he reported were guarded by a tolerably formidable Zulu impi. A small and select council of war was at once held in General Newdigate's tent, under the presidency of the Commander-in-chief. After a very short conference, in which Lord Chelmsford, Generals Newdigate and Marshall, and Colonels Drury-Lowe and Buller were the principal speakers, it was finally decided that an attack in force should be made upon the five kraals, and any others that could be discovered at an early hour on the following day. At daybreak accordingly the force was drawn up in line for Lord Chelmsford's inspection, which, as was usual with him, was, though rapid, most carefully minute. On the right were two guns and fifty men of Le Grice's admirable battery, and next came two of Drury-Lowe's splendid blue-and-white squadrons. These fellows would have won the heart of any light cavalry colonel or adjutant, and it seemed almost a pity that such glittering panoply of crest and spear and plume should have to abide the thrust of a hidden assegai from behind a rock or bush. Four hundred and fifty of Buller's best men, though not so smart nor so well mounted as Drury-Lowe's gallant fellows, were not despised or looked down upon by those who were present, and the more brilliantly decked trooper, with his uniform and glittering apanage, felt proud to ride with the men who had fought so well at Zlobani and conquered so grandly at Kambula. Two companies of natives made up the force, which perhaps was the largest patrol ever furnished in this war for such a duty as the burning of kraals. The guns and part of the cavalry were sent by a circuitous path which led to an eminence near the largest kraal, and part of Buller's Horse bearing a little to the right, the main body advanced along the road by which Buller had yesterday returned. They first came to the large kraals of Udugwoosu and of Udlumbedlu, which were found deserted, and shelled and burnt without opposition; and when this was effected, the cavalry and natives descended into the plains, to Uxixipi, which was also destroyed, after shelling out about a thousand natives, who were at once pursued by the Basutos and Frontier Light Horse. Not many Zulus were killed, as some were old men and boys, and strict orders had been given to spare these.
On the 27th the flying column, under Wood, advanced nine miles on the road to Ulundi; while the main division, under Newdigate, with Brigadiers Glynn and Collingwood, and Marshall in command of the cavalry, moved on eleven miles, both columns encamping at a place called Amhlabatini, within a mile of each other. They carried no tents, but took with them 200 ammunition-waggons, and ten days' full rations, which on emergency could have been spun out to double that number. Soon after the halt all the brigadiers were assembled by Lord Chelmsford, who briefly but succinctly expounded to them his intentions and future action. His lordship said the time had now arrived for a final blow to be dealt, and he purposed, having first established a base of operations by constructing a small depôt laager at Amhlabatini, pushing on at once to the attack of Ulundi. Buller would clear the front and mask the columns as they advanced, and would do all he could to provoke and entice the enemy to attack in the open. The question now was what details were to be left at the laager as a garrison, and it was decided that these should be furnished by three companies of the 1-24th Regiment, and some other contingents, making up 500 men. Soldiers, as a rule, must accept all commands without question; but although no open word is spoken, there are times when the bitterness of disappointment will show itself without speaking. Such was the case when the order-book proclaimed the duty detailed for the 24th.
The entrenched laager was most artistically made in an incredibly short space of time. Within a radius of 500 yards all trees and bush were cut down and cleared away. In the centre a rectangle of waggons was formed, with earth thrown up above the axletrees, and at 15 yards' distance from these a trench and an embankment three feet high were constructed. Again, about 100 yards beyond this, strong and well made abattis were placed. These consisted of whole trees and stout branches 12 and 15 feet long, felled and placed side by side, with their butts inwards and boughs interlaced, while the twigs and small leaves were stripped off and the boughs sharply pointed. The butts were strongly picketed down, and in some cases fastened by logs laid across several butts. These abattis were fully five feet in height, and as green wood—not easy to burn—was selected, they made a formidable obstacle. It took 200 men only eight hours to construct 200 yards of abattis, and this, considering that many of them had never done such work before, was most creditable. All the officers were in the highest possible spirits, and no inconsiderable amount of banter was carried on between the two columns during the visits paid from one to the other. One of the most fertile subjects for "chaff" was the increasing weight and sleekness of Buller's men as compared with the visibly apparent attenuation of their horses, and the joke was to affect to believe that these "African Cossacks," as they were called, devoured all the oxen they captured, while making their horse-rations into oatmeal cakes for themselves! This story, if ben trovato, was singularly devoid of fact, for Buller's horses presented a most favourable contrast to those of Marshall, as the former would eat almost anything, and the latter were only just commencing to put up with mealies. The constant work of the former animals had naturally kept them devoid of superfluous flesh, but, for all this, they were as hard as "nails" and good in their wind.