On the afternoon of the 27th, vedettes signalled the approach of some natives, accompanied by a large number of cattle. These proved to be further messengers from Cetywayo, bringing 150 of our oxen captured at Isandhlwana, together with a pair of elephants' tusks and a letter, written in English by a captive dealer. The letter was fairly expressed, and said that the king could not comply with all Lord Chelmsford's demands, as the arms taken from us at Isandhlwana were not brought to him, and that it was beyond his power as a king to order or compel any of his regiments to lay down their arms. The letter also said that Harness's guns should be sent, and on receipt of the cattle and these weapons the English must retire from Zulu territory. Whoever had written the letter must have been a bold and plucky fellow, as he had added in a corner in pencil a few words of warning, and an intimation that Cetywayo had with him at Ulundi and the neighbouring kraals a large and picked impi, amounting to 20,000 men. Even without this message Lord Chelmsford would have considered these overtures as suspicious; but, as it was, increased precaution against surprise or treachery was taken. Lord Chelmsford accordingly declined the tusks, and told the messengers in the plainest language that, before he thought of retiring, all the original conditions must be complied with, more especially as regards the formal laying down of arms by the regiment. The messengers were then escorted from our column, and later in the day several large bodies of Zulus, amounting to some thousands, were noticed moving in a lateral direction from the side of Ulundi, and passing along by the left flank. The following day was a busy one for all. Lord Chelmsford was so anxious to complete the main details of the depôt laager that he deferred his march till sundown. Wood, however, moved on in the morning as far as the left bank of the White Umvolosi, where he bivouacked and waited for the main body. After waiting until all the more prominent and essential matters were completed in regard to the garrison left in the depôt, Lord Chelmsford ordered the parade for 5.30 in the evening, and they then marched on to the next bivouac in a compact and well-organized column. It was still daylight when the White Umvolosi was reached, and they saw across the river, on the left bank, the flying column and the Lancers already bivouacked. The scene as on the right bank of the river was most picturesque. On the left bank of the Umvolosi Wood had admirably chosen the ground for his bivouac. Here was a firm, wide plateau, bounded on the east and north by a hilly country, broken up by knolls and tall cone-like eminences, whose slopes here and there were covered by patches of dense jungle or bordered by young forests, whose shades seemed to invite shelter during the fierce heat of the day. Away in the extreme distance the landscape differed materially in aspect from the country near. Mountains of loftier altitude, rising peak upon peak, tier upon tier, and range upon range, met the eye everywhere. Green trees covered their slopes in apparently endless expanse of vegetation. Immediately behind the Lancer camp, and sheltering it from the night breezes that swept across the plain, was a massive buttress of rock covered with richly and delicately-hued velvety mosses, while down the hard, steep, rocky beds of granite and sandstone, with here and there basalt and porphyry, flint and quartz, foamed sparkling little streams, which always seem so refreshing and so tempting on a South African march. A deep gaping fissure in a high jutting wall of rock, through which bubbled the clear water in volumes; a great towering rock with perpendicular walls, to which clung, in spite of apparent impossibility, ferns and plants and moss, thick and velvety; and a huge conical hill which ambitiously hid its head in the clouds; these were wild and rugged forms of nature to be treasured up long after their marching days were gone and past. The camp was situated on a wide terrace or shelf of ground rising above a body of water, which more resembled a long narrow lake than a river. This part of the White Umvolosi, indeed, like many other African rivers, loses its current in the dry season, and becomes a series of long narrow pools, which in some places may be compared to lakes for their length, according to the nature of the ground in which depressions are found. If the ground is rocky or of clayey mud the water is retained, instead of being absorbed, and here swarm multitudes of silurus, or bearded mud-fish. Wherever mud-fish are abundant, crocodiles, the great fish-eating reptiles of the African waters, are sure to be found, and, singularly enough, wherever crocodiles are found one is almost sure to find the hippopotamus—not because crocodiles and hippopotami have any affinity for each other, but because the soil which retains the water during the hot days of the drought season is almost sure to produce in the vicinity of the pools abundance of rich grass and tall cane, the favourite food of the hippopotamus. Two miles further in the plain Wood's bivouac fires were seen in glittering and regular ranks, marking out the exact ground which each regiment or corps would occupy in order of parade or march. Far away, but in a line with each angle of the bivouac, were the outlying pickets; while, again, beyond these were those vigilant and unsleeping patrols which made this column so secure and impossible to surprise.
At daybreak on the 29th the main body crossed the river and joined the flying column on the left bank. They now were but fifteen miles from Ulundi, and all the king's kraals were visible to the naked eye. On the far slope of the hills that bound the plain were the two round kraals, Likasi and Undabakawazi; next, and built in the shape of a crescent, were Unodwengo, Panda's old palace, Ulundi, built by the present king, while farthest of all was another, making five, called Umpanibougwena.
On the 30th Lord Chelmsford was ten miles from the Umvolosi; and he sent a despatch to Sir Garnet Wolseley, to say that the king's messengers had just left with an ultimatum for Cetywayo, to the effect that his lordship must advance to a position on the left bank of the river on the 1st July, but that if no opposition were offered the troops would wait there without any hostile movement until twelve at noon on the 3rd, when, if the original terms sent to Cetywayo, namely, the delivery of the guns taken at Isandhlwana, and the cattle, were complied with, 1000 captured rifles would be received instead of a regiment laying down its arms, and peace negotiations would be entertained. On the following morning, accordingly, the main body marched at an early hour, and, preceded by the flying column and Buller's men scouring the country in front and flank, arrived at the river and took up the position named above.
CHAPTER XII.
Raid across the Umvolosi by Buller—Gallant rescue of a sergeant by Lord William Beresford—Buller's losses—Umvolosi crossed by the main body—Formation of troops into square—Total numbers—Firing of kraals—Advance of Zulus from Ulundi—The Zulu attack—Repulse of Zulus—Pursuit by cavalry—Death of Wyatt-Edgell—Losses of both sides—Withdrawal of English army—Effects of the battle of Ulundi—Surrender of 700 Zulus to Crealock—Cause of retreat after Ulundi—Resignation of Lord Chelmsford—His farewell parade—Epitome of work done by 1st column, and why it was not present at Ulundi—Ondini burnt by Barrow.
On the morning of the 3rd of July, the last day of grace, so far from any compliance with Lord Chelmsford's demands being made, all sorts of hostile demonstrations were shown by the Zulus, who were gathered in large numbers about eight miles off. All day long, on the 1st and 2nd, there had been a dropping fire at long ranges upon our men; and on the 3rd the enemy, growing bolder, pushed his skirmishers down to some rocks on the opposite side of the river, and fired upon the men as they were watering their horses in the stream. One horse was killed and several men wounded, and then it was that Buller asked and obtained permission to make a raid into the enemy's country.
Early in the afternoon Buller was waiting impatiently to cross, looking, as was said of Picton, "in a heavenly humour, because some one was likely to be killed." A couple of guns were brought into position on the banks of the river, to cover Buller's crossing, and, if necessary, to assist his retreat if hard pressed on his return. A couple or three rounds of shrapnel made short work of a crowd of Zulus who had approached on the opposite height in a most impudent manner; and hardly were the echoes of these heard along the shores before Buller and Beresford, dashing into the stream with a cheer that made the rocks resound, were followed over the river by Buller's horsemen, the Mounted Infantry, and Baker's Horse. A good billiard or racquet player likes a gallery, and if the very dashing rifleman and beau sabreur were at all anxious for an audience, they certainly had a large one on this occasion. In fact the whole camp—if camp you can call a bivouac without tents—turned out literally in its shirt-sleeves to see the fun. The fatigue parties stopped their wood-cutting to take a look at the two camp favourites as they raced like school-boys at a paper hunt after the Zulus, who were scuttling away like prize pedestrians to gain the shelter of a friendly kraal. Buller being in command, however, was not forgetful of his men; and, though galloping at a steeplechase pace, kept them well in hand, and raced with about a score of his fellows at the military kraal Dalwayo, on our right front. Beresford, however, being a sort of chartered libertine, and having no separate command, "went for" the Zulus entirely, as he subsequently expressed it, "on his own hook." Meanwhile, by Buller's order, Baker's men, guided by their leader, had inclined to the left front, to carry and hold a favourable hillock which commanded the best part of the ford. This piece of thoughtful strategy proved invaluable at the close of the day, when the horsemen had hard work to get back. On galloped Buller's men past Nodwengo, Lord William well to the front, now sabring a Zulu, now stopping to aid a wounded comrade; while Buller, having picked a hundred of his best-mounted men, pushed on with the intention of exploring and, if possible, firing Ulundi.
There was nothing impossible in this project. Buller had good information that the bulk of the king's army was away upon Lord Chelmsford's right flank, and that the kraal would possibly have a slender guard. It was well, perhaps, that this somewhat hairbrained exploit should not be carried out, and it was stopped as follows:—The contour of the ground between this point and the king's kraal was formed by a succession of undulating (at rather a steep angle) plains, which in the hollows gave admirable cover and concealment to the Zulus. These large dongas in two places formed positions where bodies of men could be massed at right angles, and so take an incautious enemy on the flank. Here the Zulu general, whoever he was, had admirably disposed his reserves, and here, but for the steady conduct of all hands, Buller might have met his fate. As suddenly as the mountain warriors of Roderick appeared above the heather to James Fitz-James, did the tall Zulu warriors put in an appearance, and from front and flank a very well sustained fire was poured in upon the daring Buller and his men. But Buller, with all the dash of a Rupert or a Murat, had much of the prescience and caution of a veteran, and invariably adopted the principle which may be indifferently expressed as "having two strings to your bow," or "not having all your eggs in one basket." He had, previously to his daring advance in the enemy's country, ordered Commandant Raaf to halt near Nodwengo, with his horsemen as reserve and supports. At the imminent moment, therefore, when the Zulus appeared in the hollows, these gallant fellows came up and saved the day, and it is more than probable many valuable lives. As Buller and his splendid marksmen retired by alternate ranks, and as each man fired, dropping his man, Raaf and his well-trained fellows covered the slow retreat; Baker's Horse also held the hillock of which mention has been before made, and did excellent service by the manner in which the Zulus were held in check. Tremlett's little battery on the right front of the camp kept back the enemy on the left line of retreat, so that the raid into the enemy's country, although not productive of any palpable advantage as regards booty or prisoners, was eminently well carried out as a reconnaissance in force. The Zulus were exceedingly well led, and it was impossible not to admire their admirable skirmishing, and the magnificent manner in which they charged right down to the river's edge, amidst a storm of grape and shrapnel hurled against them to cover the retreat. Buller, of course, was wherever hard knocks were most to be obtained, while Beresford distinguished himself as much by his capital horsemanship, daring valour, and perfect coolness, as by the noble chivalry with which he galloped, under a heavy hostile fire, to bring off, on his tired and overweighted horse, a wounded sergeant of the Mounted Infantry.