On the 23rd, starting about four A.M., they proceeded, at a rapid pace and by the most direct route, to Mundell’s Krantz, descended by the road made obliquely down the face of the krantz by Captain Somerset’s company, and reached their home at Brown’s farm in the afternoon.
The Battalion continued engaged in road-making and the usual duties of the camp till November 3; on which day Captain Somerset’s company proceeded from Mundell’s Krantz to Fort Beaufort, where it arrived on the following day; and on the 11th marched to Eland’s post, and was there stationed.
On the 5th Captain Woodford’s company marched for the Blinkwater, where it arrived on the following day; and having built huts, and entrenched the position, was there stationed.
On the 12th the Battalion, with the exception of these companies, marched to Fort Beaufort and occupied quarters.
On November 19 two companies, Lord Alexander Russell’s and Captain Hardinge’s, marched to the Chumie-neck and occupied that post.
General Cathcart having determined to proceed with a force to the North-Eastern Frontier, to demand satisfaction from, or to punish, Moshesh, chief of the Basuto tribe, for his incursions and depredations on the settlers near the Orange river, had intended to take with him four companies of Riflemen; but the Kaffirs and Hottentots having shown themselves in force near Fort Beaufort, General Cathcart resolved to take one company only as a camp body-guard. Rooper’s company was the first for duty; and as he had lately been appointed to an official situation in the colony, the command of it devolved on Lieutenant the Hon. Leicester Curzon.[214] They were ordered rather unexpectedly late in the evening of November 17, to march at daylight on the following morning. The rest of the troops had started about a week before under Colonel Eyre, and General Cathcart was to overtake them at Burghersdorp, about 160 miles from Fort Beaufort. The Riflemen therefore made forced marches, their orders being that they must camp at night with the General. The men’s packs were however carried for them in mule-waggons.
Passing the Blinkwater, Fort Armstrong, Eland’s post, Whittlesea, and Shiloh, they crossed the Brak river, and going through the rocky defile called Klaas Smidts Poort, and over an extensive plain, ascended the Stormberg mountains. After descending this lofty ridge and crossing the Stormberg Spruit,[215] a tributary of the Orange river, they arrived at Burghersdorp, where the rest of the troops were assembled, on the 27th.
The whole force was inspected on the next day by the Commander-in-Chief, and divided into brigades, the Riflemen being attached to that under Major Pinckney of the 73rd, consisting of that regiment, the 43rd, and two guns. This was first in Colonel MacDuff’s division; but on his being left behind at the Caledon river, was placed under the command of Colonel Eyre. They marched at daybreak on the 30th, and after a long and fatiguing march of 20 miles, during which one of the Riflemen had a coup-de-soleil, reached their halting-place. On December 1 after another hot march they forded the Orange river without much difficulty; it being lower than it had been for many years. Yet the water reached almost to the middle, and the men were obliged to carry their pouches on their shoulders. They pitched their tents in the plain a little beyond the river. They proceeded the next day over a desert plain to a place called Ranakin, and the day following forded the Caledon river at the Commissie drift, and encamped on the other side. Here they remained until the 8th, when they marched about five A.M., and continuing their advance during the two following days, encamped on the evening of the 10th, after twenty miles fatiguing march, at Sanna Spruits. Marching on the following morning through a country not quite so desert as that passed over in the last few days, they forded the narrow but rapid Lieuw river on the afternoon of the 12th, and encamped on the opposite side. On the 13th they proceeded to the Wesleyan Missionary Station of Platberg, and encamped on a fine grassy plain near it. They were now not far from Thaba Bossiou, the stronghold of Moshesh, situated on a lofty hill, very defensible, and considered by his people to be impregnable. During the halt here, which continued until the 16th, Moshesh’s two sons, and afterwards the chief himself, visited the camp. General Cathcart named as his ultimatum that Moshesh should deliver 10,000 head of cattle within three days, reckoning from the 16th, as a compensation for the depredations he had committed. On the 16th the General reviewed the whole force at six o’clock in the morning; which, after marching past, was put through various evolutions: no doubt as a demonstration to overawe Moshesh.
