We marched slowly across the plain towards the deserted farm we had left in the morning; for now that the excitement was over, we felt the full fatigue of such uninterrupted exertion, and dragged our limbs heavily along; the groans of the wounded and the shadows of evening increasing the gloom of the dreary scene. It had been quite dark for some time when we reached the welcome ruin. A mounted express was despatched for more ammunition, and a waggon to convey the wounded to the camp. Having disposed of them as comfortably as it was possible in the mean time, and lighted fires, we threw ourselves once more on the slates and brickbats, after having been on foot for seventeen hours.
During the night the waggon arrived; and at three o'clock we were roused from our rough but reluctantly-quitted beds, and shivering with the cold, which at this hour is most intense, moved off towards Reit Fontein, more asleep than awake, and in about two hours and a half arrived in camp, nearly done up.
Further inquiries among the men about poor Hartung confirmed our worst fears. He had been seen by several endeavouring to lead his horse, and was repeatedly advised to leave it, but refused, as it had been a borrowed one. A bugler stated, that soon afterwards he had seen him wounded by an assegai and then seized by half a dozen Kaffirs, who dragged him into the bush. His fate was not difficult to conjecture, and proved afterwards to have been more horribly cruel than our worst suspicions had suggested. It was elicited from some Kaffir women, taken prisoners shortly afterwards by Lieut.-Col. Eyre's column, that the unfortunate man had been brutally tortured for three days, cut with assegais, and daily deprived of a joint from each toe and finger, till death terminated his dreadful sufferings. Their accounts were but too truly confirmed by subsequent evidence taken before the Civil Commissioner of Beaufort, from another prisoner, Numkani, a Kaffir girl of N'pai, who detailed the tragic particulars as follows:
"I was living with the sister of my father, in the Kat River country before the war. When the war broke out, I went with her to Waterkloof; she had three sons, who went there to fight; they were all alive when I came away from Waterkloof, about three moons since. Before that, I heard of a white man having been taken prisoner on the mountains of the Kroome; I heard that he was killed by the Hottentots. I also heard that he was taken to Macomo, and that Macomo sent for one of his sons, Kona, a headman named Queque, and some Hottentots. Macomo ordered the man to be killed. He was taken away and stripped, and Queque took his clothes. I saw him wear them after; the coat was dark, I cannot say what colour. I heard say that the men cut his arms and legs. He was two days in that state; the flesh was not quite cut off, but was left hanging to his body. They then cut * * * and gave him his own flesh to eat. They killed him at last by shooting him. I did not see this, but I heard the men often talk about it. I heard that the white man spoke, and said they must not kill him; and that he was begging for his life. I heard that the women danced round him, and were merry; they were Kaffir women. They also beat him with keeries. I heard the men and women singing a war-song when dancing round the white man. He had his hands tied behind him by one of Macomo's sons, named Kona, and the Hottentots; he was lying in the sun all day, and placed in a hut for safety at night. I was out gathering gum the day that the Hottentots first cut the man with a knife; he was tied with a long rheim, and the end was fastened to a tree. This I heard: when they cut his arms and legs, he bled much; he was lying on his side; he screamed when he was cut. They took off a joint of every finger every day while he was alive, and after the flesh of his arms and legs had been cut. I left Waterkloof a long time since, and came to Fort Beaufort. I left Waterkloof because I was starving."
The mark [symbol] of Numkani.
J. Stringfellow, Res. Mag.
Such were the fetish-like cruelties perpetrated by these savages; nor can one wonder at their barbarity when they are hardly less brutal towards those of their own race and kindred. When a chief or great man of a tribe is seized with sickness, the 'witch-doctor,' with forms and incantations, dooms some poor wretch to death, on pretence of his having bewitched the ailing man; his flocks and herds are forfeited to the chief, and his children left beggars and fatherless.
One instance may suffice to give an idea of their savage ferocity, and spare the repetition of outrages on the poor settlers, or those unhappy enough to fall into their hands.
"The same Kona, some years before, having fallen sick, a 'witch doctor' was, according to custom, consulted, to ascertain the individual under whose evil influence he was suffering; and, as usual, a man of property was selected, and condemned to forfeit his life for his alleged crime. To prevent his being told of his fate by his friends, a party of men left Macomo's kraal early in the morning to secure the recovery of the sick young chief by murdering one of his father's subjects. The day selected for the sacrifice appeared to have been a sort of gala day with the unconscious victim; he was in his kraal, had just slaughtered one of his cattle, and was merrily contemplating the convivialities of the day before him, over which he was about to preside. The arrival of a party of men from the 'great place' gave him no other concern than as to what part of the animal he should offer them as his guests. In a moment, however, the ruthless party seized him in his kraal; when he found himself secured with a rheim around his neck, he calmly said, 'It is my misfortune to be caught unarmed, or it should not be thus.' He was then ordered to produce the matter with which he had bewitched the son of his chief; he replied, 'I have no bewitching matter; but destroy me quickly if my chief has consented to my death.' His executioners said they must torture him until he produced it, to which he answered, 'Save yourselves the trouble, for torture as you will I cannot produce what I have not.' He was then held down on the ground, and several men proceeded to pierce his body all over with long Kaffir needles. The miserable victim bore this with extraordinary resolution; his tormentors tiring, and complaining of the pain it gave their hands, and of the needles or skewers bending. During this time a fire had been kindled, in which large flat stones were placed to heat; the man was then directed to rise, they pointed out to him the fire, telling him it was for his further torture, unless he produced the bewitching matter. He answered, 'I told you the truth when I said, save yourselves the trouble; as for the hot stones, I can bear them, for I am innocent; I would pray to be strangled at once, but that you would say I fear your torture.' Here his wife, who had also been seized, was stripped perfectly naked, and cruelly beaten and illtreated before his eyes. The victim was then led to the fire, where he was thrown on his back, stretched out with his arms and legs tied to strong pegs driven into the ground, and the stones, now red hot, were taken out of the fire and placed on his naked body—on the groin, stomach, and chest, supported by others on each side of him, also heated and pressed against his body. It is impossible to describe the awful effect of this barbarous process, the stones slipping off the scorched and broiling flesh, and being only kept in their places by the sticks of the fiendish executioners. Through all this the heroic fellow still remained perfectly sensible, and when asked if he wished to be released to discover his hidden charm said, 'Release me.' They did so, fully expecting they had vanquished his resolution, when, to the astonishment of all, he stood up a ghastly spectacle, broiled alive! his smoking flesh hanging in pieces from his body! and composedly asked his tormentors, 'What do you wish me to do now?' They repeated their demand, but he resolutely asserted his innocence, and begged them to put him out of his misery; and as they were now getting tired of their labour, they made a running noose on the rheim around his neck, jerked him to the ground, and savagely dragged him about on the sharp stones; then, placing their feet on the back of his neck, they drew the noose tight, and strangled him. His mangled corpse was taken into his own hut, which was set on fire and burnt to ashes. His sufferings commenced at ten A.M., and ended only at sunset!" These are the people whom an Exeter Hall spouter compares to "the ancient Scots fighting for their homes and hearths."
Two days after our return to camp, information arrived of a severe and disastrous affair in the Fish River bush the day following the Kroome action. It had occurred between a patrol, under Colonel Mackinnon, and the allied Rebels and Kaffirs in that district, one of their strongest and most dangerous retreats. A party of our forces, having got separated in the thick bush, was cut off, one officer (Captain Oldham) and thirty-one rank and file being killed, and twenty-three wounded in the 2nd Queen's, with one officer killed and one wounded in the Levies, besides several men. The enemy, who by the way used fierce dogs to pull down the troops, had suffered considerably, and the following day were attacked and routed by Lieut.-Col. Eyre with heavy loss, after a sharp engagement, in which two of his officers, Lieutenant Walters and Ensign Thursby, were wounded.
On the 12th, General Somerset, who had broken up and dispersed the enemy in the Albany district, and recovered a number of cattle, returned to his head-quarter camp with our two companies and the Cape Corps, which had been with him, bringing also a detachment of the 12th regiment, just arrived from the Mauritius.