Late in the evening we returned to our bivouac, and long before daylight were again trudging across the dark mountains. At dawn we came to the top of the Wolfsback Pass, and as we halted for a few minutes to allow those in front to file into its narrow shady path, we discerned, on the opposite hill across the dark intervening kloof, two or three fires, and a few Kaffir scouts creeping along its elevated ridge, in a stooping posture, though plainly visible to us against the brightening sky. We made our way down through the steep forest, and reached the ruined farm-house at the foot of the mountain, where we had halted for breakfast about six weeks before, and seeing no signs whatever of the enemy in these forests, in which it was thought they had taken refuge, again ascended the range by a path a little more towards the eastern extremity, and crossing its ridge, descended into the valley called Fullers Hoek. This is a deep wooded kloof of the Blinkwater, till lately in the territories of Hermanus, who found its thick forests and almost inaccessible retreats so favourable for the concealment of the horses and fat cattle of the colonists, that he was at last deprived of it by the Government, and allotted a more open tract of country in its stead, belonging to a burgher, named Fuller, who, taking possession of the Chief's valley, gave it the name it now bears. The General having moved down into the Blinkwater, with the artillery and horse, co-operated with us, as we scoured through the scattered bush, with companies extended right across the glen, clearing the cover from one end to the other, as we advanced, burning and destroying all the cattle kraals and huts in our way. Some Kaffirs, on the summit of a lofty perpendicular precipice crowning a steep wooded mountain on our left, shouted to us to let the kraals alone, and one of them gave us a song! they were far beyond rifle range.
At noon we reached the camp near the ruins of the old Blinkwater Post, and found the 45th regiment, the 60th Rifles, the Artillery, Marines, and Cape Mounted Rifles, already encamped. Commissariat supplies were sent up to Lieut.-Colonel Michell's Brigade, left in position on the Heights, at the head of the Waterkloof. A party of us rode into Fort Beaufort, and the 60th marched in in the evening, on their route back to King William's Town. We all dined together at the very humble inn, and slept at night on the chairs, tables, and floors, lots being drawn for an antiquated wooden billiard-table, in consequence of its superior accommodation.
We were to have returned with commissariat waggons next day, to the camp, but having mistaken the hour, I was left behind, and had to follow them alone. The road enjoyed no very desirable reputation, but as they could not have got more than three or four miles, I trusted to my horse's speed for that distance, and having ridden at a quiet pace for the first mile, set spurs to him at the entrance of the bush, and dashed along at a rate that would have made me a very difficult flying shot. When half way through the bush, four or five armed Hottentots stood, about two hundred yards before me, whom I at once concluded were some of the Levies belonging to the waggon escort, and congratulated myself on having so soon overtaken them. My horse's foot striking with a sharp click against a stone in the deep sandy road, made them look round, when to my surprise they all bolted into the bush and disappeared; but for this lucky panic, I should, the very next moment, have ridden into the midst of the Rebels, who must, no doubt, have thought that I was at the head of a party. Before they had time to discover their mistake I was round the next turn, and about a mile further on came up with the train.
"Winkel waggons" had come out to the camp, and the "winklers," or private traders, sold everything they had, from black sugar and meal to sardines and pickled salmon, at the most absurd and extravagant prices; the soldiers lavishly spending their accumulated pay in coffee, bread, and other comforts, which was rather encouraged than otherwise, as preventing the drunkenness that would otherwise ensue the first time they got into quarters.
In the evening the mail arrived from Beaufort, having seen several parties of Rebels on the road lurking among the bush and rocks, and on the hill-sides; the return-bag was despatched with a double escort, and an order issued forbidding any one to go into Beaufort without a proper escort. A Kaffir spy, found prowling in the bushes close to the camp, was chased, and for some time eluded discovery, having disappeared in a most sudden and mysterious manner at the edge of the river; he was, however, finally detected by the quick eye of one of the Levies, who, holding up his finger, quietly pointed to a small motionless black object on the water, near the branch of an old tree; this was the nose of the Kaffir, but so still and motionless was the muddy water that when the Fingo raised his firelock, and took a long steady aim, every one was ready to roar with laughter at the expected "sell;" bang went the old flint musket, and to their surprise the Kaffir leaped up and dropped again with a heavy splash into the blood-stained water.
The waggons had brought our tents, which we had now been without for nearly three weeks, and the camp was pitched with the greatest alacrity, and in half the usual time. Markers were placed and "covered," their bayonets stuck in the ground, streets marked out, and tents brought from the waggons; in a moment there was a hammering of pegs on every side, the tents were stretched out on the ground of each line or company, and at the sound of two notes on the bugle the whole rose up in their places; what had seemed confusion became the most exact order, and the bare plain was suddenly transformed into a canvas city, the whole being completed in less time than it took the wood and water parties to bring fuel from the neighbouring bush, or fill the camp-kettles at the river.
Heavy rain again came on in the evening with every prospect of a steady continuance, and, though in tents, we were now quite indifferent to it ourselves, we could not but pity the poor fellows on the heights, exposed to the full violence of the storm. We were in for another "three days rain."
The enemy having entirely abandoned the position, Colonel Michell's Brigade marched down into the Blinkwater during the afternoon of the 31st; they had seen the spoor of Kaffirs and cattle trekking out of the district, and had taken some Kaffir women prisoners, who stated that there were only a very few of their people still lurking in the bush, looking after the wounded whom they were unable to remove, and had secreted in their undiscoverable and inaccessible retreats in the twenty square miles of forest that clothe this rugged range of mountains. Some rebel Hottentot women had also been captured, who represented themselves as wandering lambs of the scattered flock of a Mr. Reid, of the Kat River London Missionary settlement. They were very dirty—disgustingly so—and were barely covered by their filthy rags; they were set at liberty, and advised to leave that part of the country as soon as possible. Several horses had been taken by this brigade, and amongst them we recognised that of our lamented Band-master, taken on the 8th of September, whose coat was also found in one of the huts.
The gallant brigade, literally in rags, marched steadily through our camp for Fort Beaufort in the storm of wind and rain, many with bare feet, and their thin and scanty clothes, so tattered as to be hardly decent. They had suffered very much in their exposed position, diarrhœa and dysentery having laid up whole sections.
For the next three days the rain never ceased for one minute, and the ground became so thoroughly saturated that the floors of our tents were as wet as the flooded plain outside. The wet trembling horses, with drawn-up bellies, and the damp soldiers, with turned-up trews, splashing about amongst the long rows of soaked canvas, looked nearly as wretched as the shivering blanket-covered Fingoes that crouched round the smoky fires.