[15] See Ayliff's Vocabulary.
[16] Cussonia Thyrsiflora.
CHAPTER IX.
NIGHT ATTACK ON CAMP.—POST RETIEF.
On the night of the 20th, the Kaffirs who, since their unsuccessful raid, had been constantly hovering about in small parties on the hill sides, watching our cattle and our movements, treated us at midnight with a volley into the middle of our encampment, which woke us suddenly from our first sleep; the bugles sounded the "assembly," and we had to tumble out of bed. As I groped about in the dark for my clothes, I felt a peculiar sensation of unprotectedness, in my night-shirt, as the balls whistled past the tent, not having been under fire before in that costume; something of the same sort of feeling prompted B——r, on a later occasion, in crossing the enemy's line of fire, to pull his jacket collar up on the exposed side of his face as a protection. After several frantic attempts to unhook my tent door, tightly contracted by the dew, I had to crawl out below, and found the men drawn up on their own lines as if they had been there all night. A few shots were fired from the river bank, which however did no harm, and were silenced by the sentries without our aid; the skulking thieves, frightened at the hornet's nest they had disturbed, taking themselves off at once. In five minutes after we were dismissed, the camp was still as death, and in the morning I felt uncertain, on first waking, whether the whole had not been a dream.
His Excellency the Governor-General was at this time preparing a force to move across the Kei into Kreli's country, to punish that chief for robbing the traders, treacherously harbouring the fugitive Kaffirs and their cattle, and while professing the most friendly feelings and intentions towards us, aiding and abetting a war with which he was in no way identified.
That the Colony might be properly defended during the absence of so large a portion of the army as must necessarily be required for such an expedition, the following dispositions of the troops were ordered to be at once carried into effect for the formation of the frontier line of defence,—the 74th Highlanders and 91st regiment, with the Local Mounted and Fingo Levies, to be posted in Fort Beaufort and the district, under Lieut.-Col. Yarborough; the 12th regiment with detachments of Irregulars, as a line of patrol from Fort Brown to the mouth of the Great Fish River, under Lieut.-Col. Perceval; and a detachment at Fort Peddie, under Major Wilmot, R.A. This arrangement of course broke up our standing camp, and in the general movement of the troops, I found myself under orders for Post Retief, in the Winterberg Mountains, to accompany Bruce, appointed to that command; the detachment of the 12th, then garrisoning it, rejoining their regiment in the Albany district. As it was probable we might be imprisoned in that solitary place for six months at least, cut off during the absence of the expedition from all communication with the world, and as we had nothing with us in camp beyond the clothes on our backs and the contents of our saddle bags, it was necessary to make some preparation for our change of quarters, and having to march for our destination at daylight next morning, I set off at once with a mounted servant for Beaufort to get such supplies and necessaries as were absolutely required, taking advantage of the escort just starting with the mail.
After hastily performing my errand and with some difficulty getting a waggon and oxen to return with me, I found to my annoyance that owing to the indolence or probably intended treachery of the driver, who kept me waiting two hours for his oxen, I was too late to join a party going out to the camp with waggons, and there being no escort to be obtained from Fort Beaufort, I had no alternative, as our early march from the Blinkwater next morning rendered my return that evening imperative, but to start a little before dusk accompanied only by the servant. We had got about half way or a little more, and had entered the most bushy and dangerous part of the road when it fell nearly dark, the sheet lightning becoming most brilliant. I rode along by the side of the oxen in the narrow track, and was in the act of lighting my second cheroot, when a volley was suddenly poured into us from the bush along the edge of the river on our right, so close as to blind me for an instant with the flash; one of the oxen, which were on my left, dropt down dead, and two more rolled over wounded, while the waggon was struck in half a dozen different places; the rest of the terrified cattle faced round kicking and plunging, got their legs over the trektow, and wound themselves into an inextricable mess. The driver and leader, one a Totty, the other a Ghonah, either purposely or from fear refused to assist in extricating them, and when I threatened them with my pistol, bolted into the bush on the other side of the road and disappeared. Left to our own devices, we made an ineffectual attempt to cut out the dead and wounded oxen from the trektow with a blunt tobacco knife, the Kaffirs firing at us from the bush all the time, but found it utterly impossible; they now completely surrounded us, forming across the road in front and rear, and firing in quick succession, one shot striking the cantle of my saddle, and another wounding my horse in the head, which made him almost unmanageable; it was madness to stand to be shot at by so many guns, so we determined to make a dash for the camp, and with a shout rode right at the fellows in front, who as I fired my second pistol jumped aside and let us pass, though a parting shower of bullets, as we galloped off, made the dust fly from the road under our horses' feet. In less than five minutes after reaching the camp, a party of Fingoes had turned out, and quickly getting a span of oxen together, we returned to the rescue of the unfortunate waggon at a sharp trot, most of the Fingoes keeping up with the horses the whole two miles. Though the oxen were gone, our speedy return prevented the rascals destroying or ransacking the waggon, from which they had only taken a box of cheroots and a case of brandy; the former, as we afterwards discovered by their spoor, they had chopped up into tobacco, and on the latter they had got so drunk that they lost two of the bullocks, which, as Bruce and I had to pay for the missing ones out of our own pockets, we were only too glad to recover. The dead ox was quickly skinned and cut up by the Fingoes, who, finding to their surprise I did not want it for my own use, regarded the affair from that moment as a great lark, and sat up all night eating beef. To ourselves the result was not so satisfactory, having subsequently to pay £70 for the oxen.
After accomplishing the ascent of the Blinkwater Pass, which we had hoped not to have seen again for some time, we, late the next day, came in sight of the little fort, which in the setting sun, with its background of green and purple mountains, distinctly defined against the clear sky, looked now as bright and cheerful as it had loomed dark and gloomy on our former melancholy visit.