Our approach caused an evident commotion in the little garrison, to whom our coming, and their consequent "relief," were entirely unknown.
About 800 yards from the post, a quantity of old trampled wheat-straw was pointed out to us, scattered along the roadside, where it had been left by the enemy, since the 6th of February, on which day they had thrashed out a whole stack in sight of the fort, at that time occupied by the Burghers and Dutch, with their families and herds. A party of about 700 or 800 Kaffirs and Hottentots, who had first attacked the post, took possession of the little water-mill out of musket shot from the walls, and their women, to the number of about 150, coolly commenced thrashing out the corn, which they took away with them in a waggon, while the men from the cover of the rocks and some old quarries, kept up a constant fire on the fort, the interior of which from its absurd position, was entirely commanded and raked from a hill within half musket range, so that no one dare move across the yard, or show himself within the walls. The besieged inmates were almost entirely without food or water, having hurriedly taken refuge from their adjacent farms on the first alarm. Three days afterwards, relief arrived; Commander Bowker, with 250 men, fell upon the enemy in rear, and drove them off after a fight of three hours. The walls and gates showed innumerable bullet marks, thickest round the windows and loop-holes, and in many the balls still sticking in the woodwork.
Post Retief was formerly a farm house (parts of which are still remaining, and built into the present walls of the fort) belonging to Piet Retief, a distinguished Field Cornet of the Winterberg district, who, while in treaty with Dingan, king of the Zulus, for a grant of territory, near Natal, for the settlement of the Dutch Border colonists, of whom he was Governor and Commander-in-chief, was barbarously murdered with his companions, by that prince, in the beginning of 1838, and while actually partaking of his treacherous hospitality.
We found the interior space, or barrack-square, almost impassable after rain, having been used for many months as a cattle kraal, the dung lying two or three feet thick. The removal of this was at once commenced upon, and men and waggons were busily employed each day until the steps up to the quarters, were again brought to light, and the oxen were no longer able to look in upon us at mess. The vrouws with their dirty children, pigs, poultry and lumber, were bundled out of the Fort; the rooms whitewashed and converted into soldiers' quarters once more; the private dung-heaps at each door made into one large conglomerate outside the walls, and the place put into thorough order in less time than it would have taken one of the lazy Dutchmen to comprehend the possibility of such a reform.
On the 30th of November, General Somerset arrived with about 500 men, at Whittlesea, the most remote of the frontier posts, and the following day, having been joined by Captain Tylden's force, marched through Tambookie Land to the Umvani, where, on the 3rd of December, he was joined by Colonel Mackinnon's party from King William's Town, making his force amount to about 3000 men, with three guns. Lieut.-Col. Eyre with about 1000 men moved, two days later, on the missionary settlement of Butterworth, so that the enemy's attention being first attracted to the General's Division, the move on that station might be effected without danger to the inhabitants from Kreli's people, and the two forces then moved along the course of the Kei co-operating with each other.
On Sunday we had divine service performed by the Rev. J. Wilson, a clergyman of the Church of England, who having been a resident in the beleaguered fort, had, like Patrick Walker at the siege of Derry, taken his share of duty with the little garrison, mounting guard, and standing sentry with his musket like the rest. The best of the men's barrack rooms served for a church, and a large hand-bell having been rung outside to summon the few settlers living within musket-shot of the walls, the gates were locked. The walls of our humble church were hung round with battered arms, patched accoutrements, and water canteens, haversacks, and all the equipments of the field; the congregation of soldiers and settlers was large and most attentive; the "prayers for the ending of the war," and for the "sick and wounded within these walls," forcibly reminding us of our position, so different from that of the congregations at that hour assembled in the peaceful villages at home.
The change from the field to quarters was so great that we could not get over the novelty of sitting down, to chairs and tables at our meals, or sleeping on a bedstead and between sheets, and at first felt much astonishment each morning on awaking to find ourselves in bed in a barrack-room, though the said barrack-room was nothing more than four whitewashed walls, a floor of unhewn stones, a roof of naked rafters well browned with wood smoke, decorated, just over my bed, with a couple of swallows' nests, the birds having taken a dirty advantage of the broken window. The sense of suffocation at night, after so many months sleeping in the open air, was such that we found it impossible to sleep without every door and window wide open.
Our circle consisted of Bruce and myself; Dr. Warden the assistant-surgeon; the worthy Chaplain, and a commissariat officer, Mr. Hedley; totally isolated from the world, except at long intervals, we were now locked up in the little mountain fort 5000 feet above the level of the sea, and, with the exception of a few Dutch Laagers, thirty miles from any human habitation but those of hostile Kaffirs. Our little force was not more than seventy rank and file.
We had not been here more than two or three days, when the Kaffirs swept off a Boer's cattle grazing about three miles off; we saw them through the glass ascending the steep side of the lofty Didama, but as they were already more than half way up, and the distance to the foot of the ascent was at least four miles, we had to content ourselves with watching them; for by the time we could have got about half way, they would have been safely hidden in the extensive Zuurberg forest, on the other side of the ridge. There were about forty Kaffirs urging the cattle up the mountain side, and we could distinguish the forms of others covering their ascent, and crowning the crags on the summit. In the evening, soon after dark, as we sat smoking and chatting round the open hearth, on which blazed a cheerful wood fire, often very acceptable in the evenings of this lofty region, distant shots were heard, and the sentry on the walls reported firing at the nearest Laager, about a mile off, and at the same time two Burghers, living close outside the gates, having been admitted, brought word that the enemy were attacking the Laager, and they would all be cut off without immediate assistance. Bruce, accordingly, sent me off at once with a party of twenty-five men: the night was so dark, that when outside the gates we hardly knew which way to move, until the flashes of muskets in the direction of the Laager showed us to what point to steer. On approaching the place, the moon, which had been hidden by a mass of dark clouds, suddenly shone out clear as day, and at the same moment we were fired upon from the rocks on our left, just above the huts of the Fingo herds, a few balls whistling past us, though after our shots in reply no one dead or alive was to be seen. Having with some difficulty satisfied the suspicious Dutchman on sentry, we passed along the side of the house, which was pierced with narrow loop-holes, the windows being all bricked up, and leaving the men outside for a few moments, I was admitted through some out-works of timber and mud walls, likewise crenelled for musketry, and found myself in a large, low, dirty room, with sacks of meal and corn, furniture, barrels, and all sorts of supplies piled on every side, and a crowd of Dutch men, women, and children, the former in round jackets and broad-brimmed hats, with cow-horn powder flasks at their sides, and immense roers in their hands, all jabbering at once; while the latter squatted round the fire half dressed, or peeped out of the different beds allotted to each family.
It appeared that the Kaffirs had endeavoured to carry off the sheep and cattle from the kraal, but the unexpected resistance, and our equally unlooked for reinforcement, had obliged them to abandon the attempt.