CHAPTER XI.
DESTRUCTION OF KAFFIR CROPS—FIFTH ATTACK ON WATERKLOOF.
Sir H. Smith, on the return of the Kei expedition, having laid his plans for clearing the Waterkloof of the enemy, who had collected there during his absence, issued a public proclamation in the early part of this month, February, ordering all Burghers on the frontier, between twenty and fifty years of age, to assemble by the 9th of next month, under the old commando system, to aid the troops in expelling the enemy from their stronghold; warning all colonists at the same time that, failing compliance, themselves must bear the responsibility of their apathy.
Notwithstanding this incentive, which one would hardly have supposed necessary for men the safety and preservation of whose families and private property were at issue, they made, generally speaking, a most mean and pitiful response to the command. One or two districts, that of Albert in particular, being alone exceptions to what Sir H. Smith termed their "melancholy shuffling."
At the latter end of the month, the troops were despatched, armed with scythes, old swords, and reaping hooks, to destroy the half ripe crops of the Kaffirs in the Amatola country, from whence they obtained the supplies that enabled them to carry on the harassing war. Immense quantities were destroyed at the sources of the Upper Keiskamma, in the "Wolf's Den" (Sandilli's home-farm), in the Gulu valley, the Amatola basin, the Zanooka valley, and the Chumie, including the 'gardens' of the chief Soga, the treacherous murderer of the military villagers in that district.
Though none of the Kat River missionaries openly expressed any feelings of compassion or indignation at this wholesale demolition of the poor Kaffir's crops, their mouth-piece, Mr. Renton, took the pains to concoct a very touching tale about some potatoes, affirmed by him to have been stolen from one of their own gardens by our inhuman and wicked Highlanders. This story, circumstantially related on a visit to Scotland, greatly affected his audience at an assembled synod, to our great amusement, at the expense of their wasted sympathies, when we afterwards heard of it. The fact was, that the garden being in the enemy's country, of course the crops in it had to share the same fate as the rest; but, just as its destruction commenced, special counter-orders were issued to spare it, and payment was offered by the soldiers for the little which had been taken; the money being refused, was thrown on the ground.
B——, who had been absent for a couple of days, returned in the evening of the 5th March, with a glorious budget of news and English letters. We learned from him that a sharp skirmish had taken place under General Somerset, three days before, in the Waterkloof, in which they had killed about thirty Kaffirs, and destroyed two villages, capturing eighty head of cattle and thirty horses. Lieut.-Col. Yarborough, 91st Regiment, and Captain Bramley, Cape Mounted Rifles, had been severely wounded, Ensign Herbert slightly; and eight men of the 74th Highlanders killed and wounded, besides several of the 91st and Cape Corps.
The Rifle Brigade had arrived from England, and fresh drafts for the different regiments were reported to have reached the Cape in the "Birkenhead," including sixty-six rank and file for us, with our new Lieut.-Col. Seton, and Ensign Russell. Only two days after hearing of the safe arrival of our draft and other reinforcements in the "Birkenhead," we were startled by the sad and astounding intelligence of her total wreck off Simon's Bay, and the loss of nearly all on board in a calm sea, and within sight of the shore. From the moment she struck on a hidden rock till she broke up and sank, barely twenty minutes elapsed; during which, however, by the noble and generous exertions of the troops, the whole of the women and children were got off, when she parted and went down, all the brave fellows steadily performing their duty to the last. According to the report of Captain Wright, 91st Regiment, one of the few survivors—"there is no doubt most of the men in the lower troop deck were drowned in their hammocks. The rest appeared on deck, when Lieut.-Col. Seton called the officers about him and impressed upon them the necessity of preserving order and silence among the men. Every one did as he was directed, and there was not a murmur or a cry amongst them until the vessel made her final plunge. All received their orders and had them carried out as if the men were embarking instead of going to the bottom. There was only this difference, that never was an embarkation conducted with so little noise or confusion."
Out of 14 officers and 458 men on board, no less than 9 officers and 349 men were lost, besides the crew; 5 officers and 109 men alone escaped to shore by swimming, or clinging to the drift-wood. Not a single woman or child was lost, all being carefully shipped into the cutter-boat and safely landed. Of the 74th Highlanders, Colonel Seton, Ensign A. C. Russell, and 48 men, nearly the whole draft, unhappily perished,—18 only escaping to shore. Colonel Seton had only heard at the Madeiras of the death of his gallant senior, Colonel Fordyce, and his own appointment to the command of the regiment. He was a man of great and varied attainments, being especially distinguished as a linguist and mathematician.
Russell, though he had joined the depôt at Kinsale after the regiment had left for the Cape, was well known to us by report for his gentlemanly, amiable, bearing, and high principle. His untimely end was keenly felt by those of his brother officers who had personally known him, and lamented by all. In those last awful moments he was noticed carrying out the commands of his Colonel with noble courage and undisturbed composure.
Our letters from home, doubly welcome in our mountain solitude, kept us up till a late hour. The Illustrated News and Punch never before seen in those regions, were wisely economised for another day, as we could not afford to exhaust a month's amusement at one sitting.