"Head-Quarters, King William's Town,
"April 7, 1852."His Excellency Lieut.-General the Hon. George Cathcart having been appointed by the Queen to relieve me, I this day relinquish the command.
"Brother Officers and Soldiers. Nothing is more painful than to bid farewell to old and faithful friends. I have served my Queen and country many years, and attached as I have ever been to gallant soldiers, none were ever more endeared to me than those serving in the arduous campaign of 1851-52 in South Africa. The unceasing labours, the night marches, the burning sun, the torrents of rain, have been encountered with a cheerfulness as conspicuous as the intrepidity with which you have met the enemy in so many enterprising fights and skirmishes in his own mountain fastnesses and strongholds, and from which you have ever driven him victoriously.
"I leave you, my comrades, in the fervent hope of laying before your Queen, your country, and his Grace the Duke of Wellington, these services as they deserve, which reflect so much honour upon you.
"Farewell, my comrades; your honour and interests will be ever far more dear to me than my own.
(Signed) "H. G. Smith.
"A. T. Cloete, Quartermaster-General."
On the same day, and just before the relinquishment of his command, news arrived of the successful exertions of the columns patrolling in the Amatolas; Major-Gen. Somerset's having killed upwards of 100 of the enemy, and captured 3120 head of cattle, 70 horses and 1500 goats. The escort bringing the report of this patrol, fell in with a party of the enemy, whom they gallantly attacked, and took from them 198 head of cattle and 5 horses. At the same time Lieut.-Col. Eyre's column acting in combination with that of the General, captured 800 head of cattle and 15 horses, from a formidable position in the Amatolas; though with the loss of one officer, Captain Gore, 43rd Light Infantry, killed at the head of his company, and six men wounded.
For the next week or ten days we were out almost daily patrolling the mountains, following up marauding parties, and shelling the kloofs. On one of these duties we had ridden to the top of the northern spur of the little Winterberg to reconnoitre the Koonap valley; sweeping the vast bush-dotted plain with the telescope, we spied about twenty Kaffirs, at a distance of some four miles or more, making across from Viljoens towards the Waterkloof. We determined to cut them off, and at once led our horses down the mountain side into the bushy kloof, by a rocky and difficult descent; and scrambling out on the opposite side through the thorny bushes, galloped across the plain for some miles, till we struck on their spoor, which we followed for a mile farther, where, leaving the road, it became lost in the grass. After having proceeded as far as we thought it possible for them to have got in the interim, and seeing nothing of them on the immense undulating plain, we concluded they must have observed us, and taken refuge in some of the isolated patches of bush scattered over it like islands. As the sun was already low, we were just about turning our steps homeward, when we suddenly espied them, about a mile off on our right, leisurely ascending out of a grassy hollow. Separating into two little parties to surround them, Bruce leading one, I the other, we went full speed down hill over the rough broken ground at a break-neck pace, keeping an eye on them to note if they observed us. But though neither stone nor bush intervened they never perceived us till within 500 yards, when throwing away their skin sacks, off they started like the wind, making for a distant narrow belt of wood, under cover of which and the rapidly approaching darkness, they hoped to give us the slip. The pace was killing, and we had yet nearly half a mile to make up before we could intercept them. The chase became most exciting, as we took flying, yawning sluits five or six feet deep. At last two of them gave in, but perceiving them to be women, we held on in pursuit of the others, firing an occasional shot. Just as they gained the cover we dashed up, and springing from our panting horses, followed them into the tangled underwood, leaving a few outside the belt to watch if they broke cover. But the gloom of the trees, increased by the rapidly approaching night, made our progress slow and difficult, and though we worked completely through the bush they escaped us.
We were now fourteen miles from the Fort, and taking with us our two prisoners, returned at a foot's pace; one of them, a Totty, was the wife of Speelman Kievet, one of the most notorious of the Rebel leaders. The other was a Madagascar slave, hideously ugly. On our way we picked up the skin sacks that had been thrown away; they were full of half-ripe fruit and meelies. It was 9 o'clock when we reached the Post, where our long absence, for we had been out since noon, had caused much uneasiness, as mounted Kaffirs had been seen through the telescope, hovering about us on the higher ridges of the mountain we had ascended. When we made our appearance, two parties, one of mounted Boers, and the other of infantry, were on the point of setting off to search for us, or our remains; the latter being supposed the more probable issue, as it was fully thought that we must have been surrounded and massacred; judging, however, in case we should return alive, that we should be uncommonly hungry, our friends had judiciously reserved dinner, or, more correctly, supper for us, which we lost no time in sitting down to.
The night following, at 12 o'clock, we marched out of the Fort with the gun and artillerymen, ninety rank and file, and a guide, for Engelbrecht's Kloof, a difficult wooded retreat, in which the enemy were said to be lurking. On the way we had some sport with a couple of porcupines, the dogs in front barking violently at some object which they evidently had at bay; I rode forward with the guide, but it was so dark that we had some difficulty in finding their whereabouts. One of them kept our dogs at a respectful distance, rattling his tail on the ground and shaking his quills; but he was soon despatched and hanging on the gun-limber. We preserved his tail, which was quite a curiosity, a bunch of short truncated hollow quills, stuck on a lump of flesh. No animal of its size is so easily killed; a tap on the head finishes him at once; they are very common throughout the country, as is proved by the quantities of quills one sees everywhere. The flesh is excellent; very white and tender, and not unlike young pig. The orthodox mode of cooking this delicacy is to roast it in hot wood ashes, with the skin on, minus the quills, of course.
After an eighteen miles' march, we halted as day was breaking, at the top of the kloof. We shelled the ravine; and the Levies advancing from the other side of the valley received the Kaffirs thus dislodged; six of whom, after a slight skirmish, were killed. As we returned, the heat of the noontide sun on the open plain was intense.
Riding out next day to reconnoitre at "the Springs," as we looked down into the valley, we saw two or three horses grazing, and could discern by the glass several Kaffirs in blankets, lying outside some huts half hidden by the bush, at the edge of which they were built. As the glen was unapproachable except by a detour of many miles, we fired one or two conical balls at about 1000 yards, which made them jump up pretty quickly, and seek the shelter of the wood. Having ascertained the range as nearly as possible, we rode home, purposing to give them a warmer dose at early dawn. Accordingly, at 3 o'clock, I started with the gun and sixty rank and file; a fine moon lighting us on the way. B——, following with thirty horsemen, overtook us, after two hours' marching, just as we had halted and were getting the gun into position. Their dark figures, seen sharply against a patch of crimson sky at their backs, all around being still in shadow, as they cantered towards us over the intervening dusky level, had a singular and beautiful appearance. The moment it was light enough to make out the position of the huts down in the dark valley, we fired; the white wreaths of smoke from the bursting shells below dispersing and vanishing before the report reached us. Two parties of mounted men rode off, one to the left, the other to the right, and descended the mountain side as far as was practicable. One or two horses were seen galloping down the glen, and the huts were levelled with the ground.
April 17th.—Off with a mounted patrol by three o'clock; overhead a lovely star-lit sky. We rode along the elevated table-land, Kaffir fires blazing on the higher mountains in every direction, and took an old bridle path down the Blinkwater hill in preference to the usual route, as less liable to ambuscade, leading our horses down the slippery rocks, through close thorny bush. Day breaking as we made our slow descent, showed two or three wreaths of smoke, within musket shot, curling up from Kaffir fires in the still forest beneath. No one was to be seen, nor was a shot fired at us all the way, as we kept slipping and sliding down the tiresome descent, scratching hands and face, and tearing our clothes among the 'vacht um bidgte' and 'num nyum'[21] bushes.
Remounting on the flat below, we pushed on through the bush at a good pace, till emerging on the open plain glistening with dew in the morning sun, the white tents of the Blinkwater camp came in sight. Our sudden appearance, and Kaffir-like advance, made an evident stir among the guards and sentries, and the few officers about at that early hour assembled on the earthen out-works; they were soon crowding round us for or with news; tendering hairbrushes and towels at the riverside,with pressing invites to speedy breakfasts—coffee, ration beef, and biscuit.
