As the fire of Napier's artillery became more continuous, and the troops appeared on the heights on the opposite side of the valley, the women of the village collected in a knot watching them. As we looked through our glasses, they sat down in a large ring, under the shade of a spreading tree, and we could distinctly see them smoking and gesticulating; some perfectly naked, their sleek ebony skins shining in the sun, but the most part in black karosses, giving to the group a very Satanic appearance. Several came down to a spring, so near that we could hear them talking. It was a novel and amusing sight to look in upon a village of savages, and watch their habits unobserved.
Colonel Buller's column, easily recognised by the dark body of Rifles contrasting with the red coats, was seen moving along the southern heights of the Waterkloof and Kromme, and joining that of his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, who had ascended the mountain from the other side, with Colonel Nesbitt's column. The two then proceeded to the neck of the forest separating the Waterkloof from Fullers Hoek, and after throwing rockets into it, the First and Third Columns bivouacked for the night at the head of the Pass, having been fourteen successive hours on the march. Hardly anything could be more picturesque than our party in the little wood, the sun streaming down through trees completely covered with long drooping bunches of lichen, horses picketted round their hoary trunks; bridles and accoutrements hanging on the lower branches, and groups of men lying in the open glade, or crouched among the outer thickets, peering at the savages, or eagerly watching for cattle, which, however, never came.
In the evening Colonel Napier's Division passed close to our hiding place: the advance guard of mounted Fingoes, with their usual zeal, firing a volley into us, as we somewhat incautiously advanced to the edge of the thicket to look at our friends. We all fell flat on our faces, or jumped behind the trees; the fat Boers, in their short round jackets, lying screaming on the ground in an agony of apprehension. "Yij musst niet skiet! Yij musst niet skiet! Allamachtig! Verdamte skellums, warrum skiet yij?" Several had very narrow escapes, being spattered with mud by the balls; which struck the ground close to them. The Column halting not more than a quarter of a mile from us, and concealment being no longer necessary, B—— and I rode over to their camp, which was on the old ground of October, nine months before. The picketting pins and old kraals were still there, as also the blackened circles of the fires round which many a comrade had sat, now dead and gone. The graves of poor Norris and of our gallant fellows were undisturbed, and the grass waved luxuriantly over them.
We joined our hospitable friends of the 91st at their soup and grog; and at tattoo rode back to our bivouac, in considerable fear of being shot by our own sentries as we approached. Pushing our way through the dark shadowy thickets towards the illuminated centre, we stood in a sylvan Robin Hood scene, bright fires blazed in every direction in the warm-looking wood, lighting up the grey branches that met overhead, and contrasting beautifully with the cold clear moonlight that silvered the tree tops, through which appeared glimpses of the starry sky. The horses, with drooping heads, stood sleeping in the ruddy light; the swarthy bearded Boers, in their red woolen nightcaps, and our men in their blankets, sat smoking together by the fires.
Soon after we had lain down to sleep by the fire, rolled in our plaids, a moaning wind rushed through the trees; the moonlight vanished; a few heavy drops came pattering on the leaves; and presently the rain poured steadily down upon us. We slept however, for some hours, till thoroughly awakened by the cold, and by the wet which trickled down our necks, we got up one after another, from the soaked ground. Drawing my drenched plaid over my shoulders, for my horse had the benefit of the blanket, I sat, for the rest of the night, by the fire, in the steaming circle of soldiers, smoking my pipe and watching the big drops that fell hissing on the glowing logs as the fitful gusts sent them rattling down from the trees. At daylight I mounted my shivering horse, and with a well soaked saddle under me, and as stiff as a poker from the wet and cold, rode over to Colonel Napier for orders. The Column was just falling in for the march, and I was to remain with fifteen men, in ambuscade for the Kaffirs who might come, as was their constant practice, to search the deserted encampment. We entered the little belt of wood, within pistol shot of the fires, and the Division moved off. Soon after its last section had disappeared over the furthest ridge, the ground was covered with enormous vultures, boom-vogels, black and white crows, and secretary birds, which stalked about within a very few yards of us. The boom-vogel is a very dark-plumaged vulture, like a turkey cock, with red wattles and a bare brown neck; they go in pairs only, and generally accompany a flock of the common vulture.
After two or three hours useless watching in a wet ditch, in wetter clothes, and on a bitter cold day, our zeal began to evaporate; and as the Kaffirs did not appear, and a look-out, whom I had sent to the top of the highest tree, reported nothing moving on the plain as far as he could see, we came out of our hiding-place; the birds, very much astonished at our appearance, took themselves off, and we marched back by a little hollow to our comrades in the wood.
Two hours afterwards, Colonel Napier's column appeared on the plain before us, the 91st in advance, skirmishing with a few straggling Kaffirs, and the artillery firing shell into the valley below. From our position we could see numbers of Kaffirs along a rising ground above the troops, out of their sight, firing on them and running from rock to rock, playing at hide and seek. It was altogether a very pretty sight, and we could not but admire the wonderful quickness and cunning of these savage sharpshooters. Observing some of them making for the krantz, as they were driven before the advancing troops, we galloped off to intercept them. The column having turned off and encamped on the ground of the former evening, B—— went down to see Colonel Napier, leaving me with the men on the hill. In a few minutes afterwards a small body of Kaffirs appeared below us driving a herd of cattle, at which we commenced firing at long rifle-range, causing such commotion among them that they broke away in all directions, several evidently hit, making directly for us, followed by about a dozen Kaffirs. A few of the Burghers, thinking to secure them, descended the steep face of the hill, but had not gone far on the flat below, when hundreds of Kaffirs came rushing in from all sides, and taking a little hollow unseen by the Burghers, tried to surround and cut them off. Calling all my men together, we opened such a steady and well directed fire on them, that they were temporarily checked, and two of them being shot dead by "the Minié Riflemen," and several wounded, they turned back again, and our too venturesome allies, made fully aware of their peril, quickly reascended the hill.
Another night of rain succeeded, with sleet and snow, and a cold searching wind, doubly severe by contrast with the intense heat of the day. When we woke in the morning, the mountain ranges, as far as the eye could reach, were white with snow. The sleet turned to rain, and the wind, piercing through our wet clothes, was so intensely chilling, that the men who had, in fact, been lying in puddles all night, were nearly helpless. At eight o'clock a welcome reprieve arrived, a party of Cape Corps from the General's column, bringing us orders to return to our quarters, which we did right willingly, and after a cold dreary ride of eighteen miles, reached Post Retief. The only casualties during the three days' operations were one man killed and one mortally wounded.
The operations on the Waterkloof, the object of which was, by continued annoyance, to drive the skulking Kaffirs out of their hiding places, were only suspended for a day or two. On the 14th we were once more patrolling our mountain ridges; the troops had again assembled at the head of the kloof, and his Excellency the Governor-General arriving with his Staff, a site was selected by the Officers of the Engineers for a permanent defensible camp and two stone redoubts at the Horseshoe, completely commanding Hermanus' Kloof, the head of the Waterkloof, and the communication between it and Fullers Hoek, as also the Kromme, and the approach from the west, and, by a mule path in direct communication with the Blinkwater camp below. Being situated on Mount Misery, and within a few hundred yards of the spot where our gallant Colonel fell, the name of Fort Fordyce was given to it.
His Excellency had already built several stone towers in different parts of the Amatola and Keiskamma districts, for the double purpose of serving as present garrisons, and becoming nuclei and defences for future villages; and their utility and value every succeeding day proved more strongly. This part of the Waterkloof being thus occupied permanently, our operations would have to be directed against the lower and less intricate parts of the valley, into which the enemy were now driven, and as a commencement, Colonel Buller with the Rifle Brigade and 60th Rifles attacked, and completely destroyed, on the 24th, the village at Mundell's Krantz purposely left for this surprise; killing many of the enemy, and taking some of their arms and ammunition, with a few cattle and horses. His only casualties were three men wounded, who were brought the following day, by a detachment of the Rifle Brigade, under Curzon, to Post Retief, which now wore the appearance of a large military hospital; the barrack square, on a fine summer evening, presenting men with bandaged heads, arms in slings, or hobbling on crutches, and two poor fellows each minus a leg.