The old routine, to which we had again returned, of patrols and escorts between the Blinkwater camp, or Mount Misery, where the new redoubts were now building, was broken in upon, by the arrival of 200 mounted Fingo Levies on a roving patrol, under Captain Campbell, who, a few miles off, had fallen in with, and killed a party of seven rebel Totties. From some women who were with them, he had learned that another party in advance, had gone on to the village at Mundell's Krantz, not being aware of its destruction, and that they would probably remain there all night. An attack was therefore determined on with our united forces, as soon as it was dark. But just after sunset, as we were getting our dinner, the Kaffirs came down on us instead, and swept off eighty head of commissariat cattle, which the herdsmen, with their usual incorrigible carelessness, had suffered to be out too late, and too far from the Post. Every one disappeared in a moment to order his horse, and get his arms. The bugle sounded the "alarm" and "assembly;" and in five minutes, some 300 men had left the gates, which were shut and barred behind us. The infantry took a short cut up the mountain, in rear of the Post, over which the enemy had gone; while two of the mounted men rode round by Mantatees Hoek, to intercept their retreat. It was a fine moonlight night, and we went at a slapping pace the whole way, up hill and down, clattering along the echoing road. At each cross path there was a temporary check while the Fingoes in advance narrowly examined the ground for spoor, and then on we went again. At the end of six miles, the greater part of the field having tailed off far behind, we saw a fire in a hollow of the plain, and pushed rapidly on towards it, several getting tremendous falls over the large ant hills which, from their peculiar hue, are not distinguishable at night. I rode right into a sawpit, near an old shieling, fortunately without injury; but it was no easy task to get out again, though I managed to do so just in time to see the Burghers in front, blazing away at some dark objects round the fire, which however, being only stumps and logs, did not return the volley. While hunting about for spoor, with a burning brand, we heard voices just over the rise. Thinking the Kaffirs were now in our hands, we crept cautiously round the eminence to surprise them, but discovered, just in time to prevent a mutual volley, that they were some of our own people. In a few minutes after these blunders, bright flashes of musketry showed where the infantry were, high up on the dark ridge of the Little Winterberg, in rear of which we had now got. The enemy was between us; and in a very short time, the whole of the cattle were recaptured, but whether with any loss to the marauders, the darkness of the night prevented our ascertaining. The fort was regained at midnight.
The veteran and gallant Commander of our Division, General Somerset, being appointed to a command in India, during this month took leave of us, and of a country which for thirty years had had the benefit of his services, and where he had commanded in three wars. He was greatly beloved and respected by his Division, and the esteem and regard in which he was held by the inhabitants were manifested by their inviting him to a public dinner at Beaufort.
About a week after this, having been left for some days in almost solitary occupancy of the Post, Bruce returned with his escort of mounted men and Burghers from Beaufort, bringing an order from the General for my appointment to head-quarters. Three days afterwards, I was quartered in Fort Beaufort. The change of temperature from the mountains to the dusty town, shimmering and dancing in the burning sun, was most disagreeable. Hot north winds from the deserts constantly prevailed, almost stifling the breath, and scorching the face like the blast from a furnace; doors, windows, and furniture cracked with the heat, and the thermometer often rose twenty or thirty degrees in a few hours.
Each morning, the streets were filled with endless droves of cattle and goats going to pasture; and strings of Fingo women with children tied on their backs, and large hoes over their shoulders, trudging to their "meelie gardens." All day long, crowds of dirty, drunken Totties of both sexes, hung round the doors of the canteens; fought, shrieked, and swore in the square; or sat in the sun smoking, picking each other's heads, and eating snuff. Naked Fingoes trotted about on oxen, and little black urchins charged through the streets on calves; while dusty post-riders and mounted patrols galloped in with reeking horses; and native escorts straggled out guarding long trains of wagons. Towards evening, the cattle returned in hundreds; and the Fingo women re-entered the town, carrying on their heads enormous pumpkins, huge bundles of firewood, or grass. At sundown, the bugles and trumpets of the different barracks sounded "the retreat;" at dark, the cicada began his night-long ringing chirp, and, softened by the distance, the Fingoe's wild chant and monotonous drumming continued without intermission till long past midnight.
The Governor-General, whose residence and head-quarters were at Fort Beaufort, had just left with a strong escort for the Umvani, about five and thirty miles from Kreli's "Great Place," where he had summoned an assembly of troops and burghers to meet him on the 6th instant, to proceed against that Chief, who had not only refused to send in the fine of cattle imposed on him by Sir H. Smith, on the faith of his promise to pay which the troops had been withdrawn, but had insolently sent back the letter in which his Excellency General Cathcart demanded payment, and remonstrated with him on his want of good faith.
One morning not long after arriving at Beaufort, the Colonel commanding the Division sent to desire me to see him immediately. A body of Kaffirs had entered the colony at a point about fifteen miles off; and in half an hour, I was marching out of the town with about 200 men, a company of the Rifle Brigade, another of the 74th, and some Fingo Levies, to cut off the enemy's return. A march of seventeen miles, brought us an hour after dark to the ruins of Post Victoria, an isolated fort, abandoned in 1845, and afterwards burnt by the Kaffirs. We had but just lighted our bivouac fires within the square formed by the broken walls, when, to our great surprise, for we were in an uninhabited district, miles from house or camp, we heard a bugle at a short distance sound the "cease firing." We could only imagine it a ruse of the Rebels, who in skirmishing had latterly adopted our bugle sounds, retiring, advancing, firing, and changing direction, by the bugle-calls used in our service. But it turned out to be a patrol of the 2nd Queen's, from Fort Hare, on the same spoor as ourselves. We were now a party of five officers, and 350 men.
As the two main "Kaffir-paths" entered the colony about half a mile distant on each side the Post, I placed "forelaying parties" on them for the night, but they came in at daylight, without having seen anything, and the detachment of the Queen's marched for Fort Willshire, another deserted post. Having despatched all the mounted Fingoes to Foonah's Kloof to reconnoitre, I went with a party of infantry in an opposite direction, to see if we could strike on any spoor to guide us in our movements.
For miles the country stretched away in bush-sprinkled wavy downs, dancing in the heat, and still as death. The only living thing we saw, though the country was said to abound in game, was a solitary honey-bird,[22] that flew before us from bush to bush, returning at intervals, and calling us on in the most unmistakable manner, till it stopped at an old tree, where the Fingoes found a bee's nest in a hollow branch. Leaving the bird as much as he could manage, they brought away the rest, which they ate, comb and all.
In a little belt of wood, clothing a deep dell, the dry course of the Shishago, we came on the spoor of koodoo, boschbok, and guinea-fowl, and presently on that of a few Kaffirs and cattle, quite recent, which had a most refreshing effect on us; everybody brightened up, and the Fingoes were like new men, intently following up the faintest marks with their wonderful instinctive quickness. A few head of cattle were captured, but nothing was seen of the Kaffirs.