Having a day to spare, I rode out to Lieuwe Fontein, of which Post my brother had, some time previously, been appointed Commandant, with a garrison of 74th and Mounted Levies. We had excellent buck shooting in the open bush around the station, and killed a singular diver on the vley, with curious palmated feet, the three toes being quite detached, and in form and appearance like beautiful leaves. The situation, like most of the frontier Posts, was one that would have afforded a man of contemplative mind ample opportunity for undisturbed reflection, being twelve miles from the nearest dwelling, and not a living soul approaching the place the day long, excepting twice a week, when the post-riders met there, and the weekly train of waggons outspanned under the walls. At night, after the gates were locked and the keys brought in to the Commandant, he might sit till daylight without hearing a single sound to break the oppressive silence, except the measured tread of the sentinel and the occasional howl of a hyæna or jackal. Next evening the solitude was relieved by the arrival of the up and down mails; two small clouds of red dust rising above the scattered clumps of bush, grew nearer and nearer, till at last the two parties of mounted men were seen descending the opposite hills at the same time, and rapidly approaching the Post, their arms glittering in the setting sun. As they remained within the Post till daylight, I rode back to Beaufort with an escort; the cool refreshing morning air fragrant with the perfume of flowering shrubs. On the way I had some good sport, getting shots at a beautiful pair of blue cranes, a flock of wild duck on a vley, some wild Guinea fowl running along the road, and at some monkeys. The mail was, unfortunately, rather late getting in that morning.
About a week after this I accompanied an escort going to the fortified camps in the Waterkloof. The Rifle Brigade were quartered there, and with the 60th and 91st, which occupied the forts on the heights, effectually held what we had taken with so much labour; not a Kaffir was left in the whole neighbourhood; officers daily went out from the camps shooting alone in places where, a month before, a column would have been attacked. The valley, in many parts, smelt most pestilentially from the number of dead Kaffirs in the bush. A puppy dog, belonging to H——, brought the arm of one into his tent unobserved, and began to play with it under the bed, a fact of which his master was soon made disagreeably conscious.
October 17th.—Lieut.-Col. MacDuff, lately appointed to the 74th Highlanders, which had lost two commanding officers in so short a time, arrived at head-quarters, and assumed the command of the regiment and the garrison. We were glad once more to have a Colonel at our head, and, not less so, one who had seen good service and hard fighting on other fields.
A few days subsequently, as we were sitting under the wide verandah in front of the mess-room, the sleepy noontide stillness of the town was suddenly broken by the "alarm" and "assembly" sounding from our barracks; the "boot and saddle" from the Cavalry stables; and the cow-horn rally from the Fingo kraals. The Kaffirs had swept off a herd of cattle out-grazing, wounded one of the native police, and shot the horse of another. In a very short time I was trudging away as of old, with a party of Infantry and Levies to Post Victoria, which we reached before sunset. Here the mounted men came up with the pursuit, dispersed the enemy in all directions, and retook the whole of the cattle, our only casualty one man wounded.
I sent the cattle back to Fort Beaufort, and bivouacked for the night with the Infantry at the ruins; but it was not to be a night of undisturbed repose. We had hardly lain down when we were most savagely attacked by musquitoes; and a slapping of faces and lighting of pipes began on all sides. Having at last successfully dodged them by laying a branch over my face, and thrusting my hands into my pockets, I flattered myself with hopes of sleep, but a suspicious rustling among the plucked broom under my head, made my blood run cold at the idea of its being a cobra capello, and I rolled away on the other side; having got a lighted brand from the fire, one or two of the men getting up to assist me, everything was turned over with our ramrods, but no snake was found. The same noise, however, began again soon after I lay down, but persuading myself that it was some lizard or insect, I at last went to sleep. In the morning, under the warm stuffing of the saddle that had been my pillow, a fine puff adder lay coiled up.
On our way back, at sunrise, we blazed away right and left at bush buck, and pheasants which we put up in scores. The bush was very beautiful, glowing with the fragrant golden mimosa and the snowy jessamine, mingled with the blue plumbago, the cluytea, and geranium; the ground too covered with mesembryanthemum, was one sheet of glowing pink. Along the deserted grass-grown road, doves, everywhere abundant, were unusually numerous, running along the ground before us and flying on from tree to tree like flocks of tame pigeons. On gaining the more open country we found ourselves again among the young locusts, now considerably grown, and turned to a reddish brown. The scattered bushes, stripped of every leaf, were loaded with them, hanging like swarms of bees from every branch and twig; for acres together the ground was literally alive, and the "veldt" behind them bare to the very earth. The evil became worse as we approached Beaufort, where the cattle, from their numbers, were almost starving, for it was hazardous driving them to any great distance, and already they went so far from the town that a considerable part of the day was lost in taking them to and from pasture.
November 3rd.—The town to-day was thrown into excitement by a serious fray between two rival clans of Fingoes; the "casus belli" was not easy to discover, but a young lady appeared to be at the bottom of it. The extensive green flat between their kraals and the burial ground was covered by two long extended lines of men armed with "keeries," opposed to each other, and advancing or retiring as one or the other gained a temporary advantage; each Fingo carried a kaross, or blanket, over the left arm, as a shield, and a second keerie, held like the old quarter-staff, exhibiting great skill and adroitness in parrying and delivering the tremendous and resounding blows; running, stooping, and wheeling rapidly about with their whirling staves and waving blankets, yelling in savage defiance; while hosts of young women on both sides, armed with large stones, filled the air with well-directed missiles. The scene was most novel and exciting, and every one entered heartily into it.
The stronger party having driven their adversaries back on their kraal, began an attack on the huts, when the prettiest light infantry practice imaginable followed; the attacking force taking advantage of every rock, bush, and bank, their keeries in their left hand ready for a charge, assailed the defenders with showers of stones, thrown with astonishing force and precision, while they in turn kept up so hot a fire from the shelter of their huts, assisted by the women and children, that for some time neither gained much advantage, till, encouraged by a tall active young fellow, whose face and naked body were covered with blood and wounds, the assailants rushed into the kraal, laying about them right and left, knocking down and clearing all before them. The Commandant of the garrison arriving at this juncture, ordered the two principal Chiefs to put a stop to the affray instantly. One of them, a grey-headed old man, with a short grizzly beard, ran from one to another, issuing his orders to his 'captains,' and soon the tumult ended, though the belligerents were in a very excited state. Several of the champions had been stretched senseless on the ground, one or two of whom afterwards died, and most were covered with blood. There could not have been fewer than 300 men, besides women, engaged in the affray.
KAFFIR WOMEN.