The Young Colonists: A Story of the Zulu and Boer Wars
Page 11
entrance is but three feet high, andpeople can only enter by crawling. A woman was ordered to cook forthem. No guard was placed over them, and they were permitted to wanderabout freely, as escape from such a position was considered impossible.
Six weeks passed slowly, and on the 11th of March a messenger arrived,and there was a sudden stir in the camp. In a few minutes thefighting-men assembled. The boys were ordered to take their place inthe column, and at a swift march, with which they had the greatestdifficulty in keeping up, the column moved away.
"Where are they taking us now, I wonder?" Tom said.
"I suppose they are going to attack some English party on the march; ourmen are hardly likely, I should think, again to be caught napping, asthey were at Isandula."
Crossing two rivers, the Bevana and Pongola, they at night halted inanother mountain-kraal of Umbelleni, about three miles from the IntombeRiver. On the bank of the river could be seen twenty waggons. Thesewaggons had come down from Derby, on their way to Luneberg, a townsituated four miles from the Intombe. Major Tucker, who commandedthere, sent Captain Moriarty with a company of the 80th, seventy strong,down to the river to protect the waggons whilst crossing, and thatofficer had orders to neglect no precaution, and above all to keep anincessant and vigilant look-out.
The river was in flood, and no crossing could be effected, and for fourdays the waggons remained on the northern bank. Captain Moriarty placedthe waggons in laager on the bank, and took post there with forty of hismen, leaving Lieutenant Harwood with thirty-four on the south bank withdirections to cover the sides of the laager with a flanking fire, shouldit be attacked. The position of the waggons was a dangerous one, as theground rose immediately behind them, and was covered with bush.
In the middle of the night of the 11th Umbelleni's men arose, and,accompanied by the boys, started from the kraal, and Dick and Tom werefilled with forebodings of what was about to happen. Dick had alreadygathered from the natives that the guard of the waggons was an extremelysmall one, and, as the body moving to attack them were between 4000 and5000 strong, the chance of a successful resistance appeared small.
When within a short distance of the waggons two of the Zulus motioned tothe boys to stop. In ten minutes they heard a sentry challenge; hisshout was answered by a loud yell, and the Zulus poured down to theattack. Unfortunately Captain Moriarty had not taken sufficientprecaution against surprise, and before the men were fairly under armsthe Zulus were upon them.
The force on the other side of the river were now on the alert, andtheir rifle-fire opened before that of the defenders of the waggons.For a moment or two there was a sharp rattling fire from the waggons;then there were shouts and screams, the firing ceased, and the boys knewthat the laager had been captured. Many of the soldiers indeed wereassegaied before they could leave their tents, most were slaughtered atonce, but a few managed to swim across the river. The Zulus swarmedafter them. Lieutenant Harwood jumped upon his horse and rode off toLuneberg to fetch assistance. The little detachment was broken by therush of the Zulus, but a serjeant and eight men fell back into adeserted kraal, and succeeded in repelling the attacks of the enemy.
Lieutenant Harwood was afterwards tried by court-martial for hisconduct; he was acquitted, but the general in command refused to confirmthe verdict, and the commander-in-chief at home approved of the view hetook of the matter, and issued a general order to the effect that "Anofficer, being the only one present with a party of soldiers actuallyengaged with the enemy, is not under any pretext whatever justified indeserting them, and thus by so doing abandoning them to their fate."
Apprehensive of the arrival of reinforcements from Luneberg, Umbellenidid not continue his attack upon the little party in the kraal, but,after hastily plundering the waggons, retreated with his force, and thenext day returned to Zlobani.
A few days passed and the boys learnt that two regiments from Ulundiwere expected shortly to reinforce Umbelleni's men. The chief himself,with the majority of his followers, was now at his kraal, four milesdistant, but the boys remained in the village on the Zlobani plateau.Several times they saw parties of British horse riding over the plainsand from a distance reconnoitring the position, and they wonderedwhether there could be any intention on the part of Colonel Wood toattack it. There was on the plateau a large number of cattle, part theproperty of Umbelleni's men, but the great majority spoil taken inraids. It seemed to the boys that an attack could scarcely besuccessful. The sides of the mountains were extremely precipitous,covered with bush, and contained large numbers of caves. There was butone path up which mounted men could ride; this was about hallway alongthe west side, the hill being a much greater length from north to souththan from east to west. Up the southern extremity of the plateau was apath by which footmen could descend to the plain, but it was exceedinglysteep and altogether impracticable for cavalry; a handful of men shouldhave been able to hold the position against an army.
Colonel Wood having heard of the large quantity of cattle concealed onthe Zlobani Mountain had determined to attack it, and at three o'clockin the morning of the 27th of March a cavalry party started. Itconsisted of 150 mounted infantry; the Frontier Light Horse, 125;Raaff's Troop, 50; Piet-Uys' Boer Contingent, 50; Wetherby's Horse, 80;Schermbrucker's Horse, 40;--a total of 495 men. They were commanded byColonel Russell, and Colonel Wood was himself to join them in theevening. The party was a picked one, all being well mounted and goodrifle-shots.
The track led across a rough sandy country with deep nullahs, andthickly covered with trees and bush. At five o'clock they halted forhalf an hour, and then again advanced. After five miles' travellingacross a very rough country they came out into a large cultivated flat,which terminated in a long, dark, winding gorge, black with bush andskirted by precipices of sandstone and granite. They turned into thisand followed a rivulet until they came to the end of the gorge, wherethey discovered a steep path which seemed cut out of the solid rock, andwas only wide enough for one horseman to pass. After three quarters ofan hour's climbing they gained the summit. The country was wild in theextreme. The plateau upon which they found themselves extended forseven or eight miles. Huge masses of scrub and boulders, peaks,terraces, and ledges of rock appeared everywhere, while caves andimmense fissures formed retreats for the cattle. It was now late in theafternoon, and the force bivouacked for the night, having brought withthem three days' provisions. At seven in the evening Colonel Woodjoined them with his staff, eight mounted men of the 50th regiment andsix natives under Untongo, a son of Pongo, a friendly chief. Untongohad by some means obtained information that seven strong regiments hadmarched from Ulundi seven days before, and was most anxious that thecolumn should return to Kambula.
Colonel Wood, however, could not carry out this advice, for ColonelsBuller and Wetherby and Piet-Uys, with their commands, who were infront, had moved forward a long distance, and a retreat now would leavethem to be surrounded and cut off. The troops lay down and slept, andat half-past three o'clock again prepared to advance. Distant shotswere heard, showing that Colonel Buller was attacked, and just as theparty was setting off, Colonel Wetherby with his troopers rode in,having in the night got separated from Buller's men in the wild andbroken country. As the troops advanced they came here and there acrossthe bodies of Zulus, showing that Buller had had to fight his way.Captain Ronald Campbell ascended a rock and scanned the country with hisglass. Far away, almost in the centre of the gigantic and apparentlyinaccessible cliff of Zlobani, the remains of Buller's column could beseen slowly advancing, driving some dark masses of cattle and Zulusbefore them.
Colonel Wetherby obtained permission to lead his men on at once toBuller's assistance, while Colonel Wood followed with the remainder ofthe force. Wetherby moved by a terribly difficult path to the right,while Wood kept to what seemed the main track. About half a milefurther the latter came on a party of 200 Zulus, armed with rifles;these crossed in front of him, taking an occasional shot at the leadingfiles of the party, who on acc
ount of the difficulties of the road werecompelled to dismount and lead their horses. Their object was evidentlyto cut off Wetherby's troop from the main column. Lieutenant Lysons,leaving the column, reconnoitred the ground, and found that Wetherby'sparty was already divided from them by a deep and impassable ravine, atthe bottom of which was the pathway by which Buller had made his way tothe summit of the cliff. A strong party of Zulus were seen faraway infront, working as if to cut off Buller's horse. It was clear that therewas nothing to do but to press forward in hopes that the line taken byWetherby and that which the main column was following would cometogether.
At this moment a heavy fire was opened by a party of the enemy from anarrow ledge of rock a hundred yards above them. Untongo and two of hismen guided a party of eight marksmen to a still higher point, and theirfire speedily drove off the Zulus. Half an hour's