THE MINIE RIFLE AGAIN.

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position by a front attack, and my flanking party seemed, by the sound of the firing, to be rather going from than approaching us. At this critical moment the recall sounded far away in the rear, and never sound struck my ear more cheerfully before. We fell back in the most orderly manner; and the Kaffirs, coming out in great numbers from behind the rocks to survey our retreat, received a last volley in return, which quickly sent them to the right-about.

The Minie rifle taught them this day a lesson. which they ever after identified with my men, and they never forgot its instructive teaching. We were now sent to take up our quarters near the spot where the attack had commenced in the morning. We were to remain there until further orders. A body of the regular forces was also sent to take up a position about a mile in the rear; while the main body marched back again to headquarters at Fort Beaufort.

I immediately set to work, throwing up a defence against a night attack; and before evening set in-there being an abundance of stone material at hand—I had thrown up a tolerably strong defence. The next day was

the first at which I assisted at public prayers in the colony. My men and I were perched on the huge boulders of rock that fringe the Water-kloof height, and from the depths below arose, in childlike strains, the glorious morning hymn

"Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily course of duty run.”

These sable children were awakening their souls to their daily duty of cutting white men's throats. Something like awe crept over me at this Heavenbeseeching. It was one of those mysterious results of missionary instruction of which I do not profess to know the A B C; it was giving to this would-be slayer the name of fratricide. I got up in a hurry and left the spot. This awakening of Cain made me feel very much as Abel must have felt had he been able to run away. But these poor Hottentots, with a strong predilection for settling disputes with their white brother, after the antediluvian fashion of knocking you upon the head with a knobkerrie, were still much to be pitied, taken as they were from their

WHEN TO FIGHT THE KAFFIRS.

61

boundless homes and pent up in that wooded vale below, singing of their freedom in Christ, like caged mocking-birds imitating the hollow sound of words that convey soul-stirring thoughts to man. I felt more sympathy for them than for those who had brought them to that state.

In the course of a few days I had raised a barricade round my camp strong enough to resist any number of Kafirs; and having thus secured a good base of operation, began to look about me as to how I could best make use of it for offensive movements. Colonel N, the officer who commanded the regulars left on the heights, did not at this time interfere in any manner with my proceedings, so I was left perfectly free, and decided that, with the small body of men at my disposal, night attacks were the only reasonable operations to be undertaken with any hope of permanent success. The Kaffir, lithe, supple, and vicious as a snake during the heat of the day, loses much of his treacherous energy at night. Ignorant and superstitious, he would be already half conquered

by further increasing his dread of darkness; while the white man during the refreshing coolness of night was at his best at the Cape; and bugle-sounds allowed him to be governed almost as easily as during the day. I accordingly proceeded cautiously to accustom the men to the work. We now received in camp a copy of a general order thus worded:

“ HEADQUARTERS, FORT BEAUFORT.

"General Napier speaks in the highest terms of the discernment and gallantry displayed by Captain Lakeman, and the bravery and good conduct of his men on this their first engagement with the enemy.

This was very gratifying, and we determined to obtain still further recognitions of services rendered. In the course of a month we had so far created a panic by our night attacks, that the Kaffirs evacuated the whole of the table-land surrounding the Water-kloof, and retired to the valley and rocky recesses below.

CHAPTER VII.

ANOTHER COMBINED ATTACK-SMALL RESULTS-CAPTURE OF MUNDELL'S PEAK-THANKED A SECOND TIME IN GENERAL ORDERSEXAMPLE OF TENACITY OF LIFE-BUILDING FORTS-THE DESCENT INTO THE WATER-KLOOF-REPROACHES-DISREGARDED ADVICEAN ATTACK AND THE CONSEQUENCES-IN DANGER AND UNABLE TO PROCURE ASSISTANCE RELIEVED FROM ALL INTERFERENCE BY OTHER COMMANDING OFFICERS RECEIVE WRITTEN THANKS OF GENERAL COMMANDING-RECEIVE ADDITIONAL COMMAND OF NEW COMPANY OF FINGOES-I ASSERT MY RIGHT OVER PRISONERSJOHNY FINGO-A SKIRMISH-SAVAGE INDIFFERENCE TO PHYSICAL PAIN-NIGHT FIGHTING-TREACHERY.

ANOTHER attack on a still grander scale than the last was now decided on at headquarters; and the Commander-in-chief, General Cathcart, with several thousand troops, guns, &c., were accordingly assembled on the heights overlooking the kloof. It was, however, a somewhat tame affair. We merely marched round the heights, and only attacked a small Kaffir village on the edge of a promontory, called Mundell's Peak, that advanced like a wedge into the