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IN AFRICA WITH THE
UNION JACK

BY
W. fIMBLETT

E BRIT “ DIA, 'lRUE STORIES FROM AFRICAN “STORY,"

WITH EIGHT FULL-PA GE III FSTRA TIOJVS

LONDON
J. S. YIRTUE & CO., LIMITED, 26, IVY LANE
PATERNOSTER ROW
1898

LOAN STACK

LONDON :
PRINTED BY J. S. YIRTI'E AND CO., LIMITED,
CITY ROAD.

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PREFACE.

THE story of the British arms in Africa has a
fascination all its own. Britannia has sent her sons
into the Dark Continent on enterprises varied in
character, and on each occasion their doings have
been followed with a great amount of interest and
anxiety. Among us new wonders are constantly
spoken of, far-reaching developments are in progress ;
the extent of the future connection of England with
Africa is food for widespread and unceasing specu-
lation.

In the following pages special prominence is given
to military operations as being the most attractive to
the youth of the age. War forms, indeed, the main
feature of our earliest acquaintance with peoples and
tribes living in the Dark Continent. Diplomacy has
played quite a secondary part.

0?»:

1\

 

CONTENTS.

_._.
CHAI‘. PAGE
I. ENGLISH AND FRENCH IN EGYPT . . . . . 1
II. FIGHTING THE KAFFIRS . . . . . . . 18
III. THE ABYSSINIAN WAR . . . . . . . 32
IV. IN THE FORESTS 0F ASHANTEE . . . . . 50
V. DASH FOR. Coomssua . . . . . . . 67
VI. AT WAR WITH THE ZULUS . . . . . . 82
VII. FALL 0]? KING CETYWAYO . . . . . . 104
VIII. A MELANCHOLY STORY . . . . . . . 127
IX. FOR ENGLAND AND EMPIRE . . . . . . 147
X. BATTLES IN THE EASTERN SOUDAN . . . . 175
XI. ALONG THE NILE VALLEY . . . . . . 205

XII. Too LATE FOR GORDON . . . . . . . 223

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

___.__.
GENERAL GORDON . . . . . . . Frontispz’ece
IN THE FORESTS 0F ASIIANTEE . . . . To face page 52
ZULUS PREPARING FOR WAR . . . . . ,, 91
THE ATTACK ON TIIE HOSPITAL, RORKE’S DRIFT . . ,, 101
BURNING 0F ULUNDI . . . . . . . ,, 118
BRITISH SOLDIERS AT EL TEE . . . . . ,, 184

THE BRITISH MEETING AN ARAB FORCE AT THE SECOND
BATTLE OF EL TEB . . . . . . ,, 188

THE BRITISH FORCES WORKING TEEIE WAY_UP THE NILE ,, 220

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

_—+__
CHAPTER I.
ENGLISH AND FRENCH IN EGYPT.

OVER the burning sands and around old-world
cities of Egypt ; upon the bosom of the restless Nile ;
in arid and forbidding deserts of the Eastern Soudan ;
among the rocky, towering heights of Abyssinia ;
amid deadly swamps of the \Vest Coast and the jungles
and forests of Ashantee ; in the bush, across the swell-
ing rivers, and along the mountain-brows of ever—
broadening South Africa, has been borne “ the meteor
ﬂag of England,” our Union J aek.

\Ve would like to ﬂatter ourselves that the Union
Jack has always been carried to victory. \Ve cannot,
unfortunately. At intervals the savage has carried
all before him. Yet never has the Union Jack been
“trail’d in the dust.” Within view of the national
emblem, whether yielding to the wind upon some
cragg 7 height, or hanging limp upon the staff in sun

B

2 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

scorched lowland and desert of the Dark Continent,
nothing has occurred to make men and youths at
home fear that the indomitable pluck which won for
England, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
the admiration of the world, has in any degree lessened
in our days, just as it did not in those of our fathers
and grandfathers. Yes! deeds as valiant as were
ever performed in Europe, America, and Asia have
been witnessed during British operations in Africa.
Fighting within the shadow of Union Jack and
regimental ﬂag has been of the most daring, reckless
and romantic character.

It is worthy of special remark that the ﬁrst landing
in force of British troops in Africa and the ﬁrst hoist-
ing of the Union Jack were almost simultaneous. The
latter took place on New Year Day, 1801; two
months afterwards a large body of soldiers, under Sir
Ralph Abercrombie, arrived off the coast of Egypt,
disembarked in Aboukir Bay, and gallantly won the
battle of Alexandria. The adoption of the Union
J aek as the national ensign was in consequence of the
legislative, or parliamentary, union of Ireland with
England and Scotland, the crosses of St. George, St.
Andrew, and St. Patrick, the patron saints of the
respective countries, being blended upon the ﬂag as
we see them to this day. Strictly speaking, there
was a Union Jack before this—one issued by pro-
clamation of James I. when England and Scotland

IN AFRICA \VITH THE UNION JACK. 3

were united. The ensign bore the crosses of St.
George and St. Andrew.

Let us inquire now into the circumstances that
brought about the landing of British troops in Egypt.

At the close of the eighteenth century the struggle
between England and France for supremacy in India
was decided. The splendid genius of Olive and Coote,
and the heroism of their Britons and Sepoys had been
too much for the French commanders, La Bourdon-
nais, Dupleix, Lally, and their ﬁghting men; the
English were supreme, the French very far behind.
Not content with this state of things, the Government
of France determined upon undermining the power
of Britain in the East, to strike at her by way of
Egypt and Syria. Napoleon Bonaparte had risen
rapidly to fame. He was the idol of the French, and
was regarded as the man for heading the great enter-
prise. In the month of May, 1798, therefore, a ﬂeet,
consisting of sail-of-the-line, frigates, and transports,
left Toulon, in the south of France. Bonaparte was on
board the L’Om’ent, the ﬂagship of Admiral Bruyes.

In crossing the Mediterranean, the French captured
Malta as likely to prove an important and useful sta-
tion to them. On the 30th June they were before
Alexandria. Here Bonaparte and Bruyés learned
something that startled them. It was that Nelson,
having with him several British ships crowded with
ﬁghting men, was in search of the French ﬂeet, ﬁrmly

4 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

resolved to destroy it and prevent any landing upon
Egyptian soil. To increase the alarm, the signal,
“Vessels of war coming on,” was sent up by one of the
French captains. Not doubting but that the ships were
those of Nelson, Napoleon Bonaparte sadly exclaimed,
“ Fortune, why hast thou favoured us so long to aban-
don us now, when former successes only add to the
strength of our misfortune? In a few moments
Alexandria would have been ours, and the whole of
the transports would have been safe.” Luckily for
the French, the vessels signalled belonged to them.
Nelson was scouring the Mediterranean without re-
ward. He was coming up rapidly, however, with the
French ﬂeet.

In face of a great storm, over thirty thousand of
Bonaparte’s troops were disembarked. Marching
against Alexandria, they took the city after terrible
slaughter, defeated the Turkish and native troops
(Egypt belonged to Turkey) at Shibirres, and, pro-
ceeding to Embabah, the French won what is known
as the Battle of the Pyramids, and became masters of
the proud capital of Cairo. The loss of life on the
side of the Mamelukes, 0r defenders of the country,
was tremendous. Nearly sixteen thousand men were
killed outright or were wounded. Napoleon had be-
come, in a remarkably short space of time, master of
Lower Egypt, and was contemplating a descent upon
Syria as the second part of his grand scheme.

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 5

Meanwhile Sir Horatio Nelson discovered the
whereabouts of the French ﬂeet. The delay in ﬁnd-
ing the enemy served to increase the vexation of N el-
son, and, caring not for the superior forces of the
enemy, nor for the fact that night was fast approach-
ing, he, on the 1st August, opened the attack in
Aboukir Bay. In the words of the great admiral,
who won his peerage by the event, nothing could
withstand the valour of the seamen and marines of
the English ﬂeet. The French ships, carrying ten
thousand men, and drawn up in the form of a cres-
cent, were utterly destroyed or captured in that awful
night of ﬁre and blood. “Five thousand” was put
down as the loss on the side of the French; nine
hundred of our brave fellows lost their lives or were
wounded. Admiral Bruyés was killed, with nearly all
on board, by a frightful explosion on the L’Or'ient.
Who does not know the story of Casabianca, the lad
who so nobly lost his life on the burning deck of this
famed ship ?

By the glorious victory of Aboukir Bay the power
of the French in the Mediterranean was completely
shattered, the position of the troops in Egypt was
gravely imperilled, and the failure of the expedition
to Syria—including the futile attack on the coast
fortress of Acre, where Sir Sydney Smith and a naval
force assisted the Turks and Syrians in their success-
ful resistance—convinced Napoleon that there was no

6 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

further hope of Eastern conquest. In the summer
of 1799 he hastened back to France, leaving the able
General Kleber in command of the army of occupa-
tion in Egypt.

In a position at length to send an army to Egypt
in order to drive the French from the land, the British
Government despatched some eighteen thousand
troops, under the veteran Sir Ralph Abercrombie,
to the Mediterranean, a landing being effected from
Aboukir Bay, and not far from Alexandria, on the
2nd March, 1801. Malta had then been wrung from
the French, and was taken advantage of as a station
by the English ﬂeet ; but, in spite of every provision
there and by the Turks upon their own shores, the
British suffered severely from sickness, gales, and
postponements of operations, so that by the time they
entered Africa the force was much reduced.

Still, the landing was carried out with vigour,
and in the teeth of terrible dillieulties. Being aware
of the coming of the English, the French made every
endeavour to meet it. Along the shore of Aboukir
Bay where landing was feasible, ridges were raised
by the French and heavy guns were mounted upon
them, while cavalry and infantry were drawn up in
battle array at every point. At the onset, after dis-
embarking, our soldiers, marines, and sailors, ﬁred
scarcely a shot—they reserved their ammunition for
close quarters, marching steadily on and on from the

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 4

boats, along the shore, amid a storm of musket
balls and shells. When within bayonet distance the
instrument was plied with murderous result, shots
became general, and the French were in full retreat,
General Moore, afterwards Sir John Moore, of
Corunna fame, being very prominent in the ﬁghting
and pursuit.

The British could not at once follow up the advan-
tage gained. All the troops meant for service in
Egypt had not landed ; tents and baggage, and stores
of war material were still aboard. How could they
be got ashore when the French were threatening in
such numbers, when forts commanded the beach,
when tempests raged, and when there was so much
of uncertainty? Now, however, that the French were
beaten oﬁ" and nature alone had to be reckoned with,
uninviting though she was, operations were pushed
on for bringing the necessaries to land, headquarters
were established, armed gunboats were launched upon
Lake Aboukir, and something like organization was
observable on every side.

Along the whole course to Alexandria, whither the
British headed in the second week of March, they
were harassed by the French who hung everywhere
upon their ﬂanks; General Menou—who had suc-
ceeded the brave Kleber, assassinated by a maniac
—commanded in person. Hundreds of lives were
lost to Sir Ralph Abercrombie in this way. To

8 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

render the situation more unenviable it was found
that defences of the stoutest and artillery of the
heaviest calibre had been raised by the enemy out-
side Alexandria. Moreover, General Menou’s forces
were added to by the arrival of thousands of native
soldiery. Taking everything into consideration, Aber-
crombic likewise set up strong defences, collected all
the guns that could be spared from the ships in
Aboukir Bay, as well as his ﬁeld-pieces, and so
arranged his men, cavalry and foot, as to be able to
resist any attack on the part of the French.

General Menou had indeed determined not to
await the assault of the British upon the forts
and walls outside Alexandria. He made disposi-
tions for attacking his foe, and that most bitterly.
His avowed intention was to drive the English, if
not into the sea, at any rate into the lake near
Aboukir Day.

On the French came in the dead of night, trustng
to wily tactics and to superior numbers, thinking,
too, their enemy would not be prepared for them.
Everybody was on the alert, however, and when
Menou’s forces advanced stealthily and then in full
shock they found awaiting them at each point men
even more resolute and brave—men who returned
bayonet thrusts, and musket-shots, and cannon-balls
with compound interest. Fighting commenced upon
the left of the British position, and for a short time

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 9

a battery was in possession of the French. It was
taken by a rush out of the gloom, and after a daring
camel ride was joined in by a force of about one
hundred and ﬁfty French troops across the Alex-
andria canal and then along the bed of Lake Mareotis.
Next the English right was attacked and that with a
suddenness really extraordinary. The French had
hoped, indeed, that by breaking in upon our left
with the camel regiment in no large numbers, our
fellows would throw their strength upon that side
and thus leave the other faces exposed to their fury.
The feint did not succeed. When company after
company were hurled against the British right the
reception was so terribly hot that they were glad
to fall back upon the reserves. Oh, how stubbornly
the British fought! How gallantly they battled
shoulder to shoulder, by scores, by hundreds, by
thousands; darkness had no terrors for them, just
as the several surprises of the enemy fell far short
of what was intended. The Mamelukes fought des-
perately against Napoleon and his legions upon that
and neighbouring plains, but not more heroically, nor
did they more nobly die, than Sir Ralph Abercrom—
bie’s warriors. They performed deeds unsurpassed in
the annals of warfare. Sir Ralph himself, while riding
hither and thither unattended, and cheering on his
men, was fiercely assailed by two or three of the
French cavalry, and it was only by the greatest per-

10 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

sonal courage that, wounded as he was, he was enabled
to drive them off. v
On into the morning, through the breaking of the
day, fought English and French, each side conscious
that their fate in Egypt trembled in the balance—
that it was being decided, practically, by that awful
struggle. At last! at last! seeing that neither his
cavalry nor his infantry could make any impression
upon the British lines and that, if he was to have
further opportunity of trying conclusions with the
new invaders, he must withdraw his warriors, Menou
commanded the grand attack to cease and his men
to fall back behind the defences they had set up.
Alas! that the brave Abercrombie was mortally
wounded in the engagement, and that the loss on our
side was to be reckoned at fourteen hundred! How
magniﬁcently the British fought will be inferred when
it is stated that the French lost in the battle of
Alexandria about three thousand ﬁve hundred men.
General Hutchinson, Abercrombie’s successor, could
not win Alexandria at the moment. He (lid the next
best thing, namely, to isolate, or cut off, the French
there, and so deprive them of supplies from the land,
and, at the same time, reinforcements. This was the
method adopted, and a most remarkable one, too:
Rosetta, standing on the coast, to the east of Alexan-
dria, was attacked, captured, and made a base for
Operations on that side, and a communication between

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 11

the sea and the great Lake Mareotis was established,
by which a number of British gunboats were brought
up, and Alexandria was still further open to assault.
The scheme worked so admirably that it hit at a force
of over three thousand French at Ramleh, severing
them from any help likewise. Indeed, seeing that no
assistance was likely to reach them, the French divi—
sion at Ramleh ﬂed as best they could, leaving a
great quantity of stores and ammunition to the British,
who were only too eager to seize upon them. Matters
were rendered the more desperate for the French, too,
from the fact that the Turkish Government, jealous
of their presence, despatched upwards of twenty thou-
sand men in the direction of Cairo, the capital of
Egypt, then held by General Belliard. General Hut-
chinson joined the force at his disposal with that of
the Turkish commander; a large body of troops from
India—General Baird in charge came upon the
scene from Suez; and Belliard and the French in
Cairo were completely hemmed in. Nay, within a
period of three weeks the French gladly laid down
their arms, and not in the capital only, but at Alex-
andria, where starvation had begun its horrible work,
and where General Menou had been subjected to
harassing attentions from besiegers upon land and
ocean. In the early part of September Menou and
his troops were en route for Europe.

The British little thought when, in the spring of

 

12 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

1803, they evacuated Egypt another force would be
sent thither four years afterwards. Napoleon had,
however, turned his speculations once more towards
the East, and was endeavouring to enlist the sympathy
of the Turks in Constantinople. Our forefathers
were still determined to Checkmate him. Accordingly,
General Fraser and ﬁve thousand men were sent out
from stations in the Mediterranean towards Alexan-
dria. On the 2lst March the city fell ; exactly six
years before, the battle of Alexandria was fought, and
Abercrombie died.

Unfortunately, the strongholds of Rosetta and
Ramleh were then held by the Turks—against whom
the British were ﬁghting principally—and a portion of
the garrison of Alexandria and a body of the men from
the ﬂeet under Sir John Duckworth, then in Egyptian
waters, were told off for the capture of them. The
members of it stormed the outworks of Rosetta and
took them, but when the advance was being made into
the town, such a tempest of shot and shell met them
that they were compelled to retire, less three hundred
of their number killed or wounded. General Wau-
ehope, who had directed the operations, was among
the slain.

To be repulsed was irritating enough to the sur-
vivors on the side of the English; they had yet to
learn that the heads of many of their comrades were
stuck upon poles to be jeered at by mocking multi-

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 13

tudes. Naturally, intelligence of the outrages created
the utmost indignation, and preparations were made
for another and more successful attack upon Rosetta.
It was to be taken at all costs, and the outrage-mon-
gers punished. Further, while Rosetta remained with
the enemy, Alexandria itself was not safe. Not more
than a thousand troops engaged in the unsuccessful
attack upon Rosetta—nearly three times the number
were paraded for the second attempt. Generals
Stewart and Oswald shared the command. In the
meantime, and to the mortiﬁcation of the English, the
Turks and natives in the town were largely reinforced,
so that when the British stormed the place they were
greeted in a manner too hot for them to withstand.
Gallantly the storming parties fought; as gallantly were
they driven back. Thoroughly wearied, and supports
expected from the direction of the stronghold E1
Hamed not arriving, owing to treachery on the part
of natives, the besiegers fell back from the walls of
Rosetta and retreated on Alexandria.

In this sad reverse the English lost about a thou-
sand men, not a few of whom were, alas! led into
captivity, the heads of others being impaled and
exhibited in the public market-places. Truth to tell,
the taking of Alexandria was the solitary success
of the campaign of 1 807. In consequence of continued
war in Europe, the Government at home could not
spare any additional troops for the East, necessary

14: IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

provisions could not be obtained, and the Turks
and Mameluke forces becoming united and vastly
strengthened, General Fraser was obliged to sign a
treaty for the evacuation of Alexandria. Egypt was
left a prey to the designs of ambitious beys, or
governors, and the strong measures launched by the
Sultan of Turkey. In the great struggle, Mehemet Ali,
a most wonderful man, played an important part.
Vessels of war bearing the Union Jack were on a
warlike mission again off the North African coast, in
the year 1816. Years before, bands of pirates sailed
the blue waters of the Mediterranean, making sad
havoc of trade by their depredations—by their
murders and general excesses. N o ship was safe from
the onslaughts of these robbers of the sea, who, in
their light, fast-sailing, well-manned and armed
cruisers, darted from points upon the Algerine coast,
to return to their rock fastnesses laden with booty.
Various European Powers had endeavoured to lessen
the evil from time to time, but to little effect. Eng-
land would have taken the greater share in the
attempts at suppressing the pirates, but she had more
than enough to ﬁght with in other directions. When
\Vaterloo was fought, when Napoleon Bonaparte ﬁnally
surrendered, and the rulers of Britain were enabled to
act with severity towards the rovers of the great inland
sea, it was felt that action must really be started.
Punishment was to be inﬂicted for something more

IN AFRICA WITH run UNION JACK. 15

than outrages upon the water; stories of Christians
made slaves, and of their terrible sufferings in the
interior, reached our country, rendering men doubly
indignant, and causing them to cry out with increased
bitterness for revenge. The British Consul in Algiers
was tortured and assassinated in 1816, and in another
place no fewer than three hundred Italians were put
to death. They were coral-ﬁshers, and it was said the
Dey, or Governor of Algiers, was well aware of the per-
petration of the awful business. Lord Exmouth was
commissioned to proceed, in charge of some eighteen
war-ships, to Algiers, to bombard the city, and to
obtain every possible satisfaction.

Becoming aware of Lord Exmouth’s errand, the
Dey caused his army to assemble, and they, added to
by forces despatched by friendly chiefs, prepared to
offer a very formidable resistance to any landing that
might be attempted. Algiers was put in a complete
state of defence likewise, the walls being specially
looked to and remounted with guns, and the harbour
was covered by ships carrying engines of war. Forts
and batteries accommodated at least two hundred and
ﬁfty cannon. The Dey, the pirates, and the Algerines
at large had, in a word, gathered the whole of their
strength and that of their Barbary friends.

Prior to opening ﬁre upon the great stronghold
Lord Exmouth offered the Dey a chance of coming
to terms. The offer was made under a ﬂag of truce,

16 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

but it was laughed at by the despot and the bad men
around him. They would make no promise that
they would abolish Christian slavery; they would
not deliver the captives held by them ; neither would
they make compensation nor offer any apology for
what had been so unlawfully done. “Take the con-
sequences!” was Lord Exmouth’s reply, and the Alge-
rines venturing to ﬁre upon the English ﬂeet, which
had gradually neared the fortress, the shot was
returned with considerable interest.

Broadside after broadside was directed against
forts and batteries, troops and sailors cheering and
working with a will ; ships were swung round,
steadied in new positions, and from port—holes and
from decks were poured number-less volleys upon
defences and ships in the harbour, while hundreds of
those on board the various craft were picked off by
our marksmen, delighted to have the opportunity
of slaying the perpetrators of countless outrages.
Shrieks and yells and shot ﬁred in return had no
effect upon our fellows, nor for Dutch allies who
manned six sloops-of-war, and who had joined
Exmouth’s squadron for the purpose of operating with
him. No; every one under the ensigns of England
and Holland fought bravely on. To do them justice,
the Algerines were far from betraying any craven
spirit. When, however, orders were given for board-
ingthc principal craft of the enemy, they were borne

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 17

down; their ships were captured or ﬁred. Upon
land, forts and batteries were silenced one after
another, the red ﬂags of the Dey were knocked over
or taken down. When the darkness of that August
night had settled upon the capital of the Dey, Algiers ,
was a wreck, the task of British and Dutch fully '
accomplished.

Nor by shot and shell alone was terror struck into
the hearts of the people of Algiers and not a few of
the pirates. Thunder and lightning ensued upon a
sustained attack of nearly twelve hours’ duration
from the foreign ships, and rain descended in tor-
rents. In all, eight hundred sailors, soldiers, and
marines were killed or wounded on our side—a grim
proof of the manner in which the enemy fought—
and on the other twice that number were killed or
maimed.

The Dey and the pirates were confessedly humili-
ated. They brought out for liberation over a thou-
sand Christian slaves, and paid great sums of money
to the Governments directly interested in the cap—
tives thus set free. Further, other states upon the
coast of North Africa, mainly Barbary powers, opened
the doors of their prisons for the freedom of the
Christians within their dismal, heart-crushing walls.

CHAPTER II.
FIGHTING THE KAFFIRS.

THE course of events leads us to South Africa. For
a long season after the meeting of the forces of Lord
Exmouth and the Dey of Algiers not a shot was ﬁred
in North Africa, nor upon its coast, from within the
shadow of the Union Jack.

In the southern limits of the Dark Continent the
presence of the British has been continually experi-
enced throughout the century. Look at any map of
the world, and you will easily see how this has come
about. You will notice that, the Suez Canal not
being constructed, ships ﬂying our national ﬂag were
bound to pass the south coast in order to voyage
from England to India, or from India to Great
Britain ; or, at any rate, to take a very roundabout
course. This was out of the question. English-
men interested in the far East could not think of it
for one moment. The Dutch, then furthering trade
with the East Indies, saw the importance of founding
a calling station in South Africa as far back as 1649,
and they ﬁxed upon Cape Town. Under colonisation

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 19

the place went on increasing. Dutchmen drove the
Hottentots before them farther inland, and wide
stretches of territory accrued to them.

In the closing years of the last century the Prince
of Orange, who was expelled from Holland, came to
London, and on his behalf 3. claim was made by
England on Cape Colony. The Government saw how
well adapted the country was for emigration pur-
poses, how valuable its harbours for ships and men
engaged in the Indian trade and the acquisition of
lands in the East. A British protectorate over one
hundred and twenty thousand square miles of land was
declared in 1797—one maintained until the Treaty
of Amiens was signed in 1803, when Holland took
back the entire colony. Troubles with the Dutch
settlers, or Boers, and with the Hottentots led the
English to resign their hold upon Cape Colony more
readily than would otherwise have happened. In
fact, the ﬁrst British protectorate was not estab-
lished without trouble and serious expenditure.
The Dutch militia and Hottentot friendlies gathered
to prevent the landing of the English in Simon’s
Bay. It was performed in face of a galling ﬁre;
and not until a body of troops from India came
upon the scene would the Dutch Governor relin-
quish his hold upon Cape Town and the surrounding
country.

Scarcely three years elapsed and we ﬁnd England

20 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

again laying claim to Cape Colony, dispossessing the
Dutchman and the Hottentot, and establishing more
than one calling station for Indian merchantmen.
The hoisting of the Union Jack meant freedom to
the bondmen in Cape Colony, as in other parts of
the world—freedom to the poor IIottcntot captured
and held down by the Dutch Boers. The latter
resented the abolition of slavery, rose against and
harassed the English, and the tall, well-built Kaffir
warriors, moving from the eastern borderlands into
Cape Colony, matters became threatening for the
British. Not all the Katlirs who crossed the limits
of Cape Colony—as ﬁxed by English commissioners
——-were bent on ﬁghting. Numbers were for peace.
They wished to farm and hunt—nothing more. But
ofﬁcials were afraid of the trihcsmcn, and in 1811 a
policy, aiming at driving back the Kaﬂirs, was begun.
They retired very reluctantly. There were thousands
of them, old and young, some of whom had raised
dwellings for themselves, cultivated gardens and
ﬁelds, and become attached to the land upon which
they lived. Still there was small show of mercy or
pity for them. Their growing numbers were feared,
and back, back across the Great Fish River the dark-
skins were pushed. Not a few were followed on to
lands belonging to tribes with whom they sought
refuge. Thus increased bitterness against the Eng-
lish was created.

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 21

Labouring under a. sense of injustice, and going
on and on before the march of the troops appointed
to drive them out of Cape Colony, it was not unlikely
a stand would be made somewhere by the native
Africans. It was made upon the banks of one of the
forks of the White River, and at the foot of great
mountain passes. One of the magistrates of the dis-
trict attempted to pacify the Kafﬁrs who had taken
up a threatening attitude. Accompanied by a few
white men he went into their midst, but while he
was talking the wild war-cry of the Kaflirs was
started, and a fell massacre of the whites ensued.
Then came acts of vengeance on the part of British
and Dutch, and a war that dragged on for months,
to the loss of the Kafﬁrs—certainly not to the
honour of the British name. If anything, the Union
Jack was sullied.

The year 1818 witnessed our troops in active
opposition to several Kafﬁr tribes. A force of natives
swept across the border, committed outrages upon
man and beast, and surrounded Grahamstown, but
failed to capture it, so stubborn was the defence. They
left hundreds of their dead behind. The survivors
were pursued and their lands appropriated. It was,
in a measure, to support a noted chief named Gaika
that we waged war among the Kaﬁirs in 7" 818 ; it was
to oppose him, in no mean degree, that we fought in
1834:. Through mountain passes, across river beds,

22 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

over tracts of countr , cultivated and untouched by
man, were the Kafﬁrs pursued. Men and women
were slain in the encounters, kraals, or collections of
huts, were burnt to ashes; property in the shape of
cattle, stores of grain, and implements were conﬁs-
cated. Vast tracts, numerous settlements, were
rendered desolate, and all as acts of vengeance. Let
us hasten to say that wiser counsels prevailed at
length, by which lands were restored to the Kafﬁrs.
Protection and goodwill were promised, prosperity
reigned until 1840. War broke out again in that
year. And a very lamentable struggle that was—one
that lasted a year and nine months.

Authorities diﬁ'er as to how the war begun in 1846
originated. Some have it that we broke faith with
the Kafiirs in withdrawing protection and promises
made to certain tribes; others that disputes arose as
to boundary lines, that we were hungering for more
territory and were determined to have it ; that, again,
a British escort was attacked, and that we were bound
to seek out and punish the oﬁ‘enders. We are told,
also, that Kafiirs had to be punished for cattle raid-
ing; while the contest has been termed the “ War of
the Axe,” on the ground that the English officials,
having arrested a chief 011 the charge of stealing an
axe, tribes friendly to him sought revenge, and that
on our side we were forced to take up arms against
them. Whatever the true reason for the breaking

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 23

out of hostilities, war was declared in March, and in
the course of the following month a force of British
troops had invaded country belonging to the Kaﬂirs.
They were divided into three columns, General
Berkeley in supreme command.

In the Amatola Mountains a strong body of war- .
riors awaited the coming of our men, and dashing
out of their hiding at a favourable moment they
rushed upon one of the columns and pressed it so
severely that the bayonet and musket yielded for
once to the spear and club. In other words, our
fellows were compelled to beat a retreat from the
treacherous passes into which they had entered, and
that with rather severe loss in men and baggage.
Nor were the Kaﬁirs satisﬁed to remain idle upon
their laurels. They came upon the track of the
unsuccessful force, harried them sadly, and penetrat-
ing the lands held by the English, they created great
consternation and damage among the settlers. Even-
tually, however, the enemy was driven back, and
chiefs surrendered themselves to the mercies of the
British.

Stirred by the reports from the Cape, the English
Government elected Sir Harry Smith—a general who
had done capital service for the East India Company
-——Military Governor of the Cape, and ordered him
to proceed forthwith up country and to deal with
matters in his own way. Sir Harry had not long to

24 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

wait for the opportunity of showing his abilities as a
soldier. Dutch settlers, or Boers, as we have said,
took up arms and gave indications of occasioning us
far more trouble than the Kafﬁrs even. Trained to lives
of hardship and even warfare, they could handle ﬁre-
arms with deadly effect. They were ably led, too,
by one Pretorius, so that when the cavalry and in-
fantry of General Smith approached them upon the
north side of the Orange River it was seen that they
were enemies of no despicable character. In all,
over two thousand Boers were in arms; the British
force did not number a. thousand men, including a
body of volunteers.

Like the Kaﬂirs, when Sir George Berkeley was
dealing with them, the Boers awaited the march of
the British. They had strongly entrenched them-
selves—high upon a rocky hillside they were, at a
place called Boemplatts. Evidently, what with the
work of nature and their own walls of defence, the
Boers were of opinion their position was unassailable.
They were mistaken. Sir Harry Smith was a cavalry
leader. The Indian warfare in which he had been
principally engaged was in rugged, mountainous coun-
try. He turned this experience quickly to account,
and ere the ﬁrst day’s ﬁghting was ended he had
surrounded the Boers, had driven them back from
terrace t0 terrace by well-directed volleys from two
mountain guns and the shots of his sharpshooters,

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 25

and had obliged the Boers to take refuge in rapid
ﬂight towards what is now known as Bloemfontein.
The Boers did not stop here. They pushed on to
Weinburg, the cavalry of General Smith close in their
rear. In Weinburg the Boers lowered their ﬂag to
the British; the contest was too strong for them.
Rarely has a revolt been stamped out so expedi-
tiously as this Boer rising of 1848.

War again with the Kafﬁrs in 1850. They be-
came restive, held their councils of war, danced
before the “medicine wizards,” and being advised
by them to make one more bid for supremacy in
the country, they organised bands for invasion and
revenge. These large bodies of warriors came on
with their war cries and their implements of sava-
gery, far within the borders of Cape Colony, spread-
ing dismay and terror in many a heart, causing a
stampede of settlers into the partially fortiﬁed towns,
and general preparations for defence.

Sir Harry Smith was still at the head of aﬁ'airs,
and he directed the operations of some two thousand
men. Unfortunately, in more than one instance
detachments were led into ambuscades and broken
up or completely destroyed by Kafﬁr bands who had
been lying in difﬁcult passes. Very terrible were
the outrages perpetrated upon the dying and the
dead ; massacres of peaceful dwellers upon the land
were reported, as well as those of military parties.

26 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

Even Sir Harry Smith was surrounded at Fort Cox.
Nor could Colonel Somerset and a force of Cape
Mounted Riﬂes and Highlanders break through the
Kafﬁr lines. Indeed, they had desperate work to
extricate themselves. Sir Harry Smith just managed
to hold his own. In another part a wing of one
hundred and ﬁfty British and friendlies was repulsed
and thrown back upon Fort Hare, where they were
sorely pressed, experiencing the utmost difﬁculty in
holding out against the enemy. In short, the whole
of Cape Colony was for a season in the greatest
danger ; every nerve had to be strained to beat off the
determined and constantly increasing foemen.

To meet the emergency troops were sent out from
England. One of the transports, the Birkenhcad,
carried five hundred soldiers, women, and children
belonging to various regiments, in addition to one
hundred and thirty of a crew. All went well until
the voyagers were near the Cape of Good Hope,
when in Simon’s Bay the vessel struck upon a rock.
Instantly, the great troopship began to ﬁll, water
rushing through her gaping side and creating the
utmost consternation, especially among the women
and children. Still, there was nothing like a panic.
Colonel Seton was the chief military ofﬁcer aboard,
and his commands were willingly obeyed. Pumps
were worked vigorously, women and children were
passed into boats in due order and amid stern

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 27

silence, those of the soldiers and sailors not actually
engaged in pumping or assisting into the boats
standing by as if on parade. Searcely had the boats
moved away, and within half an hour of the rock
being struck, when the huge vessel went to pieces
and sunk into the cruel sea, full four hundred and
thirty troops and seamen going down with her.
A number were shaking hands in farewell when the
ship made the ﬁnal plunge. Colonel Seton and
Captain Salmond of the Binrkcvnhcad lost their lives.
Only a few ofﬁcers and men saved themselves by
striking out for the shore.

Never has greater heroism been displayed than
that in connection with the ill-fated Birkenhead.

The melancholy disaster was not permitted to
interfere with the prosecution of the campaign
against the Kafﬁrs. In the month of June, 1852,
everything was in preparedness for a march and
attack upon the headquarters of the chief Sandhilli,
son of that Gaika whom we in turn befriended and
made our enemy. The stronghold was in the Ama—
tola mountains. Cavalry, infantry, and artillery moved
in columns, each told off by General Somerset for
speciﬁc work on mountain strongholds. Very boldly
and ably were the directions carried out, positions
being captured, and retreating bands of Kaﬁirs being
cut off. Cattle and provisions were taken in plenty,
and kraals were surrounded. The most difficult part

28 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

of the operations was along the valley and among
the ridges and heights of the district, known as the
Waterkloof. Here Colonel Eyre stormed the fastness
held by the noted chief Macomo, and captured a
number of people; while Colonel Napier conducted
operations, mainly with mountain batteries, against
not a few fastnesses, from which he hunted numerous
Kaﬁirs. Colonel Buller did admirable service also.

Sometimes determined Kafﬁrs re-assembled and
harassed the invaders ; often they were found lying in
ambush, ready to spring upon the unsuspecting, and
not all the efforts of Sir George Cathcart—who had
taken over command of the troops—nor the endea-
vours of the sorely-tried men under him, could bring
the chiefs to submission, even when the fastnesses of
the dreary Waterkloof were ﬁnally cleared and the
narrow paths of the rocky and precipitous Amatolas
had been largely traversed, until the early months of
1853. Then the tribesmen were scattered to a
degree that left no chance of further combination.
By that time, also, the Orange River was crossed by a
strong column, Basutoland was invaded, and the chief,
M oshesh, was brought to his knees.

A still further acquisition of territory was one of
the results of the long and dreary Kaﬂir war closed
in 1853.

Years went on. England tightened her grip upon
broad South Africa. Thither went emigrants in their

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 29

thousands from our shores; settlements grew into
hamlets, hamlets into villages, villages into large and
important towns. In the year 1856 the population
of Cape Colony had grown to about two hundred and
sixtyscight thousand; in 1875 it was nearly three-
quarters of a million, and these white people for the
most part. At Cape Town, in July, 1854, the ﬁrst
Parliament assembled ; the ﬁrst railway from the
capital of the colony was opened in 1861; and
when, in 1869, 1870, and 1871, diamonds were
discovered at the Cape, great indeed was the rush to
the ﬁelds from all parts of Europe.

Meanwhile, the Kafﬁrs were not altogether con-
tented. It was our policy to watch them narrowly.
They were cowed, hopeless, in part, only. At length,
in 1877, several of the tribes broke out upon the
war path, assuming fantastic head-dresses once more,
coverng their bodies with charms, raising aloft their
assegais or short swords, their spears, and their battle-
axcs. The frontier police were not sufﬁcient to put
down the rising, and when the old chief, Sandhilli,
joined in attacks upon British territory, it was
admitted that a much stronger force than the
Mounted Police and the dark-skinned Fingoes who
supported them, must be sent out beyond the Kei
River. Macomo died in 1873. From England pro-
ceeded many regulars, the assistance of a ﬁne body
of men, the Diamond Fields Horse, under Captain

30 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

(afterwards Sir Charles) Warren, was enlisted, and
the Frontier Light Horse and the Rangers marched
against the Kafﬁr Chieftains. Sir Arthur Cunning-
hame and Lord Thesiger (subsequently Lord Chelms-
ford) commanded in succession.

By the end of February, Sandhilli and another
powerful Chieftain, Kreli, led a combined force of six
thousand Kafﬁr ﬁghting men. Coming down to the
Quintana Mountain, they surrounded a British and
Fingee encampment, and did all they could, ﬁrst, to
deprive them of supplies, and, secondly, to take the
camp. The onslaught of the warriors was resisted
with heroism ; the attacking force was driven off with
very serious loss of life. Equally victorious were
other detachments and wings of the British along the
banks of the Kei. Sandhilli and his braves took to
the Waterkloof country, as was done in the campaign
of 1851-5 3, and there was a repetition of the tactics
for clearing the passes, the forests, and the mountain
heights. Taken in the rear and upon the ﬂanks,
neither distance, nor unevenness of country, nor
weather, nor other manifold inconveniences deterring
the pursuers, the Kafﬁrs vacated the last of their
fortiﬁed positions at length, ﬂeeing to the Amatola
Mountains, and there defying the British to follow
them. Chase was given notwithstanding. Batteries
were brought up and directed against fortiﬁed strong-
holds ; the different branches of cavalry vied in deeds

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 31

of daring; infantry and members of a naval brigade
that had been constituted fought on against black
and nature tirelessly, and the Fingoe allies came in
for hard service. But not until the month of June
was the irritating campaign at an end.

The death in action of the chief Sandhilli was
the direct means of peace being declared, the libera-
tion of many prisoners, and an amnesty to all who
had fought against us being announced. Public
thanksgiving services were held in various parts of
Cape Colony, because of the restoration of peace.

How the British did battle with the powerful Zulu
Kaﬁirs will be shown in another chapter.

CHAPTER III.
THE ABYSSINIAN WAR.

THIRTY years ago the tramp-tramp of the British
soldier had not been heard within the area of Abys-
sinia. N 0t half a century has elapsed since the Union
Jack was hoisted over the consulate, or ofﬁcial resi-
dence of a British agent, in the country. We had
no business there, no designs on the.land, no pur-
pose to serve in sending out a single soldier to Abys-
sinia. \Vhen an English representative did step
upon Abyssinian soil it was for the protection of
commerce; when our troops invaded the dominions
of the “ King of Kings,” “ the Negus,” the Emperor,
or by what title Theodore of Abyssinia chose to
designate himself, it was upon an errand of mercy
and to uphold the dignity of England. On the cen-
elusion of peace the English soldiers, to a man, left
the kingdom. None of our troops have marched
into Abyssinia from that time to the present.

Just a few words on Abyssinia. It is a country
in the north-east of Africa. Waste tracks of land
divide its eastern boundaries from the Red Sea; upon

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 33

the north lies territory belonging to Egypt; limits of
the ‘Soudan are upon the west; to the south are
hilly ranges and sandy deserts, in which the Gallas
and many tribes rove in search of a living. Abyssinia
is a land of rocky mountains, of awful precipices, of
forests, of wonderfully formed and, in some cases,
beautiful valleys. Wild beasts innumerable prowl
around. The people are hardy and brave, of strange
manners and customs.

Lost in the thick mists of hundreds of centuries,
the history of Abyssinia is not known. People
dwelt in the land long prior to the birth of Christ.
Levies were raised for purposes of opposing the
Egyptians; powerful chiefs fought for the greatest
power. Abyssinia is regarded as the Ethiopia of
the Old Testament. That Queen of Sheba who saw
Solomon in all his glory came, it is said,‘from Abys-
sinia. “ Prester John,” the mysterious, was believed
by the Europeans of the Middle Ages to live there.
In the ﬁfteenth century the Portuguese explorers and
missionaries were in Abyssinia. But little was really
known concerning this strange country until the
British traveller James Bruce returned to England
after visiting it under perilous conditions. The stories
he told of Abyssinia and the Abyssinians were simply
laughed at. Scarcely any one credited them. So
disgusted was Bruce at the doubtings of the English
that he retired in high dudgeon to his country seat

I)

34 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

in Scotland, shut out from society. Later travellers,
including Henry Salt and Major Harris, conﬁrmed in
a great measure what Bruce had given to the world.
Men wondered more and more, and at last believed;
In 1847, rebellions and invasions through countless
ages had left Abyssinia divided into four provinces,
namely, Amhara, Tigré, Samieu, and Shea, the latter
in the south. In 1841 Captain Harris concluded a
commercial treaty with the ruler of Shoa, and in
1849 Mr. Plowden, appointed Consul at Massowah, on
the Red Sea coast, was party to a like treaty with
Ras Ali, of Amhara.

These were the beginnings of our intercourse with
Abyssinia. In February, 1855, Ras Ali was deposed
in the rulership by his son-in-law Theodore, a young
fellow of considerable pride and ambition. That he
was very ambitious is admitted by all who came in
contact with Theodore from the moment he took
over the reins of rulership. He set to work almost
immediately in extending the borders of his province,
he put down any signs of rebellion with the ﬁrmest
hand, and made his name one to be feared through-
out Abyssinia. He lived in unwonted state, and
assumed to himself the title of “ Negus,” “King of
Kings,” and Emperor Theodore. His real name was
Dedjatj Kassai. The English Consul in Abyssinia was
Mr. Plowden, a gentleman for whom Theodore had
a high regard. Early in the year 1800 Mr. Plowden

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 35

was returning to Massowah, upon the coast, when
he was overtaken and murdered by a party of rebels.
The king was very angry at this, and took good care
to inform the British Government of the fact, saying
at the time how he regretted the outrage, and that
he wished good relations between the two countries
to be sustained.

Captain Cameron was appointed to succeed Mr.
Plowden, and was well received by the ruler, but as
the Cabinet in England failed to acknowledge the
profession of friendship as readily and as heartily as
Theodore believed he had a right to expect, he
became cold towards this country and her interests.
The king was jealous, also, of the attentions paid by
us to neighbouring rulers. Utterly out of patience,
in July, 1863, because he did not receive an ofﬁcial
answer to a letter despatched by him to England, he
ordered the Consul, Cameron, to be made prisoner
and his servant to be beaten. Weeks passed on ; still
no sufﬁcient return of courtesy and expression of
friendship towards him, and the vexation of Theo-
dore was further increased. He felt that England
was neglecting him, that she was failing to do him
honour. News came to the Court that the English
Consul at Jerusalem would not interfere in behalf of
a number of Abyssinians when their convent in
the city was threatened; whereupon Theodore’s
wrath became greater than ever. He commanded

36 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

that Captain Cameron be closely conﬁned in a dun-
geon, that he be manacled, and not only he, but the
whole of the Europeans living in his capital of Mag-
dala. A party of Englishmen was included. In
gaol, missionaries and others were subjected to abuse,
and were, it has been stated, actually tortured.

Casting Britons into prison is a dangerous pro-
ceeding on the part of any foreign ruler. When
among those in custody is to be counted a British
Consul the indignity becomes unbearable ; it must be
fully atoned for or wiped out by war, however tre-
mendous the difﬁculty to be encountered. Theodore
would not release Captain Cameron, nor the English
suffering with him. Consequently a decision was
arrived at, that Abyssinia be invaded, that the cap-
tives be released, and that Theodore be called on to
make compensation for the wrongs inﬂicted upon
them.

The Abyssinian monarch was told of what the
English Government intended. He held the threat
in light esteem. He was not aware of the might of
England ; he could not credit the statement that her
troops would dare to punish him for what he had
done. How could they get into the rock fastnesscs of
the country? How climb the giddy heights abound-
ing in the land? How release the prisoners in the
dungeons of Magdala more than eight thousand feet
above the level of the sea, and fortiﬁed upon a rock

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 37

enough in itself to forbid capture by ordinary men?
Yes! and that rock four hundred miles from the
coast, not the least impediment to progress being the
yawning gulf of Bachilo, outside Magdala—a strong-
hold made more formidable because defended, again,
by European artillery, served by men specially in-
structed for the purpose. The British take Magdala ?
Never! “ Let the English come on. I shall meet
them, and call me a woman if I don’t beat them,”
were the words of the conceited ruler.

The English did come on. Altogether upwards of
forty thousand men disembarked upon the western
shore of the Red Sea in 1867 and 1868. Zoola,
not far from Massowah, was the principal place of
landing. Not all these men were soldiers. About
sixteen thousand bore arms ; the remainder were for
the transport and camp service, for landing was ex-
ceedingly difﬁcult, and the requirements for the march
were unusually great, owing to the rugged character
of the country. Combatants and non-combatants
were mainly from India—Englishmen and natives.
From north, south, east, and west of our great
Eastern possession came men prepared to work in the
cause of England— Indians burning to show their
loyalty towards us. Twenty-ﬁve thousand animals
at least were brought over from Bombay and other
ports; elephants, horses, mules and ponies and bul-
locks for draught work, oxen and sheep for food.

38 IN AFRICA. WITH THE UNION JACK.

Two hundred and ninety vessels were employed by
the transport department. What a labour, what an
undertaking, was this embarking, this carrying,
this landing of men and animals! How varied the
scenes!

The elephants, in particular, were hard to deal
with. Says one writer as to the disembarkation of
the huge animals: “ Large blocks were attached to
the mainyard, which were strengthened by extra
stays. One of the animals, which was in the stall
immediately under the hatchway, was selected for the
ﬁrst experiment. Again and again the elephant was
get into the right position for the ropes, but the
instant the sailors pulled the cords to lift up the
sling, the elephant made a rush forward. Even when
the animal was in position again it continued trum-
peting, and endeavoured to rush back to the stall.
Breast and hind ropes were made fast at length, and
all that remained was for the men on deck to work
the capstan. The ﬁfes struck up, and the elephant,
protesting strongly but vainly, was gradually lifted
off his feet. Once in the air the great beast’s
strength was useless, and he swung, an inert mass,
except that as he went through the hatchway he got
his hind feet against it, and pushed with so much
force that it was feared for a moment he would put
himself headforemost out of the slings. Up he rose,
higher and higher ; then he was swung clear of the

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 39

bulwarks, and lowered down into the barge. Here
he was received and soothed, and the slings taken
from him.”

The master-mind, the man who was selected for
the commandership-imchief, Sir Robert Napier, was a
hero of many a stubbornly fought ﬁeld, a soldier in
many a battle during the great Indian Mutiny. The
second-in-eemmand was General Sir Charles ,Staveloy,
an ofﬁcer of tried parts likewise.

On the march to Magdala, English and Indians
were not sure whether Theodore and his followers
were the only men to be met in anger. There was
the King of Tigré, for instance, a ruler of no mean
pretensions, and through whose territory the invaders
were to pass. He was at war, and it was quite pro-
bable that he would irritate and annoy them, just as
the tribesmen of Afghanistan had hampered and cut
off our troops in former days, the tribesmen owing
no allegiance to the enemy we had started to punish,
and whose sole purpose was murdering and plunder—
ing. The Tigré warriors were tall, powerful fellows,
as were the Abyssinians generally. They were well
armed, too. They bore matchloeks and long lances,
and cut and hacked from behind shields with broad-
bladed daggers. Wearing a special war-dress and
carrying these about, they were not to be despised.

Very fortunately King Kassa was won over to our
side. As the friend of the English and the enemy

40 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

of Theodore, he gave orders to his people to sell food
and provisions without stint, and to assist the Eng-
lish in every manner possible. Thus the troops
marched on with conﬁdence. A painfully slow
march, however, one beset with dangers, the road
scarcely ever straight and even. “Up and down
we tumbled and stumbled,” one writer has stated,
“not a few horses getting tremendous falls, from
morning until long after nightfall. It has been one
long, monotonous toil. Sometimes we climb upon
smooth slippery rock; then we ascend steep paths
covered with loose boulders of every size; then we
are upon a narrow ledge upon a mountain’s face;
anon we are crashing through thick bushes. One
can no longer keep count of the ravines we cross, for
we climb a dozen hills a day.” Again, “When at
Dildee we were told that Magdala was only four ~
marches distant. We have made three marches, and
have sixty more miles to go 1 And yet Magdala is
not more than twenty-ﬁve miles distant from this
camp. It is found, however, that the country is
perfectly impracticable, and that we must make a
detour of sixty miles to get there! W e have scaled
mountains and descended precipices; we have tra-
versed along the face of deep ravines, where a false
step was death ; we are familiar with smooth, slip-
pery rock, and with loose boulders ; yet I hear that
between this and Magdala there are perpendicular

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 41

precipices running like walls for miles, places which
could scarcely be scaled by experienced cragsmen,
much less by loaded mules.” And so it was.

Precipices, nor ravines, nor rivers, nor mountains
were permitted to stay the advance of the Anglo-
Indian army. Where the course was pointed out,
and no road was already there, one was made either
by blasting or cutting, mountain—sides were scaled,
descents were prosecuted, every man putting forth
all his will, all his strength, all his resource to make
headway, be it ever so little. The endurance of
the animals was tested to the full. Often they fell
under the burden put upon them, and not always did
they recover. Frequently storms of great violence
broke upon the invaders, drenching and chilling
everyone and rendering» operations additionally hard.
But in sunshine and rain, in heat and cold and mist,
toiled and moiled on cavalry and infantry and artil-
lery, animals for transport and for food still in plenty.
Now straggling somewhat, again marching more com-
pactly and in order, went the great column. Careful
always; on the watch for the enemy; on the look
out for dangers in nature, seeing few natives and
fewer dwellings; leaving military posts, keeping
communication with the coast, providing against
surprises.

Scouts reported one day that the enemy was in
sight, and immediately every precaution was made to

42 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

receive them, guns being unswung or brought round,
cavalry hastening up, infantry falling into position.
The alarm was false as regards King Theodore’s men.
He had other intentions, namely, to concentrate his
available forces, about eight thousand men, in Mag-
dala, and to ﬁght from behind his artillery. The
Abyssinians sighted were levies of the powerful chief,
Gobayze. At the onset the British did not know
what he meant—whether peace or war. The chief
proclaimed peace.

Labour and patience were rewarded by a view of
Magdala. It had seemed that the sight never would
present itself, that the climbing, and the descending,
and the circling would not terminate; that the hills,
and mountains and precipiees, and windings were
without end. Even now Magdala was far off. It lay
perched upon the plateau or ﬂat top of a great
mountain, surrounded by others equally as steep.
By the aid of glasses, huts were noticed, embattle-
ments stood out boldly, Magdala was apparently
inaccessible; at any rate, the road to its heights
was not pereeivable; what there was would, in all
probability, be commanded by Theodore’s artillery
and cavalry, in readiness to sweep of, without
remorse, any enemy. Still Magdala had to be cap-
tured in some form. It must be reached at every
hazard.

A dash was to be made for Magdala. Sir Robert

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 43

Napier and his staff were agreed on this point. They
decided to leave every extraneous article, and every
animal that could be spared, behind, and to proceed
with what was absolutely requisite for success. The
supply of food in the ﬁnal stage was restricted to
ﬁfteen days’ rations, the proportion of tents was
reduced; the force set apart for the stormng of
Magdala was limited to four thousand one hundred,
including a number of dragoons, regiments of infantry,
and companies of artillery. The last of the valleys,
the Bachilo, was entered, the river bed was crossed,
and one more ascent was commenced. It was
towards the Fahla Plain, regarded as the key of the
situation.

Seeing our troops mounting from the bed of the
Arogie, the warriors of Theodore came pouring down
the hillsides, waving ﬂags and guns and garments,
and yelling mockingly. For a moment they were
startled by rockets ﬁred by a company of our daring
blue-jackets, then advanced, threatened the strangers,
ﬁred, and fell back before a murderous ﬁre directed
from rockets, and guns, and riﬂes. The artillery
upon the crest of Fahla opened upon the British and
Indians; guns upon the plateau of Salamgi, close to
Magdala, vomited luaden hail, but onward pressed
the British and their friends in spite of everything.
Fresh bodies of Theodore’s riﬁemen appeared—to
be driven back, however; cannon were loaded and

44 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

reloaded only to prove unavailing. Yard by yard our
men strode on; time after time the mountain guns
played upon the Abyssinians. Very accurately did
our riﬂemen aim at the white, red, and dark-robed
warriors of the doomed monarch; very surely was
the advance maintained by brow and ravine towards
the rock fastness of Magdala, night alone putting an
end to the severe contest. Hundreds of Abyssinians
were lying dead or wounded, many of them after
tumbling headlong from some giddy height to the
awful depths beneath. Not more than twenty men
were wounded on the side of the English. There
was not a fatality to report. This was owing to the
bad shooting of the enemy.

Sir Robert Napier did not occupy the important
positions of Fahla and Salamgi that night. They
were still held by the enemy. On the following day,
however, the Chieftains who held them communicated
with the General, the result of which was that they
surrendered their two positions, and were, with their
people, permitted to depart. Even with the occupa-
tion of Fahla and Salamgi, Magdala was not by any
means won. The massive rock upon which it stood
was still occupied by many of Theodore’s bravest
troops—men prepared to sell their lives dearly. As
a matter of fact, the king had evinced a disposition
to yield, and to the delight of the invaders, he
actually released the captives from their dreadful

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 45

dungeons. The liberated came into the British
camp, and were most heartily welcomed; how over-
joyed they were we need not stay to relate. Sufﬁcient
that they had not dared hope for release, and that
death would not have come amiss as a relief from
their torture of mind. Still, Theodore asked for too
much when he let the prisoners go free. It was that
the British would retire, leaving Magdala untouched.
General Napier would not consent. Seeing that the
king had been stubborn so long, and had been the
cause of so much trouble and expense, the town he
had chosen to make his capital must be occupied.

King Theodore was furious. Had he not released
the captive Europeans? Was it not enough that
the British General would be allowed to return to the
coast with his troops and the people whose liberation
he had insisted upon ? No ; Sir Robert Napier
would not withdraw his demand for Magdala, and as
Theodore would not give way, the consequences would
be upon his own head. Nor were the invaders sorry
because of the king’s obstinacy. They longed to
inﬂict the severest trial upon him if only for the
awful treatment meted out to scores of prisoners a.
few days before, in that they were brought out from
their dungeons, and in the sight of the Europeans, it
was said, cruelly slain, their bodies being afterwards
cast over the nearest abyss.

Morning broke on Easter Monday, 13th April,

46 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

with everybody astir in the Anglo-Indian camp,
getting ready for the encounter sure to take place,
discussing suggestions for reaching the rock fastness,
and wondering whether, after all, Theodore had some
special means of escape in lieu of being caught in M ag-
dala like a rat in a trap. The men knew that the last
stand is always the most desperate, and they had had
ample proof that any day the Abyssinians could ﬁght
with a vengeance. The weather was favourable on
this 13th April. Not wholly brilliant, but a great
improvement on that of the 10th, when the ﬁghting
took place in cold and wet, and when hillside and
footpath and ravine were slippery indeed.

Merrily the bugles echoed and re-echoed among
the rocks and crags, mountain tops and yawning
precipices. Gallantly engineers, sappers, jolly blue-
jackets, infantry, and a number of cavalrymen left the
encampment and proceeded, some in one direction,
some in another, all according to a deﬁnite plan for
storming and taking the virgin fortress of Magdala,
this stronghold among the mountains, this frowning,
and apparently unassailable, not to say invulnerable
retreat of the “King of Kings.” Soon—scrambling
and climbing and marching, where it could be
done—the immediate neighbourhood of Magdala
was reached. Our men were within the shadow of the
walls ; grassy slopes and rocky faces scaled, opposition
on the part of the king’s troops borne down. Now

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 47

the main gate of Magdala was in front of the advance,
and, while hiding—places of stone and bush around
were cleared, preparations were begun for blowing in
the gateway. Unluckily, the powder necessary to
the event had not come up, and it is even stated that
the requisite number of scaling-ladders were not at
hand. Neither British nor Indians were idle, how-
ever. A vigorous search was instituted for any
weakness in the walls, and a stairway having been
found, our fellows ascended it, threw down a gate
separating them from the interior of Magdala, and
cast aside all who ventured in their path.

The actual amount of ﬁghting was short, for a few
score yards within Magdala the once proud and feared
Theodore was lying dead, shot through the brain.
The Abyssinians would not battle after the death of
the king, and Magdala fell easily into the hands of
the stormers. A great deal of curiosity to see the
fallen monarch was manifested, of course. This
satisﬁed, the body, clad in white and red garments,
was decently buried. By this time the affrighted
populace had come from their rudely-built huts—
there were three thousand of them in and around the
Magdala plateau—and prisoners, brought from the
horrible dens in which they were lying fast bound in
chains of iron, were fed and set entirely free.

Three days afterwards, Magdala was a heap of
ruins. Every hut upon the mountain plain was ﬁred,

48 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

the late inhabitants making for fresh dwelling places,
glad to escape with their lives and to be no longer
slaves to the uncertain power of Theodore. Gladly
enough, likewise, did the invaders turn their faces
coastwards. Frowning Abyssinia had no great charm
for them. Moreover, their task was accomplished
to the letter, and that without the loss of a single
life ! An incomparable result in the whole history of
warlike expeditions.

That General Napier was proud of his men and of
what was achieved by the campaign his stirring
address to the troops fully demonstrates. “ You have
crossed many steep and precipitous ranges of moun—
tains,” said the veteran, “ more than ten thousand
feet in altitude, where supplies could not keep pace
with you. When you arrived within reach of your
enemy, though with scanty food, and some of you for
many days without food or water, in four days you
passed the formidable chasm of Bachilo, and defeated
the army of Theodore, which poured down upon you
from their lofty fortress in full confidence of victory.
A host of many thousands laid their arms at your
feet. You have captured and destroyed upwards of
thirty pieces of artillery, many of great weight and
efﬁciency, with ample stores of ammunition. You
have stormed the almost inaccessible fortress of
Magdala, defended by Theodore with the desperate
remnant of his chiefs and followers. After you

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 49

forced the entrance, Theodore, who never showed
mercy, distrusted the oﬁ'ers of mercy held out to him,
and died by his own hands. You have released not
only British captives, but thOSe of friendly nations.
You have unloosed the chains of more than ninety
of the principal chiefs of Abyssinia. Magdala, in
which so many victims have been slaughtered, has
been committed to the ﬂames, and remains only a
scorched rock.”

After ascribing the “ complete and rapid success”
of the army largely to the mercy of God, who had
favoured a just cause, General Napier went on to say
that never had an army entered on a war with more
honourable feelings and that the troops had been
eager for the moment when they could close with
the enemy. The remembrance of their privations
would pass away, but their gallant exploit would live
in history. He thanked all for devotion to duty
and the good discipline maintained. Not a single
complaint had been made against a soldier of ﬁelds
injured, nor villagers wilfully molested in property or
person.

Rewards were bestowed upon those who took part
in the campaign, not the least important being a
pension of £2,000 per annum to Sir Robert Napier,
accompanied by the offer of a peerage. This was
accepted. The General died in January, 1890. Lord
Napier of Magdala.

E

CHAPTER IV.
IN THE FORESTS or ASHANTEE.

“ THE territories of the Gold Coast will not again be
troubled with the warlike ambition of this restless
power. The ﬂag of England will from this moment
be received throughout Western Africa with respectful
awe.” Words these are, of Lord Wolseley of to—day;
Sir Garnet \Volseley he was when they were penned.
His reference is to what had been gained, in part,
by the Ashantee \Var of 1873-74.

A war of a somewhat extraordinary character that
was. There our soldiers and marines, blue-jackets
and friendlies had fought against native savages—-
blacks badly armed with old muskets and totally
ignorant of the terrible effects of the death-dealing
instruments carried and worked by the British—
Africans, nevertheless, very brave and very faithful
to their king ; savages who gloried in entering upon
the war-path and in cruelly using those of the enemy
unlucky enough to fall into their hands; heathens
who, worked into a state of frenzy, willingly battled
to the death, while the war-horns were sounded and

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 51

the drums beat on and on. A land in which, while
religious ~madncss was at its height, fellow-tribesmen
were sacriﬁced by shocking methods ; a country in
whose capital our troops found a charnel-house reek-
ing with the smell of human blood and bones, and
where the ghastliest remains told the horror-stricken
strangers how fearful were the doings of companies
of butchers and how willing the consent of dusky
spectators. What, then, of any white men who fell
within reach of the Ashantee during hostilities ?

In prosecuting the Ashantee War, the English
had determined foes other than King Koﬂ‘ee Kal-
kalli’s warriors to reckon with, fees quite as harsh
and even more deadly. Climate and country were
to be feared far more than the poor, deluded, mis-
trusting native. Terribly humid, damp to a degree, the
climate affected Europeans who ventured into Ashantec
suddenly, remorselessly, striking them to the ground
and holding them there with little or no hope of
restoration to health. Fever was, and is, the great
enemy—once within the grip and your chances for
this world are very small. Under the care of expe—
rienced medical practitioners, even, those who served
on the side of the English in the Ashantee expedition
and were stricken, were in a serious plight. Some
recovered; too many did not, alas! Nor is the
country at all favourable to the operations of war.
Forests are in plenty. The bush is thick and seem-

52' IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

ingly impenetrable. “The jungle probably covers
many thousands of acres, literally choking the earth
with its density and luxuriance. It admits every
kind of shrub, plant, and ﬂower into a close com-
panionship, where they intermingle each other’s luxu-
riant stalks, where they twist and twine each other’s
long slender arms about one another, and defy the
utmost power of sun to penetrate the leafy tangle
they have reared ten to ﬁfteen feet above the dank
earth. This is the bush into which the Ashantee
warriors creep on all fours, and lie in wait in the
gloomy recesses for the enemy.” Mists and miasma
add to the difﬁculty of advance in the awful jungle
depths. In their journey from the coast to Coomassie
the British had, time after time, to cut a path for
themselves. League after league was covered by men
advancing in Indian ﬁle. They never knew what the
bushes were hiding a Wild beast of the forest or a.
desperate, naked Ashantee. One instruction was
that if, during the advance through the bush, ﬁre was
unexpectedly opened by the enemy concealed behind
cover, the men must immediately drop on the knee
behind trees or any cover that might be at hand,
pausing well before delivering their ﬁre, and taking-
Care to shoot low at the spot from which the enemy
were seen to ﬁre. In such a country had transport
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IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 53

resting upon men themselves. For beyond a certain
point not a horse, nor a mule, nor any four-footed
animal was employed. They could not be of service,
so difﬁcult of access was forest, and bush, and jungle.
Ammunition was cut down to a given quantity be-
cause of the lack of means of conve Vance. Speed—
the greatest speed—was required in the expedition,
in spite of the nature of the country. From the
commencement of the main operations only three
months were permitted for real business. After that
death would hang more closely in the air—rains and
mists would be constant, fever very prevalent, advance
and retreat well-nigh impossible.

The task entrusted to Sir Garnet Wolseley and his
men was accomplished within the prescribed period,
and that with a minimum of loss among our brave
forces.

This was not the ﬁrst expedition upon the West
Coast of Africa taken part in by the British, nor has
it been the last. The year 1892 saw us engaged
with the warlike Jebus of the West Coast. Prior
to the opening of the present century Englishmen
traded upon the West Coast of Africa, established
factories, and dealt with the natives many miles
inland. The British Government began to take a
direct interest in West African affairs, supplied troops
to man forts and to defend the concerns of the traders.
When, therefore, the Ashantees came down to the

,

U4 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

sea in the year 1806, having driven a number of
natives friendly to the white men before them, they
discovered outside Annamboe a fort occupied by the
British. The latter were not a dozen in number,
and were rather surprised at the style in which the
Ashantees stood the fire from the cannon mounted
on the walls. Hitherto the blacks who had sur-
rounded the fort in time of war were terrified at the
ﬁring of a gun, and beat a hasty retreat; but here
were black men who returned the ﬁre, and who
would undoubtedly have made sad work of the fort
and its defenders had not assistance arrived from the
armed town now known as Cape Coast Castle, which
ended in an agreement being come to with the
Ashantee king. A British commissioner from the
Gold Coast was at Coomassie in 1819, arranging a
treaty with the ruler of Ashantee.

In 1822 England laid claim to further strips of
territory upon the Gold Coast. Regarding his autho-
rity as being in danger, not satisﬁed with the as—
surances sent to him, and being deeply incensed at
the treatment of one of his people at Annamboe Fort,
the monarch took the earliest opportunity of dis-
playing his hatred of the English. It was in the
mutilation of a soldier kidnapped from the fort, and
a portion of whose corpse was conveyed to him at
Coomassie. Sir Charles Maearthy was Governor of
the Gold Coast settlements, and new, highly wrath in

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 55

turn with the Ashantee monarch, he ordered a force
to march inland for the purpose of inﬂicting reprisals.
The men were too small in number, however, treachery
was at work, and, a host of Ashantees and Fantees
falling upon the luckless expedition in the midst of
swamp and marsh, ﬁfty of the force were shot dead,
or wounded, and the survivors were obliged to retreat
hastily to the nearest British station, that of Annam-
boe. Regulars, militia, and West Africans combined
for a march upon Coomassie under Sir Charles
Macarthy. Five thousand men they were, but not
all reliable ; and rains coming on, provisions falling
short, and the Ashantees surrounding the main body
in thousands, disaster stared Sir Charles in the face.
This was in January, 1824, and on the farther side
of the Prah River. Ammunition fell short at length, _
and, surrounding the Governor, his staff, and a body
of the West Indian Regiment, and the militia, in
swampy ground, the Ashantees prepared for a ﬁnal
rush and massacre. They yelled, they blew their
horns, banged away at their drums, waved their mus-
kets, their knives, and their bows and arrows, making
the jungle hideous with their cries and capers.

Sir Charles Maearthy and those with him resolved
to sell their lives dearly. There was no expectation
of escape, for, turn where they would, ﬁerce Ashan—
tees were awaiting them, screaming and ﬁring. One
officer after another was shot down, non-commissioned

56 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

ofﬁcers and men fell by the dozen, the circle of the
enemy narrowing until, the last of the ammunition
gone and their commander no more, the few sur-
vivors ﬂed by a path known to a friendly Wassaw
tribesman, and succeeded in reaching Cape Coast
Town, there to relate the awful story of disaster and
death. Prisoners there were who remained in the
Ashantee capital, but for no lengthened period.
Singly, or in twos, the majority of them were brought
out for execution and decapitation, their heads, with
that of Sir Charles Macarthy, being paraded with
much pomp and ceremony at intervals.

The disaster to the Governor’s expedition could
not go unavenged. No European would be safe
within miles of the Gold Coast. Indeed, the van of
the Ashantees was reported as being not more than
ﬁfteen miles from the sea, and an army of thousands
of warriors in the rear. Major Chisholm, upon whom
the command at the Coast devolved, would not stay
for the coming of the Ashantee horde. He went to
meet the foe, and would certainly have routed them
had not native carriers of food and ammunition failed
him, and a retreat become the one course that
remained. The Ashantees followed, vowing death to
all white men, invested Cape Coast Town, and spread
consternation among the blacks, who crowded into
the English lines. Dearth of ammunition, famine,
disease, and death sadly lessened the garrison and

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 57

those dependent upon them, and the living were
saved only by the withdrawal of the enemy, to whom
had come the intelligence that Ashantee was being
overrun by a neighbouring queen and her braves.

At Accra, upon the Gold Coast, the Ashantee war-
riors rushed to their doom. Accra was the most
southern of our possessions upon the West Coast, and
nearest to Dahomey, where the French fought so suc-
cessfully at the latter end of 1892, under General
Dodds. The commandant at Accra was Colonel
Purdow. He had the town strongly fortiﬁed, and
had within call the armies of three native rulers,
including that Queen of Akim who was threatening
Ashantee when the inhabitants of Cape Coast Town
were saved from destruction. A contingent of regu—
lars had come in, also, from Sierra Leone. The
ﬁghting was desperate in the extreme, the levies of
Denkera, Akimboo, and Akim meeting the Ashantecs
in a fury, and killing and slaying them without pang
or remorse. On their side the Ashantees fought
bravely, and even madly, but, overcome at length by
the British and allies, the remnant ﬂed to their own
country, leaving over ﬁve thousand dead upon the
ﬁeld of battle.

For thirty-ﬁve years thereafter the English were
not troubled by Ashantee incursions.

In 1872 the King of Ashantee, who rejoiced
in the name of Koﬁ'ee Kalkalli, took umbrage at

58 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

the transfer of the coast town of Elmina, with its
strong fortress and guns, from the Dutch to the
English. Not that he preferred the Dutch to the
British, for the Ashantees had been at war with
them, but that he objected to any Europeans holding
the place. “ What,” you may ask, “had the King of
Ashantee to do with Elmina? Surely it was not in
his territory?” His dusky majesty said the town was
part of his kingdom, that although not really in the
land of Ashantee, the whole country was under his
protection. Further, that if every man had his rights,
-——and what Ashantee monarch would not if he chose
to claim them ?—not Elmina alone, but the European
settlements along the Gold Coast would be handed
over to him. The English Government disputed
this. They ratiﬁed the treaty with the Dutch as to
Elmina, and made no secret of the transaction. King
Kofl'ee Kalkalli complained, again, that commerce
with his country was not what it should be, owing
to English intervention. T 0 this our representatives
would have listened, and have done all in their power
to remedy any grievance ; but the king was very obsti-
nate touching a proposal for the release of four‘Euro-
pean captives in Ashantce, and when he replied in
a favourable manner to the appeals sent to him by
certain chiefs in the Elmina country, who would not
take the oath of fealty to England, our relations
with Ashantee became very strained. Petty kings and

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 59

Chieftains declared for and against the British, and
the Ashantees beat to arms and crossed into the
Fantee country. At the onset the invaders were
repulsed, then they re-formed and attacked with so
much ardour that the Fantees were beaten, and the
few English troops at the Coast appeared to be an
easy prey for them. Had it not been that prompt
measures were taken in the direction of applying for
additional troops, while Colonel Harley was haran-
guing the Fantee friendlies and urging them on to
battle, nothing could have stopped the victorious
Ashantees and their allies sweeping onward to the
sea and then capturing the forts set up and improved
by Portuguese, Dutch, and English in succession.
Marines, artillery, and companies of the \Vest India
Regiment at Sierra Leone, under Colonel F esting,
landed and marched to meet the enemy in the nick
of time, drove them back some distance, and took
advantage of a break in the clouds to prepare for
any further coming of the Ashantees. That the
braves of King Koffee Kalkalli were in deadly earnest
we shall see shortly.

In the ﬁrst week of October (1873) Sir Garnet
Wolseley disembarked at Cape Coast. Recognising
how serious a turn affairs had taken, and remembeiu
ing that the Ashantees were very plucky and 1)th
forth claims upon territory occupied by the lh'itisl.
and their native allies, the Fantees ; alive, likewise,

60 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

to the danger in which our possessions on the Gold
Coast stood, the English Cabinet sent out Sir Garnet
as Military and Civil Governor, investing him with
power to deal with chiefs and tribes with a View to
winning them over to our side. He was to look
to the defences of Cape Coast and Elmina, likewise,
and to reorganise the British and native forces
already there. No troops left England with Sir
Garnet and the staff accompanying him. There was
a strong hope that more reinforcements would not be
needed ; that the King of Ashantee would be induced
to draw off his levies without any serious amount of
ﬁghting taking place. In former days, rulers of the
kingdom had retreated from various causes and with-
out the interference of a large body of English.
Might not something of the kind occur again ? Might
not the friendlies be able to cope with the Ashantee
invaders, particularly when such an experienced man
as Sir Garnet Wolseley was placed at the head of
affairs, when so many able ofﬁcers were sent out with
him, and when the allies were supported by marines
and men of the West India Regiment? Arms and
ammunition were shipped in plenty, too, and made
ready for distribution on the Gold Coast.

The task allotted to Sir Garnet Wolseley was far
from easy. Difﬁculties beset him from the time he
landed. Palavers, or conferences, with native poten-
tates took place, but the outcome was by no means

in AFRiCA WITH THE "UNION JACK. 61

encouraging. Men would break the laws. as laid
down by the British representative, they would not
promise to amend. their ways, nor swear fealty to the
Queen of England; not every chief would accept
offers for the levying of soldiers; not every tribe
would agree to abolish rites and ceremonies marked
by torture. Coldness and insincerity were in the l
air. Rumours were repeated that the Ashantees
were gathering in great numbers, that the king was
threatening to sweep the white men, every one of
them, into the sea, after washing his golden stool in
the blood of Englishmen, and that a ghastly drink-
ing-cup in the shape of Sir Charles Macarthy’s skull
——-Sir Charles, the ill-fated commander, Whose body
was taken by the Ashantees nearly ﬁfty years before
——was being passed round by the king and his
courtiers. Spies were among the Fantees, stories
were told of supplies being forwarded from the coast
to Ashantee eneampments through tribal treachery,
and measures had to be taken for searching into the
truth of them, and counteracting any support meant
for the enemy.

The upshot was that Sir Garnet Wolseley was
driven to admit that he could not meet the Ashan-
tees with the force at his disposal, and that the enemy
gave no sign of wishing to treat with the English.
Accordingly, the General wrote home for additional
troops—one thousand eight hundred infantry, a

62 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

detachment of Royal Artillery, and another of Royal
Engineers. Nor was any time lost while the request
was on its way to England, and a decision was being
arrived at. A demand was made upon King Koffee I
for the withdrawal of his soldiers from the British
protectorate. Sir Garnct’s staff were constantly
collecting and drilling native levies; and an assem~
bly of head men at Dunquah, at the invitation of the
General, gave some little promise of assistance to the
British'cause. Villages whose people were believed to
be hostile to the English were burnt, and contin-
gents of King Koffee’s army were harassed. In
November very trying work was cut out for all the
sailors, marines, men of the West India Regiment,
Houssas, and native friendlies who could be spared,
the town of Abrakrampa, ten miles inland from Cape
Coast, being surrounded by a wing of the Ashantee in-
vaders. Supports were hurried along under aburning
sun, in consequence of which scores of whites fell ex-
hausted, and the prospect became far from cheering.
Around the town the Ashantees yelled, brandished
their muskets and spears, ran in and out of the bush
and dared the defenders to meet them. “A myriad
voices struck up the Ashantee war-song,” were the
words of a war correspondent of the day, “and very
ﬁne and stirring it is. With ten thousand voices
chanting in chorus, for there were all that number,
the effect was so ﬁne that no wonder F antee hearts

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 63

failed them at the sound. Scores of horns, modu-
lated in tone, played a wild accompaniment, and even
the tom-toms came in harmoniously. When the
song was ﬁnished, the fusillade recommenced more
furiously than ever. Inspirited by their own noise,
and stirred, as we hear, by the encouragement of
their women, posted behind, the enemy rushed into
sight. They were met, however, by a ﬁre too crush-
ing for savages to stand, and again they fell back,
to sing again, drum a little, and madly ﬁre and
advance again. The sunny landscape was so draped
in smoke, lurid and yellow in the declining rays, that
we could not see a foot distant through the dense
cloud ; new and again a line of leaping ﬂames close
to the ground told that our troops were ﬁring. At
longer intervals the Sniders made an angry crackle
borne above the din. Every sailor lay expectant and
eager behind his breastwork of rolled tents or boxes
of earth. Every marine stood at the ‘ready’ by
window and loophole. Towards ﬁve P.M., after an
hour and a half of hideous uproar, the enemy’s ﬁre
began to slacken, and a rocket, well-directed, reduced
them to comparative silence.” Very lucky was it
that the Ashantees beat a retreat, for not only were
the English ranks thinned by the fatigues of the
march—native tribesmen were afraid to follow in
pursuit. Sir Garnet was disgusted at their miscon-
duct. He wrote that even the enemy’s retreat could

6'4 IN AFRICA wtrn’ THE UNION JACK.

not instil courage into the faint-hearted natives, and
that they could neither be counted on to insure a
victory nor to complete a defeat. “They were ordered
to pursue the enemy, remain in the ﬁeld, and harass
him in his retreat. The road was strewn with the
débm’s of the retreating army; bodies of murdered
slaves lay along the route; many prisoners were
captured, the enemy’s ﬁre was silenced, and yet, such
was the cowardice of these people, that they had to
be driven into action, and after a success they became
a panic-stricken and disorderly rabble.”

Sir Garnet was not disheartened, however. Hope-
less as the task seemed of stirring the tribes to any
exertion, he did not relinquish his efforts. General
and ofﬁcers persisted in organising, in drilling, and
vexing the enemy, nothing short of attacks of fever
compelling them to desist. At one period about half
the British ofﬁcers were lying stricken by African
fever, while the non-commissioned ofﬁcers and whites
suffered to a not inconsiderable degree. Fever caused
countless deaths in the army of King Koffee Kal-
kalli, dysentery and smallpox carried off hundreds,
famine could not be kept at bay, and, to the great
relief of the English, the head chief Amanquatias
commanded a retreat across the river Prah, that is,
into Ashantee territory. For some distance they
were followed by our friendlies, by whom villages
were occupied and fortiﬁed ready for the coming of

IN AFRICA WITH TIIE UNION JACK. (35

the British. From Cape Coast to Prahsu, on the
Prah, a distance of seventy-six miles, the bush was cut
through, bridges were built, huts were constructed ;
arms, shot, and rations, were stored at intervals, ar-
rangements were even made for the sick and wounded,
and carriers were enlisted in hundreds. The Secretary
for the Colonies, Lord Kimberley, had impressed upon
the General in command that the Government was
most reluctant to sanction any expedition which
would require that European troops should be sent to
the Gold Coast, and that a satisfactory state of things
would be attained if he could procure an honourable
peace, or could inﬂict, in default of such peace, an
eﬂ‘ectual chastisement on the Ashantee force.

Sir Garnet was sure, however, that, terribly as the
Ashantees had suffered, the West Coast towns and
settlements would not be safe from any further
attacks unless King Koffee’s territory was invaded
and his capital invested and entered by British
troops. In fact, no apology, nor explanation, nor
promise, nor offer of compensation had come from
the king.

Hence the preparations for a dash upon Coo-
massie, a dash with which the Government agreed,
for on the 9th December, one battalion of the
Riﬂe Brigade, a company of Royal Engineers, and an
Army Hospital Corps arrived off Cape Coast ; on the
12th, the 2nd battalion 23rd Royal \Velsh Fusiliers,

F

(36 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

and a battery of Royal Engineers diseinharked.
Seven hundred men of the 42nd Highlanders
(“Black Watch ”) and over one hundred men of
the 79th Regiment landed a few days afterwards
with more members of the Army Hospital Corps.
As, however, full preparations for the march upon
Coomassie were not complete, the troops were taken
for a short cruise. Upon the 'bosom of old ocean
the health conditions were much superior to those
ashore, more especially near the coast. When the
march did commence it was in real earnest. The
start was with the new year 1874; the return was
to be at an end in the course of three months.
Yes! and King Koffec’s capital taken, with any centre
that stood in the way. The campaign must be over
prior to the rainy season commencing.

CHAPTER V.
DASH FOR COOMASSIE.

THE advance upon Coomassie was not difﬁcult in
the early stages. As we have said, roads had to be
made through the dense jungles, and across rivers
and streams, and by a wise forethought, sleeping
accommodation in huts of timber had not been for-‘
gotten. At Prahsu, where a halt was to be made
prior to crossing into Ashanteeland, sleeping huts
were erected for no fewer than three thousand men,
while near at hand was a ﬁne pontoon bridge, con—
structed by the Engineers sent on in front. Here,
also, artillery, rockets, shot, and shell were stored,
and hospital and inﬁrmary huts were erected. Not
a thing had been left undone likely to facilitate the
advance of the ﬁghting column. \Veeks prior to the
landing of the men, work was pushed on unceasingly.
Thousands of Fantees were engaged in the task, all
under the superintendence of capable British oﬁicers,
Sir Garnet \Volseley at the head of them, thoughtful
and unwearying. The Prah was to be crossed on the

68 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

15th January, and the Englishmen had this order in
View throughout.

Fighting strength did not remain with the English
alone. It was known that King Koi’fee would com-
mand every warrior within his dominions to answer
the roll of the drum, and that tens of thousands
would gather to resist the invaders. To assist the
British, the services of over twenty thousand tribes-
men were enlisted—Fantees, Akims, Denkeras,
Commendahs, Wassaws, Houssas, Yorubas, and
Awoonahs were collected for ﬁghting and carrying
purposes, the natives not engaged with the main
column operations from Cape Coast being under
Captain Glover, of the Royal Navy, and Captains
Butler, Moore, and Dalrymple respectively. Many
of these Africans were not to be relied on. They
gave a vast amount of trouble to the officers. Deser-
tion, cowardice, and general unwillingness to push on
were constant, so that by the time the Prah was
reached the several columns were by no means what
was expected as regards strength and utility. They
were to converge, from the banks of the Prah, on
Coomassie. But there was very little converging of
special moment. To the British and the West India
Regiment was left nearly the whole of the ﬁghting, the
Houssas and Yorubas coming next, perhaps.

As with King Theodore of Abyssinia, so the King of
Ashantee sent ambassadors to propose terms of peace

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 69

on hearing of the nearness of our men to his capital.
The proposals were not taken as being serious; the .
opinion among Sir Garnet’s staff was that King
Koffee was “throwing dust” in the eyes of the
English in order to save time. However, the mes-
sengers were kindly treated, were shown round the
camping-ground at Prahsu, the manner of working
the steel guns and the rockets was explained, and
means were adopted to give them some idea of the
force and the power coming on from the coast. A
message was then sent on to the King demanding
the release of the European and Fantee captives,
payment of £2,000,000 in gold as an indemnity,
and an agreement that no future invasion of the
British protectorate would occur.

The River Prah was crossed by the end of January,
and on into the country of King Koﬁfec advanced the
main column, Lord Gifford and his Akim scouts ever
ahead. Sir Archibald Alison was in charge of the
leading column, Colonel Evelyn \Vood (now Sir
Evelyn Wood) led the right wing, and General
McLeod the left. Bravely and fearlessly the expe-
ditionary force advanced. A thousand, at least, of
faithful native levies were there. The whole body
of Europeans and Africans in the column did not
number more than four thousand ﬁve hundred. They
were compelled to act as carriers, not a few of them,
for the number of desertions had been great.

70 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

In the open country, among the Adansi Hills, across
the l’rah, our men had little or no trouble. Every
point was deserted. In the bush, however, amid
forest and jungle, they were shot at. Often they
could not determine whence came the slugs that
pattered around them. When a discovery was made
of Ashantees, in anything like force, there was a dash
for them, and a hurry-scurry along winding paths, or
a pursuit into thicket, as far as was possible.

Near the village of Amoaful the invaders and the
Ashantecs met in serious conﬂict. From right and
left and straight in front came showers of lead from
the unseen fee, but there was no ﬂinching on the part
of the strangers. Even the natives on our side
fought with great pluck. The Naval Brigade brought
round their guns and cleared thicket after thicket;
the Riﬂe Brigade did excellent service; the Black
Watch advanced step by step to the village; and
the Welsh Regiment did good service too. For
upwards of ﬁve hours the contest went on. There
was no forming into line, remember; no wild and
resistless charges; no galloping around on horses
and waving of swords ; no parks of artillery brought
up and directed against stout defences. Scarcely was
the face of an Ashantee seen. You could not tell
from what quarter the shot would come. Only this,
that the bush seemed to hide hundreds, nay thou-
sands, of men, resolved to pick oﬂ‘ whosoever they

IN AFRICA YVITII THE UNION JACK. 71

could on the side of the British, while the business of
the new-comers was to shoot into those quarters
whence the ﬁring issued, to ﬁre from tree to tree,
to cut down dense growth, and ﬁght and ﬁght in the
gloom, singly, by twos, threes, and fours; to main-
tain something like compactness at the same time ;
never to falter, never to go back; on no account to
fall into the enemy’s hands. Death in the jungle
during the progress of the battle was far preferable
than capture and instantaneous mutilation.

Before darkness set in the ﬁghting was over. The
Ashantee braves had ﬂed. Amoaful was in posses-
sion of the invaders. General Alison testiﬁed to the
character of the battle. The ﬁghting, he says, was
incessant. It was impossible to conceive a more
severe action. The heavy loss suffered by the 42nd
was the best proof of this, every fourth man having
been hit. The loss of the enemy must have been
enormous. The main path was covered with dead,
and he did not believe they could have lost less than
between two thousand and three thousand in killed
and wounded. They stood admirably, came close up
to our men, and evidently fought to win. Their ﬁnal
rout was complete, and by four o’clock Lord Gifford’s
scouts had reported that the whole centre and
right were dispersed and in full ﬂight. Amanquatia,
one of the greatest of King Koffee’s captains, was
among the killed, and many Chieftains lost their lives

72 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

or were among the wounded. Only four men on the
side of the British were killed; about two hundred
were wounded.

A night’s rest, and an attack on and capture of
Bequah, a village occupied by some hundreds of
Ashantees, and the crossing of the River Ordah
followed in quick succession. Coomassie was within
easy distance now, and nothing must happen to
preclude the invaders from reaching it. N 0! not
another feeble attempt at compromise by King
Koffee, which came in, nor resistance at the village
of Ordashu, on the direct road to the capital of
Ashantee. The Riﬂe Brigade won Ordashu by their
fearlessness. It was by sheer pluck that the village
was held after being captured; for returning to the
attack on three sides, the Ashantees bore down all
opposition until they came to the heart of the place,
and were only stepped in their deadly work by the
ofﬁcers playing upon them with their revolvers, and
by the working of one or two guns brought on by
the advanced guard of Sir Garnet Wolseley. The
General had a narrow escape. A slug struck his
helmet, and would certainly have penetrated it had
the material not been unusually thick. The Black
Watch came up to the relief, also, and the Ashantees
were beaten oﬁ“, leaving many dead and wounded
in and around the village. Right on to Coomassie
almost the road was covered with traces of the

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 73

enemy’s ﬂight—gaudy umbrellas, drums, muskets,
spears, and chairs in which chiefs had been carried.
The king himself was brought to the outskirts of
the ﬁghting in a chair, but was taken away very
quickly when the tide of battle turned against the
Ashantees.

Coomassie was reached by the British and friend-
lies without further opposition. Not a soldier of
King Kolfee remained in the town. Indeed, the
natives began to leave the place four days before
the arrival of the conquerors. They had left its
rocky site, its well-kept and distinctively named
streets, and, plunging into the forest by which it
was surrounded, were lost to sight. Evening was
coming on fast when the victors entered the town.
The stone-built palace of the king, large enough
to accommodate a thousand troops, stood out
boldly, and the broad streets, somewhat artistically
planted at intervals with trees, were very striking to
the eye.

Coomassie was a town, however, of terribly un-
healthy conditions, a place where pestilence bred and
cast its horrors constantly abroad; a town where
men, women, and children were slaughtered without
mercy whenever frenzied feelings broke out among
pagan maniacs; a town hideous with blood and
human corpses, whcre vultures and kites made rare
holiday, gorging themselves to repletion.

74 IN AFRICA wrrn THE UNION JACK.

Prisoners released, and orders given out for the
night, General Wolseley went on to the king’s
palace. “ In one court,” says Lieutenant Low, “was
found a quantity of enormous umbrellas of various
materials, including the State umbrella sent home to
Queen Victoria, and numerous litters, covered with
silks and velvets or the skins of animals, in which
the king was wont to be carried. In rooms upstairs
were numberless holes ﬁlled With articles of value and
silks. There were other things in this palace that
aroused feelings only of disgust, and sent a shudder of
horror throughout the frames of the British ofﬁcers,
accustomed as they had been lately to scenes of
blood. Before them was the great death-drum, sur-
rounded with human skulls and thigh—bones, and
close by were several stools, ‘eovered with clotted
blood, standing out from them in huge thick lumps,
the blood of hundreds of victims.’ As the flies rose
in dense clouds from their foul repast, Sir Garnet
beat a hasty retreat from the accursed spot. There
was one ‘lion ’ of Cooniassic which those who paid it
a visit are not likely soon to forget. Not far from
the market-place, and hidden from the road by a
fringe of rushes, was an open space, over an acre in
extent, forming a receptacle for decaying corpses.
The whole town was impregnated with the odour
arising from the contents of this charnel~house,
in which were lying, in all the hideous stages of

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 75

decomposition, thousands of human bodies and skele-
tons.”

A further search of the palace was made on the
following day. “ In one room were found those gold
masks whose object it is so difﬁcult to deﬁne, made
of pure gold hammered into shape. Necklaces and
bracelets of gold, Aggany beads and coral ornaments
of various descriptions, were heaped together in boxes
and calabashes. Silver plate, swords, gorgeous am-
munition belts, caps mounted in solid gold and silver,
bags of gold-dust and nuggets, carved stools mounted
in silver, calabashes worked in silver and gold, silks
embroidered and woven, were all passed in review.
The sword presented by Her Majesty to the king
was found and carried off, and thousands of things
were left behind that would be worth fabulous sums
in cabinets at home.” All that was left in the
strange building was blown to atoms, with the struc-
ture itself, by command of Sir Garnet Wolseley, and
from different quarters Coomassie was ﬁred and left a
wreck. All our officers and men were ready enough
to leave the neighbourhood of the capital, and its
awful and sickening associations. The king and his
court had ﬂed. Pursuit was denied to the British,
ow1ng to the terrible nature of the climate, and to
the fact that great storms of rain had begun, turn-
ing streams into broad, deep rivers, changing swamps
into lagoons, and saturating forest and jungle, ren-

76 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

dering the return to the coast anything but pleasant,
and bringing sickness in the ranks.

Very deserved were the warm eneomiums passed
by Sir Garnet Wolseley in an address of thanks to
his followers. They had penetrated far through
a dense forest, he said, defended at many points
with the greatest obstinacy. Repeatedly they had
defeated a numerous and most courageous enemy,
ﬁghting upon his own ground, in well-selected posi-
tions. British pluck and the discipline common to
Her Majesty’s land and sea forces had enabled them
thus to overcome all difﬁculties and to seize upon
the enemy’s capital. The people, European and
native, unjustly held captive by the King of Ashantee,
had been set at liberty, and the army had proved
to a cruel and barbarous people that England is able
to punish her enemies, no matter what their strength
in numbers and position.

It is interesting to note that, while the General in
command was at Fomannah on the 13th February,
messengers came in from King Koff'ee carrying gold-
dust, nuggets, gold ornaments, bracelets, bells, masks,
and other articles, weighing in all nearly one thou—
sand and ﬁfty ounces. The monarch promised,
also, to pay ﬁfty thousand ounces of gold as an
indemnity, to resign all claim to the kingdoms of
Akim, Adansi, Denkera, and Assin, and to the town
of Elmina, to put down human sacriﬁces in his

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 77

dominions, and to maintain an open road from the
banks of the Prah to Coomassie for the purposes of
commerce.

Just a word as to Captain Glover’s column, which
we left making for Coomassie. Desertions continued,
sickness caused delays, also, but he marched boldly
on, crossing the Ansoom River, capturing Obogo and
Duabim, receiving the submission of the King of
J uabin in his course, and preventing his levies ham-
pering the main column. Within ten miles of Coo-
massie. he despatched Captain Sartorious to the
capital, news of the capture of which had reached
him. Sartorious and his small bodyguard ﬁnding
Coomassie a heap of ruins, and that the return to
the coast had begun, hastened after the General to
Fomannah. This consumed more time than Glover
had calculated upon, and, being anxious, he resumed
the march, and reached the burnt-out capital on
the very day Sartorious entered Fomannah. Thence
Glover came back to the coast, also, where his force
was dissolved. It has been well said that the opera-
tions conducted by Captain Glover did much towards
bringing King Kofi‘ee to his senses. Nor were the
efforts, previously mentioned, of Captains Dalrymple
and Butler without avail. The columns led by them
were recalled ere they could reach Coomassie, but
they did much in quieting tributary kings to Koﬁ‘ee
Kalkalli, and towards leaving a permanent impression

78 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

upon the Ashantee mind of the power of Great
Britain.

That we shall never be called upon to despateh
another expedition into the country across the Prah
is the desire of all Englishmen.

In May, 1883, a small expeditionary force was on
its way from Sherborough to Jalliah, Small Boom
River, upon the coast of Guinea, North-west Africa.
Lieutenant-Colonel Talbot, of the 2nd West India
Regiment, was in command, and with him were one
hundred of his men, with two hundred armed police, '
and about four hundred friendly natives. His object
was to reach the stockaded stronghold of the chief
Gbow, who had annoyed natives under British protec-
tion, and carried a number of them off, it was said,
interfering, at the same time, with our trade in gold-
dust, ivory, feathers, and oil. This expedition was
attended by many dangers, the country being fever-
stricken and generally unhealthy, while it was impos-
sible to say when and how the boats, in which Colonel
Talbot’s men were conveyed a long distance by river
toward’s Gbow’s headquarters, would be attacked.
, The Jalliah Creek was reached in safety, however,
and through jungle and swamp the force marched to
(lbow’s principal town, and, after shelling it with
very serious eli'octs on life and dwellings, took it
in right hearty style at the point of the bayonet.
Thereupon a deadly conﬂict took place between our

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 79

friendlies and Gbow’s adherents, hundreds falling
ere the day’s work was done. Gbow escaped.
Haboon, another town, was captured, and, as a result
of the operations, and those conducted by Captain
Skelton, sent out to another part of the country, a
broad stretch of territory—one extending to the
borders of Liberia—was added to Queen Victoria’s
dominions.

The latest of our little wars upon the West Coast
was against the Jebus, a somewhat sturdy, powerful
people, and who brought into the ﬁeld, to oppose
a British and native African contingent, fully six
thousand men. On the 19th of May, 1892, the
king’s army was utterly routed upon the banks of
the Oshun, J ebu Ode being captured after four days’
hard ﬁghting, the king making, at the same time, the
most complete submission and disclaiming any par-
ticipation in the acts of aggression forming the basis
for the prosecution of the war in his country. He
even thanked, says a despatch from Lagos, Colonel
Scott, the English commandant, for his expedition,
and declared that it would have a beneﬁcial effect
upon his people.

Describing the concluding operations, Captain R.
E. Campbell wrote that, having defeated the enemy
at I’obo and occupied the village of Agushi, the
expeditionary force continued the march and found
that the Jebus occupied a strong position on the

80 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

opposite side of the Oshun, which was overgrown
with a dense forest. As the English and their allies
advanced in almost single ﬁle to the river bank—the
density of forest undergrowth and a pathway cut
through it only allowing of this—the J ebu ﬁre took
effect, the dead and the dying blocking, at times, the
way. Indian or single ﬁle was abandoned at last—-
more open ground being reached—and then it was
that the Maxim guns and seven-pounders were brought
to bear upon the enemy’s position, and our men were
able, though with great difﬁculty, to cross the river.
Still the Jebus would not yield. They fought on
with extraordinary stubbornness, and hundreds of
them, creeping round through the bush upon the
invaders, occasioned considerable loss. Nor could
they be driven off until, the main body in front
having been routed, they dashed into the forest and
were thus lost to sight. To Captain Campbell’s mind,
the Jebus deserve immense credit for the courage dis-
played against our superior arms, as they kept our
troops ﬁghting hard in the action—called the battle
of Maghon—for nearly three hours. It was very sad
indeed, adds the ofﬁcer mentioned, to see the poor
semi-nude savages lying on the ground with so much
of Nature’s beauties all around to make life worth
living. One could not help feeling sorry for the J ebus,
whose fetish- or charm-covered bodies were lying
around, and who had fought so well during the day.

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. Sl

As, with the ﬁnal dispersal of the Jebus, and the
surrender of the king, the object of the expedition
had been attained, the bulk of Colonel Scott’s force
was at once withdrawn, about one hundred and ﬁfty
Houssas, native constabulary, and three British
ofﬁcers being left in charge near Sighosh, for some
time longer.

CHAPTER YT.
AT WAR WITH THE ZULUS.

W'HERE is the Englishman who does not regard the
war with Cetywayo and his Zulus with mingled feel-
ings? Is it likely that interest in the campaign will
ever fade? Surely not.

To think of the Zulu war of 1878-79 is to ﬁll the
mind with sadness and pride—sorrow, that at Isandula
the enemy inflicted upon the Imperial and Colonial
forces a disaster such as is scarcely surpassed in
its bitterness and completeness in the history of
British warfare; pride, because of the lustre shed
upon the English name at Rorke’s Drift and Ekowe,
not to mention other places, and by Lieutenants
Melville and Coghill’s heroism in saving the colours
upon the banks of the Buffalo. Yes! that was a cam—
paign of strange contrasts, of melancholy occurrences,
of noble deeds against desperate odds. A war of
dangers and surprises, of attacks on hordes of bar-
barians, at once savage and intelligent, desperate and
cruel, and a war of grand defences. An undertaking,
too, against Nature in her relentless moods, in a

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 83

country where hills and ravines, precipices, rivers,
streams, rocks, and caverns abound, where roads had
to be made before the thousands of oxen yoked to
hundreds of waggons, groaning under their loads of
stores, could advance, where the voices of the drivers
and the crack of the whip testiﬁed to patience sorely
tried, where irritation and inconvenience were of daily
occurrence, where rain was repeated, and rivers
swelled to extraordinary proportions. Yes ! a coun-
try in some of its aspects quite as uninviting as the
half-naked, fearless heathen upon the war-path.
Europeans of twenty years ago were convinced
they knew something of Zululand and the Zulus.
They did, but not by any means what is known to-
day. The white residents in Cape Colony and Natal
did not thoroughly understand what was comprised
in declaring war against Cetywayo and his warriors.
Sketching, in outline, the connection of the English
with Natal, in which the Zulus reside, and events
leading up to the Zulu War, a lieutenant of the Royal
Navy, by name Fairwell, visited the country in
1823, and obtained permission from Lord Charles
Somerset, the Governor of Cape Colony, to found
an English settlement upon land owned by Utshaka,
a great Chieftain of one of the Kafﬁr tribes, the
Zulus. The settlement was no farther from the sea
than where Port Natal stands. By the way, there are
few who are conversant in any degree with South

84 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

African history who are not aware of the origin of
the name Port Natal—how, after skirting the whole
of the West and South African coast during one of
his wonderful voyages, Vasco de Gama entered the
Bay of Natal on Christmas Day, 1498, and gave the
name Natal to the land thereabouts in celebration of
the nativity of our Lord. A joyous day indeed for
De Gama and his fellow-wanderers. We know, do
we net, how that, from one cause and another, little
attention was bestowed by Europeans upon Natal
for nearly three hundred years after that? Lying
somewhat out of the direct course by the Cape to
that India so much sought after by the adventurous
sons of nations in Western Europe, Natal was
visited at rare intervals by whites, and then only for
provisioning purposes, or when driven into its har-
bour by the fearful typhoons that pass over the
Indian Ocean. In 1704: the Dutch made a sort of
bargain for the Bay of Natal, but actual possession
was never taken from the Kafﬁrs. The Dutch had
more than sufﬁcient to do at the Cape and in watch-
ing the English, French, and Portuguese in the
Indian Sea. When Lieutenant Fairwell came upon
the scene, therefore, he treated only with Utshaka,
the Zulu Kafﬁr Chieftain. The latter was killed in
1828, and his fierce brother, Udingaan, succeeding
him, there was an end to the prosperity of the Eng-
lish colonists, many of whom had, in the course of

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 85

trade, penetrated miles inland. Fairwell and certain
of the settlers were, in fact, murdered, while on a
peaceful mission ; the colony was attacked and broken
up; nay, so bitterly hostile did the Zulus become
towards the Europeans, that even those of the Dutch
Boers who had crossed from Cape Colony and made
a show of farming in Udingaan’s territory, were ex-
pelled.

It was only natural that the British at home and
in Cape Colony would not sit down quietly, seeing
their fellow-countrymen at Natal driven forth or
butchered. They opened up communications with
the natives, satisﬁed the chiefs that no harm was
meant them, and, a grant of four thousand square
miles having been obtained, Durban was founded.
This was in 1835. Dissatisﬁed with the laws made
by the British in Cape Colony, many Dutch Boers
entered Natal territory, fought with the unstable
Udingaan in 1840, and obtained more than one
victory. As a consequence the Kafﬁrs lost their
keeping of the country, and Dutch pretensions gather-
ing apace, appearances pointed unmistakably to the
dawn of Boer independence. Thereupon the English
took time by the forelock by ofﬁcially annexing
Natal territory to Cape Colony. Four years after-
wards, in 1848, Natal was allowed a separate Council,
and as the white population continued to grow,
Natal was, in 1856, proclaimed a separate and dis-

86 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION 'JACK.

tinct colony, with its own governor and parliament.
To-day the territory of Natal is over twelve thousand
square miles in extent.

What of Cetywayo? He was the eldest son of the
Zulu chief Panda. An astute, brave, not to say
ambitious, young man, Cetywayo was regarded with
some degree of jealousy by Panda. The brothers of
Cetywayo looked upon him with an amount of sus-
picion, also. Five of them started for Natal in order
to secure British protection, but they were overtaken
and, it is reported, slain by the following of Cety-
wayo. Two other sons of Panda came, in fact, under
the protection of the British ofﬁcials. Cetywayo was
not satisﬁed; no, not when the Zulus turned to him,
succeeded in electing him Prime Minister, and in
making good his position as heir—apparent to Panda,
his father. The old Zulu king died in 1872, and at
his own request, Cetywayo was acknowledged by the
British as his successor. At the same time, promises
were made by Cetywayo of amendments to Zulu laws
and customs, whereby much cruelty would be avoided
and peace and happiness would be brought to the
people. Time went on; Cetywayo and the Natal
authorities did not work in harmony. The new king
was still jealous and mistrusting. He brooded over
the severity with which a Zulu Chieftain named Lan-
galibalee and his followers were treated when they
gave tokens of revolt, he pointed to the fact that his

IN AFRICA \VITH THE UNION JACK. 87

brothers were under British protection, and he sus‘
pected that the English were more favourable to the
Boers across the Zulu border than towards himself.
The Boers, and the Zulus under Cetywayo, were often
at war, and when the Transvaal Republic was annexed
to Natal, the king became very angry. The English
did not seek the acquisition ; many of the Boers them-
selves sought the protection of the British in conse-
quence of the quarrels that arose between them and
the Zulus. As events proved, the desire in the
’l‘ransvaal for annexation to Natal was not as deep as
the Government at home and persons in the colony
imagined. However, Cetywayo was not easy; and
an award in his favour arising out of a dispute be-
tween the Boers and himself with regard to a strip
of territory being kept back, his anger and jealousy
were increased.

Cetywayo had not fulﬁlled his promises to the
British. He increased his army, already very power-
ful, menaeed European settlements, and failed, gene-
rally, to satisfy the High Commissioner, Sir Bartle
Frere, as to his acknowledgment of British supremacy
and his future intentions. Cetywayo was allowed
until the 11th January, 1879, to fulfil his pledges
and to offer a full explanation regarding trespasses
on British territory. These were not forthcoming.
\Var was declared, accordingly, in the following terms,

published in English and Zulu: “The British forces

88 IN AFRICA. WITH THE UNION JACK.

are crossing into Zululand to exact from Cetywayo
reparation for violation of British territory committed
by the sons of Sirayo and others ; and to enforce com-
pliance with the promises made by Cetywayo at his
coronation, for the better government of his people.
The British Government has no quarrel with the
Zulu people. All Zulus who come in unarmed, or
who lay down their arms, will be provided for till the
troubles of their country are over; and will then, if
they please, be allowed to return to their own land.
All who do not submit will be dealt with as enemies.
When the war is ﬁnished, the British Government
will make thebest arrangements for the future good
government of the Zulus in their own country, in
peace and quietness, and will not permit the killing
and oppression they have suffered from Cetywayo
to continue.” Lieutenant-General Lord Chelmsford
was in command of the troops in Natal. He had
written to Cetywayo in December, saying that in the
event of cattle, demanded as a ﬁne, together with
the chief Sirayo’s brother, not being delivered before
the expiration of the time allowed, her Majesty’s
troops would occupy Zulu territory without delay;
that no forward movement into Zululand would be
made till the end of thirty days; and that if the
advance took place it would be directed, not against
the Zulu nation, but against the king who had broken
the promises made at his coronation.

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 89

Sir Bartle Frere’s declaration was dated the 11th
January, as we have seen. On the 12th, Lord.
Chelmsford, with British and Colonial troops, crossed
into Zululand. The invasion was made in down-
right earnest. Infantry and artillery had been sent
out from England ; they were joined to the regulars
and volunteers in Natal. The advance was in three
columns. Colonel Pearson was in charge of N o. 1,
which crossed the River Tugela, and made for Ekowe,
an abandoned mission-station, and which was to be
put in a state of defence; Colonel Durnford, No. 2
column, was to move up to Sand Spruit Valley, and
protect the Umsinga border, and to assist No. 3
column, commanded by Colonel Glyn at Rorke’s
Drift station upon the Tugela, in forming a central
depot and encampment, and in clearing the country
around. There was a No. 4 column, one to operate
on the Blood River and keep the Zulus at bay. Sir
Evelyn Wood, of Ashantee fame, commanded this
column. A ﬁfth column, with Colonel Rowlands at
its head, was in readiness for service also, after
operations against the famed chief, Sekukini. Alto-
gether, the Imperial and Colonial troops numbered
about seven thousand, and the native contingent
over nine thousand. There were seven hundred
waggons at least, ﬁlled with warlike requisites, and as
to each vehicle ten or a dozen oxen were attached,
we can readily imagine how many cattle would be

90 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

engaged, how difﬁcult the task of transport, and how
serious the labour of keeping everything under con-
trol. In addition there were upwards of a thousand
horses for cavalry purposes. Ulindi, the capital of
Zululand, was the centre aimed at by the several
columns.

Progress was exceedingly slow from the very ﬁrst.
The country was far more difﬁcult than Lord Chelms-
ford had been led to expect, and the labour of advanc-
ing with the long trains of waggons was enormous.
Seven days were consumed by one—half of No. 3
Column making the ten miles of road between
Rorkc’s Drift and Isandula passable for the remainder
of the body, two swamps in which the waggons sunk
above the axle-trees, having to be cleared in the
process. Cattle died, too; there was sickness among
others, confusion and doubt incident to break-
downs, and in the minds of officers and men per-
plexity as to what the Zulus were doing and how
they would act in the near future. This in spite of
scouting and general precautions. For what infor-
mation could bring feelings of security in such a
country—a country that lent itself so much to pit—
falls? Aland occupied more or less by tribes trained
from infancy in the art of war? Territory where
columns of civilised soldiers were bound to be broken
and too often in a state of disorganisation upon the
march ? A region where, if armed bodies of savages

 

 

 

 

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PREPARING

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IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION Lion. 91

were dispersed, every facility offered itself for re-
assembly for new attacks?

Nor were the Zulus supine. Cetywayo had his
spies, his runners, on the alert. Over hill and dale,
across mountain brow and by the edge of deep
ravines, by river bank and across meandering stream,
over swamp and desert sped messengers on every
side from Ulindi. Chieftains, or idunas, were sum-
moned, tribesmen ﬂocked to the sound of the winding
horn; countless kraals were deserted by old and
young, regiments ‘of ﬁerce warriors were made up,
scarcely a gap remaining. With their bodies greased
and decorated with wild-cat skins, lion claws, teeth,
and the like; with heads plumed, in some cases,
their hair oiled and plaited; with arms and legs
adorned by rings of brass and iron ; carrying spears
and assegais, or riﬂes ; bearing great shields of tanned
hide, plumed and adorned by the tails of bullocks, they
chanted their war-songs in front of the witch doctors,
themselves covered with various “charms,” and took
oath to drive the white man and his allies from out
their native Zululand, and far over the border towards
the sea. Old feuds were buried; new friendships
were made, and instructions were listened to in
profoundest silence.

That was a mighty force commanded by the war-
seasoned Cetywayo

“Brothers,” said the great king, “I am sending

 

an army of thirty thousand men.

92 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

you out against the whites who have invaded Zulu-
land and driven away our cattle. You are to go
against the column at Rorke’s Drift, and drive it
back into Natal; and if the river allows, follow it
up through Natal, right up to the Draakensburg.
Attack it by daylight, for there are enough of you
to eat it up. March slowly, so as not to tire your-
selves.”

At once the march was commenced from Nod-
wenga, the command devolving equally upon Sibayo,
Tsingwayo, and Mavamengwana, three noted chief-
, tains. On to the banks of the White Umfolosi, on
to the military kraal of Fsipezi, on to the tableland
of the Isihlungu hills, past the spurs of the Ngutu
hill, and, more carefully, on to the base of the Isan-
dula hill. On the 22nd January the main body of
the ﬁghting column was resting, when from the dis-
tance came sounds of ﬁring. The British and Cole-
nials, men of Colonel Glyn’s No. 3 Column, had been
sighted, shots were exchanged, louder and louder
grew the din, more and more men became engaged,
until the whole column of Zulus was in motion,
though not actually ﬁghting. The fringe only was
engaged thus far, for the invaders in front were skir-
mishers, and retiring slowly upon supports. “ Izulu,’.’
“the heavens,” was the word sent up from thousands
of threats, and preparations were made for very serious
work indeed. Usually the Zulus fought in the form

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 93

of a crescent, or halfmoon, the points or horns ad-
vancing first, the heaviest portions or chest coming
on in due order, with a strong body as reserve in the
rear. On this day the ordinary formation could not
be observed. Hill and donga and waterway would
not permit'of it.

One horn of the human mass was run out on to
the British and Colonials, pressing them on to the
encampment within the shadow of Isandula, while
thousands of Zulus formed into another column, and
portions of regiments directed their attention to the
openings between the rising ground right and left.
\Vith us everything was being done to check this
advance, but, alas! with little effect. Rapidly word
passed from point to point that the Zulus were com-
ing on in force. Captain Dartnell’s scouts had seen
them, had exchanged shots, as we have noticed, and
done what they could to check the avalanche. Colonel
Glyn passed the word on to Colonel Durnford at
Rorke’s Drift, and while he hastened up with a body
of ﬁve hundred men, principally native allies, all the
men of N0. 3 Column who could be brought to the
vicinity of the encampment at Isandula gathered and
prepared to defend the ground to the last. Colonel
Pullcine and the men with him were mainly con-
cerned. A total of seven hundred and seventy-two
Europeans and eight hundred Colonials gained the
ﬁeld during the afternoon, guns and rockets were run

94: IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

out, and in spite of the continued on-coming of
Zulus at different points, there were places at which
the enemy were beaten back, and that with heavy
slaughter.

Stubbornly, very stubbornly, was every inch of
ground contested; thrusts with spear and assogai,
shooting with riﬂe, revolver, and light ﬁeld-piece,
attack and defence, the loud hurrah and hoarse shout,
charging on horseback, the shock of men afoot, the
bellowing and stampeding of affrighted cattle com-
mingling. What is this at last ? The main body of
the British and Colonials retiring? N o ! a thousand
times, no! Yet so it was. Killing and wounding
having no terrors for them, comrades lying thick
upon the ground no obstacle to their advance, from
rising ground and indent, pour the dusky masses
of Zulu warriors. Thousands upon thousands, in
serried ranks, the van pressed on by the rear, they
overwhelm the British and their friends, whose
ammunition has run short, and who are wearying of
the unequal battle. They are but human, these men
of the 24th Regiment, for the most part, and their
friends from the Cape, and the native allies—these
men who have lost friends to Zulu fury, these men
who have little powder and shot left, these men who
never for one instant suspected at noon-tide that an
enemy twenty times their number was behind the
hills, so near at hand.

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 95

Refuge is sought upon the camping-ground; now
the ﬁghting is among cattle, bullock-waggens, provi—
sion-carts and stores! A stampede has set in among
the native friendlies, and as the ensanguined ﬁeld is
abandoned by the minority, and the Victorious Zulus
dash hither and thither, slaughtering unceasingly,
beheading and ripping open, there are some brave
men left, ﬁghting back to back, to be assegaied and
shot, alas! without thought of quarter, until not a
European, nor a Cape trooper, nor a friendly native
breathes upon that frightful ﬁeld of Isandula. A
ﬁeld drenched in blood and given over to demoniacal
workings of the triumphant foe. Nor did the scene
of disaster end there. Scores of men, white and
black, seeking escape from the dreadful massacre,
were drowned in swollen river, were sought after and
caught in gully, kloof, and behind rising kopje, there to
be ruthlessly slain, and in too many cases mutilated.

On this fell day upwards of thirty ofiicers (includ-
ing two colonels) and ﬁve hundred non—commissioned
ofﬁcers and men of the Europeans were killed or
wounded, and of the Colonials and natives, twenty-
one ofﬁcers and nearly one hundred men. The
enemy also captured one hundred waggons drawn by
a thousand oxen, two guns, four hundred shot and
shell, 3. thousand riﬂes, two thousand rounds of
ammunition and sixty thousand pounds weight of
stores ! What an awful loss!

96 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

Read what is said by Mr. Archibald Forbes on
visiting the battleﬁeld four months after the sad
events of the 22nd January. “On the lower neck
of the high ground on the right of the bare rock of
Isandula were clearly visible up against the sky-line,
the abandoned waggons of the destroyed column. Now
we crossed the rocky bed of the little stream and
were cantering up the slope leading to the crest on
which were the waggons, and already tokens of the
combat and bootless ﬂight were apparent. The line
of retreat towards Fugitives’ Drift, along which,
through a gap in the Zulu environment, our unfor-
tunate comrades who thus far survived tried to
escape, lay athwart the rocky slope to our right front,
with a precipitous ravine at its base. In this ravine
dead men lay thick. All the way up the slope could
be traced the ﬁtful line of ﬂight. Most of the dead
here were the 24th men; single bodies and groups
where they seemed 'to be gathered to make a hope-
less gallant stand and die. On the edge of a gully
was a gun-limber jammed, its horses hanging in
their harness down the steep face of the ravine; a
little farther on a broken ambulance waggon, with its
team of mules dead in their harness, and around were
the bodies of the poor fellows who had been dragged
from the intercepted vehicle. Following the trail of
bodies through long grass and scattered stores, the
crest was reached. Here the dead lay thick, many

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 97

in the uniform of the Natal Mounted Police. On the
bare ground upon the crest itself, among the waggons,
the dead were less thick ; but on the slope beyond,
on which from the crest we looked down, the scene
was the saddest and more full of weird desolation
than any I had yet gazed upon. There was none of
the horror of a recent battleﬁeld; nothing of all
that makes the scene of yesterday’s battle so ram-
pantly ghastly shocked the senses. A strange, dead
calm reigned in this solitude ; grain had grown luxu-
riantly round the waggons, sprouting from the seed
that dropped from the loads, falling on soil fertilised
by the life-blood of gallant men. In a patch of long
grass, near the right ﬂank of the camp, lay Colonel
Durnford’s body, a central ﬁgure of a knot of brave
men who had fought it out around their chief to the
bitter end. A stalwart Zulu, covered by his shield,
lay at the colonel’s feet. Around him lay fourteen
Natal Carbineers and twenty of the Mounted Police.
Clearly they had rallied round Durnford in a last des-
pairing attempt to cover the ﬂank of the camp and
had stood fast from choice, when they might have
essayed to ﬂy for their horses, which were close by
their side at the picket-line. With this group were
about thirty gallant fellows of the 24th. In other
places the 24th men were found as if fallen in rally-
ing square, and there were bodies scattered all along
the front of the camp.” We are told, also, that in
H

98 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

the desolate camp were many sad relics, and that the
ground was strewn with them and the spoil of the
plundered waggons. Had the world been searched
for a position offering easier facilities for being
surprised, none could have been well found to
supply it.

How we still mourn over the disaster at Isandula!
How we revere the memory of the gallant fellows
who lived only to die! And not least so the two
Lieutenants Melville and Coghill. Seeing that all
was lost, that nothing could withstand the mad sweep
and ﬁendish massacre of the Zulu braves, they left
the gory ﬁeld on horseback in the endeavour to save
the colours of the noble 24th. Making for the
nearest river, the Buffalo, they attempted to swim
their horses across. The tide was too strong for the
animal bestridden by Melville, who was carrying the
precious ﬂag, and the gallant ofﬁcer was thrown into
mid-current. Coghill, who had gained the opposite
bank, turned to look for his comrade, saw him battling
with the rolling water, returned into it and brought
out Melville and the regimental ﬂag. Coghill’s horse
was shot by the Zulu witnesses to the affair, but the
ofﬁcers struggled bravely on, then stood to meet the
foe who had overtaken them, and died as had others
of the regiment at Isandula, ﬁghting back to back
until death came upon them. Satisfactory to relate,
the ﬂag was subsequently recovered.

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 99

Now for the gallant defence of Rorke’s Drift. The
station is ten miles from Isandula and thither ﬂocked
ﬁve thousand Zulus from the battleﬁeld just named,
victory rendering them even more furious, and be-
getting a determination to head straight into Natal
having once wiped out the garrison. The time was
late on in the afternoon; darkness was beginning to
descend upon the earth. Voices from the Zululand
side of the stream—Rorke’s Drift station is just on
the Natal bank of the River Buffalo — shouting
intelligence of the terrible disaster of Isandula and
of the advance of a large body of warriors bent on
the direst mischief, and two horses and two riders
cross the river to give details of the sad occurrences.
Forward to Helpmaaker rode one of the two troopers
to warn the little garrison, the while his companion
remained at Rorke’s Drift to assist in improving
the position. For strengthening was sorely needed.
Not more than one hundred and forty men were in
occupation of the post, the majority men of the
annihilated 24th Regiment. Lieutenants Chard and
Bromhead were left in command by Major Spalding,
who had ridden off to another station to bring up
additional force. The garrison had been weakened
by the departure of men for Isandula.

Biscuit boxes, bags of grain, and everything upon
which hands could be laid and which could be moved
were brought out and put together as a wall of

100 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

defence. The spare and by no means stoutly con-
structed buildings were loopholed ; and in short every
possible provision for withstanding an onslaught was
made. It was not great. How could it be at such
a small and isolated station ? But great hearts were
there—magniﬁcent fellows who were not, and could
not be, blind to the fact that with Rorke’s Drift
swept away, and with Helpmaaker a ruin, the whole
of Natal would be open to the bloodthirsty enemy.
At all hazards Rorke’s Drift must be defended—yes!
while a drop of blood remained in the veins of a
single man.

Riﬂes were looked to, therefore, bayonets were
tested, the few revolvers within Rorke’s Drift were
got out, belts were tightened, and new resolves of do
or die taken. A.terrible situation, an extraordinary
ordeal was that at Rorke’s Drift. But no one shrank;
the small body who held the station would not accept
the services of a company of horsemen, refugees
from Isandula: they were sent on to assist at Help-
maaker. In the twilight the van of the enemy was
sighted, then Zulus came within range, and were
met with a telling volley. Still, nearer and nearer
they stole. A thousand of them surrounded the
station, hundreds more approached, ﬁred, yelled and
gesticulated from eminences, occupied the garden of
the position, crept to the outer walls of the hospital,
attempted to climb the frail defence of mealie-bags

 

 

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'l'IHC :\’I"I‘.\<‘]\' UN THI’ IIIWHTAT. ICI‘RKI‘K’ DRIFT.

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 101

and to get round two waggons dragged to the outer
edge of the station, numbers of the braves falling in
the meantime, killed or wounded.

Darkness fell upon the land, and still the assault
was maintained; still the Zulus were beaten back,
until by sheer weight they carried one defence
of mealie-bags, and ﬁring the roof of the hospital a
lurid light was cast on all around, showing rocks and
ridges covered by dusky forms, and bushes alive with
Cetyuxyo’s warriors, awaiting the moment of ﬁnal
attack and massacre. Showing, too, the killed and
wounded inside the narrow walls of defence, and
soldiers ﬁghting on and on for glory and life. Mid-
night at length, and the hospital was nearly gone.
Five lives at least were lost in it, and with shots still
ﬂying from without, and repeated stormings of the
defences, it did. really seem that the garrison were
doomed to die. Three thousand of the enemy were
burning for the lives of the heroic defenders. Zulus
there must have thought their opponents more than
human.

Early morning now and pitch darkness. Who
could say how long the last of the defences would
hold out? Who tell how long the words of command
and encouragement would be of any use? Who might
prophesy that the survivors were certain of resisting
for a minute longer the attempts at breaking down
the improvised works and the walls of stone 2 Cannot

102 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

we think of the gallant fellows having in their minds
words such as those written by the late Lord Tenny-
son :—

“ Surging and swaying all round us, as ocean on every side
Plunges and heaves at a bank that is daily drowned by the tide-—
So many thousands that if they be bold enough, who shall escape?

Kill, or be kill’d, live or die, they shall know we are soldiers and
men!

an a e a a as
Handful of men as we are, we are English in heart and in limb,
Strong with the strength of the race to command, to obey, to endure,
Each of us ﬁghts as if hope for the garrison hung on but him.”

At all events the station was held throughout the
long night. Fighting, ﬁghting still; until at four
o’clock, prior to the break of day, shooting ceased
from the enemy’s lines, and, 0 joy! they retired
with the dawn :—

“Flying and foil'd at the last by the handful they could not subdue.”

Such a cheer at the discovery as has rarely been
heard from a hundred threats! such a waving of
weapons and throwing of caps in the air! such an
escape from the jaws of a horrible death X

The hurrahs were heard by Lord Chelmsford and a
part of N o. 3 Column coming towards Rorke’s Drift,
and gave hope and courage to them. For fear had
ﬁlled the breasts of the new-comers, on seeing smoke
rising from the station, that the disaster at Isandula
was but the first of a series, and that Rorke’s Drift
and its garrison were no more. Says one of those
who were not far from Isandula on the fateful 22nd,

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 103

and who passed the route to Rorke’s Drift in the
early morning of the 23rd : “We began to tumble over
dead bodies lying in every direction, and in some
places where there was a ditch or a kind of shelter
men were found lying thick, as though they had
fought and every cartridge was gone, and had then
been surrounded and assegaied. Marching on, we
heard a ringing British cheer, and arriving at Rorke's
Drift our surprise and delight may be easily imagined
when we heard a good English cheer greet us, and
on getting close up saw that the place was surrounded
by a barricade of mealies in sacks, with the bodies of
numerous Zulus lying around. , We quickly dis-
mounted and went inside, and learned, to our great
relief, that the garrison had received warning in time
from the refugees from our late camp to prepare for
the descent of the Zulus.”

Natal was indeed saved by the splendid defence of
Rorke’s Drift, the cost being much less than was
likely: ﬁfteen non-commissioned ofﬁcers and men
killed and fourteen wounded. About ﬁve hundred
of the enemy were killed or wounded. Richly did
Chard, Bromhead, and others win the much-coveted
Victoria Cross l

CHAPTER VII.
FALL or KING CETYWAYO.

ALTHOUGH the torrent had been stemmed at Rorke’s
Drift, the people in Natal prepared for the worst.
Barricades were raised in Pietermaritzburg and other
towns, as well as in villages; men marched and
re-marched, while stampedes from lonely districts were
frequent. Appeals were sent to England for addi—
tional troops, and, without delay, soldiers were em-
barked from our shores, and were landed in due
course in the Bay of Natal. But the main body of
Cetywayo’s army did not invade Natal; the warriors
retraced their steps to purify themselves, according
to custom, after taking part in the massacre of Isan-
dula.

There was ample to cope with, however, in other
directions. Colonel Evelyn \Vood’s column, after cross-
ing the Blood River, captured cattle, took kraals, fought
detachments of Zulus, and secured prisoners. On the
1 2th March something very sad happened. About one
hundred men of the 80th Regiment were acting as
escort on the road from Derby to Luneberg, when, at

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 105

Intombi Drift, a force of Zulus came on stealthily,
overpowered- guards and sentries, threw down the
barricades of a laager, drove a section of the escort
straight into the Intombi River, and took possession
of the valuable convoy. Another detachment of the
90th endeavoured to beat off the enemy; they were
not strong enough to do so, and were reluctantly
compelled to ﬂee to Luneberg, where the garrison
turned out and drove back the Zulus. ‘In all, sixty
lives were lost by the onrush of the enemy. At
Indhlobane, again, an armed force of Zulus inﬂicted a
serious check upon a body of cavalry, and an attempt
was made to capture Kambula while being held by
Colonel Wood’s troops. Here the Zulus were driven
back time after time, as at Rorke’s Drift. Guns
played upon heavy masses of them with dire effect,
and in retreat they were cut down remorselessly by
infantry and cavalry alike. Colonel Buller and his
mounted men went in pursuit of the enemy a distance
of six miles, and ere the day's work was done nearly
a thousand dusky forms lay stretched in the valley
and upon mountain side. Our loss was about one
hundred in killed and wounded.

Meanwhile, Colonel Pearson’s No. 1 Column was
exceedingly busy. There was plenty of scouting from
the outset, Engineers and men of the Naval Brigade
from the warship Active prepared for or actually
joined in making pontoon bridges for river work

106 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

oxen and waggons were conducted along new road-
ways and over trackless moors, and when one division
reached a site ﬁxed upon for the erection of a new
fort—Tencdos it was to be named—~there was no
cessation from labour. Reports pointed to the country
round about being free from Zulu foemen, but who
could say when they would not appear? Likely
enough they would come on suddenly, and if the fort
was not completed, disaster and death would surely
follow. Hence the vigour with which the work was
prosecuted. Tenedos was to be a centre, too, for
cattle and stores. Other members of the column in
charge of convoys pushed on to Ekowe, for the purpose
of forming the stronghold. The distance was not
great from the border. The country to be traversed
was uneven, however, the weather was bad, water-
courses were many, straggling could not be avoided.
The tedious journey to Ekowe was not ﬁnished
when some miles away advance parties of Zulus were
sighted. It was on the 22nd January. Attraeted
by what they saw of the column, being of opinion,
doubtless, they could easily break through the escort
and make a very valuable capture, they approached
through the bush and were not defeated until rockets
and guns had been brought into a commanding posi-
tion and discharged into their ranks. Nor was the
loss of the enemy small, for while they came on apace
supports were hurried up on our side from the rear,

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 107

and were enabled to discharge repeated volleys from
short distances, and to join in the pursuit. Any
show of feebleness or cowardice among the British
would have meant a terrible massacre. Such a thing
might have easily happened, as during the engage-
ment Zulus came upon the scene in ever-increasing
numbers, shooting, hurling their throwing knives,
waving their clubs, and endeavouring to spread con-
fusion on every side. Colonel Pearson’s horse was
shot under him, and many were the hairbreadth
escapes of other ofﬁcers, as well as of non-commissioned
ofﬁcers and privates. Over two hundred and ﬁfty
Zulus were killed or wounded. Our loss was about
thirty.

How different the ﬁghting might have ended was
very firmly impressed on the minds of Colonel Pear-
son’s men a few days afterwards on learning of the
disaster at Isandula. The major portion of the
column had then reached Ekowe or the vicinity of it.
What was to be done now? Retreat upon the
Tugela? Hasten back into Natal? for the whole plan
of campaign was changed by the events of the dread
day. And who could tell whether the victorious
soldiers of Cetywayo would not make for Ekowe and,
still ﬂushed with triumph, inﬂict upon the column
horrors such as those suffered at Isandula and on the
road to Rorke’s Drift?

The enemy did approach Ekowe, but not in any

108 IN AFRICA WITH THE uNION JACK.

great bodies. Could they have seen clearly they
would have found the position strengthened day by
day; that, as at Rorke’s Drift, buildings were loop-
hooled, that entrenchments were constructed, that
stockades were put up, that earthworks were made
and mounted. Had the Zulu leaders been more
alive to the intentions of Colonel Pearson they would
have led their braves in larger numbers to the country
round Ekowe and stopped the provisioning of the
fort, have intercepted the companies of mounted and
coloured troops sent back to the Tugela as not being
required in the defence of the place. These chieftains
would have stormed the old mission station in the
early days of its re-oceupation and nipped in the bud
the schemes hatched for holding it. At any rate,
they would have attempted the task. They would
have taken better precautions, also, towards stopping
the raids on cattle kraals for the purpose of getting
supplies of good food for the garrison. Most provi-
dentially for the defenders of Ekowe was it that the
Zulus returned in their thousands to the interior of
the country after Isandula.

Still, the land for miles around Ekowe was infested
by the enemy. The day came when the garrison
were encompassed, when provisions ran short, when
for a box of matches a sum of four shillings was
offered, when tobacco was sold at the rate of 1s. 10d.
an ounce, and when anything like luxuries in food

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 109

were almost out of the question; days, too, when
sickness grew in an alarming degree, when the little
hospital and the soldiers’ quarters were largely
tenanted by fever-stricken patients, by soldiers down
with dysentery, and when more than one poor fellow
died owing to the lack of needful medicine. Very
tantalising were the weeks of February and the ﬁrst
weeks of March, weeks ﬁlled with doubt because
there was not likelihood of relief. The garrison
knew, of course, that they would not be abandoned.
They were painfully aware, however, that there was
no near prospect of relief, seeing that Lord Chelms-
ford and the main body of Imperial and Colonial
troops had retired into Natal, and did not think it
politic, without reinforcements, to attempt to reach
them.

In what way do you think the garrison at Ekowe
knew a column had at length started for their suc-
cour? By heliographing; that is, by ﬂashing signals,
the instrument being a mirror held in a bright light.
The attempts were vain at ﬁrst; it was only the
perseverance of Captain Macgregor and Lieutenant
Haynes that brought success. Thereafter messages
were ﬂashed from Ekowe and the Lower Tugela
country regularly, telling of continued existence in
the fort, if upon short rations and in the midst of
sickness ; on the other side that help had come from
England, and that a strong column was being consti-

110 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

tuted for the march upon Ekowe. On the 29th of
March the column started from the Tugela, Lord
Chelmsford being in command. In the two divisions
were over three thousand English and Colonials, two
thousand friendlies, with Gatling guns and rocket
tubes, and ample provisions for would-be rescuers
and the beleaguered. Every precaution was taken
during the march against surprises. No avenue
along which the stealthy Zulu could approach was
left open.

Near the Inyezane River, and a few miles away
from Ekowe, a force of ten thousand Zulus advanced
in the boldest fashion upon a laager, or fortiﬁed en-
campment, of the relieving column, dashing them-
selves upon lines formed up to receive them, getting
round through grass and brushwood and refusing to
be driven off until they were entirely out-manoeuvred
and compelled to retreat if they were not courting
annihilation. Nearly seven hundred Zulu warriors
fell in the encounter, as compared with seventy men
killed and wounded on the side of the British. The
engagement was the means of clearing the course to
Ekowe of the enemy, and of relieving, on the 2nd
April, the brave garrison without further opposition.
How rejoiced the besieged were on the receipt of
succour we can in some degree imagine. Very
gladly did they vacate the position for more congenial
quarters upon the banks of the Tugela. The relieving

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 111

column fell back upon the Tugela likewise, there to
await still further supports, and to rest until the new
plan of campaign was ﬁnally decided upon.

Whatever Cetywayo’s intentions were, those of the
British were making, or had made, for the conquest
of Zululand. Hence it was that cavalry, artillery,
infantry, and men of the Royal Navy continued to
arrive at Pietermaritzburg, the headquarters. Up-
wards of twenty-ﬁve thousand troops were in Natal
or upon its borders in the month of May, including
Dragoon Guards and Lancers, and men of at least six
regiments of foot. Major-General Crealock was in
command of one division, Major-General N ewdigate
of another, and Brigadier-General Wood (he had
been promoted from the rank of colonel) was at the
head of a newly-organised ﬂying column.

Slowly, very slowly, advance was made once more
into the enemy’s country, and bases ﬁxed upon and
fortiﬁed. To feed such a vast number of men was a
great task; to obtain transport requisites was another;
to cover the ground with guns and oxen and waggons
and the general impedimenta incident to war was
herculean indeed. Where were the Zulus in the
meantime, you will naturally inquire ? Not upon the
war—path. To say the least they did not trouble the
frontier. Thousands of the warriors were still in-
active. Practically, the army was dispersed, and a
brother of the king had, with eight hundred followers,

112 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

joined the British. Even Cetywayo refused to show
himself in the ﬁeld. Apparently, he was tired of
war. Early in May he despatched two envoys to the
British quarters with this message: “ \Vhite man has
made me king, and I am their son. Do they kill
the man in the afternoon whom they have made king
in the morning? What have I done? I want peace.
I ask for peace.” The king’s messengers were re-
ceived by John Dunn, a well-known South African
settler, a man who did good service as interpreter
and otherwise during the war, and who played no
unimportant part in the ultimate settlement of the
country. A ﬂag of truce was supplied to the men,
and they returned to the king with the reply that
Lord Chelmsford was ready to consider proposals.
There was no relaxation in preparations for the
advance. Cetywayo was not trusted. The Tugela
was bridged, supplies were pushed forward, guns and
ammunition were conveyed several stages. Zululand
was fairly entered by the three divisions, the ﬂying
column ever in advance, scouting and reporting, doing
excellent service under the most trying conditions.
Behind were the headquarters staff, and men of the
Second Division. To Lord Chelmsford came other
messengers from Cetywayo on the 6th June, sueing for
peace. They were treated kindly by the General,
and sent back with the demand that as tokens of an
earnest desire for peace the king must return to the

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 113

English forthwith the two guns and the oxen captured
from us, that he must promise that all the arms
taken from the Imperial and Colonial forces would,
when collected, be restored, and that one of his impis,
or regiments, must come into the British camp and
lay down its arms as a sign of submission, Cety-
wayo’s compliance to be the signal for a cessation of
hostilities. The advance went on, and, by the 17th
June the brigade was at the Upoko River, well on
the road to Cetywayo’s capital, Ulindi, a place named
Conference Hill being the main depot for transport
and stores. On the 27th another central point,
Stoujanenvi, beyond the River Uvulu, was reached,
and here a strong entrenchment was made for the
protection of mules, oxen, waggons, and stores. Such
of them as were not deemed necessary in the last
march upon Ulindi were left at the station.

The advance thus far had not been without ex-
citing incidents. Repeated were the encounters with
the enemy. The latter were not in any great number,
certainly, but those who showed themselves were
fearless, and not bad marksmen. They would come
out of hiding in bush and ravine, and, if unable to
follow up a surprise, would not retreat unless abso-
lutely compelled. Men of the ﬂying column had
several adventures in this way, and, as formerly,
wonderful escapes from death were mentioned, It
was during the march to Ulindi that the Prince

I

114 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

Imperial of France was killed. He came out from
England—where his mother, the Empress Eugenie,
and he were residing—to gain experience in savage
warfare, and was in advance of the company to which
he was attached when he, with Lieutenant Carey
and six Europeans, were ﬁred upon from a ﬁeld
of mealies. Alarmed at the unexpected presence
of the foe, and not knowing their strength, the Prince
and his companions rushed to their horses, bent on
self-preservation. The majority gained their steeds
and were saved. Not so the Prince Imperial. The
horse he rode was very tall, it was excited by the
outbreak in the ambush and the sudden stampede,
and could not be held in check. For yards the
Prince ran by the side of the galloping charger en-
deavouring to mount, but thrown to the ground at
last, and no one standing near to defend him, he was
pounced upon by the men who had missed hitting
him with their bullets, was foully assegaied in ﬁfteen
places, and stripped of a portion of his belongings.
Three other lives were lost in this sad encounter, two
troopers and a native guide. One of the troopers
was knocked over after he gained the saddle and was
riding away ; the second was, like the Prince, unable
to mount his charger, and met his death in a similar
manner. Subsequently the bodies were found by a
patrol, and were interred with full military honours.
Lieutenant Carey was blamed in some degree by a

IN AFRICA WITH T1111 UNION 11101:. 115

court~martial, but he was relieved by another court
of responsibility in the matter, and was permitted
to return to his duties. One may question whether
the Prince was not really at the head of the party so
fatally surprised. As to whether so many surprises
during the Zulu \Var might or might not have been
avoided we will not stay to inquiie.

\Vith the opening of July the divisions of General
Newdigate and General \Vood were almost within
striking distance of Ulindi. The banks of the
White Umvolosi had been reached. Here laagers, or
defensive positions, were established, and arrange-
ments made for the attack on and ﬁring of the king’s
capital, which was seen to be made up of a number
of kraals. Even upon the banks of the White
Umvolosi and four miles nearer Ulindi no large parties
of Zulus appeared to check the advance. Report had
it that many native leaders did not want to ﬁght,
that our army was massed and that there would be
little trouble in taking Ulindi itself. No one could
say whether the king would surrender. He had
kept up his show of desiring peace. Often had his
messengers come in to the British lines. On one of
the most recent occasions they had come in with
cattle and articles taken and carried off from Isan-
dula. The Prince Imperial’s sword was brought
back. On one of these occasions the messengers
brought word that the king wished the advance of

116 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

the British to be stayed till he could “hear plainly ”
what he had done—what great sin he had com-
mitted. Had he ever killed a white man or a
white woman, or taken cattle from a white man before
the war? Did he ever break the promises made to
the English commissioner, Sir Theophilus Shepstone?
Cetywayo averred that he could die happy if he
knew ﬁrst really what wrong he had done. If the
‘ troops did advance the king could not, he said, help
ﬁghting, “as there will be nothing left but to try and
push aside a tree if falling upon him.” And when
Colonel Buller and a detachment of the ﬂying column
were reconnoitring near Ulindi one day there was
another surprise—one that could scarcely have been
avoided. A great number of natives sprang from
concealment in river bed and from among bushes,
and endeavoured to get between the British scouts
and the White Umvolosi. They did not succeed.
Had they done so very few of the cavalry would have
escaped death. What the horsemen did was to turn
upon the leading Zulus, shoot them down, and,
breaking through the lines forming around them,
regain the encampment, with the loss of some ten
troopers in killed and wounded. Many of the detach-
ment who reached campbwed their lives to the
gallantry and patience of comrades.

Colonel Buller and his mounted men were to the
fore on the ensuing day. They led on the force told

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 117

off for the capture of Ulindi. Masses of Zulus were
seen moving. Cetywayo and his warriors were alive,
after all, to the situation. ' Ulindi was not to be taken
without one supreme effort to save it. Constantly
did fresh impis arrive in the country in order to
surround the British. Fearlessly did they approach
the invaders. Not in great solid phalanxes, not in the
formation customary on great occasions of battle—
in the shape of a crescent or half circle—but in
scattered companies. They were to be seen on every
side. Cavalry charges could not stay them, and
artillery mowed them down by the score and hundred;
infantry stood, were marched up to meet them, still
the Zulus advanced—they were as steady and resolute
as our own men ; up to the mouth of riﬂes, and on to
the points of bayonet and sword they thrust them-
selves. Over ﬁve thousand regulars, Colonials, and
natives, with fourteen guns, were opposed to at least
ten thousand brave Zulus, and if the latter were
defeated at length, if they were routed, if they were
chased up slopes and through valleys and cut down,
if they were beaten from the bush and rock, it was
because of superior discipline and weapons. Not
because the victors were more plucky. Even in the
throes of death Zulus would raise themselves and stab
at horses, riders and footmen. They gnashed in their
impotency, and breathed deﬁance while the pursuit
Was being prosecuted in the open and in the shade,

118 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

while kraal after kraal was burnt to the ground and
Ulindi was no more.

After the burning of Ulindi on the 4th July, Lord
Chelmsford resigned the command of the troops to
Sir Garnet Wolseley, who had arrived at Durban for
the purpose of superseding him. As was to be
expected of him, Sir Garnet acted with much vigour.
General-in-Chief and Administrator, he exercised the
greatest powers. Having invited native chiefs to
meet him, he addressed about sixty of them, saying
that the mighty Queen of England had sent him to
carry on the war against Cetywayo and to thank the
friendly indunas for what they had done ; that the
Queen would send many more armies into Natal and
Zululand if the soldiers already there were not
sufﬁcient to break the power of Cetywayo ; that every
promise made to the friendly Zulus would be per-
formed; that the war was not against the Zulu people
but against Cetywayo, who had broken his promises,
and that there was no wish to rob the Zulu people of
their land. Sir Garnet \Volseley communicated with
the tribes upon the borders of Zululand generally,
informing them of his desire for their help ; he
received in person the homage of many chiefs upon
the coast, among whom General Crealock and his
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IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 119

further of a serious character. Nothing alarming did
occur. The Zulus were humiliated.

Cetywayo was still free. While he remained at
large the peace of the country could not be guaran-
teed. Colonel Baker Russell was sent in search of
him; Cetywayo could not be found. Major Barrow
and Lord Gifford took out a detachment of cavalry,
followed the king from place to place, took prisoners
because the people would not betray the fallen
monarch, and threatened the natives right and left.
More than once the pursuers were near captur-
ing the fugitive. One morning they surrounded a
kraal among the mountains, where they were sure
Cetywayo had been, or was, sleeping, but to their
vexation the bird was gone. On the same day Lord
Gifford and a few troopers were near a kraal in which
it was said the king was resting; no capture was
made, however, and the party retired crestfallen.
Major Marter, of the Dragoon Guards, was more
fortunate. Accompanied by a squadron of cavalry
he started in pursuit, and when near the Ibulwane
River heard of the whereabouts of the king. After
creeping along the rocky summit of a precipice, Marter
was shown a kraal in which Cetywayo was hiding.
But how to approach? The dwelling was upon the
verge of a forest into which the king would certainly
dash if he had the slightest idea of the nearness of the

120 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

pursuers. The hunt for him had been maintained
for nearly two months; he would not surrender now
without one more struggle for liberty.

Only by the greatest precautions and by the exer-
cise of perseverance, was the kraal surrounded by
the pursuers, and then to ﬁnd that guns were pointed
at them by the defenders. A parley, an indomitable
front by Major Marter, and Cetywayo, seeing that all
was lost, calmly surrendered. With him were a chief
named Umkosana and a few adherents. Within the
kraal were a few articles belonging to the 24th Regi-
ment, and conveyed thither from Isandula. Cety-
wayo was taken eventually to Cape Town and kept a
prisoner there.

At Ulindi, on the 1st September, Sir Garnet
Wolseley met a company of Zulu chiefs, including
two brothers of Cetywayo, in conference. They agreed
to observe and respect whatever boundaries might be
ﬁxed upon by the British Government and to receive
residents appointed to various districts (thirteen),
that no military system should be permitted in Zulu-
land, and that full liberty would be allowed to natives.
No ﬁrearms were to be imported, there were to be
fair trials in the cases of persons accused of offences,
witch doctors were to be abolished, and in all the
supremacy of the British was to be acknowledged.

“ Thus was completed the settlement of Zululant .”

1y it the war, which had cost upwards of £5,000,000

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 121

sterling, was ended. Zululand was never to see
Cetywayo again. Owing to constant appeals, how-
ever, and to movements in England on his behalf, the
ex-king was brought to this country in 1882, was
received by the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and
members of the Government, and in January, 1883,
his restoration was proclaimed at Ulindi. At war
with a number of chiefs, his capital was again taken,
Cetywayo was once more a fugitive, and, throwing
himself upon the mercy of the British, he arrived at
Durban a captive in the autumn of 1883. Three
months after this, Cetywayo escaped from conﬁne-
ment, was again made prisoner, but to die on the
8th February, 1884:.

A life of many and strange vicissitudes was that of
Cetywayo, King of the Zulus.

While we were at war with Cetywayo, our men had
considerable trouble in dealing with another leader,
namely, Sekukuni. This chief would not promise
allegiance to the British; he refused to give any
token of friendship. On the contrary, he swore fealty
to Cetywayo. The compact he kept most faithfully
to the close of his eventful career. When Cetywayo’s
warriors were dispersed at Ulindi, he would not seek
the friendship of the white men ; when the Zulu king
was a hunted fugitive among the mountains, nay,
when Cetywayo was made captive, and conducted
irom his native land without a hope of returning,

122 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

Sekukuni would have no dealings with the British.
He deﬁed the military force sent out in pursuit, and
laughed at them from his stronghold in the everlast-
ing hills of his native Basutoland.

In point of numbers the Basutos, forming a branch
of the Kafﬁrs, are not great. Formerly, the Basuto
warriors were to be counted by their tens of thousands.
Tribal wars reduced their strength, and when Utshaka,
the famed Zulu king, made a descent into their
territory, he never went back to his capital without
leaving a terrible amount of wailing in the country
because of a ﬁerce slaughter. Under Sekukuni, and
peace made with the Zulus, the Basutos once more
raised their heads and held their own. They would
raid across their eastern border into the Transvaal,
and retire to their strongholds with the booty taken
from the Dutch settlers, well aware that the latter
were not disposed to follow them. Certain of them
joined with other Kaﬂir tribes in vexing the English
years before the Zulu War broke out. Once in par-
ticular, in 1852, after an irritating campaign against
the Griquas, the Basutos consented to terms of peace;
but they broke into hostility again, all the resources
at the command of Sir George Cathcart being neces-
sary at one period to save the English from disaster.
A protectorate over Basutoland was declared by the
English in 1877. Still, the Basutos would not rest,
and in 1879 operations were commenced against a.

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 123

section of them named the Baphutis, and led by the
old chief Moroso. His mountain, or stronghold, was
fortiﬁed in the most extraordinary manner by stone
breastworks, and not all the ingenuity of Colonel
Bayley and the ofﬁcers who led the Cape troops
could prevail. The base of the mountain was patrolled
month after month to prevent any escape on the
part of Moroso and the twelve hundred people with
him; vain endeavours were made to scale the side
of the stronghold; futile efforts were conceived and
put into effect for reaching the besieged by some
ravine or secret path ; a reward for Moroso, dead or
alive, did not bring him. Only when the year was
fast waning, when stone forts had been built nearer
and nearer the centre of the stronghold, and light
guns were mounted upon them, when wall after wall
had been sealed in the face of musket-shots, and
hand-to-hand conflicts were numerous, did the Basuto
Baphutis think of abandoning opposition. Scores of
them took to the caves, and at least a hundred jumped
from a great height into the Orange River ﬂowing
beneath. Moroso was found among the killed.
Meanwhile, troops despatched against Sekukuni
himself, in his stone-built fortress at the head of a
steep ravine, could not make any sensible impres-
sion. They were totally unable to reach the chief,
and were pleased enough to leave the place that they
might operate against Sekukuni’s friend, Cetywayo.

124 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

The Basuto chief was not to remain untouched.
When the Zulu War was closed he was asked to pay
a ﬁne in cattle imposed upon him by the English.
He refused, or, at all events, said the soldiers must
come to him and obtain them. As a fact, Major
Clarke, sent out as a special commissioner to Seku-
kuni, learned that he was strongly disposed for war,
and that many of those around him, including tribal
chiefs from Zululand, were urging him to ﬁght.

In November, 1879, therefore, Sir Garnet Wolseley
commenced operations against the deﬁant Chieftain.
Colonel Baker Russell was second in command. With
the British were about two thousand natives, including
Swazi warriors, and very useful they proved themselves
in the attacks upon kraals right on to the vicinity of
Sekukuni’s quarters. Often, as in Zululand, there
were no roads for the oxen and waggons to traverse ;
the country was uneven, and not always watered;
alarms had to be provided against; the heat was
intense, the progress slow. Europeans and Swazis
marched and fought cheerfully by night and by day,
and, although ﬁnal preparations for storming the
great fortress were completed amid a storm of wind
and rain, not a murmur was heard. Very early on
the morning of the 28th the battle opened. Artillery
ﬁre burst out from different points, the English and
Natal infantry started for the ascent of the mountain,
and the Swazis headed for the stronghold in deter-

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 1‘25

mined style. Then “a ﬁerce yell and the blast of
war-horns from koppie and mountain announced that
the Basutos were ready for us. The light of bursting
shells was answered by the sparkle of musketry ; but
the enemy ﬁred wildly, and wasted their powder.
Scarcely had the guns opened when the Basutos in
caves on the chain of hills in rear of the camp began
to join in,” and the conﬂict became general. Stoutly
the Basutos fought with musket and spear, hurling
themselves upon the men on our side willingly and
fearlessly. But quite as resolute were the strangers.
They would not be borne down; they would not
yield a single inch. Constantly advancing over rock
and koppie and bush, they killed and maimed without
stint, while the mountain~guns displaced the heaps of
stone thrown up by the Swazis, and wrought serious
mischief among the defenders of the mountain.
Sekukuni had sent an impudent message weeks
before, saying the British dared not ﬁght him; he
was now experiencing the truth or otherwise of his
assertion. To do the chief justice, he fought bravely
enough. Wherever his presence was needed, there
he threw himself, encouraging by word and deed.
The old fellow seemed to bear a charmed life. It
was not to be. Sekukuni’s last stand was being made.
Upward and upward the English and their allies
crowded. Neither death nor wounds had terrors for
those who lived on. The steep ascent did not deter

126 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

them from ﬁghting. At length the high rocks were
mounted, the walls had been scaled, crags were left
behind, ﬁghting was going on in the very heart of
the stronghold hitherto held to be impossible of
capture. Where the Europeans would have spared,
the Swazi warriors would not. They hacked and they
hewed with their short stabbing-swords, they shot
with their riﬂes, scarcely stopping to raise their shields
when in the greatest danger of being cut to pieces by
the followers of Sekukuni. Caves and other hiding-
places did not save the Basutos from the fury of the
Swazis, nor from the operations of the whites. The
chief was among the last of the enemy to be dis-
covered. He was sought for most anxiously, but no
one would tell of his whereabouts—no, not when
threatened with death. His hiding—place was dis—
covered late in the afternoon, however, and he was
captured alive. Sekukuni was conveyed thence, and
held in conﬁnement at Pretoria.

Thus ended the last of our wars with the Basutos.

CHAPTER VIII.
A MELANCHOLY STORY.

FEW campaigns conducted within sight of the Union
Jack have been so inglorious as that in the Transvaal
during the year 1881. It did not bring to England
honour or renown; its close was marked by What
many persons still call a shameful surrender. .

After what has been related in these pages with
regard to the Transvaal and the Dutch Boers, or
settlers who are its principal inhabitants, we will only
stay to remark that events soon demonstrated the
truth of the assertion that the influential residents
were far from satisﬁed with the Protectorate declared
at Pretoria in April, 1877, by Sir Theephilus Shep-
stone. Men were ready to admit that the Transvaal
Republic was not as ﬂourishing as it might have
been, that serious dissensions existed in the country,
and that, owing to repeated wars with native tribes
dwelling upon the borders, a feeling of insecurity and
uncertainty was abroad. But they were not prepared
to see the ﬂag of the Dutch Republic lowered, and
the standard of Old England taking its place. Such

128 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

a proceeding was vehemently denounced at indig-
nation meetings by the great bulk of the people.
The dissatisﬁed did not proceed to extremes for
some time. They were not sure of their strength;
they could not tell whether their old enemies the
Kaﬂirs would sorely hamper them, whether the Zulus
would make inroads, or how far the British would
resist any attempt at independence. But the Zulus,
having been crushed by the English, and the Basutos
being no longer a ﬁghting power owing, also, to the
energy of the British, the Boers breathed more freely.
They saw that these old foes were no real menace
to their well-being. It was noticeable, again, that
the British troops had been drawn away from the
Zulu and Basuto countries, and that they were being
withdrawn largely from Natal. Murmurings became
louder accordingly, and a great convention or meet-
ing of Boers was called for the middle of December,
1879, for the purpose of discussing the situation.
To Wonderfontein, or the Prado Kraal, as the con-
ference-ground was designated, came thousands of
Boers. They rode in from districts north, south,
east, and west, from farms amid the great solitudes,
from rapidly-rising towns and villages. Across river
and stream, along narrow pass and broad ravine, over
hill and dale ; through bush and brake, in ox—waggons
or upon horseback, they journeyed, rifle in hand and
revolver in belt. For, apart from any purposes inci-

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 129

dent to the Wonderfontein gathering, the Boer rarely
travelled without arms, living a lonely life, one spent
in the midst of manifold dangers. To carry a riﬂe
was, and is, second nature with him.

At this meeting speeches by no means friendly to
the British and their Protectorate were delivered, and
when resolutions were passed protesting against an-
nexation, appealing for independence, agreeing to
appoint a triumvirate, or supreme council of three
persons, and ﬁxing upon the town of Heidelburg as
the capital of what was named the South African
Republic, no great amount of surprise was manifested
by those who knew the Dutch Boers and their past
history.

Nor did the leaders of the movement refrain from
striking at once. The Transvaal contained few
Imperial troops, in spite of what had threatened;
the largest number were quartered at Pretoria. They
were surrounded without hesitation, pickets and
posts being constituted by the Boer leaders. Still,
there was a feeling of conﬁdence on the side of the
British. The camps around Pretoria could be
protected from any attacks by outlying pickets
of infantry posted on the adjoining hills, and by
cavalry patrols night and day, wrote an ofﬁcer of
the staff. The only party upon which such an
attempt was possible was the squadron of the King’s
Dragoon Guards, on the Potchefstroom road, about

K

130 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK:

eight miles from Pretoria. There was a possibility
of attack, of course, and in case any large body of
armed Boers approached a post, those constituting it
were to fall back steadily towards Pretoria, leaving
the camp standing if there was not time to strike and
remove it. Swords were to be kept drawn in the
presence of armed Boers, that the troopers might be
ready to charge at any moment.

Sir George P. Colley was Military Governor of
Natal at that time, and to him the Boer leaders
addressed a communication, saying they hoped the
Government of the country would do What they could
to prevent a contest that would bring very serious
consequences in its train. Independence had been
decided upon, they said, Paul Kruger being President
of the new Republic, and Petrus Joubert, Military
Commandant.

Before a reply could be received, an event hap-
pened at Lydenburg which greatly embittered the
situation. Hastening to the support of the troops at
Pretoria were some two hundred men of the 94th
Regiment in command of Colonel Anstruther. On
nearing Brunker’s Spruit on the 21st December,
several waggons loaded with ammunition and pro-
visions stuck in the marshy ground, and while doing
what they could to extricate oxen and vehicles, the
men were, without any warning, set upon. Several
of the 94th fell at once, but those who remained

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 131

uninjured formed up, resolved to sell their lives as
dearly as possible. They had small chance, for the
Boers shot from behind boulders and had the English-
men at their mercy. In less space than half an hour
the majority of the ofﬁcers had fallen killed or
wounded ; about a hundred of the non-commissioned
ofﬁcers and men were struck by the cowardly assail-
ants. The ﬁghting was so unequal and the prospect
so intensely black that Colonel Anstruther, who was
fatally hit, was impelled to surrender. All the sur-
vivors were thereupon made prisoners, and the convoy
was taken possession of by the victors. By the fore-
thought and quick action of Sergeant Bradley, who
was allowed to proceed in search of medical assis-
tance, the colours of the 94th were saved. He
carried them away under his jacket after they had
been torn from the poles. About the same time,
Potchefstroom was attacked by the Boers with suc-
cess, and Sir Owen Lanyon, in command at Pretoria,
was thereby deprived of the last hope of immediate
help.

The insurgents were not long in bringing about the
investment of Pretoria. News of the affairs at
Brunker’s Spruit and Potchefstroom having spread,
hundreds who had paused to enter the ﬁeld against
the British joined the rebels, and making, many of
them, for the encampments in the neighbourhood of
the capital, joined in an assault which resulted in the

182 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

surrender of the town. But not of the fort; it was
stoutly held by the garrison, as was a fort near the
lost centre of Potchefstroom, and the towns of Stan-
derton and Utrecht, with Laing’s ch, Heidelburg,
Middleburg, and Christiana were occupied by the
Boers. The rebellion went on spreading; recruits
joined the new standard daily, while agents were sent
out in every direction for increased supports. Neither
the Zulus nor the Swazis would ally themselves with
the Boers.

To relieve the beleaguered gafrisons and to put
down' the serious insurrection, reinforcements were
despatched into the Transvaal from Natal and Cape
Colony, and troops in England were brought under
orders for the seat of war. General Collcy placed
himself at the head of the ﬁrst relief column by way
of Natal. It was made up of about ﬁfty cavalry
and a thousand men of the 60th Riﬂes, the 58th
Regiment, the Scots Fusiliers, and a company of
sailors and marines. The force was not by any
means large enough, as fully eight thousand Boers
were in the ﬁeld by the end of January, 1881, large
bodies being massed in the roads leading from N ew-
castle, on the Natal border, to Laing’s Nek, or brow,
in the Drakensburg mountains, and on to Potchef—
stroom and Pretoria. As just stated, the Boers were
in possession of the Nek and thus blocked the way
to the towns beyond. 011 the 28th January the

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 133

enemy was sighted. General Joubert was in com-
mand, and had his men ﬁrmly entrenched. The
ground was unfavourable, too, for military operations,
being very uneven and slippery by reason of heavy
rains.

But the relieving column advanced, General
Colley in the van, with men of the 58th Regiment
and the 60th Riﬂes. Positions had then been
assigned to the Naval Brigade with the guns, with a
view of shelling the Boer position, while the cavalry
were told off to take the enemy, if possible, on the
right ﬂank, and thus strike confusion at the time the
main attack was being prosecuted. The infantry
mounted the hillside in admirable fashion, neither
man nor rugged nature staying their advance, until
the ﬁre from ridge and ravine became too strong for
them, and they were compelled to halt. The climb
up the hillside was bad enough. How much worse
when cruel bullets constantly rained among them,
lessening their numbers every moment and rendering
the task they were expecting to perform well-nigh
hopeless I Nor did the mounted men fare any better.
They charged and charged as directed, and were shot
down, many of them never to rise again, while rider-
less horses galloped back down the slope to run wild
in the bush around. The artillery ﬁre did no great
damage; in short, what with the sheltered positions
they occupied, the sharp and craggy ascents beneath

134 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

them, and the extreme accuracy of their aim, the
Boers had everything in their favour. Very reluc-
tantly did the British fall back and leave the rebels
to Whatever they might have gained. Nothing
further could be done pending the arrival of reinforce-
ments. .

The British loss at Laing’s Nek was seven ofﬁcers
and seventy-ﬁve men killed, and two ofﬁcers and over
one hundred men wounded. Colonel Deane, who
was in charge of the mounted men, was killed early
in the battle. He had a horse shot under him at
the onset. Only by a display of magniﬁcent valour
were the colours of the 58th Regiment saved.
Lieutenant Baillie was shot while carrying one of
them. Another young ofﬁcer, Lieutenant Peel, ran
to bring him out of the carnage, but the wounded
man begged no one would think of him; all he
wanted was the safety of the regimental colours.
Peel took the ﬂag, held it closely with the one he
carried in the ﬁght, and they were passed over to a
sergeant named Brinstock. A party of the enemy
then made a rush for the colours and would certainly
have captured the treasures had it not been that the
men of the 58th rallied, and, under a galling ﬁre,
brought them out of danger.

Day after day the British and the Boers watched
from their respective positions. Sir George Colley
knew his helplessness; the Boers were conﬁdent they

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 135

could not occupy more impregnable ground. It was
their main purpose, still, to prevent any succour com-
ing by way of Newcastle for the beleaguered British
garrisons. Entrenched though he was, the English
general could not go on holding his own. He must
have supplies. Information came in, at length, that
a large convoy had started to reach him. The
Boers heard of this, also, and forthwith General
J oubert told off a body of his men with the object of
intercepting the waggons. To keep them from the
British would be something towards starving them
out; to capture them would mean feeding his own
Boers. Marching out to meet the convey with four
hundred men and two guns, Sir George Colley was
intercepted near the Ingogo River by Boer sharp-
shooters. The majority of them had ridden from
their encampment, had picketcd their horses, and
then hidden themselves in the long grass and shrubs
and behind jutting rocks at a bend of the river they
guessed the British must pass. Innocent of the
ambush the English advanced. They were men of
the 60th Riﬂes principally. Suddenly a fusillade Of
the deadliest character was opened upon them. Every
shot told, so short was the distance between them
and the enemy, so correct the shooting. The riﬂes
could not reply, the guns were of little or no use.
Why? The enemy could not be seen. They re-
mained hidden behind the boulders and in the shrubs

130' IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

and long grass and that at a height where they could
not be reached. Another dreadful time it was for
our brave lads. A season of complete inability to
return the shots. One after another, ofﬁcers, non-
commissioned ofﬁcers, and privates were killed or
wounded. They attempted to scale the cliffs, to
penetrate the hiding places of the Boers, but it was
only to be shot down coolly and mercilessly; they
sought to work the guns but they could not, so hot
‘ and distressing was the leaden hail discharged at
them. The Boers would not show themselves ; they
would remaln screened and ever they kept on unre-
lentingly with their steady task of killing and wound-
ing. Our men would not retire. Exposed as they
were, having no corresponding amount of shelter
afforded them, they stood by ofﬁcers and comrades
and guns, friendly darkness alone saving them from
total destruction. It did not allow them to advance
on the road to Newcastle. Under its cover the
remnant fell back to the quarters left earlier in the
day. They had then spiked the guns and destroyed
riﬂes and ammunition they could not carry away.
Even the river they forded in their retreat seemed
to be against them, for during the seven hours that
had elapsed since they crossed it with the intention
of meeting the convoy—which, by the way, had not
been started owing to the lack of a strong escort—
the Ingogo had risen so rapidly that the weary and

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 137

disheartened troops were compelled to wade through
it with the water reaching their hips. The wounded
they found it impossible to bear with them ; the dead
they could not collect.

The encampment was dismal enough. Rain de-
scended in torrents, ﬂooding the ground and making
it slippery. The wind howled along the ravines,
rushed by the mountain’s brow, and pierced the very
marrow of the soldiers. Add to all this the awful
disappointment rankling in their breasts anent the
ﬁghting at Laing’s Nek; the knowledge of serious
loss of life there and by the Ingogo River; the
bitter thought that garrisons they had been sent out
to suceour were still besieged or had, perhaps, yielded
to the stress of circumstances; that the victorious
Boers were loudly rejoicing in their work ; that they
were holding the key of the situation and their
numbers being constantly increased; that to retire
from the position near Laing’s Nek on to Newcastle
would mean Joubert following in their wake, and
massacring them and exposing the Transvaal still
further to the designs of the insurgents—and
you will have some very limited idea of the
feelings of Sir George Colley and his companions
in their helpless plight among the Drakensburg
hills.

There was some comfort for them on learning that,
under a ﬂag of truce, the wounded by the Ingogo were

138' IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

attended to and brought under cover next day. Their
sufferings had been very terrible, exposed as they
were the whole night through to the pitiless cold and
rain, and without aid. Sir George Colley, also, issued
a special order in which he said the artillery well
sustained the reputation of the corps by the way they
served the guns under a murderous ﬁre and brought
them out of action, notwithstanding their heavy losses
in men and horses, and he praised the Riﬂes for their
unﬂinching steadiness and discipline under ﬁre, for
the perfect order, coolness, and spirit in which the
night march was carried out, as being worthy of any
veterans.

Reinforcements were collected in Natal and, under
Sir Evelyn Wood, were sent out for the relief of
General Colley, while troops sailed from England and
stations in the East that they might assist in the
reconquest of the Transvaal. Sir George Colley
succeeded in meeting General Wood at Newcastle.
While, however, the new relief column was resting
after a rapid and exhausting march, the Boers cap-
tured a large convoy at the Ingagane River, and
ﬁrmly entrenched themselves upon the Buffalo River
and at other points they judged Sir Evelyn Wood,
his Hussars, Riﬂes, Highlanders and Naval Brigade
would take in their course for the heart of the Trans-
vaal. Laing’s Nek was still held. The strength of the
enemy went on increasing, rebels joining the ranks

N AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 139

from near and far, all encouraged by the promises
of support sent them from Europe and America.
Their determination became even more unalterable.
N at a few of the Boers stated they were sorry to have
to ﬁght. Duty called and they must obey. The
Transvaal was for the Dutch Boers, not for the
English; the annexation to British territory was a
mistake, and against the best wishes of the majority
in the country.

Sir George Colley marched with the second relief
column and halted with them to the left of Laing’s
Nek, and not far from Majuba Hill. This was on the
26th February, and while Sir Evelyn \Vood was
visiting another district. Leaving the encampment
at Prospect Hill, and taking with him in the dead
of night some seven hundred men, General Colley
headed for'Majuba Hill, meaning to take it early on
the morning of the 27th, and so command the Boer
position at Laing’s Nek. It was another perilous
climb. One path alone wound for some distance
towards the top of Majuba. In certain places it was
too narrow for the silent company to walk in threes
or fours. At intervals great precipices yawned, at
the foot of which roared and splashed some angry
river. To slip and fall down meant a terrible death.
The brave and trusting men went on in the black
darkness and were rewarded after the toilsome ascent
in reaching the tableland. The hour was about four.

140 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

Never would they have mounted the hill had it not
been for the dusky native guides.

Dawn of day now, and with it amazement on the
part of the Boers. Not for a single second had they
imagined any enemy appearing upon Majuba Hill.
How they had arrived upon it was a great mystery !
Whence had they come? But the foe were in sight
and must be dealt with. The barrier upon which the
insurgents relied was a positive danger. Driven from
it, and the road into the Transvaal was almost open
to the English reinforcements. The Boers did not
mean to resign the advantage held so toughly and
so long. Their consternation having decreased, they
set about meeting the strangers; not from behind
the entrenchments simply, but by direct attack. The
design was to advance upon the British and drive
them pell- -mell from Majuba Hill. A bold scheme,
surely, and one as skilfully and pluckily carried out.

Down from the summit of Laing’s Nek the skir-
mishers came ; they gathered from entrenchments
below it and from points farther away. They were
quite undaunted by any thing our troops could do. A
friend falling had not the slightest effect upon the
Boe1s , the commands fiom Sir GeOIge Colley and his
staff resounding from the Majuba, and answered by a
new movement, did not lead them to pause. From
cover to cover the enemy advanced, ﬁring the while,
sending our poor, wearied fellows to their long home,

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 141

picking them off at long range with the utmost ease.
How remarkably straight those Boer huntsmen and
farmers and traders shot! Just as the wild beast of
the desert and the mountain side had no chance when
exposed to their aim, so the British upon Majuba
Hill were shot down with unfailing accuracy. Nearer
and nearer yet crept the skirmishers, large bodies
following and keeping up the ruthless attack. Anon
the main body dispersed, taking one side and another
until, clambering, securing foothold wherever it was
possible, the ring of living ﬁre was more than half
way up the precipitous slopes, and the English were
being enclosed in a deadly grip.

The defenders were not dismayed. Soon they per-
ceived the daring tactics of the enemy; soon they
heard the word that the water supply was short, and
that the ammunition was not likely to hold out if the
struggle was at all protracted. But they murmured
not. They answered with willing hearts and minds
to the directions given them, stood by the slender
defences nature had provided upon the hill, saw how
true was the aim of the Boer marksmen, yet went
on doing their best, and hoping that all would come
out right before the day expired. Oh! what a dreary
morning that was. Fighting from ﬁve o’clock, on to
six and seven o’clock, on to noon; hunger and thirst
gnawing at them, the probability of being closely en-
circled by the force creeping here, there, everywhere.

142 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

Stay! What was this? The ﬁre of the stern,
unbending Boers slackening! Was their ammuni-
tion failing them? Did they see that the summit of
Majuba Hill could not be made? that the British
would not yield? If so, that enviable position at
Laing’s Nek, to win which one English force had
been slaughtered in part, might yet be secured. The
defeat on an earlier day might be fully avenged.
Alas! no. The ﬁring among the Boers slackened only
while fresh words of command were given, while the
cold settlers of the wild Transvaal tightened their
belts, looked to their riﬂes, and drew themselves up
for a ﬁnal, ugly rush. Hitherto they advanced cau-
tiously, if surely ; the word went round now that with
a shout and a mad advance the plateau of Majuba Hill
and the redcoats and the blueJackets upon it must
be captured.

The storm broke. Crag answered to crag with the
ringing of it; ravines gave back the echoes. Deep
were the cheers and the mutterings from the lusty
threats of the Boers; cruel were the shots. The
bullets shrieked around; they cut and mortally
wounded; they poured with crushing power upon
the thin lines formed to drive back the assailants,
and broke them. Commander Romilly, in charge of
the Naval Brigade, was then lying dead ; other ofﬁcers
had fallen also, but those who remained stood un-
ﬂinchingly by the men, and by personal example, as

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 143

well as by command, showed them how to stand and
ﬁght. Non~commissioned ofﬁcers and privates did
stand where they could; they fought. They could
not reply, however, with unwavering hope of success.
Up and up came the Boers, mounting crest after
crest, shooting down our gallant boys as they stood,
clearing men from behind stone and rock, until the
British force was, in effect, smashed. A hard-grind-
ing chain that was narrowing still on the very plateau
or top of the Spitzkop. Shelter of no proﬁt, com-
rades weltering in blood, the last glimmer of hope V
gone,a band of redjackets and sailors stood shoulder
to shoulder with ﬁxed bayonets, and sold their lives
dearly. Even yet the Boers tightened their fearful
grip. Sir George Colley was shot in the last stand;
those who had obeyed him throughout continued to
fall, and when, with a united bound, as it seemed, the
victorious Boers sprang upon the remnant, there were
not wanting men who met them with bayonet still
ﬁxed, and deﬁance in all their hearing. Rarely have
the British fought so nobly as in the battle upon
Majuba Hill.

Of the thirty-six ofﬁcers and seven hundred non-
commissioned ofﬁcers and men who started for
Majuba, two ofﬁcers were killed, ten were wounded,
and six taken prisoners, while eighty men were killed,
one hundred and twenty were wounded, and nineteen
were taken prisoners, The Boer loss was small.

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Practically, the disaster upon Majuba Hill was the
last of the ﬁghting in the Transvaal. After the battle
an eight-days armistice was ﬁxed upon. It was
then agreed that in the interval no British advance
would be made from the encampment at Prospect
Hill, that the garrisons should be allowed provisions
sent on from Natal, that no advance would be made
on the part of the Boers, and that there was to be no
scouting nor acts of war in any shape. Meantime,
reinforcements were hurried on through Natal, and
Sir Frederick (now Lord) Roberts was nominated to
the command of the whole British forces in the
Transvaal. His services, and those of the English
supports, were not required.

Amid a perfect tempest of indignation in England,
the Government of the day consented to a declaration
of peace by which the Boers were accorded the inde-
pendence for which they had been fighting, and our
troops were withdrawn from across the Transvaal
border—a campaign and an ending without parallel
in the whole history of our dear country.

The heroic and successful defence of the town-forts
in the Transvaal make up the one bright and cheer-
ing spot to us in the Boer revolt. Pretoria, the
capital, was invested by the insurgents from the
middle of December, but the garrison refused to sur-
render, although sorely pressed, making sorties occa-
sionally under Colonel Sir Owen Lanyon or Colonel

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 145

Gildea, and capturing cattle and goods for provisions.
The Boers were kept at a respectful distance by
patrols and the knowledge that guns were in posi-
tion ; and on one occasion, at least, they were put to
rout with a loss of about forty men. Colonel Bel-
lairs was the senior ofﬁcer at Potchefstroom when it
was ﬁrst surrounded by the rebels. A small body of
them would have hauled down the Union J aek at the
outset and hoisted the ﬂag of the Boer Republic, but
one fellow was shot through the arm, and the others
very quickly disappeared. The rebels gathered, how-
ever, hemmed a party of infantry in the market-place,
and literally starved them into submission. After-
wards the Boers retired. They then sent in a demand
to Colonel Bellairs to surrender. Receiving cannon-
ball as answer, they opened ﬁre upon the garrison in
the fort, and, not succeeding, resolved upon cutting
off all their supplies. Changing their designs, they
dug trenches, mounted a ﬁeld-piece, and attacked the
fort. Driven off, they came on a second time, were
repulsed, and lay down in front of Potchefstroom, bent
on their former scheme of starving the garrison, and
the women and children with them. Once the Boers
occupied a building inside the fort, but they were
driven out at the point of the bayonet, and did not
venture to return. Firing into Potchefstroom was
almost constant, however, and a hundred men, women,
and children were killed or wounded. Owing to a
L

146 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

false report, the garrison surrendered in the last days
of March. Behind old and new entrenchments, and
with provisions not yet exhausted, they could have
held out many days longer.

Captain Saunders and the garrison of Wakker-
stroom, right away in the north of the Transvaal,
held the place throughout the continuance of hos-
tilities; and at Standerton, lying between Wakker-
stroom and Heidelburg, Major Montague offered a
grand and sustained resistance to everything the dis-
contented Boers attempted. So impressed were the
Volunteers raised by the major with his services
that, when he left them and the Transvaal, they pre-
sented him with an address of farewell, regretting
his departure, and stating that, although forsaken
and ignored by their country, their hearts would ever
warm at the sight of the British national uniform.

CHAPTER IX.
FOR ENGLAND AND EMPIRE.

ENGLAND never allowed her interest in Egypt to relax
from the time her troops left Alexandria in the year
1807. Constantly on the alert, her representatives
in that quarter of the globe were enabled to report
on everything of importance. Her ministers, and
the ambassadors at Constantinople and elsewhereT
watched very jealously the behaviour of the Turks
the conduct of the khedives and the pashas, and any
movement on the part of the French likely to give
them prominence in Egypt. As time went on this
interest became keener still. When the Suez Canal
was opened, no European Power, not even Turkey
herself, suzerain or holder of Egypt, maintained a
stricter guard on whatever concerned the land of the
Pharaohs than England.

What did the cutting of the Suez Canal mean to
Great Britain ? Another, and that the nearest, high-
way to her priceless possession—India ; another, and
that thebest, route to her colonies in South Africa,
to Australia, New Zealand, and the lesser islands of

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the Indian Seas and South Paciﬁc Ocean. It meant
that Turkey, or France, or Russia, or any European
nation having a ﬁrm hold upon Egypt, and England
“ out in the cold,” not only would our Eastern, South
African, Australasian, and other possessions be within
easy striking distance of a great competitor, not to
say enemy, but our trade with these parts would be
in very serious danger. The Suez Canal held by an
adversary meant that, while our ships carrying rein-
forcements and the munitions of war were breasting
the waters upon the whole of the western and southern
coasts of Africa and, it might be, the centre of the
Indian or Paciﬁc Oceans, that adversary could disem-
bark her troops upon shores that belong to us, and
have dealt the most deadly blows at what concerns
us vitally. It means all this to-day, and, probably,
to the end of time. See, then, what an extraordinary
interest we have in Egypt and in the Suez Canal.
Is it possible for you to wonder that whatever con-
cerns that country affects Englishmen? Are you
surprised when you recollect that since the year 1882
a British military occupation of Egypt has been in
force, and that the outcry is loud and earnest when-
ever the entire withdrawal of British soldiers is sug-
gested? We have a further connection with Egypt
—additional reasons for having a voice in the control
of Egyptian affairs. The Suez Canal was formally
opened in November, 1869. Six years afterwards

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 149

the British Government purchased shares in the
Canal to the value of more than £4,000,000 sterl-
ing. Shares they were belonging to the Khedive of
Egypt. Mr. Goschcn, Mr. Rivers Wilson, and others
had then been engaged in the endeavour to place
the ﬁnances of the country upon a sounder basis. The
French were largely interested, too, in the ﬁnances of
Egypt, as well as in those of the Suez Canal—the ,
work, do not forget, of M. de Lesseps, a great French
engineer. Hence, England was more than ever in-
volved. France had a right- to make herself heard
also. To safeguard their interests, to join in preserv-
ing them, England and France agreed to the estab-
lishment of what was termed the Dual Control. The
two countries would act mutually together.

This was the state of things at the beginning of
1882, when Tewﬁk Pasha was Khedive of Egypt,
when the native Council was unsettled, when England
and France were remonstrating, and when Ahmed
Arabi Bey had a considerable voice as a leader of the
National Party. A party it was that professed to
have the best interests of Egypt at heart and to be
utterly opposed to any foreign interference. England
and France could not consent to the demands of the
National Party. But in spite of complaints, the
National Party was listened to, and Arabi was ap—
pointed a War Minister. His advancement gave
Arabi increased power in the country, swelled the

150 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

ranks of the National Party, and so alarmed was the
Khedive Tewﬁk, at length, that he threatened abdi-
cation. Confusion and agitation in ministerial circles
ensued, orders were given only to be disobeyed, and
fear spread in Cairo and Alexandria. Still the Khe—
dive wavered. Between the demands of Arabi and
the National Party on the one hand, and England
and France on the other, he could not decide what
course to pursue. The British and French Govern-
ments said that nothing short of Arabi’s resignation
would satisfy them, Arabi stated that he would not
yield, the Khedive still lacked ﬁrmness, and the
upshot of it all was that in June an alarming riot
occurred in the streets of Alexandria, by which many A
persons were killed and wounded, and a great
amount of damage was done to property, followed
by a large number of Europeans leaving Egypt.
Neither they nor their belongings were, they felt,
safe. Again England and France strongly protested,
again there was indecision in the Palace, Arabi was
maintained in power, and having now a large section
of the army ready to do his bidding, the outlook
was truly gloomy.

England, at any rate, was ﬁrm amid the raging of
the storm. She still insisted upon the resignation
of Arabi; she called for a cessation of work upon
the defences of Alexandria, and demanded from the
Sultan and the Khedive a restoration of order on

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 151

every side. If her demands were not complied with
her consuls in Egypt would be withdrawn, and the
strengthening of the Alexandrian defences being
regarded an act of war, she would proceed to destroy
them. To emphasise what was said, the British
Government ordered that a ﬂeet of fourteen war
vessels assemble outside Alexandria and that they be
prepared for action. The French Ministry failed to
co-operate with the British, as was expected, a pro-
posed vote of credit being defeated in the Chamber.
What of the conditions of the Dual Control, then?
How can the French complain with justice of their
isolation in View of their refusal to act with the
tritish before Alexandria and of the subsequent
labours of the English, military and civil, unaided by
any other Power?

The work upon the fortiﬁcations of Alexandria
was discontinued. For a brief period, however.
Throwing the electric light upon the defences on the
morning of the 10th July, Sir Beauchamp Seymour
(afterwards Lord Alcester) discovered that labour
upon them was resumed. That was enough. He
gave the residents of the city twenty-four hours’
notice to quit their homes, and when the time had
expired he commenced a bombardment that convinced
Arabi he had no trembling authority to reckon with.
Vessel after vessel was brought into action, until eight
great men-of-war were pounding away at the forts,

152 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

breaking and scattering masonry, silencing guns, kill—
ing and wounding the gunners. The Superb, Sultan,
and Alexandra ships were brought on broadside to
the Ras-el-Tin and minor forts whence the shots
were returned, while from aboard the Invincible——
upon which stood Admiral Seymour—the Monarch,
the Te’me’mirc, and the Inﬂcxiblc, great guns were
'ﬁred, causing the displacement of cannon upon new
and old earthworks, blowing up more than one
magazine and making hundreds of gunners decamp.
For hours were the artillery of the stupendous iron-
clads discharged point-blank at the defences of Alex-
andria, for hours did our men-o’-warsmen work with
a will and receive unﬂinchingly the shots from the
Egyptian forts, until several of the latter having been
silenced, and the return shots become feeble, the
order went round for a cessation of hostilities. Only
at intervals on that day, the 11th, and on the 12th,
were shots exchanged, and a ﬂag of truce being hung
out from the great arsenal of Alexandria, the warships
were withdrawn from the harbour, and the Admiral
and those under him awaited the further develop.
ment of events.

When the dense volumes of battle smoke had
cleared from Alexandria it was seen how terrible the
bombardment had been. In addition to the destruc-
tion of forts and magazines, ofﬁcers and men of the
ﬂeet noticed that public and private buildings had

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 153

been levelled with the ground, that ﬁre had gutted
many fair structures ; that, in short, a large portion
of Alexandria was in ruins. Our loss was not more
than ﬁve men killed and twenty-eight wounded.
How many casualties were occasioned by the British
guns it is impossible to state.

Clearly understand that the black ruin wrought in
the city of Alexandria was not the work of the British.
They devoted themselves to silencing or destroying
the defences. Excesses on the part of Egyptian and
Arab miscreants occasioned what was seen in the city
from the decks of the English men-of-war. The
bombardment at an end on the second day, and a
considerable proportion of the garrison having marched
out of the city, hundreds of rioters gathered in
various quarters, commenced to loot shops and dwell..-
ings, to insult respectable citizens, especially Euro-
peans, and the cry of “Death to the Christians!”
once raised, it was taken up with angry spirit, and
a massacre of inoffensive people was begun, robbery
going on the while. Upwards of ﬁfteen hundred
Europeans were in Alexandria when the bombard-
ment was opened. Hundreds escaped during the
two days. When the attack ﬁnally ceased many
joined the fugitives, who streamed into the country
through the city gates and were picked out, in too
many instances, and cruelly plundered and slain.
Even soldiers broke from the ranks and took part in

154 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

the looting and murdering. Many Christians who
remained within the city walls were dragged from
hiding, and were badly beaten or stabbed to death.
The European quarter was ﬁred, the British consul-
ate being among the buildings ﬁrst destroyed; the
French ofﬁcial residence came in for destruction, like-
wise, and as hour after hour of the dreadful night
were away, the extent of the conﬂagration broadened,
and the scenes became more saddening, the groans of
the dying and the lamentations of men, women, and
children who were unhurt adding greatly to the
melancholy situation. It is estimated that over one
thousand lives were lost by the bombardment of the
Alexandrian forts, the massacre in the city, and the
ﬁring of public and private buildings.

Such events as these following on the bombard-
ment of the city defences had not been provided for.
Hearing of them the question arose in the mind of
Admiral Seymour, “What is to be done?” His
instructions were not originally to land any of his
forces. Nor did he attempt to do so immediately
after the bombardment. On the contrary, his ships
were withdrawn, as we have seen, to a greater dis-
tance from the shore. But when anarchy reigned in
the once fair city, when an enormous amount of
damage had been done, and when regular troops had
ﬁled out into the country, when English men, women,
and children had not all escaped, and no other

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 155

succour was at hand, Admiral Seymour did what
other commanders would have done, even at the risk
of being censured—he ordered, on the 12th, the
landing of a small body of marines and bluejackets.
The party was not four hundred strong, and the
duty for discharge was the restoration of order. The
landing took place none too soon. Murder had not
ceased, looting was still proceeding, old and young
were discovered ﬁring buildings not already gutted.
On every side were dead bodies and persons lying
wounded. Articles of every description were found
in the streets. The European quarter was a wreck.
Not a soldier who obeyed the behests of Arabi Pasha
could be seen. As, however, instructions came from
England to Sir Beauchamp Seymour to land a naval
brigade for police purposes and to preserve order,
thereby conﬁrming what he had begun, he com-
manded the disembarkation of a further force of
marines and sailors, and at length Alexandria was
really in possession of the British. Men there were
from the warships Sultan, Alonarch, Te'me’m’lre,
Superb, Achilles, Invincible, and Alexandra, and a
very unenviable task they had in ﬁnding and burying
corpses, in exploring ruins, in capturing offenders,
and bringing conﬁdence to the minds of the civilians
who remained. Ships-of-war belonging to Ger lany,
and America, and Greece were cruising off the Egyp-
tian coast, and from them also were landed men to

156 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

assist in repressing crime and bringing peace where
disorder was still active. They re-embarked in the
course of a few days, leaving Alexandria to the care
of the English and of the Khedive Tewﬁk, who had
returned from his palace at Ramleh.

Report had it that Arabi was retracing his steps
to Alexandria—a rumour that proved false. Still,
additional men were landed from the ﬂeet, and guns
’ were brought into Alexandria from the men-of-war.
Within a week of the bombardment three thousand
ﬁve hundred soldiers, marines, and sailors were posted
inside the city. The troops belonged for the most
part to the Riﬂes and the 38th Regiment, Sir Archi-
bald Alison being in command. Orders were given
to ofﬁcers commanding patrols to shoot any person
taken in the act of ﬁring the city, and it was made
known that any person taken in the act of pillage
would be sent to gaol to be tried and punished, that
any one apprehended a second time for the same
offence would be shot, and that no person would be
allowed to leave or enter the city after sunset.

Meanwhile, Arabi Pasha and ﬁve thousand troops
were entrenching themselves at Kafr Dawar. Arabi
resolved not to surrender to British authority;
neither would he resign ofﬁce at the bidding of the
Khedive. The Prophet Mohammed had, he con-
tended, commanded his adherents to resist the war
in self-defence. Egypt was held by Mohammedans

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 157

as the key of the sacred places, Mecca and Medina,
and all were bound by just laws to defend them and
the ways leading thereto. The Egyptians were, he
stated, ready to ﬁght for their country and to con-
quer their enemies.‘ Arabi was to have ample
opportunity of proving his valour. The time had '
gone past for hesitation in dealing with him. The
die was cast. England would restore peace not in
Alexandria alone but wherever Arabi and his forces
elected to disturb it. Troopships arrived at Alexan-
dria with reinforcements, disembarkation went on
and everything was done with a View to a stiff cam-
paign. ”Grenadier, Coldstream, and Scots Guards
landed; among other troops. Sir Garnet Wolseley
took over the command of the invaders and the
native troops to act with them. The Duke of Con-
naught marched with the Guards. Sir John Adye
was appointed chief of the staff, and Generals Good-
enough, Gerald Graham, Hamley, Evelyn Wood,
Nugent, Earle, Willis, Drury Lowe, and Harman
were given commands. F on the beneﬁt of the people
of Egypt, Sir Garnet Wolseley issued this proclama-
tion by consent of the Khedive :———“The General in
Command of the British forces wishes to make known
that the object of her Majesty’s Government in send-
ing troops to this country is to re-establish the
authority of the Khedive. The" army is therefore
only ﬁghting against those who are in arms against

158 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

His Highness. All peaceable inhabitants will be
treated with kindness, and no violence will be offered
to them. Their religion, mosques, families and pro-
perty will be respected. Any supplies which may
be required will be paid for, and the inhabitants are
invited to bring them. The General-in-Command will
be glad to receive visits from chiefs who are willing to
assist in repressing the rebellion against the Khedive,
the lawful ruler of Egypt, appointed by the Sultan.”
Sir Garnet Wolseley concluded to give Arabi Pasha
and his followers no possible chance of escape,
Ramleh and other towns were fortiﬁed, plans were
made for taking the disobedicnt Egyptians at various
points and for holding the Suez Canal, while a
strong force made a feint of attacking Aboukir from
the sea and really went round to Port Said, and the
town of Ismailia was captured in a stirring fashion.
Five hundred and sixty marines and sailors with
gatlings were landed before daybreak on the 21st
August, surprised the pickets at Ismailia and, march-
ing through the gate, took up strategical positions
ere the garrison were well awake, and killing all
who opposed them, were in occupation of the town.
Danger threatened from the fortiﬁed camp of N eﬁehe
not far away; the place was bombarded by two men-
of-war and destroyed, although a mile and a half dis-
tant from the shore of the Suez Canal, the occupants
retreating towards Cairo, and leaving much that was

IN AFRICA \VITH THE UNION JACK. 153

valuable behind. Most fortunate it was that Ismailia ’
and Neﬁehe fell when they did, as Arabi was making
for them with three thousand men when he learned
of the disaster to his arms and was compelled to
retire. His communications by rail between Neﬁehe
and Suez were destroyed by the successes of the
British, and the surrounding country was kept in
subjection until the arrival of Sir Garnet Wolseley
and the troops brought round from Alexandria.

At the southern end of the Suez Canal, Admiral
Hewett, whose ﬂag ﬂoated from the Em'yalus, did
splendid service. He collected stores in abundance,
forwarded troops arriving from Aden and the East
Indies, shelled marauding parties of Bedouins and
Arabs, provided for refugees, kept the shores of the
Suez Canal free from rebels for the course of many
miles, and dis-embarking his men, stormed and took
positions of some strength.

Over mounds of sand and patches of grass marched
a portion of Sir Garnet \Volseley’s force from Ismailia
in the direction of Kafr Dawar and Tel—el-Kebir,
where Arabi Pasha was still concentrating the main
body of his Egyptians and the Arabs and Bedouins
who had agreed to join him—on to Abu Ser and
Tel-el-Mahuta on the banks of the Sweet-water
Canal, the main object being to provide an adequate
supply of pure water for the British. At Mahuta
ten thousand rebels gathered to oppose a force of

160 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

three squadrons of cavalry, two guns and a thousand
infantry. The insurgents had with them several
pieces of artillery when they opened upon the ranks
of the English, and the infantry advanced to within
a thousand yards of the British position. Thereupon
the two guns were served in return, the cavalry were
sent out upon the ﬂanks of the enemy and a naval
brigade with two gatlings coming up, the rebels hesi-
tated to charge. Still they continued their ﬁring,
their horsemen threatened right and left; but, in
spite of all, our gallant fellows held their own. When
night fell they had not yielded a yard of ground.
They had gained, indeed, the dam upon the Sweet-
water Canal they had set out to secure. In the
evening and throughout the night of the 24th
August reinforcements came up steadily, and shortly
after daybreak on the 25th, Tel-el-Mahuta was occu-
pied by General Wolseley, and Mahsemah and its
extensive camp, with Krupp guns, railway waggons
of provisions and ammunition was captured, the
enemy beating a headlong retreat, “throwing away
their arms and equipments and showing every sign
of demoralisation. Unfortunately there was not at
this time in the whole cavalry brigade a troop that
could gallop, their long march and rapid advance
having completely exhausted the horses, which were
not yet ﬁt for hard work after their long voyage from
England.” “Military operations in Egypt at this

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 161

season of the year are very trying to the soldiers
engaged,” wrote General Wolseley, “ and the complete
absence of anything approaching to the nature of a
road renders all movements most difﬁcult and fatigu-
ing. Owing to the fact of this advance being made
before the railway or the telegraph lines had been
repaired, or the canal cleared of obstruction, or any
regular system of transport had been effectually orga-
nised, considerable exposure without tents, and severe
privations as regards food have been imposed upon all
ranks. These hardships have, however, been cheer-
fully borne, and the conduct of the troops has been
everything I could wish.”

The, British still approached Tel-el-Kebir, where
Arabi continued to mass the bulk of his forces, and
where he gathered stores in abundance, road and rail
being utilised for his purposes. Kassassin was occu-
pied by the English, and the word went forth that
the place must be held at all costs. It was essential
to do so if for no other reason than that the water
for the men and horses was not holding out as had
been expected. Even the water that was obtained
was polluted by sand of the desert, by refuse thrown
into the canal, and by dead bodies of the slain. Food
was scarce also.

The enemy’s cavalry being sighted soon after break-
fast on the 28th, Sir Gerald Graham, who was in
command of the British advance, ordered that the

M

162. IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

drum sound to arms. If Arabi was in a hurry to meet
the English—well, he would ﬁnd his adversaries
ready. So to horse went about ﬁfty men of the 4th,
and 7th Dragoon Guards; men of the Royal Horse
Artillery unlimbered two guns—thirteen-pounders—
and made all ready; thirteen hundred men of the
Duke of Cornwall’s and York and Lancaster Regi-
ments fell in; and members of the Royal Marine
Artillery and Mounted Infantry took up stations
allotted to them, while the heliograph ﬂashed instruc-
tions to General Drury Lowe to bring on a brigade of
cavalry from Mahsemah. Throughout the morning
very little was done on either side, but in the after-
noon the enemy ventured to the north bank of the
fresh-water canal, and, throwing out skirmishers,
sought to harass the British, already weary enough
under the burning sun of Egypt. Guns were
wheeled t0 the front, also, by the rebels, and, crossing
the canal, a plucky band of Arabists made desperate
efforts to cut through the English forces. To support
the band, guns were brought directly into play, and
so bold were the drivers and gunners that as often as
some of their number were cut down others took their
places, and scorned to beat a retreat. It was of no
avail. Our fellows were quite as brave, and, closing
upon the enemy on every side, they gave them not
the ghost of a chance to achieve anything. In front
and upon the ﬂanks, upon and. around bridges and

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 163

canal locks, in the desert and upon railway lines, the
British did more than hold their own. Ammunition
for the guns on the side of the British fell short,
unfortunately, owing to the supply-waggons sticking
in the heavy sand, and the artillery was not as effec-
tive, therefore, as it would otherwise have been. But
a Krupp gun taken from the enemy was mounted
upon a railway-waggon for a platform, and was worked
by a gun detachment of the Royal Marine Artillery,
under Captain Tucker, to ﬁne purpose. It became
the target for the enemy’s artillery, as General Graham
afterwards reported, salvos of four guns opening on
the party operating with the Krupp with shell and
shrapnel. Although everything around or in line
was hit, not a man of the gun detachment was
touched, and the gun, protected by sand-bags, con-
tinued to ﬁre to the end of the engagement, upwards
of ninety-three rounds being discharged.

Anon the bugles sounded the advance. Right
cheerily did the cavalry and foot respond, until, night
having well set in, and there being nothing further
to gain at the moment, orders were given for the
troops to cease ﬁring, and to rest for the night. How
the cavalry under Drury Lowe contributed to the
battle of Kassassin is best told in the despatch
written by the General. The sun had set, and a
bright moon was shining, he says, when, after being
requested to keep back his men for a time, word

164 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

came from General Graham that he must attack the
enemy’s skirmishers. The light, however, was not
good, owing to the haze. They were guided by the
ﬂash of guns and musketry. Making a wide circuit
to turn the enemy’s left, the cavalry brigade arrived
without being noticed near that portion of the rail-
way-line, but, as they approached, a heavy ﬁre of shells
and musketry was opened upon them. It was prac-
tically harmless, as it was very high. A few rounds
from the guns, and Sir Baker Russell and Colonel
Ewart, at the head of the Household Cavalry, led a
charge against the enemy’s infantry, which had begun
to advance. And in magniﬁcent style was the charge
executed. Never pausing, never looking round to
see how many were coming behind, not caring how
strong the foe was in front, nobly the Guards dashed
on, with sabres on high. The horses they rode swept
on resistlessly, and without any urging, feeling, no
doubt, how much depended upon them. On and on
to the lines whence the rebel marksmen dealt the
leaden hail, amid the ﬂash of riﬂes and the thunders
of artillery, sweeping in the moonlight through a
whole battery of guns, slashing and sabring the
gunners as they went, smiting through helmet and
turban, breaking rank after rank in the heavy, cruel
ride, and retiring only because there was not light
sufﬁcient to guide them further, and the day had
been won, the battleﬁeld strewn with the dead and

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 165

dying Egyptians, Arabs, and Bedouins, and not a few
of the British. Alas! that during the night the
corpses of Christians were shockingly mutilated by
bands of fanatics.

This was not to be the last engagement at Kas-
sassin. After the battle of the 28th August, both
sides made no show of resuming hostilities. They
were preparing for the gigantic struggle at Tel-el-
Kebir. Reinforcements were constantly arriving by
way of the Suez Canal from England and India;
provisions, guns, and ammunition were being collected,
and the enemy, having done something towards
damming the fresh—water canal so as to destroy
altogether the supply for drinking purposes, much
had to be effected to make amends. On the morning
of the 9th September the rebels crept stealthily up
to the British outposts upon the north and west of
the encampment at Kassassin, and had it not been
for the gallant stand made by about ﬁfty men of
the 13th Bengal Lancers it is questionable whether
a surprise would not have resulted, and that with
serious loss. As matters turned out, the ﬁfty lancers
behind a sand-ridge held Arabi’s advance in check,
gave the camp time to stand to arms, and allowed
the artillery to be brought round. When the com-
mand was given for the infantry to advance, it was
carried out with such precision, and the cavalry did
their work so admirably, that the Egyptians offered

166 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

scarcely any resistance. They ﬂed to the lines at
Tel-el-Kebir, and commenced a wild ﬁre towards
their pursuers. Two guns were captured from the
Arabists by the Royal Marine Light Infantry.

And now the day was fast coming for the ﬁnal
conﬂict with Arabi. His Waterloo was not far
removed. All his hopes, his aspirations, were to be
dashed to the ground; his deﬁances were to be
punished. The foreigners she so much disliked were
on the point of scoring a victory as signal as it was
complete, and that against all the forces he could
spare. For at Tel-el-Kebir Arabi Pasha had fully
thirty-ﬁve thousand fighting men—regulars and
irregulars; men who would ﬁght in the open or
behind entrenchments, soldiers, many of them, ready
to ﬁght to the death. Of cavalry there were three
thousand near the entrenchments at Tel-el-Kebir
when, on this 13th September, 1882, the pretensions
of Arabi were scattered for ever; of infantry there
were over twenty thousand, and the artillery had
charge of sixty guns, some of them on the newest
principles. Tel-el-Kebir itself, the town, was almost
surrounded by recently-constructed forts, walls, and
ditches. On the side from which the British
approached, namely, the east, the defences were
rather more than three miles in extent. At the rear
of the outer works were other strongly fortiﬁed lines.
In fact, the structures were so many, the defences

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 167

were of such an extent that they proved a positive
weakness to Arabi, and did much towards losing
him the great contest on which he staked his
all. Had they been narrowed and made stronger
so that larger bodies of men could have been
massed at any given point, had the guns been
placed nearer to each other, his chances would have
been brighter.

Arabi depended upon something mere than his
defences, his guns, and his mixed host. It was the
country surrounding Tel-el-Kebir. The country?
Yes! Flat, sandy, heavy, unsheltered from the
scorching sun, affording no hiding-places nor walls
of refuge, this country was constantly open to view
from the walls of Tel-el-Kebir. An enemy could not
march over it, cavalry could not dash across it, with-
out being seen from the defences, even if sentries
were not posted outside the vast encampment, and
vedettcs were not kept on the alert—at any rate, in
daylight. \Vhat foe would dream of attacking Tel—el-
Kebir in the night ? Ah! we shall see. If foemcn
did venture upon this open country and bore down
skirmishers and the like, how could they get under
the fortiﬁed walls? How cover the last mile? Would
not the guns sweep them from their feet? Would
not the gunners and the infantry drive them, a dis-
organised mass of humanity, back into the desert,
while ﬁerce cavalry would sweep upon them from

168 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

each ﬂank and complete the wreck ? So thought the
Egyptians and their allies, apparently.

Sir Garnet Wolseley and his staﬁ" had conceived a
plan that altogether dispelled the notions and the
conﬁdence of the Arabists. The British quite admitted
that, in some measure, Arabi had the best of the
situation. They confessed, after hearing the reports
of spies, deserters, and of the English scouts, that the
Egyptians were well entrenched. They granted, in
the words of General Wolseley himself, that to have
marched from Kassassin over the plateau upon the
enemy’s position by daylight our troops would have
had to advance over a glacis-like slope in full view of
the Arabists, and under the ﬁre of well-served artil—
lery, for about ﬁve miles; that such an operation
would have entailed enormous loss from an enemy
with men and guns well protected by entrenchments
from any artillery ﬁre brought to bear upon them.
All this, and more, was acknowledged.

How avoid the dangers and difﬁculties? By a.
night attack! By a swift and sure movement under
cover of darkness. This was the great secret.

Quickly the order went round that ﬁres were not
to be lighted that night, the 12th, in the British
lines at Kassassin. Even pipes were not to be
smoked. N ot a sound, not a bugle-call, was to dis-
turb the stillness. The pickets were to move out in
the haze of night, quietly; every one of the two

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 169

thousand cavalry and eleven thousand infantry within
the British lines was to move, to fall into position, as
though his life depended on the stillness in which the
orders were executed. N 0 one was to leave the ground
save by express permission, or in the discharge of
deﬁnite orders. The sixty ﬁeld-guns were to be
wheeled out carefully and without excitement; the
sand under foot would do the rest in deadening
sounds. Silently, very silently, the combined move-
ment was begun, the stars overhead being the guides.
Two brigades, one consisting of men of the York and
Lancaster and Royal Irish Regiments, with Royal
Marine Light Infantry, supported by the Guards, and
the other consisting of Highlanders, strengthened by
the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and the 3rd
Royal Riﬂes, started before a brigade made up of
Indian Regiments and men of the Royal Navy, the
latter having to make somewhat of a detour past
cultivated land dotted by peasants’ huts, and who
would have been alarmed sooner than was advisable.
Still, the Indian and Naval contingent were not
behind at Tel-el—Kebir, for at midnight the other two
brigades were rested. It was not to be expected that
they could ﬁght immediately after toiling over the
sands of an Egyptian desert. .

At last the supreme moment for attack came.
Rushing at the entrenehments, our gallant fellows
were soon at work among the enemy, bayoneting,

170 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

shooting, felling to the ground, not a few of the foe-
men half awake, so limited was the distance of the
sentries from the earthworks, so totally unthought of
the attack. Once realising, however, the desperate
situation in which they were placed, the Arabists
fought well, giving thrust for thrust, shot for shot,
knocking over many a brave Briton for aye. Plying
their artillery, too, in the dawn, mowing into our
ranks too frequently, clinging to the cannon and
refusing to leave them. But everything that the
Arabists could do fell short of what they intended.
The batteries of artillery, under General Goodenough,
in the centre of the line of attack were irresistible.
Oh! how they banged away and sent hundreds of
the enemy into eternity, while defences were broken
down and guns were silenced, permitting of entry
into the foemen’s works! How the 1st Brigade, or
Highlanders and men of the Riﬂes and the Cornwall
Regiment, charged upon the left of our artillery and
without staying to ﬁre a shot, broke over the walls
set up by Arabi, with the force of a great surging sea,
and bore down every man who dared offer the slightest
resistance! How upon the extreme left General Sir H.
Macpherson and the 2nd Brigade, that composed of In-
dians and the naval contingent, advanced at the run and
spread havoc in the ranks of the rebels, who believed,
surely, that they had come out of the ground, so
sudden was their spring and so wonderful their ﬁght-

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 171

ing! And Drury Lowe’s cavalry charging from the
north or right of the centre to sabre and shoot down,
scattering Arabi’s horsemen, penetrating the gaps in
his defences, and stabbing his footmen I Cannot we
understand that with such a startling, admirably
timed, and powerful attack upon their defences, the
Egyptians were doubled up, crushed, that, partially
surrounded and blinded by the combined onslaught,
the main body of them forsook their guns, then they
threw away their riﬂes, their bayonets, their swords,
and accontrements, and, ﬂeeing far into the country
beyond, never turned their faces towards Tel-el-Kebir
for many a long day afterwards? Nor were the
smashed and dispirited bands of Arabists safe when
outside the fortiﬁcations of Tel-el—Kebir. They were
pursued whichever way they went and cut down
by English and Indian cavalry told off for the pur-
pose.

General Wolseley’s intent was to make the battle
of Tel—el-Kebir a ﬁnal one, to ﬁght the enemy where
he was, in the open desert, before he could retire to
take up fresh positions more difﬁcult of access in the
country in his rear—a country irrigated and divided
in every direction by deep canals. The British com-
mander gained his point, for there never was a more
crushing victory. All Arabi’s guns, thousands of
tons of military stores and ammunition, and count-
less implements of war were taken; scarcely a man

172 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

rejoined the columns of the rebels. Arabi and his
staff were fugitives, while two thousand ﬁve hundred
of the foe were killed or wounded. We lost ﬁfty
ofﬁcers, non-commissioned officers, and men killed,
and four hundred of our men were wounded. The
battle is one of the shortest, also, on record, if one
of the most desperate. Twenty minutes only were
consumed from the moment the ﬁrst shot was fired
by the rebel sentries to the headlong retreat from
Tel-cl-Kebir beginning.

After the battle cavalry were pushed on towards
Cairo, the capital of Egypt, and in possession of ten
thousand Egyptian troops. Zagazig, twenty-ﬁve
miles from Kassassin, surrendered without a shot
being ﬁred, and the word being still, “Onward to
Cairo ! ” the journey was resumed by General Drury
Lowe and his troopers. Arabi had ﬂed to Cairo:
there had been threats of ﬁring it, as was done to the
European quarter at Alexandria subsequent to the
bombardment of the forts by Admiral Seymour, and
not an hour was to be lost. 011 the second day from
Tel-el-Kebir the glittering domes and minarets in
the Egyptian capital were sighted by the exhausted,
dust-covered cavalry, who had thus ridden sixty-ﬁve
miles ; and outside the walls the garrison, great as it
was, heard the summons to surrender. A bold piece
of business, truly. But the troops had learned of
the crowning disaster to Arabi at Tel-el-Kebir, they

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 173

knew that thousands of British seamen and soldiers,
in addition to those engaged at Arabi’s stronghold,
were in Egypt, anxiously awaiting the command to
advance upon Cairo ; they saw the hopelessness of the
struggle and laid down their arms. So rapid, in
truth, was the collapse of the rebellion that on the
16th September, Sir Garnet Wolseley was enabled to
state in a despatch to the English Government that
the only place remaining in the hands of the Arabists
was Damietta, and that its capture or surrender could
be easily effected at leisure. The men of Arabi’s army
having laid down or thrown away their arms, had dis-
persed to their homes, and the country was so rapidly
returning to its ordinary condition of peace that
he was in a position to report the war at an end,
and that the object for which the troops under him
were sent to Egypt had been fully accomplished.
Arabi Pasha was then a prisoner. He was taken in
Cairo.

For his services in Egypt, Sir Garnet Wolseley was
raised to the peerage as Lord Wolseley, he received
the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and
St. George, was made Knight Commander of the
Bath, and was promoted to the rank of Major-
General. He received, also, a substantial monetary
grant from Parliament. Honours were freely be-
stowed upon other officers, and not a few non-
commissioned ofﬁcers and men came in for special

174 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

attention also. Sir Beauchamp Seymour was raised
to the peerage by the title of Baron Alcester, and,
like General Wolseley, received a large parliamentary
grant.

Arabi Pasha was put upon his trial and was ulti-
mately banished to Ceylon. In the meantime the
British army of occupation was gradually reduced to
about ten thousand men; reforms were instituted
by able English administrators, and have proved of
inestimable value to the natives throughout Egypt.

CHAPTER X.
BATTLES IN THE EASTERN SOUDAN.

A REMARKABLE man indeed was Mohammed Ahmed,
the false Mahdi, or Messiah, of the Soudan. Born in
lowly circumstances at Dongola, upon the banks of
the Nile, in the year 1845, he yet gained an influence
perfectly astonishing. A vast expanse of territory
owned his sway, men trembled at his look, and
bowed the knee before him. He made for himself
a name that will never fade from the pages of his-
tory.

Prior to the year 1881 there was nothing in the
life of Mohammed Ahmed that would lead to the
belief that he would become a powerful leader. As
a lad he passed his time chieﬂy upon the banks of
the Nile, watching the waters of the mighty river
flow on towards the blue Mediterranean Sea, or
engaged in following his father in his trade of boat-
builder, playing at intervals, just as other Dongola
lads did, and quite as mischievous, doubtless. At
the age of seven years Mohammed Ahmed removed
with his father to Shendy, a town upon the Nile

176 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

banks, and about thirty miles from Khartoum, the
capital of the Soudan. Thence the boy was sent to
an uncle in the province of Senaar to learn boat-
building, and continued at the trade until one day
uncle and nephew disagreeing, the apprentice left for
Khartoum. Arriving in the city without a friend
and scarcely knowing which way to turn, he sought
the advice of a professedly holy man who kept a.
school in a village close by the walls. Mohammed
stayed on with the old man, became useful to him,
picked up a certain amount of learning, and made a.
Show of being devoted to religion. Tired at length
with his surroundings, he wandered down the Nile to
Berber, fell in with a religious order, left it, attached
himself to a shrine, or place of worship, at Kana on
the White Nile, and won for himself a reputation for
piety and good works. Finding that being a fakir,
or priest, brought him a name, and that he could lead
the simple folks around him in any direction he
wished, Mohammcd went further aﬁeld and boldly
declared himself as the long-promised Mahdi. He
pointed to a mole upon one of his cheeks as a Sign
mentioned by Mohammedan prophets, referred to his
life of seclusion and holy living, and declared him-
self ready to reform the laws of the land, to bring
justice where wrong prevailed, to raise the poor out
of their misery, to deprive the rich of ill-gotten
wealth, to free the slave, and bring general salvation

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 17:~

to a land groaning, he said, under an iron rule. The
people who listened to him were greatly struck by
his promises ; many of the fakirs and chiefs to whom
he wrote lent a willing ear to his pretensions. The
year, 1881, in which Mohammed appeared as the
Messiah, corresponded with the time at which the
Mahdi was expected. This, in itself, had a great
effect. Mohammed indulged in a certain degree of
mystery, too. He knew that the minds of men were
quickened by it, and as they gathered round the
mouth of his cave in Abbas, an island in the Nile, he
took good care to impose upon them still further. This
must be stated : that numbers of the Soudanese living
south of Khartoum were really tired of Egyptian
dominance. They wanted the Soudan for the Arabs
and were prepared to hail any man as leader who
could guide them to certain victory.

Mohammed Ahmed persisted. Still at pains to
throw an odour of sanctity, if not of divinity, around
him, careful to preach destruction for the wealthy,
and regeneration for the poor, promising eternal
happiness for all who would follow him, he raised the
banner of revolt against Egyptian authority, and
went on gathering recruits. Fired by his appeals
these misguided natives went from excess to excess,
took station after station that had long been held by
the troops of the Khedive and strengthened by the
presence of Sir Samuel Baker and General Charles

N

178 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

George Gordon, broke into treasuries and magazines,
divided the Spoils among the Mahdi and his priests
and themselves, and turning guns and rifles, swords
and spears upon towns hitherto unattaekml, still
spread the area of insurrection, still prosecuted the
crusade in the name of Mohammed the Mahdi, and
declared war to the knife against Egypt, and England
who supported her; If the fanatical Mahdists fell in
fort or upon battleﬁeld, it was in the ﬁrm conviction
that Paradise was awaiting them because of their
faith in the “Heaven- sent one.” His followers
credited him when he proclaimed, “Ye faithful! do
ye not know that killing an inﬁdel is more agreeable
to God than offering prayers from a thousand mouths?
Do ye not know that not only from Mecca, the
mother of cities, but also that from every ﬁeld of
battle a path leads to Paradise? Oh! ye faithful, I
assure you that if ye die in the morning, ﬁghting
against the inﬁdels, ye will, even ere it is noon, be
with the Prophet in Paradise. Silken robes of green
shall clothe you, golden bracelets adorn you, and ye
will repose by the banks of cool rivers, sipping ever
refreshing drinks.”

In January, 1883, E1 Obeid, a fortiﬁed town
south—west of Khartoum, and where had been stored
large quantities of arms and ammunition, was captured
by the Mahdists after a stubborn resistance, and the
Mahdi’s triumph was so far complete. The rebellion

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 179

in Egypt precluded the Khedive from sending any
army to punish the Mahdists, and from assisting the
few garrisons that still held out. At any rate, until
Hicks Pasha, a brave Englishman, led a motley host
of ten thousand men from Khartoum to meet the
Mahdists. They went forth to die, alas ! scarcely a man
escaping from famine, drought, and massacre through
black treachery. From this time the way to Khartoum
was quite open to Mohammed Ahmed and those who
pinned their faith in him. Kordofan, Senaar, and the
provinces south of Khartoum, save the Equatorial pro-
vince governed by Emin Pasha, were lost to Egypt.

Leaving, for a space, the victorious Mahdists to
organise and engage in the march upon Khartoum,
we must turn to events in that part of the Eastern
Soudan bordering upon the Red Sea coast.

Finding that success was crowning his efforts in
the Southern Soudan, that Khartoum was likely to
come under his dominion, and the way across the
Bayuda desert and past Dongola to Cairo would
thereby be open to him, unless something unforeseen
happened—for the Mahdists had designs on Egypt
itself—Mohammed directed one Osman Digna to stir
up rebellion beyond the town of Berber and in the
country along the Red Sea shore. The Mahdi
coveted the port of Suakim; he wanted to possess
the whole route from Khartoum to the Red Sea, as
well as the Nile route to Cairo, Alexandria, and the

180 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

Mediterranean. In entrusting the task of arousing
the Eastern Soudan to Osman Digna, the Mahdi
studied his best interests. Osman knew the country
well, he was a leading merchant and had power
among the tribes, owned ability and dash, and he
regarded the English and Egyptians with an undying
hatred. We have it that Osman Digna never for-
gave the British interfering with the slave trafﬁc,
nor for capturing, in the Red Sea, a shipload of
slaves belonging to one of his family. Whatever
the reason of his enmity, whether he trusted to the
Mahdi furthering his fortunes, or he did not, this is
certain, that of all who were faithful to the false
Prophet none were more constant, none more per-
severing, none more bitter, than Osman Digna.

From the onset of his mission Osman never
faltered. He agitated and stirred up tribe after
tribe, promising and supplying, advising and leading.
A defeat inﬂicted upon him outside Suakim only
served to heighten his relish for ﬁghting the enemies
of the Pretender. He returned to the tribes, renewed
his promises of reward, gained support, and threw
his followers upon a detachment of Egyptians near
Sinkat. Again defeated, he rose once more, pursued
his tactics with the tribesmen, and, surprising a body
of men marching to Sinkat, cut them to pieces, and
secured arms and supplies. It was the turn in the
tide of Osman Digna’s fortunes. Like others whose

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 181

star was in the ascendant, the company of Osman’s
friends increased rapidly. He had now support that
enabled him not only to keep the ﬁeld, but to send a
force to invest the town of Tokar.

Mohammed Talma Pasha was commander in the
Eastern Soudan at this time. Early in November he
led a force of ﬁve hundred men for the relief of
Tokar, but ere he could reach its walls the rebels
started from an ambush near Tamanieb, and did all
they could to break into and overwhelm the Egyp—
tians, Bashi—Bazouks, and negroes Mohammed had
with him. Nor was the task a very heavy one, for
the majority of the loyalists were soon routed and
screaming, many of them, for mercy. The black
troops were the men to stand and face the foe, until
all hope ﬂed, and the ground where they received
the shock and nobly opposed the insurgents being
thick with dead and dying, the few survivors escaped
as best they could. Not more than ﬁfty of the reliev-
ing force lived to reach the shore of the Red Sea.
Among the slain were Commander Moncrieff and a
small body of Greeks. Not many days afterwards,
again, tribesmen who answered the invitation of
Osman Digna, gained a signal victory in the same
locality over half-drilled troops sent out on a second
attempt to relieve Tokar, and thus the Egyptian
power declined while that of the Mahdi’s emir, or
lieutenant, grew apace.

182 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

The threatening aspect of affairs created the
greatest consternation in Egypt, and occasioned the
British no small concern. Already it seemed that
events were fast hastening the day when English
soldiers would have to operate again in behalf of the
Khedive, for the native army was still in a disorga-
nised condition, and a limited number only of the
troops could be spared for the Soudan. The British
Government held back, however. They had no desire
to become involved ; so that beyond giving orders for
the stationing of men-of-war at Suakim, and con-
senting to the appointment of English ofﬁcers in the
Egyptian army, they (lid little. The Union Jack was
not to ﬂoat in the. Eastern Soudan while the Egyp-
tian standard could be borne unsupported.

Something had to be done, however, and that
speedily. Tokar was invested more closely than ever,
and famine began to stalk among the garrison and
the townspeople; the insurgents around Suakim
increased in boldness, and Sinkat was seriously
threatened by a Mahdist chief named Takah, and the
port of Trinkitat was in danger also. To meet the
demands upon them, the Egyptian Cabinet decided
upon sending out an expedition that should drive
the rebels away from Suakim, free Trinkitat, and,
marching inland ﬁfteen miles from the latter place,
relieve the needy garrison and citizens of Tokar.
For the expedition strong efforts were made to raise

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 183

a large number of troops, and at the end of January,
1884:, upwards of four thousand armed men were in
the country near Suakim and Trinkitat. Nearly ﬁve
hundred cavalry were among them, artillery with six
guns were encamped, and there were fully three
thousand infantry. General Valentine Baker, a very
capable English ofﬁcer, and who had seen consider-
able service in the Turkish army, was in supreme
command. His staff included General Sartorious,
Colonels Harrington and Hay, and other British
ofﬁcers. Large as the expeditionary force was, how-
ever, it needed cohesion and conﬁdence. How could
a force drawn from various parts, and lacking, as a
proportion of it was, in deep national sentiment,
act with vigour and indomitable pluck? Egyptians,
Turks, Soudanese, Albanians, Bashi—Bazouks, blacks—
all were enlisted. Few were seasoned, many were
inadequately drilled, some were not willing to ﬁght.
Early in February, therefore, when the march from
Trinkitat to Tokar was in progress, and the village of
El Teb was reached, and when from behind rocky
eminences and from bushes shots were ﬁred from
the rebels in waiting, scouts rushed back in great
alarm without staying to offer any kind of check to
the enemy, the main body lapsed into confusion
without standing in square to receive the foe, and
rushing hither and thither, continued to hamper and
unnerve those who were ready to stand shoulder to

184 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

shoulder and give battle. A perfect panic quickly set
in ; men huddled together and endeavoured to shrink
out of sight ; camels and other baggage animals
ran loose and stampeded on every side; cavalry and
infantry became inextricably mixed. All formation
was lost. Nor were the commands of the European
ofﬁcers heeded; their examples of personal fearless-
ness were utterly disregarded. The blacks showed
some pluck. But what were they among so many who
were craven? So it was that, while at the onset there
was not much to occasion real alarm, the Mahdists
ﬁring from a distance and at irregular intervals, now
that men were huddled together and refusing to offer
any resistance, the enemy became bolder, and drawing
nearer and nearer commenced the attack, or rather
massacre, with all the force available. Even then hun-
dreds upon hundreds of General Baker’s force would
not point a riﬂe nor wield a sabre, but cringed and
hid themselves, or started in wild, headlong ﬂight for
Trinkitat and the coast. A few were shot for their
cowardice and their comrades ordered to stand.
Words were lost on the greater portion of the pul-
verised column. Next to the blacks the Turkish
infantry displayed gallantry, but being so wretchedly
supported they had not the remotest chance. Nobly,
very nobly, the British and other European ofﬁcers
bled and died. Seeing that everything was gone,
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to back fought while ammunition lasted, or they
could raise an arm to parry, thrust, and strike. Spear
after spear struck them, now here, now there; ﬁerce
Arabs slashed at them from close quarters, and, when
not cloven asunder by some heavy sabre, gashed to
the death. Round and round that group of heroes
swelled the savage, yelling tribesmen, hemming them
in yet more narrowly, until borne down by sheer
weight of numbers the last of the noble band fell, his
face still to the foe. As one writer beautifully puts
it, their quiet demeanour was as a ray of light and of
divine hope in the hell of ﬁerce triumph and clinging
despair. Elsewhere the Europeans fought with unsur-
passed bravery, never ﬂinching, never turning. Know-
ing they must die, they sold their lives as dearly as
men could do. The few who did escape owed it to
their magniﬁcent spirit of attack and defence, or to
the heroism of a friend in beating off the foe. Had
Baker Pasha’s column fought, as a whole, it is said,
with a tithe of the bravery evinced by the Europeans,
the massacre and blood-curdling outrages at E1 Teb
would not have been heard of, the Mahdists would
not have scored a mad triumph, Tokar and Sinkat
would have been saved, the Eastern Soudan would
not have been won for Mohammed Ahmed and lost
to the Khedive ; so many lives would not have been
subsequently sacriﬁced.

On this 2nd February alone, over two thousand

186 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

lives were lost on the side of the Egyptians, more than
three thousand riﬂes were left with the enemy, all the
guns were captured, ammunition and provisions in
great quantities were abandoned, and two hundred
camels and many horses and mules were taken. El
Teb was another Isandula, another Kashgill.

Like Isandula, and unlike Kashgill, El Teb was
not to go unavenged. The British could not very
well reach the rebels at Kashgill, nor at E1 Obeid
after the destruction of Hicks Pasha’s army ; they
could and would reach the Mahdists in the Eastern
Soudan. Not that the Soudan was to be retained.
The Egyptians could not hold it ; the British Govern-
ment was not prepared to do so. The Ministry (lid
insist, however, upon Suakim and Trinkitat being
kept free from the rebels, upon the lied Sea and the
Suez Canal being open, and upon Tokar being
relieved. No earthly power must come between
England and the highroad to India. Hence, when
Suakim and Trinkitat were more than ever in danger,
when Osman Digna was glorying in his Victories, and
Egypt could do no more to stem the torrent, Great
Britain stepped in, took the helm, and brought the
ship that concerned her into harbour. The Red Sea
ports were strengthened, the army of occupation in
Egypt was drawn upon, Aden sent the York and
Lancaster Regiment, and sailors and marines were
drafted from the Mediterranean Squadron. Alto-

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 187

gether, ﬁve thousand cavalry, artillery, and infantry,
with a naval brigade, had disembarked before the
end of February for service against the Mahdists.
There were a thousand animals, principally camels,
for transport service. General Sir Gerald Graham,
whom we saw last at Tel-el-Kebir, was entrusted with
the command of the expeditionary force.

Osman Digna concentrated his forces at El Teb
when he learned of the coming of the British, and
thither our countrymen marched to meet him. They
were not daunted by his victory of a few weeks before ;
they were ready to risk any chance of mutilation;
they were prepared to level the forts he had erected
with the ground, to humiliate the Mahdists—to avenge
El Teb, in fact, and Tokar, which had then fallen
after a desperate resistance under Tewﬁk Pasha. The
decayed, outraged bodies lying on every side as they
neared El Teb seemed to appeal for retaliation. Very
fearful and sickening spectacles they presented.

Before noon on the 29th February the enemy were
sighted. There was no disposition on their part to
retreat. Can they have thought that another victory
was within their reach, that such an unstable force
as that led by General Valentine Baker was advancing?
Or was it that naturally, Without fear, the Arab
tribesmen were resolved to stand their ground against
all comers, however well armed, disciplined, and
brave? iWhatever prompted them to maintain their

188 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

attitude of stem determination—there they were. It
was the ﬁrst time a British column and an Arab force
stood face to face. It was not to be the last. The
English square was to bear the brunt of many an
ugly Soudanese rush. Read what a war correspon-
dent wrote of the second battle at El Teb : “We can
see the black faces of the enemy popping up from
their hiding-places behind scrub and earthwork to
look at us, but they make no movement of attack.
Our line of march is not directly towards them, but
across their front, and by eleven o’clock we are
moving past their position at a distance of less than
four hundred yards. The moment is an intensely
exciting one; at every instant we expect to see a
dark horde spring to their feet and charge down upon
us. Suddenly the silence is broken by a hot ﬁre of
musketry, which bursts out of bush and earthworks,
and the Krupp guns are also brought to play upon
us. Several men in the square at once fall out from
the ranks wounded, but the vast majority of the
bullets whistle harmlessly overhead. An order is
given, and the square inclines its course rather more
to the right, thus taking us somewhat further from
the face of the enemy’s position, but still pressing on
so as to reach a point at which we shall command
the enemy’s rear. As we march we are pelted with
a storm of bullets, while the shrapnel-shell from the
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IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 189

showing that the Tokar gunners know their business
well. A bullet from one of these shells strikes down
General Baker. He is badly wounded on the left
cheek, but is soon again in the saddle, with his face
bound up. Presently the square halts, and the men
lie down in their ranks. The enemy are at this
moment about three hundred yards away. It is
now the turn of the machine-guns and the seven-
pounders of the camel-battery, and they open ﬁre
upon the enemy. At a little before noon our guns
appear to get the mastery over those of the enemy.
“The order is given for our men to move and
attack the enemy, and they spring to their feet cheer-
ing. The Arabs cease ﬁring as we approach. They
put aside their riﬂes, and grasp their spears. Still
they lie quiet until we are a few yards off their wall,
then they rush out and ﬂing themselves straight at
our bayonets. The enemy do not come on in masses,
but in groups of thirties and twenties, sometimes of
threes and twos, sometimes alone. They dash for-
ward against our ranks with poised spear, but not a
man reaches the line of bayonets, for one and all are
swept away before the terrible ﬁre of musketry which
breaks out as they rush forward. For a moment, on
the other side of the square, the matter seems to be
in doubt. So hotly do the Arabs press forward that
the troops pause in their steady advance. It becomes
a hand-to-hand ﬁght, the soldiers meeting the Arab

190 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

spear with cold steel, their favourite weapon, and
beating them at it. There is not much shouting,
and only a short, sharp exclamation, a brief shout, or
an oath as the soldiers engage with their fees. At
this critical moment, for the enemy are rushing up
thickly, the Gardner guns open ﬁre, and their leaden
hail soon decides the matter. Colonel Burnaby here
has his horse shot under him, and a bullet passes
through his arm. Still, with the double-barrelled
fowling—piece he carries, he knocks over the Arabs
who assail him. But they press on, and he is only
saved from being speared by one of the Gordon High-
landers bayoneting an Arab who attacks him when
both barrels of his gun are empty. Several ﬁerce
personal encounters take place as the troops rush
into the entrenchments. The ﬁrst feeling of nervous-
ness has passed away, their blood is up new, and the
enthusiasm of battle is upon them. More and more
shrill the pipes skirl out, and the men are eager to
close with the foe.

“As single Arabs rush down, the brave soldiers
step singly forward from the ranks and meet the
spear with bayonet, in almost every instance van-
quishing them by the bayonet alone, without ﬁring.
A soldier, who had single—handed engaged two of the
enemy, would have got the worst of it had not Captain
Wilson, of the Navy, come to his aid, and run one of
his assailants through the body, breaking his own

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 19].

sword, and receiving a wound across the face as he
did so. Sharp as the ﬁght is, it lasts but a minute
or two after the troops had passed over the sand-
bank. The work contains one Krupp gun, which, of
course, falls into our hands.” A halt was called, and,
as the square had got somewhat out of formation
amid all this angry contest, the lines were closed up.
For the enemy were not by any means beaten. Fired
at as they had been by shot and shell, bayoneted, too,
time after time, they would not fall back nor break
away in hurried ﬂight. They gathered as the clouds
do in the sky preparatory to a new or fresh outburst,
and poured afresh upon that human square Come to
oppose them. Gardner guns, and the Krupp captured
from them a short time before, could not dispel these
fanatical Soudanese Arabs. Fighting blood was up
among them also, and they knew no fear. Those of
them who did not bear down upon the British square
crept through bush and bramble, and, springing forth
as a tiger upon its prey, fastened themselves upon
the nearest foeman, holding on until shot or run
through.

The perfect order maintained in our ranks, the
stout resistance—strong as that of some massive rock
to the storm-toss’d sea—of troops and sailors, com-
bined with the constant ﬁre of the guns, tells a tale
at last, and here and there companies of Arabs are
seen in retreat. The cavalry, principally hussars,

192 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

under General Herbert Stewart, contributed to this.
“ They had moved round behind us,” says the corre-
spondent just quoted, “and we can see them advanc-
in g towards a large mass of the enemy who are making
off in the distance. They are quickening their pace.
Faster and faster they go. Their sabres are ﬂashing
in the sunlight, and they dash into the mass of the
enemy. Right through them they cut their way,
and then turn sharp back again. The Arabs do not
ﬂy, but stand and ﬁght stubbornly and gallantly,
displaying as much courage as ever against their
enemy. Again and again they are dispersed, but
each time they gather together as the horsemen come
on; and the cavalry, although cutting down many,
go by no means scatheless through them.” N ow the
British infantry move forward in a body again. “ The
position we are endeavouring to gain consists of
trenches and innumerable little riﬂe-pits, each con-
taining two, three, or four men. As we advance
slowly forward the Arabs leap suddenly out of these
little pits, like rabbits startled by beaters, but very
few of them ﬂy, the great majority preferring to meet
death by charging down on our ranks. So conﬁdent
are our men by this time, that the square formation
is abandoned, and they advance to the attack in
two lines. Thus we make our way forward, clearing
the ground of the enemy, until by two o’clock, after
nearly three hours’ incessant ﬁghting, we have passed

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 193

over the entire position occupied by the enemy. We
entered it at the rear, and emerged at the .—front.
Every foot was contested by the enemy, who displayed
a courage, a tenacity, and a contempt for death such
as only steady troops could have withstood. There
was no doubt that had General Graham’s force con-
sisted of Egyptian instead of British troops, the former
disasters would have been repeated here.”

Even after the battle, when conquerors were pur-
suing tho vanquished men and boys—and there were
many lads among the Soudanese warriors—~Arabs
would spring from the ground and hurl knives and
spears, or would shoot, after the victors. Frequently
the crouching foe would spring out and die at the
very muzzle of the riﬂe, or, jumping out of the bush,
when apparently dead, would grasp an uplifted sabre,
and submit without- ﬂinching to a violent death.
Often the horses of the mounted men were stabbed in
the legs and body and fatally wounded. One Arab
boy was lying among a number of dead and wounded.
Suddenly he sprang to his feet, and, with teeth
ﬁrmly set, hatred stamped upon every feature, and
with dagger upraised, he rushed upon two soldiers
who happened to be passing. Upon recovering from
his surprise, one of the soldiers levelled his riﬂe and
shot the lad dead. Darting from behind a part of
the Arab entrenchments, a tribesman ran at a negro
who was with the English, and chased him round

0

194 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

and round. Baulked in his desire to stab the black
man, the Arab gashed a camel under which the negro
dashed, and was eventually shot by an onlooker.
One of our marines was killed by an Arab who came
from a heap of slain, and was not himself killed until
he had ripped his prey open with his long knife.
And so we might go on relating instances of treachery.

After the battle of El Teb upwards of eight hun-
dred and twenty dead bodies of the enemy were
counted. It may be safely said that another thousand
were wounded, while many prisoners fell into the
hands of the English. The ﬁghting force of the
Soudanese must have been six thousand at least. Our
loss was: killed, four oﬂicers, thirty men; wounded,
ﬁfteen ofﬁcers and one hundred and forty non-com-
missioned ofﬁcers and men.

Tokar is a few miles only from El Teb, and thither
General Graham and a force of cavalry and infantry
marched on the morrow. They found that the report
of the capture of the town by the rebels was true.
The Egyptian garrison had fought gallantly day after
day, had refused to be starved out and to be per-
suaded to fail in their allegiance to Tewﬁk the heroic
governor. Capitulation did take place at last, when
the defenders were humanely treated. A number of
them were in Tokar unharmed when the victors at El
Teb approached, and came out to meet the English.
Seeing the latter advancing, the rebels in Tokar

1N AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 195

ﬂed to the hills. At Dubbah, outside Tokar, a large
quantity of war material—including much that
belonged to Baker Pasha’s ill-fated expeditionwwas
found, and riﬂes and ammunition were discovered in
other places.

The British did not leave the vicinity of El Teb
before discharging a sad and painful duty. It was to
bury not only those who fell on the 29th February,
but the hundreds of Baker Pasha’s men who were
killed. For you will remember the red slaughter of
the Egyptians and their comrades who gathered with
him took place at El Teb. The corpses of the Eng-
lish ofﬁcers who died the death of true heroes were
found, and were treated with special respect, the soil
closing over them amid general sorrow. *

In the second week of March the British were back
at Suakim. They were not to rest, however. Sheikhs,
or tribal leaders, would not answer, in any great
degree, to the invitation from Sir Gerald Graham to
come in and give their complete submission. Many
still bound themselves to Osman Digna and the cause
upon which he had set his heart. They listened to
his appeals, believing what he urged in favour of the
Mahdi and in his promises of future rewards. Very
probably the chiefs did not want the Egyptians.
Naturally, perhaps, they preferred a native of the
Soudan at the supreme head of affairs.

Osman Digna himself gave every indication of

196 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

holding out. He declined point-blank to break up
his camp at Tamasi—the place is sometimes called
Tamanicb ——to the west of Suakim. “In the name
of the most merciful God,” he wrote in reply to
General Graham and Admiral Hewett, “from the
whole of the tribes and their sheikhs who have
received your writings. Your letters have arrived to
us, and what you have informed us in them. Then
know that the gracious God has sent his Mahdi
to us, who was expected, the looked-for mesSenger
for the religious and against the inﬁdels, so as to
show the religion of God through him, and by him,
to kill those who hate Him, which has happened.
You have seen who have gone to Him from the
people and soldiers, who are countless. We are sure
that God, and God only, sent the Mahdi so as to take
away your property, and you know this since the
time of our Lord Mahomet’s coming. Pray to God
and be converted. There is nothing between us but
the sword, especially as the Mahdi has come to kill
you and destroy you, unless God wishes you to Islam.
The Mahdi’s sword he on your necks wherever you
escape, and God's iron round them wherever you go!
Do not think you are enough for us, and the Turks
are only a little better than you. We will not leave
you your heads unless you become Mussulmans, and
listen to the Prophet and the laws of God. And God
said in His dear book that those who believe in Him

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 197

ﬁght for Him, and that those who do not believe in
Him shall be killed. Know that during the time of the
Mahdi He will not accept bribes from you, and also
will not leave you in your inﬁdelity; so there is
nothing for you but the sword, so that there will not
remain one of you on the face of the earth. There-
fore, Islam 1”

On their side also the British concluded that
“nothing but the swor( ” remained. They had no
desire to become Mohammedans ; they were not pre-
pared to be wiped from the face of the earth without
a few more struggles. If Osman Digna and his
followers were not satisﬁed with what the English
could do, as proved at El Teb, well—there would be
another effort to convince them ! The Mahdist lieu-
tenant must not go on vaunting unchecked.

To smash the Mahdists at Tamanieb, General Gra-
ham deemed it advisable to take with him from
Suakim about four thousand two hundred men.
There was a naval brigade again, consisting of sailors
and marines, Hussars and mounted infantry, and
men of different regiments afoot. Camel batteries
were organised for the purpose of bringing out guns.
Of Arabs, Osman Digna had at his command fully
eight thousand. For the most part they were well
armed and quite desperate, as the Soudanese were
throughout these wars, for, as may have been
gathered already, death at the hands of the British

198 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

inﬁdels meant in their minds eternal bliss beyond
the skies. To (lie was with many of them far better
than existence upon earth.

At certain distances the English erected zarebas.
These were enclosures of stone, rock, brushwood, and
whatever could be utilised. Similar erections were put
up throughout the campaigns in the Soudan. They
served admirably for purposes of protection, especially
for the sick, wounded, and, usually, baggage animals.
Arab warriors could not “rush” them very well;
they were proof, largely, against the barbarian system
of surprises. It was at Baker’s zareba that General
Graham overtook the main body of the British
column. Thence he sent out the mounted infantry as
vedettes, and before noon they returned to say that
the Mahdists were six miles away. At once full
preparations were made for the ﬁnal stage, and at one
o’clock in the afternoon the march was resumed.
Rather slowly, though, for the sun was shining from
an unclouded sky, rendering progress very fatiguing.

The tribcsmen were by no means unwilling to try
conclusions with the invaders. Moving out to meet
them, they were sighted by our scouts, and word to
that effect was despatched to Sir Gerald Graham.
The troops were formed up in a defensive position
on a favourable piece of ground, the General after-
wards wrote, having a clear space in front; and as
there was now barely an hour of daylight left, he

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 199

directed the Engineers and pioneers of battalions to
form a zareba around the camp, by cutting down the
prickly mimosa. bushes which grew plentifully about.
At half-past six o’clock a convoy arrived safely from
Fort Baker, consisting of two hundred and forty-ﬁve
camels, carrying two days’ supply of water for men,
four thousand four hundred rations, forage for one
thousand two hundred horses, and reserve ammuni-
tion. Before this, the enemy had ﬁred a few riﬂe
shots, and had shown in numbers upon a ridge a
thousand or twelve hundred yards distant. Nine~
poundcrs were ﬁred at these men, and a Gardner
gun having been added, the enemy disappeared. All
night through there were occasional shots from the
enemy’s lines, but as a renewed disposition was not
shown by the foemen to advance, Hussars and
mounted infantry were sent out by General Graham,
and after them went the expeditionary force in two
brigades in square formation.

Scarcely had a number of the enemy been cleared
from. the edge of a deep ravine by a gallant charge on
the part of the Royal Highlanders, than from another
direction Arabs advanced in seemingly endless num-
bers, never stopping, never shrinking, utterly regard-
less of wounds and death. They came, as General
Graham reported, on the right—hand corner of the
square formed by the lst‘York and Lancaster Regiment.
A portion of the brigade fell back in disorder, so

200 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

sudden and powerful was the rush ; and guns belong-
ing to the Naval Brigade were captured. Not until
ofﬁcers and men had stood by them to the last, and
had looked them so as to render them useless. Many
of the British “disdained to turn their backs; they
kept their faces to the foe, ﬁring and thrusting with
the bayonet. Two regiments at least were inextric-
ably huddled together, and through the smoke, at
this dire crisis, the dark and demon-like ﬁgures of
the foe could be seen rushing on, unchecked even for
a moment by the hail-storm of bullets, and then the
ﬁght became hand to hand.” In the conﬂict the
Black Watch were engaged. The men thrown into
such sad confusion fell back really upon them, and
there was nothing for it on their part, therefore, but
to stand or break with the others. Most fortunately
a halt was made, and that by direct instigation of
General Graham and his staff, who, seeing that the
day must assuredly be lost to the British if the panic
continued to Spread, exercised almost superhuman
exertions by way of appeal and example. The men
of the Second Brigade were moved up to the scene of
the surprise and confusion, and General Stewart’s
cavalry sweeping round some high rocks and striking
the enemy upon the ﬂank, renewed order in the
ranks of the First Brigade was ensured. Taking in
the situation, ﬁnding themselves practically hemmed
in, the Arabs began to pause, and then gradually and

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 201

sullenly gave way. But they knew not on Which side
to turn. Shot and shell rained upon them pitilessly,
for Gardner and Gatling guns were got to work and
were being discharged without cessation. Few Arabs
escaped to tell the story of their momentary triumph.

But the battle of Tamanieb was not at an end.
From out another ravine rushed one more stream of
daring Arabs ; rushed like their fellows had done upon
gun and riﬂe, and to be mown down likewise, in dis-
playing magniﬁcent bravery. Scarcely a Mahdist got
from the place alive. They fought on and on, crack-
ing their riﬂes and using their spears, or throwing
themselves recklessly and without any warlike instru-
ment for personal defence upon the British. The
spectacle was a sickening one, but calculated to arouse
the greatest admiration in the breasts of the soldiers
and. sailors who were witnesses to what was passing.
Even the zareba spoken. of was threatened, but the
garrison left in charge drove the enemy back. Those
who :engaged in these battles were, wrote an eye-
witness, perhaps the most savagely ferocious foes with
whom British troops ever came in contact. Theirs
was the courage of tigers— of wild beasts mad with
fury and thirsting for blood.

On the morning after the battle of Tamasi an Arab
was found near the zareba just spoken of. He was
wounded, but remained as cool and indifferent to
his sufferings as he well could do, and it was the

202 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

opinion of more than one onlooker that, could the
captive have suddenly recovered his freedom and the
use of his limbs, the very ﬁrst thing he would have
done would be to bound at the bundle of spears
which a soldier had collected from the ﬁeld, seize one,
and thrust and stab right and left among those who
were aiding him, until he himself should be shot or cut
down like a rabid dog. At least ten of our men were
killed in different parts of the ﬁeld by wounded
tribesmen who pretended to be dead. Here is a case
in point: a wounded savage lay half—reclining on a
sloping bank near the spot where a Gatling gun had
been rolled into a ravine, says one correspondent ; the
Arab was badly wounded in the leg; a bullet had
shattered his knee. Grasping his heavy, broad-bladed
spear he looked deﬁance and mischief at the soldiers
as they approached. A sailor was the ﬁrst to venture
near him, and although the Briton had his riﬂe and
cutlass handy, he did not like the far-reaching, quick-
striking spear. The troops were forbidden to ﬁre,
and there was nothing for it but to tackle the man
with steel. A soldier now stole up on the opposite
side of the tribesman, but even then the savage, like
a wounded stag at bay, would not be triﬂed with.
He was stunned, however, and before he recovered
the bluejacket had plunged his cutlass into him,
bending the weapon into such a hoop shape that he
could just barely withdraw it.

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 203

Nor would the survivors from the two main attacks,
and numbers held in reserve at Tamanieb, cease ﬁring
and standing to oppose the advance of the English
until the camp and village occupied as Osman Digna’s
headquarters were sighted from the hills. The guns
lost by us earlier in the day had then been recovered.
Alas! that the British loss was so very heavy I Five
officers and ninety men killed ; eight oﬁicers and over
one hundred men wounded! This was owing largely
to the awful rush upon the square of the First

lrigade, and the ﬁghting around the guns. The

naval contingent alone lost in this encounter three
ofﬁcers and seven men killed, in addition to the
wounded. The enemy suffered to the extent of nearly
two thousand warriors in killed and wounded. Had
not timely caution of an ambush, or trap, laid for the
British been given by a friendly Arab, loss on our
side would have been greater than that mentioned, and
victory might possibly have gone with the Arabs.

No effort was made to defend Osman Digna’s
camp at Tamasi. The garrison, as well as the inha-
bitants of the neighbouring village, ﬂed before the
appioach of the Blitish, who secured the ﬂag of the
1ebel Chieftain, also the Egyptian standard taken
at Tokar, a great amount of money, riﬂes, ammuni—
tion, spears, and various talismans. After collection
of the spoil the whole place was ﬁred. It occasioned
a rare spectacle—a scene not without its alarms, for

204 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

ever and anon stores of ammunition for guns as well
as for riﬂes, purposely left behind, ignited in tre-
mendous explosions.

The British force returned to Suakim, but reports
coming in that the insurgents were again collecting
at Tamanieb, there was no course other than to
scatter them. General Buller was entrusted with the
task of leading out another force. It was not large,
and no decisive engagement was fought. Still, parties
of Hadendowas and of other tribes were met with,
and chased from ridge to ridge and valley to valley.
Several days were occupied ere the country around
Tamanieb was cleared.

At the beginning of April the British left Suakim,
the Government of the day having decided that
nothing further was to be gained by our occupation
of the Eastern Soudan.

CHAPTER XI.

ALONG THE NILE VALLEY.

OF all the military campaigns in the history, not only
of the British Empire, but of the world, the Nile
expedition of 1884 is, in many respects, the most
remarkable.

Alike in its character and purpose, it has scarcely
a parallel. Who could have imagined that the Union
Jack would ﬂoat upon the banks of the Nile, more
than a thousand miles from its outlet in the Mediterra-
nean Sea? Who could have prophesied when the
Egyptian revolt of 1882 was put down, when E1
Teb and Tamanieb had been fought in 1884:, and the
bold warriors of Osman Digna were scattered like
chaff before the wind, that thousands of our sailors,
soldiers, and marines would be engaged in a life-and-
death struggle for Khartoum, ﬁfteen hundred miles
away from Alexandria and so much nearer the heart
of Africa? Upon the eddying, swirling, tossing
waters of old Father Nile; through cities whose
foundations were laid in the dim, distant past;
beyond the great Pyramids, the building of which is

206 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

lost in mystery; by the side of or through cataracts,
foaming and tumbling in wild confusion; on the
bosom of quieter waters; over the spacious desert of
rock and sand and t0 the banks of the Nile again,
not very far from Khartoum, where few Englishmen
had ever been, and fewer still are likely to penetrate
for long years to come; battling with the ﬁercest of
heathen as well as against stern nature? And for
what? The rescue mainly of one man. Yet so it
was.

You remember how the Mahdists in the Soudan
went on from victory to victory, taking town after
town, killing Egyptians and native loyalists in thou-
sands, laying waste whole districts, and usurping
authority everywhere until they approached Khar-
toum, the capital, and threatened it most seriously.
You have been shown how the Khedive of Egypt
could not send out fresh troops to stem the torrent
of insurrection sweeping over his southern dominions,
and how to save Suakim, Trinkitat, Sinkat, and
Tokar in the Eastern Soudan British sailors and
soldiers were disembarkcd to fight where the troops
of the Khedive had failed. When the Arabs, who
fought so desperately against our arms in the Eastern
Sou-dam, had been overwhelmed there were loud cries
in England for a continued advance of the victors on
Khartoum. We were told by some who knew the
country, and by more who did not, that after the

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 207

battle of Tamanieb and the capture and burning of
Osman Dna’s headquarters at Tamasi, it would be
a light matter for cavalry at any rate to cross the
Eastern Soudan and reach Berber, a town of import-
ance at the great bend of the Nile, between Khartoum
and Abu Hamed. That, having reached Berber, it
would fall into the hands of the English without
trouble, supposing it to be held by the rebels, and
the Mahdists, nearing Khartoum, would be so deeply
moved by the coming of the British, that they would
immediately fall back to the interior and leave the
city to the garrison, its people, and to Egypt. Others
in England, professing to know, said that a cavalry
ride across the Eastern Soudan, from the Red Sea to
Berber, was altogether out of the question. It was
stated that there was no road worth calling one, that
horses could not live among the rocks and sand, that
there was no proper water supply in the wells,
that the enemy might be lurking in unsuspected
quarters, and that, taking it for granted a force of
European cavalry reached Berber, the disaffected in it
were so strong that a mounted body of men would
not have the remotest chance in entering the town.
What was to become of them in such a case? They
would be surrounded and perish miserably. Have
we not seen that a march upon Berber was not
attempted? that Sir Gerald Graham’s ﬁghting men
were withdrawn from the Eastern Soudan?

208 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

England and Egypt were painfully aware during
this time that affairs in Khartoum were going from
bad to worse ; that trade and commerce had ceased;
that old and young in the city wished to descend the
Nile or cross the Bayuda Desert into towns nearer
the Egyptian frontier and escape the great wave of
revolt slowly sweeping over the land. Some did
make the endeavour and succeeded, others failed and
were made prisoners; others, again, had no means at
command by which to accomplish the object.

The situation in Khartoum in the last week of
1883 may be gathered from a communication
addressed to Sir Evelyn Baring, the British Minister
at Cairo, by Mr. Power, who was acting as our Consul
in the Soudan capital. The European and loyal
population were beginning to think, he wrote, that
they had been either forgotten or abandoned by the
Egyptian Government. Very critical was the state
of affairs. Twenty-three days before the Mahdi was
assembling a great army to attack Khartoum. What
number he would bring was not known, but in the
city they had, including gunners and sentries, not
more than three thousand to hold four miles of earth-
works, on which were a few old bronze guns and one
Krupp field-piece. This number of men would not
properly man the walls, and it left the authorities
without any reserve or relief to move to a threatened
place in case of an attack. It also forbade them

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 209

having any guard in the city, which in the event of
attack would be at the mercy of an undisguisedly
rebel population. The Governor was not even strong
enough to seize the well-known ringleaders or agents
of the Mahdi. If Khartoum fell all Lower Egypt
would go, as the Mahdi avowed his intention of
sweeping across the Suez Canal into Arabia. Should
the city surrender, nearly every man from there to
Assiout, eight hours from Cairo, would, Mr. Power
believed, he in arms to join the False Prophet as he
passed. In Khartoum many most respectable men,
who would wish to be loyal to the K hedive, thought
Mohammed Ahmed (the Mahdi) to be a true prophet.
Ibrahim Pasha, the Governor, and Colonel Coetlogen,
who was with him, would, of course, attempt to hold
Khartoum while they could get a man to stand, but
how could the earthworks be held with such a force?
The loyal would undoubtedly be ready to defend their
property and families, and act as police to keep the
mob in check, in case of attack, but there were no
arms to serve out to them, there being but a few
hundred riﬂes in the arsenal, not enough to provide
for accidents amongst the soldiers.

The year 1884 broke and with it came the escaped
garrisons of Duem and Kaneb to Khartoum. Their
arrival gave heart, of course, to the loyalists, and'the
news reaching Egypt, a corresponding degree of plea-
sure was afforded, to the thdive and his ministers.

1'

210 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

Acting on the advice of the British Cabinet,
the Egyptian Government had. then decided on the
abandonment of the Soudan, and they held by that
decision even after the intelligence from Khartoum
reached them. They gave orders that every effort
was to be made to get those who wished to leave the
city down the Nile to places of safety, and the other
garrisons in the Soudan were to be withdrawn. But
how, when the rebellion went on spreading and the
means of transport was so limited? Who was to
conduct the operations ?

Then a loud expression was heard in England that
the only hope of rescue lay in the presence of one
man in Khartoum; that, in a word, General Charles
George Gordon was the only person whose appointment
and inﬂuence in the Soudan would permit of evacua—
tion——Gordon, who bore a spotless record for ability,
mercy, and goodness ; Gordon, who had fought in the
Crimea, who had served on various commissions in
the East, who had put down an insurrection in China
when the country was in dire straits, who had spent
years in the Soudan, as Governor-general, as the
hunter of the hated. and unspeakably cruel slave-
raiders, the liberator of the captives, the true friend
of the poor and needy, the upholder of authority,
the champion of true peace, the beloved of all who
ever sought his help or depended upon his admi—
nistration. Without hesitation Gordon consented

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. . 211 ,

'to go forth to the Soudan. No second request was
made by the English or the Egyptian Government——
the chivalrous, self-denying soldier was on his way to
the Soudan within a few hours of receiving the
chance of being of service to the garrisons and people
of the land. By the end of January Gordon and
Colonel D. H. Stewart, of the 11th Hussars, who had
previously been in the Soudan also, were at Cairo.
Here Gordon was appointed Governor-general of the
Soudan, and, armed with the fullest powers, he left
the city with Stewart, carrying with him the best
wishes of hundreds of thousands who knew the
beauties of his character, the work he had accom-
plished in the course of his eventful career, and
something of the diﬂiculties lying before him. '
Along the course of the Nile to Assouan, thence
to Korosko, and across the desert to Abu Hamed
went Gordon and Stewart on their errand of mercy.
A desert this, and two hundred and ﬁfty miles broad,
one, as a writer says, forming a ﬁt home for solitude
and monotony, a weird home of dreariness, where in
the deeper valleys some sickly doom-palm or dwarfed
mimosa struggles for existence amongst the surround-
ing sterility, where most organic life shuns the vale
of desolation, where the ferociOus Arabs are to be
met with, and where the track is marked out by
countless carcasses of camels, prevented by the dry
heat from decaying, and now and again by the dry

212 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

stone-heaped grave of their drivers, buried in the wild
fastnesses of sand and rock; where the mirage is
almost continual, the horizon wearing the garb of
sea and lake; mountains far beyond the range of
vision reversing themselves in the air as if standing
on their summits, or taking fantastic shapes and
forms. “Don’t be uneasy on our account,” tele-
graphed the hopeful Gordon from Abu Hamed, after
travelling through the awful wilderness, “ as we are
well and happy. The whole thing is right.”
Gordon’s trust was apparently well placed. On
arriving at Berber he found that instead of the town
being in the hands of the rebels, the garrison and
populace turned out to greet him, that many were
ready to obey his commands, and that when he left
to resume his river journey to Khartoum—where he
arrived on the 19th February—the people were quite
ready to obey the governor and council he set up.
Gordon’s arrival at Khartoum was the signal for
great rejoicings. Having held a reception at the
Government House, to which the poorest inhabitant of
Khartoum was admitted, he proceeded to the Palace.
On his way thither “ about a thousand persons pressed
"forward, kissing his hands and feet, calling him
‘Sultan,’ ‘ Father,’ and ‘Saviour of Kordofan.’
General Gordon and Colonel Stewart at once opened
ofﬁces in the Palace, giving to every one with a griev-
ance admission and careful hearing. The Govern-

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 213

ment books, recording from time immemorial the
outstanding debts of over-taxed people, were publicly
burnt in front of the Palace. The kourbashes, whips,
and implements for administering the bastinado were
all placed upon a blazing pile. The evidence of
debts and the emblems of oppression perished toge-
ther. A Council of notables for the administration
of Khartoum was appointed by Gordon ; the hospital
and arsenal were visited. The prison was seen, too,
by Gordon, where many wretches, loaded with chains,
lay in abject misery. They were of all ages, boys and
old men—some having never been tried ; some hav-
ing been found innocent, but forgotten. All the
prisoners were to be brieﬂy examined, and, if advis-
able, set at liberty. Before darkness came on scores
of these prisoners had their chains knocked off, and
the work of examination and release was continued
into the night. The town was in a blaze of illumina-
tions, the bazaars being hung with cloth and coloured
lamps, and the private houses beautifully decorated.
Even the negro population contributed to ﬁreworks;
and rejoicings, generally, were kept up till midnight.”

Alas! that the bright light thrown upon Khar-
toum by General Gordon’s arrival was so soon
dimmed. Alas! that gloom, discontent, treachery,
and fear settled upon the city. The would-be deli-
verer did all in his power to stave off the evil day,
to give courage and conﬁdence in Khartoum. He

214 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

evinced the utmost liberality in his dealings with all
men, issuing proclamations and orders, and making
proposals in plenty on every side. The General saw
at length that his grand scheme of delivering the
garrison and the populace was not likely to succeed,
that there were too many traitors around him;
that the Mahdists were constantly coming nearer and
setting up earthworks and guns; and that men who
should have helped him went over openly to the
False Prophet, and informed of all that was being
done in the city.

Still, Gordon persevered. Finding that some hun-
dreds only of refugees could be got away from Khar-
toum, that the door of escape was rapidly closing,
and that he and the loyalists must be caught there
unless something extraordinary were done, he set
about strengthening the defences, casting guns,
manufacturing ammunition, building steamers and
boats for service upon the river, constructing mines
to be sprung upon the enemy investing the city,
drilling recruits, and embuing the trained soldiers
with new spirit. Often did these armour-plated
steamers go out upon the river and shell the rebels ;
frequently did the mines explode and spread confusion
in the ranks of the enemy ; repeatedly did the troops
of Gordon sally out to raid for provisions, to drive
away the Mahdists, and relieve garrisons or posts
miles away from the capital. Occasionally there was

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 215

a defeat of Gordon’s men, and in such an event the
enemy did not scruple to make the most of it by
entrenching themselves nearer the city walls and
upon strong points of the river within reach of
Khartoum.

It was a month after his entry into the capital of
the Soudan, when General Gordon begun to see. that
his mission was likely to fail. He telegraphed to
the British Ministry to allow him Zebehr Pasha, a
noted and powerful Arab, and who was under restraint
by the Egyptian Government at the time; but no
Zebchr was sent him on the ground that his pre-
sence in the Soudan would not help on the cause in
any way. The General asked for troops, by way of
the Eastern Soudan and Berber, or Cairo and the
Nile, as far south as Wady Halfa; these, also, were
refused. Requests for Zebehr and English soldiers
were continued, however, and when the conviction
dawned on him, at length, that no assistance was
coming from England, Gordon was led to exclaim,
“ I only feel trust in God’s mercy, for there is nothing
else I ”

General Gordon was not forgotten in England,
and when after his appeals had been published in
succession, and the sad news came that Khartoum
having been surrounded by the Arabs, and the tele-
graph wire to the city having been cut, no word from
Gordon could reach this country, a demand for the

216 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

relief of the popular hero was made upon the un-
willing British Cabinet that could not be resisted.
England, it was urged, had sent Gordon to the
Soudan, and now that he was beleaguered England
must rescue him. The last despatch from Gordon
was ever ringing in the public mind : “ I shall leave
you the indelible disgrace of abandoning the garrisons
of Senaar, Kassala, Berber, and Dongola, with the
certainty that you will eventually be forced to smash
up the Mahdi under great difﬁculties if you would
retain peace in Egypt.”

This was the last intelligence of Gordon and Khar-
toum Englishmen received for a period of over ﬁve
months.

Once aroused to a sense of her obligation, Britannia
devotes herself to the task before her in downright
earnest. She did so in this case. There was to be
no more excuse for non-interference in the Soudan,
no more looking at the tremendous cost of a military
expedition to Khartoum; no more delays of any
kind. Difﬁculties of route and nature, of expense,
and the like must be sent to the winds. Gordon
ought to be rescued, and that was enough. When,
therefore, a relief column was decided upon by the
Government, tens of thousands of men volunteered
for the service. From every ship in the British
navy, and from every regiment in the army, came
offers. All ranks of men were burning to risk every—

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 217

thing for the sake of Gordon and the honour of old
England. To make the expeditionary force as repre-
sentative as it could be, men were selected from all
branches of the sea and land services. Fourteen
thousand was to be the strength of the column placed
at the disposal of Lord Wolseley, selected for the
command. And the route? Not by the Eastern
Soudan and Berber; the Nile Valley was chosen as
being, all things considered, the best of the two ways
to Khartoum. At Korti, twelve hundred miles from
the Mediterranean Sea, a dash would be made across
the Bayuda Desert for Metemmeh; thence a sail of
twenty miles upon the Nile would bring the rescuers
to Khartoum and—Gordon!

As much of the journey to the capital of the
Soudan was to be made by water, steamers, sail and
row boats were to be provided. And ordered they
were forthwith. Altogether eight hundred small
craft were to be launched upon the Nile. Whalers,
they were called, stoutly-made row-boats, thirty feet
long, with six feet six inches beam, and drawing two
feet six inches. Each Whaler weighed on an average
9 cwt. Two masts, having big sails attached, were
ﬁtted to each Whaler, for accommodation was pro-
vided in the boat for twelve men, who were to assist
in rowing. It was arranged that of the twelve, two
would be boatmen and ten soldiers, or members of
the Naval Brigade. Nearly three hundred of these

218 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

boatmen came, eventually, from Canada—native
Canadians, two hundred and eighty of them ; others
of the boatmen were Iroquois Indians. All were, or
were supposed to be, accustomed to beating and
canoeing upon the great rivers and lakes of Canada,
several had actually accompanied Lord Wolseley in a
military undertaking commanded by him, and known
as the Red River expedition. Of course, any number
of our own J ack-tars could have been found to take
charge of the Whalers. Those selected for the dash
for Khartoum were wanted for ﬁghting purposes.
Few other sailors could be accommodated.

The summer of 1884 was taken up largely by pre-
parations for this really novel and wonderful expe-
dition. Troops left the shores of England amid the
cheers and God-speed of hundreds of thousands of
onlookers ; two European regiments sailed from
India; the garrisons in Cyprus, Gibraltar, and Malta
contributed to the expeditionary force, so did the
West Indies and Cairo. Alexandria saw the departure
for the front of soldiers belonging to the British army
of occupation. No fewer than fourteen thousand
sailors and soldiers were in Egypt or the Northern
Soudan early in September when Lord Wolseley
joined. “ The Nile Column ” was the name given to
the force engaged in the operations. Major Kitchener
and other ofﬁcers were labouring for months in scout—
ing, reporting, purchasing camels, dromedaries, and

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 219

horses and mules for transport purposes and for
the cavalry men. A camel corps was to be one of
the main features of the expedition. Yes; sailors
and soldiers were trained upon the sands and the
soil upon the Nile banks to ride these great sham-
bling “ships of the desert.” The business was a
serious one, rather, for the riders. Frequently were
they unable to hold on the backs of the unwieldy
animals, and, coming to grief upon the ground, met
with little sympathy. They were laughed at; fun
was poked at them day after day. But the camels
were conquered, in part, at last. Rollickiug Jack—
tars, sturdy guardsmen, lithe hussars, and many
infantrymen became very proﬁcient in riding; the
laugh was on their side. This experience was gained,
principally far up the Nile, not far from Dongela and
Korti, preliminary to the march across the sand-
swept desert of Bayuda, lying between these places
and Metemmeh and Khartoum.

Think, for a moment, what bustling scenes were
happening in Egypt and those stretches of old Nile
upon the borders of the great Soudan. How by rail
and river to Assiout, from Alexandria and Cairo, our
brave men would push on and on, keeping order and
unity as best they could; how around the town of
Assouan, below the ﬁrst cataract of the Nile, our
fellows would re-form, listen to fresh orders, and, after
resting, prepare anew for work under the burning

220 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

sun. To escape the tugging and the hauling, and
the rowing in the rapids or cataracts of the river, the
force was taken upon a railway eight miles long to
Shellah, and named once more, at this point, to
places in steam pinnaces and luggcrs and Whalers,
The heavier vessels were taken through the rough,
tumbling, varying, swirling waters of the cataract at
considerable risk, the nicest care and patience being
requisite to bring them safely through. The lighter
boats and the stores were taken on to Shellah by
land. The steaming and the rowing were recommenced
and continued a distance of two hundred miles to
Wady Halfa. There the second of the great cataracts
of the Nile had to be dealt with, meaning extra
difﬁculties and dangers, more tugging and pulling
and straining, more care, more patience. Think, too,
that stations and depots for stores and ammunition
and the like had to be established at intervals the
whole way, that the labour was under a sun whose
rays became hotter and hotter, that sand-storms
arose ever and anon to the discomfort of everyone,
that water and food had to be sought after, and that
by night and by day there were discomforts that can
hardly be described.

The brave Englishmen, the thousands belonging
to this expedition, upon which natives looked with
mingled feelings of surprise and dread, pushed on
without a murmur. Gordon, whom some had seen,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 221

while others had not, was beloved by all. His deeds
were known to them; his life as an oﬂicer, as a true
soldier of God, had. been often recounted in their
ears ; they could not bear the thought that any
Briton, how much more a hero of the stamp of General
Gordon, should be shut up in any city without any
chance of being liberated.

General Wolseley stirred the blood of the men
still more by an “ order” issued to them when they
passed the Third Cataract. The very magnitude of
the diﬂiculties that faced them would, he said, only
stimulate them to increased exertions. All of them
were proud of General Gordon and his gallant and
self-sacriﬁcing defence of Khartoum, by which he
added, if that were possible, to his already high
reputation. Gordon was calling upon them to save
the garrison. His courage and patriotism were house-
hold words wherever the English language was spoken;
and not only had his safety become a matter of
national importance, but the knowledge that their
brave comrade needed help urged them to push
forward with redoubled energy. The labour of work-
ing up the Nile was immense, and to bear it uncom-
plainingly demanded the highest soldier-like qualities,
and that contempt of danger, and that determination
to overcome difﬁculty, which, in previous campaigns,
had so distinguished all ranks of Her Majesty’s army
and navy, I i ‘

222 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

Colonel Stewart and Mr. Frank Power were in
Khartoum, too, at any rate for a long time. Alas!
that in descending the Nile on the invitation of
Gordon, and having passed Berber in their armour-
plated steamer, they were cruelly betrayed and foully
murdered; and that all the news they conveyed,
including a precious diary of the siege, kept by
Gordon, was lost with them! And, by the way, the
General himself might have left Khartoum. Secretly,
it would have been. He might have started at one
time for the Equatorial Province, the one held by
Emin Pasha; he might have endeavoured to reach
Abyssinia, a country of which he had some experience ;
or he might, disguised as an Arab, have come north—
this was before the invasion of Khartoum was completed
by the Mahdists—he might possibly have stolen away
when the city was surrounded. Such an event was
quite out of the question with him, however—he
despised the very idea. To Khartoum he was sent
as Governor-general, as the rescuer of the soldiers
and the citizens, and he declared he would stand by
them to the last. Come relief, come death, he would
remain faithful to his trust. When death did stare
him in the face, and all hope of the coming of the
English had vanished, he murmured, with a grand
and touching resignation, “Like Lawrence, I have
tried to do my duty ! ”

CHAPTER XII.
TOO LATE FOR GORDON.

LORD WOLSELEY arrived at Korti on the 16th
December. A great portion of the expeditionary
force had then encamped among the trees there ; the
remaining section was fast approaching. Gordon
was, according to a message brought by a disguised
messenger who had eluded the enemy, still holding
out at Khartoum. But the siege could not be with-
stood much longer. Provisions were running short,
traitors had multiplied, the Mahdi had become more
daring and had taken several fortiﬁed positions, and
the supply of ammunition in Khartoum was fast run-
ning out. This intelligence was not altogether unex-
pected. That he had not a single hour to lose General
\Volseley was certain of throughout the hard struggle
up the Nile. What he at once set about doing at
Korti was to send on a column, under General Earle,
farther along the Nile to take Abu Hamed, Berber,
and other places from the rebels, and to punish the
murderers of Stewart, Power, and the party with
them, and, at the same time, to despatch a column,

r \

224 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

with Sir Herbert Stewart at its head, across the
Bayuda Desert to that Metemmeh already referred to,
and from which sail was to be made straight into
Khartoum.

One half of the Desert Column of two thousand
men marched from Korti on the 30th December,
and did it so quickly across the burning sands and
' hard rocks that in the course of three days men and
animals were at the Gakdul wells, ninety miles from
Korti. Sir Herbert Stewart and a strong escort then
retraced their steps to the British headquarters, and
were at Gakdul again in the short space of six days
with the remainder of the Desert Column. Why was
this method of crossing to Metemmeh adopted? you
ask. For the carrying of stores. Major Kitchener,
with his guides and scouts, had ascertained that no
Arab ﬁghting force was on the Korti side of the
desert, and that this dividing of the column into two
sections might be safely adopted, with the rock-
enclosed wells at Gakdul as a central station in the
desert. Seven hundred and ﬁfty gallons of water
had to be carried, provisions for seven days, and
forty thousand rounds of ammunition. To do this,
and to carry the men, no fewer than two thousand
camels and forty horses were brought into request.
What a vastly increased number would have been
needful to accomplish the distance to Gakdul in one
journey!

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 225

It was while the column was, on the 16th January,
approaching the Abu Klea wells, about sixty miles
beyond Gakdul, that the enemy was ﬁrst sighted.
There were not very many of them. That they
meant mischief was evident, but as night was coming
on, and the order of marching was not close, it was
wisely determined by General Stewart to avoid a
battle. Indeed, it was questionable whether the
ground, which included the Abu Klea wells, could
be captured that night. The enemy might be in
great force, or they might not. There was little
sleep for our men in their blankets and rugs, as the
Arabs ﬁred away at frequent intervals; the camels
were uneasy, and set up constant bellowings ; and no
one could say how soon an attack would be made
upon the encampment. Morning dawned, however,
without anything serious having happened, and the
column itself was arranged for attack. The wells
must'be gained at all costs, for much of the water
that was carried in the bottles and skins had become
impure ; men and camels were in danger of dropping
from another day’s experience unless the fresh liquid
was reached; the advance towards Khartoum must
be resumed.

Leaving the zareba, therefore, in which the bulk
of the ﬁghting force and the animals had been enclosed
during the uncomfortable night, and where the sick
and many camels were now left under a sufﬁcient

e

226 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

guard, the advance to the wells was commenced.
Large bodies of the enemy were then seen upon the
ridges surrounding the wells. Drums were being
banged; spears and riﬂes were ﬂourished; sheikhs
and dervishes, or priests, were addressing their fellow
rebels, and hurrying hither and thither—in short,
everything went to show that if the British intended
winning the wells, and continuing their course over
the desert, their work (was not to be easy. Still, the
enemy did not seem urgently disposed to meet the
invaders. They came on to within a thousand yards
of our column, advancing slowly in square formation,
then retired, many of them, appeared again, and yet
paused. Sir Herbert Stewart tried a ruse in order to
bring the Arabs from behind the ridges and to closer
quarters. Companies of his men made a rush for a
certain position, and as quickly retired as if in retreat
and an enemy following in their wake. But, no ! the
feint did not succeed. The Mahdists would not
advance in unison. Out of patience with their tactics,
General Stewart determined to advance in earnest
against the Arabs without further delay. On one
side of the human square were Guards and mounted
infantry, with men of the Royal Artillery, and three
guns ; on another side companies of mounted infantry,
Guards, and a detachment of the Royal Sussex Regi-
ment; four companies of the Heavy Camel Regiment
———mostly Guardsmen and the Naval Brigade with

 

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 227

a Gardner gun being on another side. Companies of
the 19th Hussars were ordered to move with the
square, and to be prepared to fall upon the enemy
as required. The whole force moving against the
Arabs did not number more than ﬁfteen hundred
men. Before the day had expired the accepted esti-
mate of the rebel ﬁghting strength was ten thousand!

Convinced that they would have to ﬁght for their
lives or beat a retreat towards Khartoum, the Arabs
chose the former alternative. They came out of their
hiding-places by the thousand, and disputed every
inch of ground, ﬁring the while, killing and wounding
our men, and waving arms and ﬂags most excitedly.
“The rebels swarmed upon our front,” wrote Mr.
Burleigh, “and for two or three miles on either ﬂank
groups of their horsemen and spearmen could be seen
watching us from rocky peaks. There was no avenue
of retreat for us; it was a matter of ‘do or die.’
The Arabs appeared more numerous every moment,
sometimes showing in lines of battle array, as if they
meant to charge the square, and anon disappearing
behind a ridge, or sinking out of sight inthe water-
scored, lumpy ground, covered with scrub and bunch-
grass. Onward our ﬁghting square moved, the enemy
forming up—now, as if to charge, and, after a volley
or two, given by companies, getting again out of
sight. At length a force of four thousand or ﬁve
thousand of the enemy, in two lines on our left, or

228 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

opposite the side of the square maintained by part
of the Mounted Infantry and the Heavy Cavalry Regi-
ments, were seen. They were four hundred, or per-
haps ﬁve hundred, yards distant, and looked like
coming on. Dervishes on horseback and on foot
marshalled them, standing a few paces in front of
the fanatic host. With ﬂuttering of banners, clamour I
of tom-toms, and shoutings of ‘Allah!’ they began
to move towards our square. At ﬁrst they came
slowly—not quicker than a fast walk. Our skir-
mishers’ ﬁre appeared to have little or no effect upon
them, and the whole left face of the square, which
now halted upon the high ground, turned their riﬂes
upon the Arabs, with, however, not much better
results. Very few of the Mahdi’s force fell, their
lines were scarcely marred, and the miscarriage of our
bullets must have inspired them with the hope that
Mohammed Ahmed had conferred upon them charmed
lives. They were soon within three hundred and
ﬁfty yards of the square, and now they commenced
to run towards us, coming over the rolling ground
like a vast wave of black surf.”

Having told how the Gardner gun failed to be of
much service when it was most wanted, owing to the
cartridges sticking in it, the same writer goes on:
“Down upon us the dark Arab wave rolled. It was
a rush of spearmen and swordsmen, scarcely any
carrying guns. Their riﬂe-ﬁre had practically ceased,

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 229

and the Arab forces surrounding us—Mahdi’s troops,
plundering Bedouins; and pillaging villagers from the
riverside—all stood eager on the hillsides watching
the charge upon the British square. In wild excite-
ment, their white teeth glistening, and the sheen of
their brandished weapons ﬂashing like thousands of
mirrors, onward they came against us. By twos and
threes our skirmishers had now reached the lines,
and, the left face being nearly clear, a volley was sent
into the enemy at one hundred and ﬁfty yards, as
they rose over the last crest between our opposing
lines. A hundred or more Arabs dropped, and for a
moment the force wavered and halted, as a man stops
to gasp for breath, or at any sudden surprise. Then
the Arabs, who had barely checked their run, leaped
over their falling brethren, and came charging straight
into our ranks.” Colonel Burnaby was killed in the
ugly rush while ﬁghting heroically against great odds,
a portion of the square fell back, the enemy hacking
and hewing with the fury of demons. “Backward
from the left face the square fell, staggering and
irregular. Ofﬁcers exerted themselves to keep their
men together, and General Stewart himself rode to
the broken corner to assist. His horse was here
killed, and he was with difﬁculty extricated and
saved from Arab spears. Confusion for the instant
reigned supreme as the men fell back towards a low
circular mound. The charge of Arabs carried many

230 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

of them into the centre of the square, and among the
camels. There death and havoc rioted for two or
three minutes, while our men moved off from the in-
extricable mass of wounded, dying, and dead camels.

“It was an awful scene; for many, alas! of the
wounded left behind on the cacolets and litters
perished by the hands of the merciless Arabs, infu-
riated by their sheikhs, whose wild hoarse cries rent
the air ; whilst the black spearmen, entangled among
the animals, ran hither and thither, thirsting for
blood. Amid the general calamity there were many
providential escapes. Our men clustered all round
the circular mound with a swarm of Arabs ﬁghting
upon what was originally the left and rear faces of
the square; the others were still hanging back, un-
decided, among the wreck of camels. The British
were enabled to ﬁre upon the dense mass of Arabs,
however, and the enemy showing signs of wavering,
our men cheered and shouted and redoubled their
ﬁre. The strained tension of the situation had lasted
nearly ten minutes, when at last the Arabs—two or
three at ﬁrst, then in twenties and ﬁfties—began to
trot off the ﬁeld. In ﬁve minutes more there was
not an enemy to be seen standing within three
hundred yards of us. With cheer upon cheer, shout-
ing ourselves hoarse, we hailed our victory—dearly
won as all knew it to be. Parting volley after part-
ing volley was sent into the now ﬂying foemen, and

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 231

we had the satisfaction of noting that all around they
were taking ground to the rear. Colonel Barrow,
who with his Hussars had been holding the enemy
about three-quarters of a mile on our left rear, was
now able to push on, and soon three long streams of
Arabs, afoot, and on horse, camel, and donkey back,
were making off, one in the direction of Berber,
another towards Metemmeh, and a third for Khar-
toum.” A few guns brought into action quickened
the ﬂight of these fellows. Many lying wounded
upon the ﬁeld pretended to be dead until, as our men
passed over or near them, they raised themselves, as
Osman Digna’s men had done in the Eastern Soudan,
and stabbed at those within reach.

In the battle of Abu Klea the British loss was
great, of course. At least a hundred were killed
outright ; two hundred were wounded. Upwards of
seven hundred Arabs were killed, and nearly as many
were wounded.

There was to be no rest upon the scene of the day’s
battle. The Abu Klea wells had to be reached as
early as possible. Short of water before entering
upon the ﬁght, how much more so now were the
British after the terrible experience in the great heat
of the sun’s rays? So what remained of the
column headed for the pure water of the desert, to-
ﬁnd the surroundings entirely vacated, to drink
,to their hearts’ content, and to rest their aching

232 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

limbs throughout the night without being dis-
turbed. v

Just a few words as to Colonel Fred Burnaby, who
was killed at Abu Klea, and who was one of the
best—known men in the British Army. Born at Bed-
ford in 1 842, he grew up a tall, broad-shouldered hand-
some gentleman, over six feet in height. At the age of
seventeen years he entered the Royal Horse Guards
and became greatly admired by all his comrades.
While holding the rank of captain, in 1868, Burnaby
had adventures in different parts of Europe ; in 1870
he was in France, and saw something of the terrible
war with Germany ; in Spain, during the year 1873,
he was a witness of the Carlist War, and again in
1874s ; and the following year saw him on his way
to the Soudan on a visit to General Gordon, then in
the service of the Khedive of Egypt. In January,
1875, Burnaby was at Khartoum, and he ultimately
came up with Gordon amid the haunts of the slave
raiders, whence he, Burnaby, sent an account of the
wonderful doings of his truly great friend. Next we
ﬁnd Burnaby engaged in a famous and extremely
dangerous ride to Khiva. The sweltering heat
of Central Africa was left behind for the biting
frost and snow of Central Asia! In 1876 Burnaby
was travelling in Asia Minor on horseback, as he had
done through the wastes of Central Asia, and when
the awful struggle between Russia and Turkey broke

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 233

out in 1877, Burnaby was found ﬁghting with the
Turks. He fought with conspicuous bravery in the
Eastern Soudan, where he was wounded ; and it was
while campaigning as a volunteer, and after hurrying
to the front, that he was speared through the throat
at Abu Klea.

Reporting to Lord Wolseley, General Stewart ex-
pressed the opinion that the success of the British at
Abu Klea had been so complete, and the enemy’s
less so severe, that the Arabs would, in all likelihood,
be disheartened, and all future ﬁghting be of a less
obstinate character. The Mahdists had not done
with the British ; they soon proved that they were
neither afraid nor disposed to ﬁght less ﬁercely.

The immediate vicinity of the wells having been
fortiﬁed, and the sick and wounded provided for, the
force still available for resuming the march across the
Bayuda Desert was paraded, and by the light of the
moon another start was made. Steadily and warily
the journey was continued. It was arduous enough,
for the road was not clear, and many of our soldiers
and seamen required more rest. After midnight the
enemy did appear ; not in large numbers, but in force
sufﬁcient to tell that we had not done with ﬁghting.
As shots were repeated, and the waters of the Nile
were not visible at daybreak, a zareba of the kind
seen in the Eastern Soudan was constructed, and
behind its rude walls the reduced column of English-

234 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

men ate their breakfast. The meal was taken under
trying circumstances, for bolder and bolder grew
the Arabs. In the words of Mr. Burleigh, the situa-
tion became unbearable. The British were being
ﬁred at without a chance of returning blows with
interest. “ There were three courses open to them—
to sally forth and ﬁght their way to the Nile ; to ﬁght
for the river, advancing stage by stage, with the help
of zarebas and temporary works; or to strengthen
their position and try to withstand the Arabs and
lack of water until Wolseley should send a force to
their assistance, they, meanwhile, sending a messenger
or two back to Korti with the news. It was bravely
decided to go out and engage the enemy at close
quarters. At two o’clock in the afternoon the force
was to march out in square, carrying nothing except
ammunition and stretchers. Each man was to take
one hundred rounds, and to have his water-bottle
full. Everything was put in most thorough readiness
for the enterprise. Lord Charles Beresford, who had
been seedy since we left Abu Klea, with Colonel
Barrow, remained in command of the enclosure, or
zareba, containing the animals and stores. All day
long Lord Charles and Captain Norton had been
pounding the enemy whenever the Arabs gave them
a chance, the former at the Gardner gun and the
latter with two of his light guns. It was nearly
three before the square started, Sir Charles Wilson in

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 235

command, but Colonel Boscawen acting as executive
ofﬁcer.” Colonel Stewart had then received a wound
in the chest—one destined, alas! to have a fatal
ending during the return to Korti. Rarely has a
more genial and able oﬁicer breathed.

The ﬁghting square and the men within the zareba
were in a most unenviable situation. No hope of
reinforcements coming to their aid, at the mercy, as
to route, of guides who might be in the pay of the
enemy and we know the terrible stories of treachery
and ambush in the Soudan—the consciousness that

 

an entirely new army of Mahdists might come upon
the scene at any moment from Khartoum, Berber, or
Mctemmch, the fact that the supply of ammunition
could not go on lasting, and that their numbers were
_ gradually lessening. Accepting it that the Nile could
be reached, who could determine whether the survi-
vors, dust-stained, blistered, famished, and strangers
to their surroundings, would not be cut off to a man
by a vastly overwhelming force, after the fashion of
Hicks Pasha’s ten thousand soldiers and camp
followers ? The messenger who brought news to Korti
that Khartoum was still being defended against des-
perate odds stated that Gordon hoped to have armed
steamers waiting at Metemmeh with supplies, and in
readiness to take a body of British troops on to the
beleaguered city, but there was no rcertainty of the
arrangement being carried out. Khartoum might

236 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

have fallen in the dreary weeks that had elapsed
since the trusty Arab left the city; the steamers
might have been driven back into the capital, for it
was well understood that the banks of the Nile
between Khartoum and Metemmeh were occupied
more or less by Mahdists, some of whom had well-
served guns in newly-erected batteries.

Still, as we have noted, the resolve of the British
was to advance. Everything must be risked to save
Gordon. Were they to stand upon the defensive
merely, and send to Lord Wolseley for more men?
invaluable time would be lost, and with it, probably,
Gordon and Khartoum.

It was at a point named Abu Kru and about
four miles from Metemmeh and the Nile, that the
Arabs came in great force upon the gallant band of
Englishmen. Horsemen were there as well as foot-
men, wildly gestieulating dervishes and sheikhs,
Mahdists beating the war-drums and waving their
white and coloured ﬂags. It was to be, as a writer
puts it, the combat of a handful of skilled and heroic
men against a horde of untrained savages, the few
going forth dauntlessly to engage thousands, and
open a way for themselves and others to the river.
Promptly, and at sight of the array of Arabs, our
men halted, the front ranks lying down or kneeling,
while volley upon volley was sent into the yelling
hordes, causing them to reel and tumble and slink

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 237

away behind the crests of the rising uplands. The
rebels maintained a distance of one hundred and ﬁfty
yards all this time. They refused to come to close
quarters, contenting themselves with shots ; hesitat-
ing to bring their spears to bear until, being worked
upon by the long-robed dervishes promising the
richest rewards in this world and the next, the ﬁght-
ing Mahdists were impelled to throw themselves upon
the British square, now midway between the zareba, in
charge of Lord Beresford, and the Nile banks. Rocky
mounds and grass and bush seemed to be alive with
the dark forms of the wild men. Line after line of the
Arabs came on, ﬁring as they approached, brandishing
their spears, still shouting hoarsely in their ever-
gathering fury. What a position for the gallant
British square! How truly critical! The slightest
sign of fear, the faintest token of confusion, the
smallest show of retreating upon the enclosure, and
the moving circle of fanatics would fasten its iron
embrace upon all. “Can they be stopped before
closing with us?” was asked more than once as the
dense mass of Soudanese advanced nearer and nearer.
“How can we possibly escape them ?” “ Their luckiest
and fleetest did not, however, get within twenty-ﬁve
yards before death overtook them, while the bulk of
the enemy were still a hundred yards away. At last
—God be thanked !—they hesitate, stop, turn, and
run back. Victory is ours, and the British column

238 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

is safe. The broken lines of Arabs sullenly retreated
towards Metemmeh; but our square had to gain a
ridge before escaping from their sharpshooters’ ﬁre,
or getting a chance of punishing the daring fee.”

A gladsome sight the Nile was to the ﬁghting
square. It meant rest,water, and—Gordon’s steamers!
Yes! there, near to Metemmeh, were the vessels sent
by the noble defender of Khartoum; and if ever
wearied and exhausted men sent up shouts of joy,
it was when those who were left of the ﬁghting at
Abu Klea and Abu Kru saw the boats Gordon had sent
out to meet them, and when the faithful Soudanese
who manned them left the boats and came upon land
to fraternise. And yet there was the all-important
question as to the safety of Khartoum. A month
had elapsed since the steamers left. the city. The men
in them had been awaiting the coming of the British
fully a month, exposed to shot and shell and the deri-
sion of the enemy. They told how that Metemmeh,
Shendy, Omdurman, and other places leading to Khar-
toum were in the hands of the enemy, and how that
the city itself might fall at any time by storming 0r
treachery, if it had not done so already ; that it was
commanded by Gordon some days before, they knew
from reports that had reached them from the banks
of the Nile. Of the “rest ” expected by our men on
again seeing the Nile there was none. From the
fortiﬁed places upon the Nile bank, and at Gubat,

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 239

rebels ﬁred at their encampment or at parties appear-
ing before them, and beat their tom-toms day after
day, while their calls of deﬁance rended the air.

There was work to do in the meantime towards
opening direct communication with General Gordon.
Two of the steamers were therefore ﬁxed upon by Sir
Charles Wilson for the purpose, and twenty men of
the Royal Sussex Regiment and Gordon’s Soudanese
were selected to go to Khartoum in them. The fond
belief was that if a few only of England’s redcoats
were seen in Khartoum, and the fact spread in the
city that others were so near, the minds of the garri-
son would be strengthened, traitors would be cowed,
and the besiegers would see that the game was up
with them.

But the journey of Sir Charles Wilson’s party was
of the most dismal and heartbreaking character.
Frequently were the armed steamers ﬁred upon ; often
they had to be stopped and wood for the furnaces
gathered; they ran aground, and oh! woeful story!
on nearing Khartoum the British saw their worst
fears conﬁrmed—that Khartoum was occupied by the
Mahdists. Fired upon from both sides of the Nile,
painfully aware that he was utterly helpless, Sir
Charles Wilson ordered a retreat. Even then the
course of the steamers down river was replete with
perils; the timely arrival of a rescue party, under
Lord Charles Beresford, in the steamer remaining

240 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

near Metemmeh, alone saving the Royal Sussex and
the loyal Soudanese from death. They were taken, a
wrecked and pitiable company, from a barren island
in mid- -river.

How different the meeting now between Gordon’s
men and Sir Herbert Stewart’s ﬁghting column. In
the ﬁrst instance all joy and congratulation, in (the
second, grief and despair; Khartoum a hotbed, a
scene of Mahdist triumph, Gordon’s headless trunk
an object of scorn. Then the proud expectation of
greeting the truest and bravest of men, of scotching
or killing the revolt at its very centre, of pacifying
the Soudan, of bringing away all who desired to leave
for ever the long, long besieged city; now, the
grinding anguish of everything having been in vain.
For nought had the open and hidden dangers of the
Nile been faced; for nought had been the race to
Korti; all for nothing the plunge into, and the
deadly march across, the Bayuda Desert, and the
awful gauntlet run to and from Khartoum in Gor-
don’s steamers. Without any return had millions of
pounds sterling been spent by old England on the
Nile Valley Expedition.

With heavy hearts did the Desert Column, now
under Sir Redvers Buller, sent on by Lord Wolse-
ley, retrace their steps over the Soudanese desert,
How any of the force ever reached Korti seems, even
after this interval, one of the wonders of the century.

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 241

Who but Britons, bearing up gallantly and watched
over still by a good Providence, could have accom-
plished the task? Irritated night and day by bands of
rebels upon their ﬂanks and in their rear; tending
the stricken by wounds and sickness; nursing the
dying ; gathering in the remnants of living humanity,
the few beasts of burden still able to move, and what
was left of stores at the posts established during the
march to Metemmeh; unable to screen themselves
effectually from the great sand-storms and from the
heavy dews of night; struggling on and on, broken
and dispirited; protecting to the uttermost the
lagging—what a picture, this return over nearly two
hundred miles of a strange country!

When those at home in England learned of the fall
of Khartoum and the death of Gordon (on the 26th
January, 1885) no one could be found to believe the
report. Impossible, they asserted, that Englishmen
~ should have fought so long and for nothing! That
the ﬂower of the British Army and many of her sons
in the Navy had gone out to the far Soudan to fail
in the object set before them! That money should
have been spent without stint only to give no proﬁt 1
That a people, nay, that the whole civilised world
should have been looking on during the great part
of a year, watching feverishly for every scrap of in-
telligence, urging the men of the expeditionary force
on, and everything had now crumbled and fallen, like

R

242 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

a. house of cards! That Gordon was no more! That
the Soudan was lost to Egypt when they had begun to
think it might be paciﬁed and saved to the Khedive 1
That the victorious rebels were living where Gordon
had lived; that men, women, and children spared
from a frightful massacre had been thrown into horrid
dungeons, or were enduring tortures too awful to
describe! If all this were really true—and intelli-
gence ﬂashed from Korti, by telegraph, conﬁrmed it
—an army of vengeance must be organised, England
must spend of her wealth to punish, to remove the
tarnish upon the honour of Britain, to win back and
hold the Soudan !

While all this was being spoken of, while the
Desert Column in command of Sir Herbert Stewart
was crossing the Bayuda, the force sent out under
General Earle was doing battle in magniﬁcent style.
Starting in the last days of December, 1884:, with
about two thousand five hundred men, comprising
some of the 19th Hussars, companies of the Black
\Vatch, Gordon Highlanders, and the Essex, Cornwall,
and South Staffordshire Regiments, Earle awaited at
Handab the arrival of all his force, and pushing for-
ward on the 24th January he entered the small town
of Berti, the neighbourhood in which Stewart, Power,
and the party Gordon was sending into Egypt fell
among thieves and were butchered, and where punish-
ment was to be meted out to the treacherous Arabs.

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 243

On the 9th of February Earle and his Britons were
near Kirbekan, and not very far from Berber. They
had heard with dismay of the fall of Khartoum, were
dreadfully tired because of the arduous character of
the advance thus far—for the river was difﬁcult of
ascent owing to many cataracts, and the banks along
which the cavalry, artillery, and a portion of the
infantry marched were very rugged—and were dis-
appointed at the escape of the tribesmen they wanted;
but hearing that the enemy was within a short dis-
tance now, aye, two thousand of them, they put
everything in order for a sharp contest. No ﬁres
were lighted in camp that night, there was no sound
of bugle, yet the foe approached during the darkness
and ﬁred several shots at random.

Daylight showed that the enemy were strongly en-
trenched in the rocks at Kirbekan, and that their
positions were well manned. The Arabs were ﬁxed
in their purpose to give our men a warm reception,
for immediately the foot of the heights was gained
by our skirmishers they were greeted by volleys that
might have disorganised and driven back any ﬁghting
body. Not so with our brave boys. They stormed
and stormed, mounting higher and higher, surprising
foemen hiding behind rocks and stone, shooting and
bayoneting them, or grappling with them hand to
hand. “ Inch by inch, with fearful odds against them,
did the Highlanders on the left and the South Staf-

244 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

' fordshire men on the right, press forward and gain
ground, while the black granite beneath their feet
became red and slippery with gore—yet on they
press over ghastly corpses, over groaning dying or
wounded ;” men of the other regiments in the Column
doing good work also, especially those in charge of
two guns, against which the Arabs threw themselves,
to be hurled back, however, as quickly as they came
on. Finally, “ the Mahdi's soldiers were rolled down
the rocks, never to move again after their acquaint—
ance with British steel. Before these charges were
carried out a determined band of the enemy, armed
with spears and swords, and headed by a standard-
bearer, rushed straight out of a koppie on the thin
red line. The standard—bearer was shot at once, and
three of his followers immediately seized it, but only
to fall in quick succession." Colonels Eyre (South
Staffordshire) and Coveney (Black Watch) had then
fallen mortally wounded. Before the ground was
completely cleared, General Earle was shot dead by
the inmates of a hut he was entering. He was terribly
avenged. The hut was surrounded, while the door
was barricaded, and all, or nearly all, the occupants
were, it is said, burnt alive by the ﬁring of the hut.
The camp of the enemy was captured by the
Hussars.

It is estimated that at the battle ‘of Kirbekan
upwards of six hundred of the enemy were killed or

IN AFRICA WITH. THE UNION JACK. 245

wounded ; we lost ten killed and nearly one hundred
wounded. An order from Lord Wolseley to General
Brackenbury, who had succeeded the ill-fated and
deeply-regretted Earle, occasioned the return of the
column to Korti ere any more serious ﬁghting could
take place and Abu Hamed and Berber could be
reached.

The troops at Korti in the ﬁrst week of March
were thanked by Lord Wolseley in a special order,
in which he said Her Majesty had watched with
the deepest interest the doings of her soldiers and
sailors. To have commanded such men was to him
a source of the highest pride. No greater honour
could be in store for him than that to which he
looked forward—~of leading them, please God, into
Khartoum before the year was out. Their noble
efforts to save General Gordon had been unsuccessful,
but through no fault of theirs. Both on the river
and in the desert they had borne hardships and
privations without a murmur; in action they had
been uniformly victorious; all that men could do to
save a comrade they had done. But Khartoum fell
through treachery, two days before the advanced
troops reached it. A period of inactivity might now
be expected. The army in the Soudan was not con-
stituted with a View to undertaking the siege of
Khartoum; for the moment they must content them-
selves with preparations for the autumn advance.

246 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

The tr00ps would face the heat of the summer and
the necessary work to be done with the same courage
and endUrance they had displayed hitherto. For all
they had done Lord Wolseley thanked them most
heartily.

Time, which proves everything, showed that
another advance on Khartoum was not to take place.
Trouble arose between England and Russia over the
march of the Czar’s troops upon the borders of
Afghanistan, upon the north-western frontier of
India, and there was a strong probability of British
soldiers being required; while the cry for ven-
geance in the Soudan decreased in force very con-
siderably. People began to admit that we had not
much to gain but a great deal to lose by marching
upon and laying siege to Khartoum ; that there was
no wealth, no country, we wanted to ﬁght for; that
if the Mahdists advanced they could be met upon the
Egyptian frontier and thrown back into the deserts
whence they came. Ere the summer had expired,
therefore, the whole of the Nile Valley expeditionary
force was recalled. Since then we have left the
Soudan to the Arabs and more than one individual
calling himself a Mahdi, or heaven-sent Prophet.

At the same time the threats of vengeance upon
the Arabs did not end altogether in smoke. While
the two columns sent out from Korti by Lord
Wolseley were falling back upon Korti, a force under

IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK. 247

Sir Gerald Graham was landed at Suakim for opera-
tions in the Eastern Soudan, the understanding being
that, in spite of what had transpired in 1884, the
British would advance upon that much-disputed road
to Berber, thence to Khartoum. Osman Digna had
succeeded, again, in gathering many tribesmen around
his banners, and the enemy had to be dispersed before
an intended railway to Berber from Suakim could be
laid. Several regiments in the Army were repre-
sented, a contingent of volunteers was raised in New
South Wales amid much enthusiasm, a strong naval
force was landed. We drove the Arabs from position
to position, notably at Hasheen, and from what was
known as General McNeill’s zareba, where the General
and several companies were entrenched, and at last
dispersed the daring Mahdists. The railway was not
laid beyond a point a few miles distant from Suakim
to Berber ; the advance to that town was never
carried out. Our men left the Eastern Soudan in
accordance with the scheme already mentioned, and
have not returned.

At intervals the untiring Osman Digna has again
appeared upon the scene with new bands, but, led by
Englishmen, Egyptian troops have dealt with them in
a most creditable manner. One of these encounters
was outside Tokar, in November, 1892. The Mah-
dists did not number more than six hundred, and
were easily beaten back from the fort they attacked.

248 IN AFRICA WITH THE UNION JACK.

News reached England in the ﬁrst week of January,
1893, that Mahdists had reached the Egyptian fron-
tier at Amboukal, some miles from Wady Halfa, upon
the Nile. Here, again, British ofﬁcers were to the
fore, and did much towards the rout of the desert
camel-men, which ensued upon a somewhat smart
engagement.

So that if ﬁghting in N orth-eastern Africa is not,
to-day, under the Union Jack, sons of old England
are, just the same, leading the way to victory and
renown.

 

PRINTED BY J. B. VIRTUE AND C0., LIMITED, CITY ROAD, LONDON.

 

 

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