A KAFFIR CATTLE-STEALER.

21

forty yards in diameter. Sentries were placed round this inclosure, in spite of whom, for two nights, the bushes had been removed and two or three oxen taken away. There had been a slight disturbance amongst the cattle each night, but upon inspection everything seemed right. To prevent a third robbery, a number of Hottentots were placed round the kraal and ordered to lie down under the bushes, and to keep quiet. They remained nearly half the night without seeing anything, when one wily fellow noticed a small black object on the ground at a short distance from him, which he thought he had not observed before. Keeping his eyes fixed upon it, he saw a movement when a sentry walked away from it, and a stillness as he approached. The Hottentot remained perfectly quiet until the black object was a few yards from him, when he called out in Kaffir that he was going to shoot. The black object jumped on its feet, whirling an assagy, but only in time to receive a heavy charge of buckshot in the breast, followed up by a bullet, which terminated the career of a Kaffir well known for his daring and cattle-stealing propensities.

That the frontier Kaffir is, in nearly every case, a rogue, a thief, and a liar, no one will, I believe, deny; there is a great deal, however, to be said in excuse for him. He is a savage, uneducated, and misled by the bad example of his forefathers, and he is gradually encroached upon by the white men, who, after a war, most unceremoniously appropriate a certain number of square miles of territory, and tell the original owner that he must either move on, or that he is only a squatter on sufferance.

22

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL NAPIER'S OPINION.

The Kaffir has had one or two severe lessons, showing him that he is no match for the white man in fair open fights, and so, gathering experience from these lessons, he now rarely runs an open risk, but confines himself to attacks where he has every advantage of numbers and position. His great stronghold is the bush, and without doubt he is there a most dangerous animal. Active, unencumbered with clothing, and his colour well suited for concealment, he glides about like a snake; the knowledge he has gained in surprising the quick-sighted and sharp-eared animals of his country, he now applies to the destruction of his enemies. Hiding himself amongst the roots and underwood, he waits patiently his opportunity, his gun in readiness and his assagies handy. It is not at all remarkable that the raw soldier, whose early training has been the plough or a shop, or some other occupation as little likely to fit him for bush-craft, falls a victim to the hidden foe. The scarlet coat of the British soldier makes him a capital target, while his belts and other trappings retard his movements most effectually.

Lieutenant-Colonel E. Napier, in his work entitled "Excursions in Southern Africa," has described the effect of the trappings of the English soldier in so able a manner, that I am afraid to attempt any further description, but must e'en pirate this author's words, and beg his pardon for the theft :

"The Rode Bashees' of the party, as the Kaffirs denominate our gallant red-jackets, to distinguish them from the Amabula' (Boers) and the Umlaou,' or Hottentots, of the force, had previously, as much as possible,

ENGLISH SOLDIER'S EQUIPMENT.

23

divested themselves of those old-fashioned 'pipeclay' trammels, only calculated, when on service, to impede the movements and check the brilliant valour of the British troops. Tight tape-laced coatees (scarlet in leprosy) were cast aside, and shell-jackets, well patched with leather, generally speaking, had become the order of the day. Blue dungaree trowsers were substituted for white prolongations. The heavy knapsack had been left at head-quarters, and was replaced by a small canvas bag loosely slung across the right shoulder. Few stiff, leather dog-collars,-most appropriately called 'stocks,'— now answered the roll; and the crown of that very essence of discomfort and uselessness yclept the 'chako' being kicked out, had made way for the rather more sensible head-dress of the forage-cap;' whilst, horrible to relate! many a sunburnt, weather-beaten English phiz,-long a stranger to razor or soap-suds, and spite of 'whisker' regulations,-wildly peeped through a bushy jungle of untrimmed beard and luxuriant moustache, which, though rather, it must be admitted, brigand-like appendages, were undoubtedly found more comfortable by the respective wearers than an equal proportion of sores or blisters, with which the 'pale faces were sure to be covered if deprived in this fiery clime of that protection so kindly afforded by Nature.'

"The above is, generally speaking, a correct representation of the British soldier when on actual service; and only shows how completely unfitted are his everyday dress and appointments (though perhaps well enough adapted to the household troops) for the roughing of a

24

SOLDIERS IN THE BUSH.

campaign; particularly such campaigns as he is most likely to be engaged in, against uncivilized barbarians, under a burning sun, and amidst the abrading effects of dense and thorny jungles.

"No; if the pipeclay martinets, the gold and tapelacing tailors of the army, cannot bring themselves to study utility and comfort a little more, in the every-day dress of the working part of the army, let them, at least, when our brave fellows are called upon for such roughing as that required in the last Kaffir campaign,-let them, I say, safely deposit all these gingerbread trappings in store; rig out our soldiers in a fashion that will afford some protection against climate; not impede the free use of their limbs; and give them a chance of marching under a broiling sun, without a coup de soleil; or of coming out of a thorny jungle, with some small remnants of clothing on their backs.

"What, with his ordinary dress and accoutrements, was often the result, to the British soldier, of a Kaffir skirmish in the bush? Seeing his Hottentot compagnons d'armes dash into the dense thorny covert, and not wishing to be outdone by these little black fellows,' he sets its abrading properties at defiance, and boldly rushes in on their wake. His progress is, however, soon arrested; an opposing branch knocks off the tall conical machine curiously balanced, like a milkmaid's pail, on the top of his head. He stoops down to recover his lost treasure; in so doing his 'pouch-box' goes over his head, his 'cross-belts' become entangled. Hearing a brisk firing all around, and wishing to have a part in the fun, he

UNFITNESS OF THE DRESS.

25

makes an effort to get on to the front, but finds himself most unaccountably held in the obstinate grasp of an unexpected native foe. The thick-spreading and verdant bush, under which the 'chako' has rolled, is the 'wachteen-beetje,' and, to his cost, he feels in his woollen garments the tenacious hold of its hooked claws; for the more he struggles to get free, the more he becomes entangled in the thorny web. He now hears 'retire' echoing through the adjoining rocks; and his friends, the 'Totties,' as they briskly run past, warn him, in their retreat, that the enemy-who knows right well our buglecalls-is at their heels. Exhausted by his protracted struggle, whilst maddened at the thought of falling into the power of his cruel foe, the poor fellow makes a desperate effort at escape. In so doing, the ill-omened 'chako' is left to its fate; the wacht-een-beetje retains in triumph part of his dress. As he breaks covert,' the Kaffirs, with insulting yells, blaze away at him from the Bush; and, scudding across the plain, towards his party, with the ill-adjusted pouch banging against his hinder parts, the poor devil,-in addition to the balls whistling around him, is also exposed, as he approaches, to the jeers and laughter of his more fortunate comrades!

"Far be it to attempt here to detract from the efficiency and merits of our gallant troops, whose servicesspite of every obstacle raised in their way-have been so conspicuous in every part of the globe; I merely wish to point out how very much that efficiency might be increased, by a little attention to the dictates of reason and common sense."