us.

VON SCHLIECKMANN'S RAID.

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"At this moment Von Schlieckmann believed that his advance was still undiscovered. He was determined to do something, and after a short rest, sent in a few spies to view the enemy's position, and ascertain if there were cattle before Half an hour afterwards-two spies having come back -dismounting some of the cavalry, he advanced up the bottom of a gully running through the glen towards the enemy's position. The stillness was profound. Even the birds had left off twittering, in evident surprise at the strangeness of the intrusion of the filibusters and their horses on the scene. The infantry were directed to keep along the right-hand walls of the kloof, where, sheltered by overhanging bush, they might be in a position to be of use in the coming conflict.

"Turning an angle of the gully, the captain came in sight of the first village. To reach this he must cross a couple of acres of open ground. As he sprang upon the bank a rifle was discharged by accident, and a shrill and terribly prolonged scream rang out at once from an elevated point of rock on the right-hand escarpment of the mountain. This was instantly followed by the horn-blowing and drumbeating of the enemy's vedettes. Schlieckmann rushed to the village, which he found deserted. He sent orders for the remainder of the men to follow him, and dashed across the next open space at another village. A hot fire now broke out on all sides,—from both flanks, and from the front -from every cave, and terrace, and rock that could shelter a marksman,—a fire which never ceased rolling, pealing, and eddying till the final catastrophe took place, and the wounded were borne out of its influence.

66

Halting for a moment at the second village, which was also untenanted, Schlieckmann sent six men and an officer to the left, up the rocks, to check the enemy's fire in that direction, and again sent orders for the infantry to be brought into action. The gentleman in command of them, however, who was now in a very wavering state of mind, fell back a few hundred yards, instead of going to the relief of his commander. Some of the men, indignant at this, broke from the ranks and rushed to the front. A few privates also detached themselves from the reserve of cavalry left with the horses,

and pushed forward to join their leader, under a withering and rapidly increasing fire.

"About a dozen and a half reached the captain, who dashed at the third kraal—a high edifice of stakes and rails defended by thorn-bushes and surrounded by a ditch. Here a couple of men fell. On reaching the gate it was discovered to be blocked with two trees, the branches pointed outwards, and the trunks lying inside the enclosure. Volunteers were called for to leap the hedge and pull away the obstruction. Shepherd and Gilbert-Englishmen at once sprang over; and as they pulled in the huge trees, giving passage to their comrades, both fell seriously wounded. With a rush, however, the village was mastered. The end of the defile had now to be won. Schlieckmann, closely followed by two Americans-Woodford and Martin-with Dr Ashton, Kuhneisen, Wearne, Ribas, and Bayley, prepared for this last attempt. Behind some huge rocks in their front fought the best shots of all Kafirland. Schlieckmann lighted a cigarette, drew his sword, and sprang on a rock, calling, 'Lydenberg Volunteers, follow me! Come on! don't let your bravest men fall here alone!' A rush was made from the rear, but the wave had only reached the gallant leader's post, when he fell back mortally wounded. Wearne had fallen a moment before. The enemy still shot on; and it was with difficulty the bodies of the fallen were dragged by Ashton and others out of the fire to a bank by the streambed, where water could be obtained. By this time the whole kloof was black with smoke from the musket-fire and the burning villages. The enemy were heard yelling to each other to fly, when a stalwart Kafir—'Tsikiki—appeared on a rocky eminence on the right attack, and loudly called upon his followers, as well as the demoralised warriors of Mahera, who were falling back in all directions, to charge with their assegais (javelins) and end the conflict. "Tsikiki was followed by the tribes of the Red Krantz. This added fresh and formidable numbers to the enemy's ranks at the turning-point of the fight. Mr George Eckersley, in the meantime, who had gone in command of the spies, had penetrated to the caves beyond the last village and made a dash for the cattle, which, all through the fight, were heard

"FAITHFUL TO THE LAST."

61

lowing and bellowing as they were hurried towards other places of safety. Amidst the farthest rocks, by a waterfall, he found that some cattle and goats were actually tied by the legs to serve as a lure to bring the volunteers under the enemy's fire. A number of these were hastily cut loose by Eckersley and his followers, and driven down to where the main conflict was raging.

"But Eckersley reached the scene only to find the captain and a number of men shot, and that nothing was to be gained by continuing the fight. Then the retreat commenced. Some of the cavalry, on gaining their horses, hurried away with the more slightly wounded men.

The

men in rear-hastily reorganised by Woodford and othersmade stretchers with their rifles and blankets, and commenced to carry out the wounded. After half an hour, and fired at all the time, they reached once more the mouth of that fatal glen.

"Here they were joined by Von Steitencron, who had been sent, as I have before mentioned, with a party of six to guard the left. One of this party-Davis, a Dublin Jew -had also been wounded. From this spot, at Von Schlieckmann's earnest request, Von Steitencron and the orderlies were detached to the fort to call me. After Ashton, in a short halt, had attended to the more immediate wants of the wounded, as the enemy threatened to occupy the bush between them and the fort, the line of march was resumed. The wounded suffered fearfully from thirst-the poor captain's tortures being almost indescribable. At half-past three the sad procession reached a rising ground from whence the fort could be seen. Von Schlieckmann, whose life was now ebbing rapidly away, pulled Ashton's head down towards him, saying, 'Little doctor, tell the President I was faithful to the last.' In another moment he was a corpse. It was wonderful how this hardy soul had struggled so long against death. The bullet with which he was hit must have weighed a quarter of a pound; and discharged, as it was, from a distance of but three or four yards, had carried away the right lobe of the liver, and smashed through the back, tearing off projecting portions of the backbone."

Such was the fight at Mahera's Kloof, described in the ipsissima verba of an eyewitness, one of those who were with the captain from first to last.

The volunteers had, except from nine to two on the previous night, been on foot and without sleep for twentyfour hours.

They had suffered horribly from thirst, were footsore and weary, and might have lost terribly had they been attacked in the bush on the retreat; their salvation from which I can only, as I have said before, attribute to what the Kafirs thought the mysterious movement of the relief-party which I had, almost accidentally, interposed in rear of the beaten column. Amongst the fallen men was William Wearne, also shot through the stomach, who died next day. The dead were buried with every honour on Sunday, the 19th. The wounded were lodged in the officers' quarters, which were converted into a temporary hospital. Half of the captured goats were given to Windvogel; and when the dead were disposed of, and the wounded placed in comfort, I set to work to examine and reorganise my command, which shortly afterwards stood as follows:

Commandant-Alfred Aylward; Lieutenants—T. L. White, P. Bayley, Geo. Eckersley, Otto von Steitencron; Artillery Captain-Otto Reidel; Medical Officer-Edward Ashton; men, 108; horses, 66.

I found matters in anything but a satisfactory condition. The main magazine was in a cellar under the officers' quarters, in the centre of the narrow redoubt I have previously described. In each of the interior angles reed-houses had been built, behind which the fireplaces of their inhabitants had been most foolishly fixed. In fact, the fort was a slumbering volcano. During the absence of Von Schlieckmann on the recruiting service great hardships had been suffered by Reidel's small garrison, thirty of whom had given their statutable month's notice as wishing to resign.

The infantry lieutenant, really the senior officer of the fort, expected to succeed to the dead captain. Von Spandau, the Dutch artillerist, seemed also inclined to claim admission of his superior rank. Some Germans and Frenchmen were likely to mutiny; they had come to serve Von Schlieckmann

THE SITUATION AT FORT BURGERS.

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and him only. I, however, considered myself to be the man for the situation, who alone possessed the confidence of the Transvaal Executive and of my dead commander. I therefore removed the mutinous, gave leave of absence to the ambitious, and despatched as special messengers, anywhere and everywhere, those whose presence might lead to complications; and having placed a guard of my own private followers on the cannon and magazines, proceeded to enforce obedience. With the precautions I had taken this was an easy matter.

In order that the President might be properly informed as to the position of affairs, three messengers reached him,— one, the infantry lieutenant, who could give his own account of matters; another, Schlieckmann's secretary, a German gentleman of repute named Wendlestadt, who had previously held an important mercantile position in Port Elizabeth. To these was added Adolph Kuhneisen, the dead officer's orderly, with whom my acquaintance was but a few hours old, but who had ridden beside me with the relief into the fatal valley of Mahera. On this man's probity all our hopes rested. He was despatched with the simple instruction to tell the truth, which he promised to do, and which I believe he did.

When the fort was reduced to order, and the discontented got rid of, we had to prepare for the advent of the deadly and pestilential summer. By the 1st of December, of sixty horses that had reached us, twenty-two were already dead of horse-sickness; a few had been stung by the fly in Oliphant's Poortnek-these had also died. Some recruits were coming, under Mr White, with thirty more horses, but they were as yet nearer to Pretoria than to Secocoeni. There was not a truthful or reliable guide to be had for love or money. could not even guess who were our enemies or who were our allies from amongst the tribes that swarmed on all sides

of us.

We

Our communications with the rear lay through dangerous and dark defiles, liable to be cut at any moment by an enterprising enemy; in fact, at that very time there was lying unburied in the gloomiest part of Oliphant's Poort the body of an American, named Doane, who had been barbarously