Majuba Hill. 289 



Too little credit, I think, has been awarded by the English 

 writers that have described the Majuba affair, to the heroism 

 of the Boers, who finding that their enemy had practically 

 turned their flank, gallantly resolved at all hazards to make 

 an attack up the steep mountain side. 



After examining the nature of the ground, we performed 

 the sad duty of visiting the few memorials of our dead 

 countrymen. A whitewashed rough stone, with ' Colley fell ' 

 in letters of black paint on it, marks the spot where the 

 English leader was shot. His grave, I may mention, is 

 between two trees which stand out prominently by them- 

 selves on the side of Prospect Hill, which is in the centre 

 of the ground that was occupied by the English. A hand- 

 some stone cross shows the place where sleeps poor Captain 

 Maud, who after resigning his commission in the Grenadier 

 Guards, joined the 58th Regiment as a volunteer. Some 

 abominable ghoul has knocked off a corner of this cross quite 

 recently. Other low-lived scoundrels have carved their con- 

 temptible names on the small wooden cross over the grave 

 of twenty men of the 58th. A woman (!) not to be behind 

 men in shamelessness, has also added her name, or had it 

 added by some depraved companion. It is consoling to know 

 that the creature was too uneducated to spell it properly. 



However heartburning to Englishmen may have been the 

 action of Mr Gladstone in staying the avenging hand of 

 General Roberts, we must not forget that our quarrel was 

 an unjust one. By our meddling and oppressive policy, we 

 drove a large number of the Dutch farmers out of Cape 

 Colony, which they had occupied for many years before our 

 arrival. They sought refuge in Natal out of which we pushed 

 them into the country beyond the Vaal River. Not content 

 with having harried them so far, our Government, egged on 

 by the Exeter Hall Brigade, began to worry them in their 

 new location. Their reasonable demand for representation 

 in return for the taxes they were paying was refused, contrary 

 to the wish of Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the British Governor 



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