Annexation of the Transvaal 153 



drift), and went via Burgers' Fort, down defiles along 

 the Zulu mountains. The men were exhausted, in 

 the burning sun without water, while the Kaffirs 

 sniped them from the hills as they marched down 

 the long kloof, the whole attempt to take the Kaffir 

 strongholds was a fiasco. On his return I saw Col. 

 Rowlands at one of Col. Brook's balls at Pretoria, 

 and said, " You listened to Clark after all, notwith- 

 standing my warning," he said " Please do not say 

 anything about it, I have paid heavily for it." 

 Commissary Sir Emilius Hughes asked me to organise 

 a commissariat train of ox wagons for them as he 

 had been so imposed upon by local men and had been 

 recommended to me. After some demur, I consented, 

 and started at once buying wagons and teams, and 

 hiring others; and my brother Edward went with 

 them through the Sekukuni and Zululand campaigns 

 and gave much satisfaction. This utter failure of 

 Rowlands' expedition had the effect of making the 

 Boers say that the British could not fight, that they 

 need not be afraid of them, and aided the agitators 

 against British rule ; and lost us prestige with the 

 native tribes. Subsequently, Sir Garnet Wolseley, 

 with a large force of regulars, volunteers and Swazies 

 conquered the worn out Bapedi, and took the old 

 shrivelled -up Sekukuni prisoner to Pretoria. 



After the conclusion of the Sekukuni War, and 

 shortly before Sir Garnet Wolseley left the Trans- 

 vaal, Sir Owen Lanyon complained to me that he 

 would be in a dangerous position if left without 

 sufficient troops to maintain order in the Transvaal, 

 as Sir Garnet, acting on instructions no doubt, was 

 sending many away. It was not long before the 

 affair at Bronkhorst Spruit started the war, which 

 ended on Majuba in 1881. Sir Owen Lanyon left 

 Pretoria on April 8th, 1881. 



