156 Recollections of Adventures 



frequently bolted, as they were not used to spade and 

 pick, but my lieutenants, Lombard and Potgieter, 

 who were mounted, drove them back into the moat 

 with sjamboks. These Kaffirs complained to Sir 

 Theophilus that I overworked them, and he asked 

 me to be more lenient with them, but I said it was 

 war time, and they must do their work. People in 

 the laager overheard them say that they would kill 

 me, and begged me to sleep in the laager, and not in 

 a cottage of Birkenstock's, on the outskirts of the 

 village, but I knew that the Zulus would not expect 

 any one to be there, and that I would be safe. The 

 people in the laager were grateful and signed a 

 round-robin thanking me for the work I did. My 

 brother Fred went on and joined Wood's Flying 

 column, and took part in the fight at Kambula. Sir 

 Theophilus wished to communicate with the column, 

 so I commandeered a horse from a young Boer for 

 the messenger. I also wrote to my brother Edward 

 who was with the column, and to Colonel Gilbert, 

 in command of the 13th Regiment, whom I knew 

 very well, and also to Piet Uys, begging them to 

 come out of the broken country of the Makulusine 

 into the open, to laager and prepare for a Zulu attack. 

 Uys and Colonel Weatherley were there with many 

 others, including R. Lys' brother. The sons of the 

 two former were trapped and killed at Hlobane, 

 but the laager in the open at Kambula withstood 

 the attack, chiefly owing to the pluck and discipline 

 of the old 13th Regiment. 



My wagons went over the Drakensberg into 

 Zululand, where I had altogether 131 teams of 14 

 oxen each, about 300 men (white conductors and 

 native hands) under Edward and afterwards under 

 Fred's control with Sir Evelyn Wood's Flying 

 Column. I had to send hundreds of oxen to fill the 



