I IO TALES OF A NOMAD. 



to submission. We annexed the Transvaal, and having 

 undertaken to protect the people, found ourselves at war 

 with Secocoeni. 



We were a very mixed array a sort of army com- 

 posed of samples. There were two battalions of British 

 infantry, several corps of Colonial Horse, two guns, and 

 several native contingents wild and tame. By a wild 

 contingent I mean natives whose uniform consists of a 

 piece of leather about the size of a decent pocket hand- 

 kerchief, and a feather stuck in the head, and whose 

 armament is an assegai with perhaps a flint-lock musket 

 in addition. They are purely amateurs, and come for 

 plunder. By a tame contingent, I mean semi-civilised 

 natives, probably clothed and armed with muzzle-loading 

 capping arms, and perhaps also drawing pay from 

 Government. 



Their organisation consists in being counted and then 

 told off into a certain number of mobs, who are requested 

 to keep together, and to draw ammunition and rations 

 through the agency of some one leading native who repre- 

 sents his mob, and by courtesy is supposed to command 

 them. 



They play a very important part. Their numbers are 

 imposing ; but the moral effect of their presence is still 

 greater, for 1000 of them when on the march make 

 so much noise that you feel as if they were 40,000. 

 They draw as much beef rations and as much powder 

 and lead as they can possibly get out of Govern- 

 ment. The rations they eat, and the powder and lead 

 they carry away with them on their returning home 

 covered with glory. 



They are instructed to march with the muzzles of 

 their weapons pointed up in the air, for the reason that 



