312 EXPEDITION INTO 



^A'lien it should have entered the cul de sac. The vast supe- 

 riority of the enemy in point of numbers^ was not more 

 apparent than the excellence of their military dispositions ; 

 but the emig-rants having* resolved upon the assault, divided 

 into two nearly equal detachments, and at once opposed 

 themselves to those of the barbarian arm}-. 



The horses of Potg'eiter's division, taking* frig-ht at the 

 beating" of shields and the energ-etic war-whoops of the war- 

 riors, it was thrown into irrecoverable confusion, and routed 

 at the very onset — the second division, under old Uys, 

 beino- thus left to sustain a simultaneous charo-e from the 

 whole Zooloo host. Nobly had the little band acquitted 

 itself of this duty: when its hoary leader, taking* advantag-e 

 of the consternation occasioned by his steady and well di- 

 rected fire, dashed g-allantly forward at the head of twenty 

 of his men, in order to save the life of a comrade, who had 

 been thrown from his horse into a deep and broad g'ully, 

 forming- the bed of a mountain torrent. Opposed by a per- 

 pendicular wall of rock, he was hemmed into the defile, and 

 completely encompassed by the savag-es. His son, a youth 

 only twelve years of ag-e, bravely foug'ht, and was the first 

 to die by the side of his ag-ed sire, who, himself pierced 

 throug-h the thig-h with an assag-ai, and fast sinking- from 

 loss of blood, continued to sell his life dearly, I ut covered 

 with wounds, he at length fell with nine of his companions, 

 exclaiming- with his last breath, " Fig-ht your way out, my 

 g-allant lads — it is my fate to die." 



In the mean time, the main body of the Zooloo army had 

 rallied, and encompassed the comparative handful of Dutch- 

 men on every side. The battle rag-ed an hour and a half at 

 fearful odds, and the position of the emigrants was mo- 

 mentarily becoming" more obviously desperate. Directing- a 

 steady fire to one point, however, they atleng-th cleft a breach 

 throug-h the enemy's ranks, and effected then* retreat with 



