76 
SPOET AND WAE. 
CHAP. X. 
standing in water up to their knees, just round the bend 
formed by the wash of the rivulet, nearly the whole 
of whom were shot before they could re-load, the re¬ 
mainder escaping into the bush. This was the same 
position they had held before the recall, but from the 
direction in which we were then approaching they were 
entirely protected by the high bank of the river, for 
nearly all rivers or water-wash have a high bank on 
one side and a flat or slope on the other. 
As we continued to advance a curious thing hap¬ 
pened. Some of the Kafirs had got into the tops of trees 
to hide themselves ; one great fellow had got so far into 
the branches of a Kafir plum-tree, which is very brittle 
wood, that as we were passing under the tree the branch 
broke and this black warrior fell some forty or fifty feet, 
and did not require any further killing. By this time 
we were near the head of the ravine. Two guns had been 
brought up from the camp, with a troop of the 7th 
Dragoon Guards, under my old friend Captain Hogge, 
and several discharges of grape and canister had been 
fired into the bush, which caused a great panic. 
Captain Hogge’s troop and these guns were on the 
opposite side of the kloof to that of the General and 
the Cape Mounted Riflemen. The residue of the 
Kafirs, or those who had not found secret cover, made 
a rush out of the wood just at the spot where the 
troop of the 7th Dragoon Guards was; and although 
