86 
SPORT AND AVAR. 
CHAP. Xll. 
rounded by bush, with the Fish Eiver jungle imme¬ 
diately in their rear. 
Our forces consisted of two six pounders, two twelve- 
pounder howitzers, and a rocket-tube; two squadrons 
of the 7th Dragoon Guards, two squadrons of the Cape 
Mounted Rifles, and detachments of Infantry of the 
Line— Levies, Fingoes, &c. The cavalry and guns were 
in advance, and while the infantry were coming up the 
cavalry wheeled outwards, to allow the guns to pass to 
the front and come into action. Unfortunately it was 
the beginning of artillery practice. The shot and shell 
had been in store since the previous Kafir war of 1835, 
and the fuses were all wrong. The first discharge of shell 
burst at the cannon’s mouth, and the rocket exploded in 
the tube, while the round shot did little or no damage. 
The second discharge was equally ineffective, as the 
shells burst far beyond the then fast dispersing mass 
Kafirs. 
By this time the infantry having come up were sent 
to the attack, and the cavalry was detached to the 
flanks to intercept or attack. The Kafirs fought 
desperately at first; but, as in all Kafir wars or bush¬ 
fighting, when the savages find the tide of fortune 
going against them they disperse in a manner which 
no other troops in the world possess, they disappear 
like needles in straw. Detached knots, however, held 
their own in rocky fastnesses or in gullies protected 
