C1UP. XII. 
THE BATTLE OF THE GUANGA. 
91 
head over heels like ninepins, they nearly all got np 
again, and but few men were found the next day that 
were killed by sabre-cuts. 
The gallant major of the Royal Engineers, who was 
hit in the early part of the day by a spent ball, also 
went through with the charge, and a Kafir seized his 
bridle and stabbed him with an assaigai, the blade 
entering at the under-lip, passing down the chin and 
throat, and entering at the collar-bone. The savage was 
trying to jag it into his heart, when he was killed; and 
strange to say this wound healed in a few weeks, while 
the one in the thigh took months. The blow of the first 
wound was so severe that it turned black, blue, and 
then green, and a mass of flesh the size of a small basin 
fell out, which had to be replaced by new material. 
After the charge I returned my sword and un¬ 
strapped my double-barrelled gun, and for some six or 
seven miles the troops were mixed up with the running 
Kafirs, and a deadly slaughter ensued. I do not wish 
to boast—it is with much modesty and almost humi¬ 
liation that I mention it now—but I fired away thirty 
rounds of ammunition that day, and did not fire at a 
Kafir that was above twenty yards’ distance from me; 
I have the satisfaction to say that I was the only person 
who took a prisoner—I took three of them, one being a 
great chief, who turned out of much importance in 
a political point of view. 
