132 
SPORT ARD WAR. 
CHAP. XYII. 
While we were halted in a comparatively open space 
for breakfast I saw large masses of Kafirs collecting on 
all the hills, while only one solitary Kafir came into 
camp, nominally to offer a basket of milk for sale, but 
in reality to c spy out the land ’ and take note of our 
strength, &c. As chief staff-officer with this column, 
and from having been in or rather through the two 
previous Kafir wars of 1835 and 1846-7, and from 
knowing the 6 nature of the beast,’ I pointed out these 
hostile indications to my chief. I also told him that a 
little farther on we would have to defile through the 
Boomah Pass, a most formidable position, where the 
troops could only pass in single or Indian file, and that 
the path was intersected by great rocks and boulders 
that had fallen from the precipice overhanging the foot¬ 
path. Colonel Mackinnon, I fear, was imbued with the 
idea that the Kafirs did not intend to fight. After a 
short halt the troops fell in, and continued the march 
in the direction of the Keiskama Hoek in the following 
order : the Kafir police in front, then the Cape Mounted 
Rifles, followed by the Infantry of the Line, consisting 
of detachments of the 6th, 45th, and 73rd Regiments. 
There were also pack-horses with spare ammunition, 
medical panniers, &c., &c., and a rear-guard. Soon after 
leaving the halting-ground the column had to cross the 
Wolf River, with a very bad ford of slippery rocks, 
which caused several breaks in the column ; and about 
