253 
PROFESSIONAL NOTES 
EXTRACTED FROM MY DIARY 
DURING THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR OF 1878-9, 
BY 
LIEUT. F. G. SLADE, K.H.A. 
Introduction. 
Having been asked by several of my brother officers to publish some of my notes 
taken during the late campaigns in South Africa, I have great pleasure in 
contributing the following paper to the “Proceedings of the Koyal Artillery 
Institution.” 
In it I have only treated of the part actually taken by the guns immediately 
under my command, and I must therefore ask my readers to pardon me if I appear 
to them to be too egotistical. 
On the 25th April, 1878, haying volunteered for active service at 
the Cape, I embarked in the U.S.S. “ German,” and after a voyage of 
36 days—including stoppages at Madeira, St. Helena, Cape Town, 
Port Elizabeth, &c.—arrived at the port of East London, on the coast 
of British Kaffraria, on the 31st May. The surf is so great at the 
mouth of the river that passengers, cargo, &c., have to be transhipped 
in baskets to surf boats before a landing can be effected. The follow¬ 
ing morning I reported myself at King William/s town, which was 
then the base of operations of the troops operating against the Kaffirs 
in the Perie Bush. 
On the 18th June I was ordered to take over the command of two 
7-pr. mountain guns, then stationed at Gozo Heights, on the highest 
summit of the Buffalo Kange, overlooking the bush, and which up to 
this time had been commanded by Lieut. Giles, B.A. The guns were 
7-prs., of 200 lbs., mounted on low carriages, each drawn by three 
31 
Landing in 
S. Africa. 
7-pr 4 divi¬ 
sion on low« 
carriages. 
