DEFENCE OF EKOWE. 
455 
Combatants. 
Staff . 7 
The “ Buffs ” (6 companies) . 609 
99th Kegt. (4 . ) . 380 
Naval Brigade. 174 
Boyal Artillery . 26 
Boyal Engineers. 96 
Natal Pioneers. 50 
Native Contingent . 15 
Non-Combatants, 
Commissariat and Transport .... 12 
Army Medical Dept. 20 
Conductors. 15 
Wagon leaders and drivers. 270 
Native servants . 20 
Total, 1389 whites, 355 blacks. 
Armament. 
1 gatling, with 127,000 rounds. 
2 rocket tubes, 83 rockets. 
1 0 trough, 25 u 
4 7-pr. M.L.B. guns, 150 rounds per gun. 
For the nest few days every available man was at work on the 
entrenchments,, while the country round was cleared as much as 
possible, and although clusters of Zulus might be observed watching 
our movements, yet we were not interfered with. Occasionally we 
fired a shell at them, but as soon as they saw the smoke from the gun 
they would either lie flat down, or, bending themselves nearly double, 
would run like madmen. 
In the space of a week we made our position practically safe ; the 
ditch and parapet were now a respectable size, and it was merely a 
matter of improving and strengthening our work by degrees. The 
fort was in shape an oblong, the north and south sides being 120 and 
180 yds. respectively, the east and west sides 300 yds. each. The ditch 
was 12 ft. wide and 7 ft. deep. The church was used as a hospital, 
while the schoolroom and parsonage acted as storehouses, and as I said 
before, the officers and men made shelters for themselves under the 
wagons, and by allowing the tarpaulin (with which every wagon is 
supplied) to fall over the sides, they managed to make themselves 
fairly comfortable. 
It took some time before one became accustomed to sleeping under 
these wagons without doing daily damage to one's head, for on the 
command going round at night to “ stand to your arms ” (which took 
place when the alarm was given) one naturally jumped up imagining 
oneself in a tent, but the real situation was promptly suggested to one 
by a violent contact of head and wagon. After some time, when I got 
accustomed to my quarters, I found myself rolling out from under the 
