The Express.
London, England, 1851-09-17 00:00:00

A BRUSH WITH TILE KAFFIRS.

The following graphic description of a Kaffir skir-
mish is from the pen of Lieutenant Corrigan, of the 74th
Regiment, now engaged in his first campaign at the Cape.
It is extracted from a letter to hi. father, Dr. Corrigan, the
eminent Dublin physician, and appears in the Dublin Leen-
iny l'ast
"Koonape River, July 10, 1841.
" We had a versevere action the morning we marched
into the Amatola Mountains on our patrol with some rebel
Hottentots and K otitis combined. We lo ,t some men
killed and wounded, but we gave the enemy a most satis-
factory thrashing. We had 8 men killed and 17 wounded
on our side, besides one of our officers, who was wounded in
the arm (young Bruce), but he is getting on famously, and
will soon be ail right again. I will try and describe the tight
to you, as I think it may interest you.—We marched
into the Amatolas just as day was breakinor, and halted
on the top of one of the hills, called 'the Little Ama-
tola from thence we could sec right down into an immense
valley underneath, which is celled the 'Amatola
and where great numbers of Kafiirs—iu fact almost all San-
dilli's Kaffirs—live. The sun rose just after we got to the
top of the mountain, and such a magnificent sight I never
saw. There was the ' Great Amatola Mountain' in front of
us, and wo saw the rays of the sun gilding the tops of the
whole range one after another, until he mounted over the
top of the mountain before us, and threw a flood of light
over everything in the valley. However, we were nut gives
much time to admire the sunrise, fur as the morning
• lightened up' we could see the Kaffir* underneath us driv-
ing away their cattle, and we were ordered to descend into
the Basin and attack them. We had at this time a pretty
strong force with us, consisting of ourselves, the 91st Regi-
ment, the Cape Mounted Rifles, and a umber of Burghers.
When we got into the Basin we were obliged to separate,
in order to surround the cattle. We went away to the
.eft of the Basin, and as soon as we got to the extreme
left of it, we found ourselves under a very steep craggy
hill, on the top of which about seven hundred Kaffirs and
Hottentots had taken up a position. They immediately
opened a good smart fire on us, and wounded one or two of
our men. We had nothing for it but to go ut the hill,
which we did; and my company was thrown out in skir-
mishing order, to cover the advance of the regiment ; for
the first four or five minutes, going up the hill, I expected
every moment to get a bullet into me, for they were
whistling about our cars, and knocking up the dust about
our feet in a manner that was anything but pleasant.
However, we drove the enemy back from the top of the hill,
and we got to the top of it. On the top of the bill, end
stretching away for about three miles behind it, was an
immense wood, or rather bush, faits which these Hottentots
(who, you must know, are all splendid shots) and Kaffir* had
retired, and from the edge of which they kept up a fire onus.
We then extended two snore companies (which, with mine,
made three) in skirmishing order, just under the crest of
the hill, where we lay down. Orders were then given to
us to lie still until we got the word from the colonel, when
wa were to jump up, rush over the crest of the hill, sad
down to the wood (a distance of about 69 yards), and then
to fire away at the enemy as soon as we were under cover.
We lay there for about five or six minutes, and, certainly,
they appeared to us to be the longest five minutes we tour
spent. There were about 240 ed us extended along the
ridge, lying down in some long grass and rushes ; yen
could not sec a single man. The firing on both sides bad
ceased, and we lay there waiting for the order to rush over
the crest of the bill, and into the bush. I could almost filmy
that I heard my heart beating, and you could certainly
' have heard a pia drop,' so great was the silence. At'
last the colonel gave the word, ' forward !' We all jumped
up, rushed over the top of the hill, and away we went,
' helter-skelter' down the other side, as hard as we could go.
As soon as we got over the hill, and were shout half way
down the other side, the enemy gave no a volley, which
wounded three men and killed two more. However, we
never stopped to fire, but gave one cheer and dashed iato
the bush. From this time tho fight was exactly similar to
one of those that Cooper describes in his novels as taking
place between ' white hunters' on the prairies and the' In-
dians.' When we Fot down to the edge of the bush we
caught 7 Hottentots in a sort of snwpit—which they had not
time to get out of—thanks to our basing ran down the hill so
last. We killed them all in the pit. The fight was then kept
up for about two hours in the bush, wo all covering our-
selves in long grass, behind trees, rocks, and everything
that afforded any shelter. Our men skirmished eplendully,
and we kept on advancing and driving the enemy Lack,
theno:
duringc ots in
every
shotlerY naowll and
otte Hottentot
behind a log of wood, when I saw a fellow put ha
tuldi s one
part of ori. their
re
Ads/ea t:it. bodies.
w