The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-25 00:00:00

IMPORTANT FROM THE CAPE

OF GOOD HOPE.
(From the Herald.)

Cape of Good Hope papers to the 26th of Novem-
ber have reached us, which announce the melancholy
deaths of five British officers, who fell into the hands
of the Kafirs, by whom they were most cruelly
butchered and mutilated. From the few particulars
which hare come to hand, we learn that these unfor-
tunate gentlemen left the camp at head-quarters on
the Komga (we must say imprudently, having no
attendants, and merely carrying with them a double-
barrelled gun each), in order to gratify their curio-
sity with a magnificent view of the surrounding
country, which was to be obtained from a
lofty rock or mountain, some miles distant.
Night approached, and this little band had not re-
turned to the camp. Doubt and anxiety immediately
arose in the minds of their brother officers, and
several of them went in search of their missing
comrades, when, at break of day they discovered
their bodies, brutally hacked and disfigured. Two
Kafirs lay dead at a short distance from them. The
struggle had no doubt been severe ; but overwhelm-
ing numbers, it was believed, had alone completed
the frightful tragedy. The names of the unfortunate
sufferers are—Captain W. L. Y. Baker, Lieutenant
Faunt, and Ensign Burnop, of the 73d Regiment;
Dr. N. S. Campbell, Surgeon of that corps; and
Assistant-Surgeon Loch, of the 7th Dragoon Guards;
who were buried in one grave, amidst the tears and
griefs of all assembled on that mournful occasion.
Great preparations were making at Cape Town for
the reception of the new Governor, Sir Harry smith,
whose arrival was daily expected The houses of the
inhabitants were to be generally illuminated, snot
every mark of respect would be paid to this distin-
guished hero upon his assuming the reins of govern-
ment.

Her Majesty's troop-ship Apollo, Commander
Radcliffe, which left Portsmouth on Sept. 8, for tl%
Mauritius, with the second battalion of the sth Fusi-
liers on board, arrived in Simon's Bay on the 16th
Nov. And on the 20th of the same month, the
Elizabeth Ainslie, barque, T. C. Cahu, from Calcutta
to London, put into the bay in consequence of the
majority of the crew having refused to work the ship
any longer.
(From the Graham's Town Journal, Nov. 20.)
TUNSDAY.—The following distressing information
has been received from Waterloo Bay : _

" Yesterday (Monday) evening, tyro men of the
91st namely, Sergeant D. M'Kay, No. 2, Company,
and Private M'Donald went out unarmed, leading a
horse to cut some forage at the general's old camp.
While thus employed two Kafirs, armed with guns,
sprung upon them. M'Kay immediately closed with
one of them, but before he could wrench the gun
from him it went off, the ball entering his abdomen.
He succeeded, however, in taking the gun, and floor-
ing the Kafir with the butt•end of it. The other
Kafir then fired but missed. M'Kay then handed
the gun to M'Donald, telling him to defend himself,
and he would gallop in and send him assistance. On
making this report a party was sent out but were too
late to save M'Donald ; the body being pierced
through the chest, and through the abdomen in two
places. M'Kay's wound is dangerous, the ball
having entered on the left side, and passed towards
the spine, but it is not thought that the intestine is
laid open. He is moat carefully attended to by Dr.
Munro."
DEATH OF FIVE BRITISH OFFICERS.

WEDNESDAY.—lnformation has just reached town
from Kafirland of the death by the hands of the Ks-•
firs of fire British officers, namely :—Capt. W. L. Y.
Baker, Lieut. Faunt, and Ensign Burnop, of the 73d
Regiment, Dr. N. S. Campbell, Surgeon of that
corps, and Assistant• Surgeon Loch, of the 7th Dra-
goon Guards.
From the various accounts which have come in of
this distressing affair, it appeared that the head-
quarter's camp is on the Komga, about ten miles west
the Kye, Colonel Somerset being in advance and
occupying a position commanding the Kye drift.
About seven miles from the general's camp there is
a conspicuous rock or mountain, having a most splen-
did view of the country, and to gratify their curiosity
these officers proceeded thither on Saturday, without
any escort or attendant, merely taking each a double-
barrelled gun. They were six in number, but Lieut.
Littlehales, 73, labouring under a severe cold, returned
after riding about five miles. The party reached the
summit of the above rock without any obstruction, it
would appear; but it is also clear that their move-
ments must have been narrowly watched by the
the crafty savage. No apprehension was felt until
Saturday evening, and finding they had not re-
turned by eight o'clock, a number of officers started
in quest of the missing party. The night having far
advanced when they reached the fatal spot, and deem-
ing it imprudent to ascend the rock, they fired
several rounds, but hearing no response they returned
to the camp, and about midnight a strong party, con-
sisting of four companies of the 73d, were ordered to
renew the search.

Shortly after daylight the objects of their search
were discovered—dead, stripped, and savagely muti-
lated. From appearances it is conjectured that the
unfortunate deceased must have been attacked on
passing a certain valley, but that, on endeavouring
to escape, their retreat had been completely cut off,
and they became easy victims to overwhelming num-
bers. The spectacle presented was frightful. A letter
before us states :

" Mr. Burnop had three balls in his head, Cap-
tain Baker was stabbed and mutilated in several
places ; poor Dr. Campbell must have suffered greatly,
the flesh being actually pared from his body ; the
naked body of Lieutenant Vaunt had been apparently
flogged with chains—their eyes had been scooped out
—their teeth extracted—and the head of Assistant-
Surgeon Loch had been severed from the body and
carried away. The latter, it is suppopd, was dragged
to some little distance from his companions, to a
smooth flat stone and there beheaded. All were
stripped, and their remains left on the spots where
they fell. The dead bodies of two Rafts lay at no
great distance, killed, as is assumed, by these officers
at the first moment of attack. The poor fellows were
buried on Sunday in one grave, and there was not a
dry eye present from the General downwards?'
On Sunday morning Colonel Somerset rode over
to the General's camp, where he was in time to wit-
ness the return of the detachment with the remains
of these unfortunate officers, and it was at once de-
termined to scour the country around the scene of
this awful tragedy. Orders were immediately,
dispatched to Colonel Somerset's camp for detach-
ments, consisting of 130 Cape Mounted Riflemen,
under Captain Hare, 300 of Captain Hogg's levy, and
100 Boers, to move towards the scene of this mas-
saere—an order which was so promptly obeyed that
the whole force reached a point a few miles from the
General's camp the same night. Here they were
joined by 200 of the 73d, a troop of the 7th Dragoon
Guards under Sir Harry Darrel, and some Kat River
Hottentots, the whole under the guidance of Lieut.
Bisset. The General, Sir George Berkeley, with his
staff, joined just before daylight. The force was
shortly afterwards divided ; 100 men of the 73d,
under Major Pickney, and 100 Provisional., under
Captain Hogg, moving across the right shoulder of
the mountain, while 100 men of the 73d under Cap-
tain Brown, with 160 of Hogg's levy, and 150 Kat
River levy, ascended its left shoulder.
In the meantime, Colonel Somerset with the Boers
worked to the extreme right, endeavouring to effect
the passage of the river below' the bend, but which
was found to be impracticable, and he then returned
to the top of the ridge, while the general ascended
the face of the mountain, taking up his position on
the summit, so as to command a fine and distinct
view of all the operations below. From this eleva-
tion many hundreds of cattle and Kafirs were seen,
the latter having taken up a most favourable posi-
tion in a large bend of the river, forming a penin-
sula, only asscessible by a narrow rocky ridge, to reach
which it was necessary to clamber down some shelv-
ing rocks, so precipitous as to be quite impractica-
ble for horsemen. At this point it was seen that
the enemy was determined to make a stand ; on which
the General ordered Lieutenant M'Donald, with a
party of the Cape Corps, to more rapidly down the
face of the mountain, and, if possible, force the po-
sition.
This detachment was the first that reached the
point, but was soon joined by Captains Hogg and
Owen's Provisional., followed by two companies of
the 73d, under Captain Brown, who came up in fine
skirmishing order, and held the pass while the Pro-
visionals and Cape Corps were scouring the peninsula,
and skirmishing with the enemy. The Kafirs showed
great dtuoestietyrmiefnaetuirontr,eobpust,
wnohtehirungehecdoufelderlreeeseils the
yt
over
ewvhe
er
rye
rdei
rffi sceuelnty. ,
raind
,he
resultsdrove
of theenemy
the
en beg a
g e mfo
er e h n
tthem
were
23 Kairs killed, and at least double that number
wounded ; while the only casualties on our side were
one sergeant of the Provisismal killed, and one troop
horse. Upwards of 300 head of cattle and several
guns were captured from the Kafirs, also two of the
horses belonging to the deceased officers. One was
taken in the fight (Captain Baker's), the other came
mming a large drove of oxen
and activity of Col.
across
into the camp badly wounded in the head. The
Kafir.
the Kye. The
succeeded inswi
gallantry
Somerset throughout the affair were conspicuous.
Colonel Somerset was to attempt the passage of the
Kye on the 18th.

(From the Zuid Africaan of Nov. 22.)
The following address has been placed for signs-