The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-26 00:00:00

TILE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY MORNIN"G, OCTOBER 26, 1842.

PORT NATAL.
We have received Cape of Good Hope.pa?ers to
the 7th of August, brought by the Bidston, Captain
Harmer, which reached Liverpool yesterday. This
arrival communicates the official fact of the final ces-
sation of hostilities between her Majesty's troops and
the insurgent Boers. The terms agreed upon, toge-
ther with other extracts from the Cape papers, will be
read with interest.
(From the South African Commercial Advertiser,
Aug. 6.)
Her Majesty's frigate Isis arrived in Simon's Bay
on Sunday last, from Natal, bringing back part of the
troops under Lieut.-Colonel Cloete, commander of the
late expedition, who immediately proceeeded to head-
quarters. On Monday the troops marched from
Simon's Town to Cape Town, and in the afternoon of
Monday the following " Government Notice" was
issued for the satisfaction of her Majesty's loyal sub-
jects :
" His Excellency the Governor is pleased to direct
the following information to be made publicly known :
"Lieutenant-Colonel Cloete left Port Natal on the
21st ult., on board her Majesty's ship Isis, and arrived
in Simon's Bay yesterday afternoon, accompanied by
a portion of the troops sent to reinforce the detach-
ment under Captain Smith, and has reported to his
Excellency the Governor the final cessation of hosti-
lities between her Majesty's troops and the insurgent
Boers—no further hostile demonstration having been
shown by them after the troops under Lieutenant-
-Colonel Cloete's orders were landed.
" The emigrant farmers having made a solemn de-
claration of their submission to the Queen, having re-
leased the prisoners, whether soldiers or civilians—
having given up the cannon captured, as well as those
belongingto themselves, and having restored all pub-
lic as well IS private property seized by them—the
Lieutenant-Colonel, acting under the Towers vested
in him by the Governor, granted a general amnesty
or free pardon to all persons who might have been en-
gaged in resistance to her Majesty's troops and au-
thority, with the exception of Joachim Prinslo, A. W.
Pretorious, J. J. Burger, Michiel Van Breda, and
Servaas Van Breda.
"He further declared that all private property
would be respected ; that the emigrant farmers should
be allowed to return to their farms, with their guns
and horses—that they should be defended from any
attack by the Zoolalis—that the tenure of their lands
should not be interfered with pending the determina-
tion and settlement of her Majesty's Government—
that beyond the limits fixed for the military occupa-
tion, their existing administration and civil institu-
tions should not be interfered with till the pleasure of
her Majesty should be made known—that the Caffers
should not be molested in the occupation of the lands
on which they were settled at the date of the arrival
of her Majesty's teoeps—subject to such future er-
rangemeets as' linty be made for general security by
her Majesty ; and by a subsequent article appended
to the cendition of this surrender, the IZeuteaant-
Colonel, in consideration of Mr. W. Pretorious
having co-operated in the final adjustment of the ar-
ticles of surrender, and of his personal humane con-
duct to the prisoners, and his general moderation, in-
cluded him in-the amnesty which he had extended to
all, with the exceptions above named.
" Major D'Urban and a second detachment of the
25th were to leave Port Natal on or about the 25th
ultimo, leaving Captain Smith in command of the post,
with a force of 350 men.
" By command of his Excellency the Governor,
(Signed) "J. MOORE CRAIG,
" Acting Secretary to the Government.
" Colonial-office, Cape of Good hope, Aug. 1, 1842."
One thing we may point out, to satisfy, in some
degree, the painful scorn and indignation universally
felt at this disgraceful capitulation, namely, that the
portion of it which recognises " the existing adminis-
tration and civil institutions" of the Boers is illegal.
It is in direct contravention of an Act of Parliament
made and provided expressly for the very case before
us, of British subjects acting independently of the
constituted authorities to the south of the 25th degree
of latitude. This Act precludes all tampering with
traitors or criminals of any sort, either by Lieutenant-
Colonel Cloete, or Major-General Napier, or Lord
Stanley, or the Queen herself.
(From the Cape Frontier Times of Aug. 4.)
The more we become acquainted with the courage,
sufferings, and perseverance of Captain Smith and his
handful of brave men, the more forcibly are we struck
with the noble qualities which have been displayed.
Every officer and every private soldier, -as also the
youth of Albany, who were with the
camsiptioasn without
waggon
t
drivers, &c., seem to have been actuated by one coilmon fueling of devoted heroism; .nor'& we doubt the
statement we have heard, that rather,than surrender,
they would, after having held their position
relief to -the very lastextremity, hay.' forth;-
and either- have forced their .way through the:be--
siegers or else have fallen before>the fort which they
had so long andgioinanfully defended. '
Many particulars of this conflict-are ecolabled in
the subjomeiletter of our old friend Brown, 'which
will he read with no small interest, conveyed as they
are in' a style graphic, terse, and pleasing in no ordi-:
nary degree., This sensible and clever man will he
brought by our publication of his correspondence.
more fully before the eye of his superiors, and we
shall rejoice if it at all subserve his advancement. This
letter is, in many respects, incomparably the best ac-
count of the proceedings which has yet appeared.
The table which we publish of the number of killed,
wounded, &c., is, as proportioned to the number of
Captain Smith's detachment, unusually large.
Gallant
fellows ! The dead are mourned by their country-
men; the living have their admiration and sympathy ;
and we trust will not go without more substantial
reward.
Of Colonel Cloete's doings little fresh has come to
our knowledge. Every additional particular, how-
ever, corroborates the views of their character which
we had previously formed, and leaves us utterly at a
loss to what sources to ascribe a line of conduct,
which strikes every one with astonishment, and calls
forth universal blame.
We have procured the following list of casualties
amongst the British troops under the command of
Captain Smith, from the commencement of hostilities
with the Boers until the arrival of the Southampton.
The list is not official, but we do not question its ac-
curacy. It does not of course include the soldiers
shot the Boers, when the landing was effected
under Colonel Cloete :
Royal Artillery-1 officer, Lieut. Wyatt, 4 rank
and file, killed ; 2 rank and file wounded.
Royal Engineers-2 rank and file wounded.
27th Regiment-1 subaltern, Ensign prior,ser-
geant, 7 rank and file killed. Died or wounds-3
rank and file. Wounded-1- Captain, Lonsdale, 1
subaltern, Lieut. Tunnard, .2 sergeants, 32 rank and
file. Taken prisoners-1 sergeant, 1 corporal, 13

privates.
Cape Mounted Rifles-2 rank and file killed; 2
ditto missing.
29 killed, 40 wounded, 15 prisoners, 2 missing.—
Total 86.
The reader will smile to hear, that shortly after the
relief of the British camp, some of the officers who
landed with Colonel Cloete despatched a messenger to
Captain Smith to request a bottle or two of his best
sherry, and some officers' biscuit. Of course the re-
quest elicited much merriment amongst the half-
famished garrison, to the great surprise of the envoy,
until an eclaircissenzent took place.
British Settlement, Port Natal, July 3, 1842.
Dear Friend and Comrades—l am happy to state,
with the greatest satisfaction in the world, that I and
the other two buglers still survive, after being snatched
from the jaws of death. I must say that the troubles
of this wicked world were nearly over with us all
here ; but thanks be to the King of Heaven, he has
brought us relief, before we should perish or fall into
that dreadful enemy's hands, who would not have left
a man of us alive, if they could get their ends accom-
plished ; and I am happy to state that I had the plea-
sure to see the ruffians run, but not without taking
was entirely
J ul3r, andcu t
our guns with them ; but, I hope, before long we
nioaonndfigeldt h el' ieocffie:
shall soon have them back again. Iwasrecbeeiciedusyeoaurn
letter and Relter's, for April, on the Ist
11
I received your second letter for the 30th of May on
ce
tm e n
fromt o r
nf whate ,
a s
communication,the 2d o f July.
both by
b y lreasonand and uf this
sea,
off from us by the enemy, during the siege and
blockade. I suppose you requoirae,taesxtpaet
happened since my last letter from Natal, but this I
hope you or any of the boys w
it would be impossible for me to send the
pstatea pwholee rt, ofo whatwritecanwouldtell
orfour
at present, but I hope in the Lord I will soon recover
again. I mean to mention a
happened after our arrival here. For some time the
Boers were very peaceable, but at last they com-
menced to steal our cattle, and to take our herds pri-
soners. The Captain sent to thenisfolentele,
feoauttrle, but
they would not send them back. We were after get-
ting our two 18-pounders mounted, one at the camp,
and the other at the point, where our provisions and
stores were, and a detachment of
themselves to o:nr
gun-
ners, one officer, a sergeant, and two corporals
parties, wereon
nesamonp
left there. to protect them. The Boers were seen on
all sides of the wood, showing
the morning of the 23d May in very large
now and again ; but the Captain opened our
hoist the
but towards even-
ingthem from the camp. The 18-pounder made great
openings among them, and put them to disperse for
utinieinCnajpateakinininftrennndtedof tonn,firreeallp
that day.
and one hundred
The next day, being the Queen's birthday,
mceerns
NtNo,eraett:,cakrnethdetoDbuetcrheadcyam, p,
the Captain held a consultaanigioudnntsaw,
and the hoWitzer were placed in a strong boat to
proceed up the channel right under their camp,
to throw in shells. The men left our camp at
eleven o'clock, the night being clear and bright,
the enemy's and arrived close'
to 'DJ's camp Ptt49U:0., 'cl lc . op ,
~.•,: 4

The grenadier company arrived here on the 24th of
June, on board a merchant schooner, but she had to
beat about the harbour until the arrival of the frigate.
On the 25th the frigate came in sight, and fired two
guns and three rockets as a signal to us, which was
answered by us with one gun and one rocket, t• let
them know we were in distress, and where we lay.
On the morning of the 26th, being Sunday, all pre-
parations were made to effect a landing. The frigate
formed a flotilla of gun-boats, each boat bearing a
howitzer placed in her front for throwing shells ; all
the other boats were laden with troops. At one o'clock
the troops set off from the different vessels under the
frigate's fire ; the gun-boats led the. van, and it was
very handsome to see all the boats sailing up the chan-
nel, each having its standard waving in the stern.
The enemy now commenced a strong fire on the boats
from their guns and small arms, but without much ef-

The moment the enemy perceived them in front of
their camp, they fired such a dreadful volley of mus-
ketry on our men, that it made a great many inter-
vals through the ranks. Our men commenced a file
firing, and kept it up very well ; the guns and rock-
ets kept playing into them on all sides, and the how-
itzer from the boat sending well-directed shells into
the camp; but notwithstanding all this, the enemy
kept a heavy fire up, their number was so great; they
were cutting off our men very fast, and it was very
little wonder, for they had ten times our number.
After about an hour's engagement, the enemy's fire
began to slacken very much, and the Captain intended
to charge them, but when he saw he had so few to
charge, he declined, and thought proper to retire home
to the camp. You must understand, that where the
action was fought was close to the sea, and it being a
spring tide, our men were up to their waists in the
water, and as soon as a man was wounded, he fell into
the sea, and was drowned, for no person could offer
any assistance at the time, for the enemy came in close
pursuit after us; we left our dead there in like man-
ner. The most of the artillery was swept from the
guns ; out of eighteen gunners, there were twelve cut
away, killed, and wounded. The officer of the ar-
tillery received a shower of balls in the body (three
in the head and four in the body). lie was in the
act of firing the gun at the time. The gun oxen
were all shot away, and it was impossible for the men
to swim and draw the guns, as the tide was so full in.
Many of our men fell victims to a watery grave, pe-
rishing in the water. We had not long arrived home
at the camp, when the enemy made a dreadful charge
on the camp on all sides, but they were repulsed with
great loss. You may say, my boys, this was one of
the most horrible nights ever I witnessed in my life :
from ten o'clock until clear daylight in the morning.
On this night's action the killed and missing were-
-17 and one officer ; wounded 24, one captain, one
subaltern. The next day the enemy brought up our
dead : they could only find 12, and the artillery
officer. We buried them in a large pit convenient to
the camp. The other five men must have been driven
out with the tide ; so I intend to finish with the
affair of Congella, or the Dutch camp ; and I must
say it was an unfortunate thing for our guns to fall
into the enemy's hands, besides a great number of
small arms and ammunition; but I assure you it
could not be helped, for you may easily know our
situation. The number of the enemy killed on this
night is estimated to be 130, and 70 wounded. There
were 90 killed belonging to them in one kraal, by a
shell from the howitzer.
The Boers now seeing that our guns were
already in their hands that were left be.
hind previous to the action at Congella, and so
many of our small detachment cut oft; they thought
proper to cut off all communication by land, and
the next thing they had In, few /Vdl re engage titsf
point, and capture all our provisions.l,ceordingly oit
the ‘26th morning they engaged the point, and, alit,
an hour's engagement, they captured it, hilt no with-
out losing a great number of men. Our small detach-
ment, as I mentioned before, did their endeavour to
keep it, but they were soon overpowered. There were
only one sergeant, two corporals, and 13 men, and
four gunners. The artillery fought well, until two of
them were killed, and two wounded. The two that
were wounded spiked the gun before the enemy came
up to them, but when they saw the gun already
spiked, they drew their knives, and ripped them from
the bottom of the belly to the throat. They took all
the rest prisoners. There were only one corporal and
one private wounded, but the four artillery were
killed. Now they had us completely blockaded by
sea and land. They also went on board of the two
vessels that were lying in the harbour, and took about
thirty Englishmen prisoners, and bound them in irons,
with a strong guard over each vessel. It happened
very fortunate, that the officer belonging to this small
detachment was up at the camp on duty, or else he
would have been taken prisoner also. The Dutch
Chief sent many letters to the Captain, entreating
him to quit the camp, under the following circum-
stances :—To pay the sum of 10,0001. to the Dutch
Republic, to pay the damage done on them, and,
further, to give up all our arms, only twelve stand,
that he would allow to each vessel to guard us down
to Cape Town. Ile wanted to send us in the two
vessels that were lying in the harbour, but
this proposal only made our Captain smile,
and he sent him back word he never would
do any such thing. This made the impetuous
chief bluster out with great execrations, and said he
would starve us to death and burn our camp. The cap.
taro knowing now they had three guns of ours in their
possession, knew very well they would soon visit our
camp, and blockade us, and keep us from getting any
provisions or water; as the water was pretty far dis-
tant from the camp, he ordered the engineer officer to
snake entrenchments all round the inside of the camp,
=and build a breastwork up against the front of the
Waggons, the way it would save the men from the
enemy's shot. At this time they had the whole of our
cattle captured, with the exception of 24 head, and we
had, very unfortunately, only one waggon load of bis-
cuit up from the point before it was taken. On the
night= of the 30th of May the enemy made all prepa-
ration for besieging our camp, and on the next morn-
ing, being the 31st, they commenced a dreadful can-
' nonading on our camp. They had their guns point-
ing in every direction towards the camp, namely, one
18 pounder, two 6-pounders, one 12-pounder, two
4-pounders--total, six guns. I forgot to mention,
that they had some handicraft among tbem that
unspiked the 18-pounder and a 12-pounder that be-
longed to them, which was spiked by us when we
came here first. They fired 160 rounds from their
guns, besides showers of musketry the first day; but,
thanks be to God, they did very little harm—only
smashed the sides of the waggons. We had only two
guns—one 18-pounder and howitzer—and they were
kept going the whole day at the enemy. The 18-
pounder dismounted one of the 6-pounders the first
day, and the howitzer killed a great number of the
enemy with her shell. The enemy now dug entrench-
ments at the distance of one hundred yards from our
camp, all round, for their small arms, and to save
themselves from the fire of our camp. Here now I,
may mention that we were no loner inhabitants of
the earth, but of the under world, living in subterra-
neous caves, or caverns, or sepulchral tombs. Our
situation now was surely miserable, and we could get
no water, only running in danger of being cut to
pieces going for it outside of the camp, by the enemy's
fire, for that was the only time they kept up a strong
fire. On the third morning of the siege the enemy sent
us a flag of truce to our camp for the purpose to
send our women and children, sick and wounded,
on board of the vessels in the harbour, and that they
would be taken good care of; but this was only
policy of them to find out how many were disabled,
that they might make an attack on our camp. None
of the women would go, only Mrs. Lonsdale, and the
captain would not admit of any of the sick to go, and
said he would nail the flag to the mast-head before he
should ever give them the satisfaction of surrendering.
Our provisions now were getting very scarce, and the
enemy shot most of the few cattle we had in the
kraal to keep us from living, if possible. All the oxen
we had now left alive were killed immediately to
make 'biltong' of, lest the enemy should destroy any
more of us. The enemy still kept up a formidable
fire every day on the camp—upwards of 100 rounds
every day. We were living now on six ounces of
biscuit-dust and a half a pound of biltong. Our
coffee and sugar were all out in like manner. This
only kept the human frame from failing; and this
was not all ; after the biltong was all out we were
obliged to feast on horseflesh. This was very
disgusting at first, but hunger obliged us to make
use of it. I now wish to make a remark, that we
should never frown when the Lord sends us good
food to make us happy, as it is often the case
men frown at bad meat and bread ; but if they were
in our situation, they would be glad to eat any kind
of bread or meat before they would eat horseflesh
that was putrified, or blue moulded dust, but we
were very glad to make use of it. To finish the
siege, and not dwell longer upon it, the enemy kept
their guns going for sixteen days on our camp, and
then brought them down to fortify the point against
the reinforcement that was coming up, for they were
well aware that King made his escape, and that he
would discover all. Although ithe guns were taken
away, they still kept us in by their small arms. The
captain now determined to level some of the intrench-
ments belonging to the enemy, in the dark of the
night, and out went twenty men and two officers.
They went on their hands and feet until they came
on top of the enemy. They were all asleep, only the
sentry, who fired and shot Mr. Prior in the heart.
This alarmed all the rest, and such a dreadful car-
nage never was heard tell of before. Our men fired
and charged them with bayonets, and muzzle to
muzzle; the Dutch shouted for mercy, but of course
they got none. They drew their hunting knives, and
scarified a great number of our men ; but they only
killed two and the officer, and our men killed every
one •in the intrenchments, in number about thirty-
six, and then returned to the camp. If they waited
much longer, the whole of the enemy would have cut
them all to pieces ; but they were in good time here.
We remained until the reinforcement arrived. 4.