The New York herald., 1879-07-02
THE DEAD AT IsANDULA--A VISIT TO THE
SCENE OF THE BRITISH DISAsTEI-THE WORST
PLACE FOR CAMP IN ALL AFRICA.

THE DEAD AT lSANDULA-A VISIT TO THE
SCENE OF THE BRITISH DIsAsTEI-THE WORST
PLACE FOR CAMP IN ALL AFRICA.
From the London Daily Ncws.l
At the top OF the ascent, beyond the Bashee which
the Dragon Guards crowned in dashing STYLE we
saw on left 'front.' rising above the surrounding
country, the steep isolated and almost inaccessible
HILL or rather crag. of Issndula. the contour of its
rugged crest strangely resembling side view OF
q couchant lion. On the lower neck OF the high
ground on its right were clearly visible up
against the sky line the abandoned Wagons
Of the destroyed column. No zulus were
seen. Flanking parties covered the hills on
either side the track along which the head
of the column passed at trot with small detach-
ments of Natal Carabinecrs in front of the Dragon
Guards. Now down in the last dip. had
crossed the rocky bed of the little stream ard we're
canerng up the slope that stretched up to the crest
on which the wagons. Already tokens of the
combat and bootless flight were apparent. The line
of retreat toward Fugitve's Drift. along which.
through clink in the Zulu environment, our un-
fortunate comrades who thus far survived tried to
escape lay athwart a rocky slope to our right 'front.'
with a precipitous ravine at its base. In this
ravine dead men lay thick-mere bones, with
toughened. discolorcd skin. like leather. covering
them and clinging tight them. the flesh all wasted
AWAY. Some were almost wholly dismembered.
heaps of cammy yellow bones. forbear to describe
blanched by and sun. Every man had been dis
embowelled. Some scalpod and Others sub
icctud to yet ghasier mutilation. The clothes had
lasted better than the poor bodies they covered. and
helped to keep the skeletons together. All the way
up che slope traced by the CHASTITY token OF dead
men the ftful line of flight Most OF the men here
about were infantry OF the Twenty fourth. 1t was
like long string with knots in it. the string formed
of single corpses, the knots of clusters OF dead.
where. as It seemed, little groups might have
gathered to make o hopeless gallant stand and die.
l came on a gully with gun Timber Janmcd on Its
hpr heir
stabs hanging in their harness down the steep face
of the ravinc. A little further on was broken ana
battered ambulance wagon. with its team OF mules
mouldcring in their harness. and around lay tho
corpscs OF soldiers poor helpless wretchcs dragged
out of an intercepted vehicle. and done to death
without chance for life.
THE REposE DEATII.
Still following the trail CT bodies through long
rank Grass and among stores approached the crest
Hero the slaug lay thick, that the
string became q broad belt. Many hcrcabouts wore
the uniform of the Natal police On the bare ground,
OH the crest itself, among the wagons. the dead
were less thick. but on the slope beyond, ON which
from the crest we looked down, the scene the
saudest and more full OF weird desoiation
than any had yet gazed upon. There was none
ot the stark. blood-curdling horror of a recent
battlefield; no pool of yet wet blood no raw. gap
inc wounds: no torn red flesh that seems yet guy.
ering. Nothing of ali that makes the scene OF
yesterdays battle SO rampanty ghastly shocked the
senses. A strange. dead calm rcigned in this soil
tude of nature; gram had grown luxuriantly round
the wagons. sprouting from the seed that dropped
from the loads, falling in soil ertilized by the life-
had grown the grass that IL mercitully
shrouded the dead whom four long months
to morrow wo have left unburicd As one
strayed aiinlessly about stumbled IN the grass