Morris tribune., 1900-01-13

The hour appointed arrived, ana
I leaving their wives and children in
their wagons on the surrounding hills.
| they entered the enclosure pointed out
! to them, leaving their guns behind
| to show their implicit confidence In
| their dealings with the natives
| Without al ;.stant's warning at a CIV
| en- momer5 the Zulu chief gave the
J sign. and with but one or two e2cep-
| tions every Boer wGo nassacred, aud
! few days later me wives and child
! ZEN. VINO were msIting for their flus-
bands and fathers, were also murd-
cred.
| News travelled slowly in those days,
but when finally it reached the ears of
| the Beers living on the border of the
| country they vowed vengence and
they got it. In moment when the
Zulus least expected it horde Of
Beers burst upon them like maddened
wolves and annihilated them without
mercy, and in a wallet of a dead Zulu
secured the deed Of conveyance.
So the Beers fought for the country
and made themselves q power to be
feared by the surviving native tribes
But they had no sooner settled on
their farms than an English ship
came sailing into the harbor at Dur
ban. Natal, and, hosting the Union
Jack, proclaimed it British territory
The Beers could scarcely believe it,
but when they realized their weak
ness to try to cope with the British
forces they took all their belongings
and turned their faces northward and
Nhn
Drachensberg Pass, over those awful
mountains. through the Vaal River to
the Transvaal country, and there be-
gan Life anew.
We all know how they we're again
pursued by the British, until. bidfng
their time, they turned and faced their
English foe, and in every battle but.
one routed him. He still knows how
to ride and how to shoot and how to
make the natural formation of the
country, with its dry river beds and
precipitous sugar-loaf or square-topped
hills, serve his purpose to meet his
foes No Boer to-day who was engag-
ed at Majuba Hill will say that the de-
feat Of the English forces on that day
was anything but wonderful and
surprising dispensation of some un-
seen force greater than men.
Majuba Hill Is rocky, treeless hill.
rising from a steep slope to Sugar
loaf" summit. General Colley. the
English commander, with SO. men of
the Fifty-eight, Sixteenth and Ninety
second and the Natal Brigade, arrived
at the hill late in the evening of Feb
ruary rs, 1881, tired and footsore from
their weary march, and after looking
down the slope on the Boer' equip
ment of about 1000 men, they laid
down to rest.
When the Beers saw them they were
about to fly, but General Smit, with a
few picked men. volunteered to climb
to the summit, which they did. before
the British soldiers were awake in the
early dawn, they sat on that natural |
parapet which crowns the hill and be-
gan to pop off their enemies at their
ease.
The amazed British soldiers fought |
for ak hours, but to their consterna-
lion they discovered that the ammuni-
ton was giving out, and in their des-
peration picked up stones and threw
them at the pifless firing Beers. The
latter saw their predIcament and
charged down on them, yelling and nr-
ing with the deadly aim of skilled
hunters and showing no mercy unt!l
eighty-f1ve killed and 131 wounded and
about sixty prisoners were left with
he Beers on the hillside General
Jolley was killed. 1t was rumored
hat he committed suicide when ne
law the bfunder that he had made
nut Dame Rumor in South Africa told
is that General Colley was shot Dy
me of his own men In fury OF ang-
r at being caught in such a trap and
Without ammunition
While In Durham. Natal. I met a
ew surviving members of the gallant
fifty eighth, which suffered the great
st loss. The shee music Of the Dand
'as torn and bloed-stained, while the
rass instruments were denied out OF
aaDe w the uy1nK DuueS