A day of unfulfilled expectation, unrelieved even by lies and rumours.
From the top of Observation Hill I again watched the Dutch in their cl.u.s.tered camps, fourteen miles away across the great plain, whilst our heliograph flashed to us from the dark hill beyond them. But there was no sound of the expected guns, and every one lost heart a little.
At the market, eggs were a guinea a dozen. Four pounds of oatmeal sold for 11s. 6d. A four-ounce tin of English tobacco fetched 30s. Out of our original numbers of about 12,000 nearly 3,000 are now sick or wounded at Intombi, and there are over 200 graves there. More helpers are wanted, and to-day Colonel Stoneman summoned 150 loafers from their holes in the river-bank, and called for twenty volunteers. No one came, so he has stopped their rations till they can agree among themselves to produce the twenty ready to start.
_January 17, 1900._
The far-off mutter of Buller"s guns began at half-past five a.m., and lasted nearly all day. From King"s Post I watched the stretch of plain--Six Mile Flats, the official map calls it--leading away to Potgieter"s Drift, where his troops are probably crossing. I could see three of the little Dutch camps, and here and there bodies of Boers moving over the country. Suddenly in the midst of the plain, just our side of the camp near "Wesse"s Plantation," a great cloud of smoke and dust arose, and slowly drifted away. Beyond doubt, it was the bursting of a British sh.e.l.l. Aimed at the camp it overshot the mark, and landed on the empty plain. As a messenger of hope to us all it was not lost.
The distance was only fourteen miles from where I stood--a morning"s walk--less than an hour and a half"s ride. Yet our relief may take many days yet, and it will cost hundreds of lives to cross that little s.p.a.ce.
The Boers have placed a new gun on the Bluebank ridge. It is disputed whether it faces us or Buller"s line of approach over the Great Plain.
The whole ridge is now covered from end to end with walls, traverses, and sangars.
_January 18, 1900._
In the early morning the welcome sound of Buller"s guns was not so frequent as yesterday. But it continued steadily, and between four and five increased to an almost unbroken thunder. From the extremity of Waggon Hill, I watched the great cloud of dust and smoke which rose from the distant plain as each sh.e.l.l burst. The Dutch camps were still in position, and we could only conjecture that the British were trying to clear the river-bank and the hills commanding it, so as to secure the pa.s.sage of the ford.
While I was there the enemy threw several shrapnel over the Rifle Brigade outpost. Major Brodiewald, Brigade Major to the Natal Volunteers under Colonel Royston, was sitting on the rocks watching Buller"s sh.e.l.ls like myself. A shrapnel bullet struck him in the mouth and pa.s.sed out at the back of his neck. He was carried down the hill, his blood dripping upon the stones along the track. In the afternoon one of the bluejackets was also seriously wounded by shrapnel. The bombardment was heavy all day, the Bulwan gun firing right over Convent Hill and plunging sh.e.l.ls into the Naval Camp, the Leicesters, and the open ground near Headquarters. It looks as if a spy had told where the General and Staff are to be found.
The market quotations at this evening"s auction were fluctuating. Eggs sprang up from a guinea to 30s. a dozen. Jam started at 30s. the 6lb.
jar. Maizena was 5s. a pound. On the other hand, tobacco fell. Egyptian cigarettes were only 1s. each, and Navy Cut went for 4s. an ounce.
During a siege one realises how much more than bread, meat, and water is required for health. Flour and trek-ox still hold out, and we receive the regulation short rations. Yet there is hardly one of us who is not tortured by some internal complaint, and many die simply for want of common little luxuries. In nearly all cases where I have been able to try the experiment I have cured a man with any little variety I had in store or could procure--rice, chocolate, cake, tinned fruit, or soups. I wonder how the enemy are getting on with the biltong and biscuit.
_January 19, 1900._
Before noon, as I rode round the outposts, I found the good news flying that good news had come. It was thought best not to tell us what, lest, like children, we should cry if disappointed. But it is confidently said that Buller"s force has crossed the Tugela in three places--Wright"s Drift eastward, Potgieter"s Drift in the centre, and at a point further west, perhaps Klein waterfall, where there is a nine-mile plain leading to Acton Homes. The names of the brigades are even stated, and the number of losses. It is said the Boers have been driven from two positions. But there may not be one word of truth in the whole story.
I was early on Observation Hill, watching that strip of plain to the south-west. No sh.e.l.ls were bursting on it to-day, and the sound of guns was not so frequent. Our heliograph flashed from the far-off Zwartz Kop, and high above it, looking hardly bigger than a vulture against the pale blue of the Drakensberg precipices, rose Buller"s balloon, showing just a point of l.u.s.tre on its skin.
The view from Observation Hill is far the finest, but the whiz of bullets over the rocks scarcely ever stops, and now and again a sh.e.l.l comes screaming into the rank gra.s.s at one"s feet.
To-day we enjoyed a further variety, well worth the risk. At the foot of Surprise Hill, hardly 1,500 yards from our position, the Boers have placed a mortar. Now and then it throws a huge column of smoke straight up into the air. The first I thought was a dynamite explosion, but after a few seconds I heard a growing whisper high above my head, as though a falling star had lost its way, and plump came a great sh.e.l.l into the gra.s.s, making a 3ft. hole in the reddish earth, and bursting with no end of a bang. We collected nearly all the bits and fitted them together.
It was an eight or nine-inch globe, reminding one of those "bomb-sh.e.l.ls"
which heroes of old used to catch up in their hands and plunge into water-buckets. The most amusing part of it was the fuse--a thick plug of wood running through the sh.e.l.l and pierced with the flash-channel down its centre. It was burnt to charcoal, but we could still make out the holes bored in its side at intervals to convert it into a time-fuse.
This is the "one mortar" catalogued in our Intelligence book. It was satisfactory to have located it. Two guns of the 69th Battery threw shrapnel over its head all morning; then the Naval guns had a turn and seem to have reduced it to silence.
In the afternoon there was an auction of Steevens"s horses and camp equipment. Many officers came, and the usual knot of greedy civilians on the look-out for a bargain. As auctioneer I had great satisfaction in running the prices up beyond their calculation. But in another way they got the best of the old country to-day. Colonel Stoneman, having discovered a hidden store of sugar, was selling it at the fair price of 4d. a pound to any one who pledged his word he was sick and in need of it. Round cl.u.s.tered the innocent local dealers with sick and sorry looks, swearing by any G.o.d they could remember that sugar alone would save their lives, paid their fourpences, and then sold the stuff for 2s.
outside the door.
_January 20, 1900._
Again I was on Observation Hill two or three times in the day. It is impossible to keep away from it long. The rumble of the British guns was loud but intermittent, but the Boer camps remain where they were. With us the bombardment continued pretty steadily. After a silence of two days "Puffing Billy," of Bulwan, threw one sh.e.l.l into the town and six among the Devons. His usual answer to the report that he has worn himself out or been carried away. Whilst he was firing I tried to get sight of a small mocking bird, which has learnt to imitate the warning whistle of the sentries. In the Gordons the Hindoo, Purriboo Singh, from Benares, stands on a huge heap of sacks under an umbrella all day and screams when he sees the big gun flash. But in the other camps, as I have mentioned, a sentry gives warning by blowing a whistle. The mocking bird now sounds that whistle at all times of the day, and what is even more perplexing, he is learning to imitate the scream and buzzle of the sh.e.l.l through the air. He may learn the explosion next. I mention this peculiar fact for the benefit of future ornithologists, who might otherwise be puzzled at his form of song.
Another interesting event in natural history occurred a short time ago up the Port road. A Bulwan sh.e.l.l, missing the top of Convent Hill, lobbed over and burst at random with its usual din and circ.u.mstance.
People rushed up to see what damage it had done, but they only found two little dead birds--one with a tiny hole in her breast, the other with an eye knocked out. Ninety-six pounds of iron, bra.s.s, and melinite, hurled four miles through the air, at unknown cost, just to deal a true-lovers"
death to two sparrows, five of which are sold for one farthing!
_Sunday, January 21, 1900._
After varying my trek-ox rations by catching a kind of barbel with a worm in the yellow Klip, I went again to Observation Hill, and with the greater interest because every one was saying two of the Boer camps were in flames. Of course it was a lie. The camps stood in their usual places quite undisturbed. But I saw one of our great sh.e.l.ls burst high up the mountain side of Taba Nyama (Black Mountain) instead of on the plain at its foot, and with that sign of forward movement I was obliged to be content.
CHAPTER XVIII
"WITHIN MEASURABLE DISTANCE"
_January 22, 1900._
Twelve weeks to-day since Black Monday, when our isolation really began!
A heliogram came from Buller to say all was going well, and in this evening"s Orders we were officially informed that relief is "within measurable distance." I don"t know about time, but in s.p.a.ce that measurable distance is hardly more than fifteen miles. From Observation Hill I again watched the British sh.e.l.ls breaking over the ridge above the ford. The Boers had moved one of their waggon laagers a little further back, but the main camps were unchanged. With a telescope I could make out where their hospital was--in a cottage by a wood--and I followed an ambulance waggon driving at a trot to three or four points on ridge and plain, gathering up the sick or wounded, and returning to hospital.
The ma.s.s of Boers appeared to be lying under the shelter of Taba Nyama (or Intaba Mnyama--Black Mountain). It is a nine-mile range of hills running east and west, nearly parallel to the Tugela, and having Potgieter"s Drift on its left. The left extremity, looking over the Drift, rises into double peaks, and is called Mabedhlane, or the Paps, by Zulus. The main Boer position appears to be halfway up these peaks and along the range to their right. To-day it is said that the relieving force intends to approach the mountain by parallels, sapping and mining as it goes, and treating the positions like a mediaeval fortress, or one of those ramparted and turreted cities which "Uncle Toby" used to besiege on the bowling green.
One"s only fear is about the delay. The population at Intombi is now approaching 4,000, nearly 3,000 being sick. I doubt if we could put 4,000 men in the field to-day. Men and horses crawl feebly about, shaken with every form of internal pain and weakness. Women suffer even more.
The terror of the sh.e.l.ls has caused thirty-two premature births since the siege began. It is true a heliogram to-day tells us there are seventy-four big waggons waiting at Frere for our relief--milk, vegetables, forage, eleven waggons of rum, fifty cases of whisky, 5,000 cigarettes, and so on. But all depends upon those parallels, so slowly advancing against Taba Nyama, and our insides are being sapped and mined far more quickly.
Towards noon a disaster occurred, which has depressed the whole town.
Two of the _Powerful"s_ bluejackets have lately been making what they called a good thing by emptying unexploded Boer sh.e.l.ls of their charges, so that the owners might display them with safety and pride when the siege is over. For this service they generally received 10s. each. It is only two days since they were in my cottage--chiselling out the melinite from a complete "Long Tom" sh.e.l.l which alighted in my old Scot"s garden.
I watched them accomplish that task safely, and this morning they set to work upon a similar sh.e.l.l by order of the Wesleyan minister, who wished to keep it in his window as a symbol of Christianity. One of the men was holding it between his knees, while the other was quietly chipping away, when suddenly it exploded. Fragments of one of the men strewed the minister"s house--the other lay wondering upon the ground, but without his legs. Whilst I write he is still nominally alive, and keeps asking for his mate. One of his legs has been picked up near the Town Hall--about 150 yards away.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SPECIMENS OF BOER Sh.e.l.lS]
A lesser disaster this morning befel Captain Jennings Bramley, of the 19th Hussars. Whilst on picket he felt something slide over his legs, and looking up he saw it was a snake over 5ft. long. The creature at once raised its head also, and deliberately spat in his face, filling both eyes with poison. That is the invariable defence of the "Spitting Snake" (_Rinkholz_ in Dutch, and _Mbamba Twan_ or child catcher in Zulu). The pain is agonising. The eye turns red and appears to run with blood, but after a day or two the poison pa.s.ses off and sight returns.
The snake is not otherwise poisonous, but apparently can count on success in its shots at men, leopards, or dogs.
_January 23, 1900._
Soon after dawn our own guns along the northern defences from Tunnel Hill to King"s Post woke me with an extraordinary din. They could not have made more noise about another general attack, but there was no rifle fire. Getting up very unwillingly at 4.30 a.m., I climbed up Junction Hill and looked up the Broad valley, but not a single Boer was in sight. The firing went on till about six, and then abruptly ceased. I heard afterwards that Buller had asked us to keep as many Boers here as possible. I suppose we expended about 200 rounds of our precious ammunition. A cool and cloudy sky made the heliograph useless, but in the night the clouds had served to reflect the brilliance of Buller"s searchlight.
So far the Boers have pa.s.sed us all round in strategy, but in searchlights they are nowhere, though Bulwan makes a grand attempt. All day from King"s Post or Waggon Hill I watched the Great Plain of Taba Nyama as usual. Now and then we could see the sh.e.l.ls bursting, but the Boer camps have not moved.
The ration coffee has come to an end, except a reserve of 3 cwt, which would hardly last a day. The tea ration is again reduced. The flour mixed with mealy meal makes a very sour bread. The big 5th Lancers horses are so hungry that at night they eat not only their picket ropes but each other"s manes and tails. They are so weak that they fall three or four times in an hour if the men ride them. Enteric is not quite so bad as it was, but dysentery increases. The numbers of military sick alone at Intombi, not counting all the sick in the camps and hospitals here, are 2,040 to-day.
_January 24, 1900._
The entire interest of the day was centred on Taba Nyama--that black mountain, commanding the famous drift in its front and the stretch of plain behind. It is fifteen miles away. From Observation Hill one could see the British sh.e.l.ls bursting along this ridge all morning, as well as in the midst of the Boer tents half-way down the double peaks, and at the foot of the hill. The firing began at 3 a.m., and lasted with extreme severity till noon, the average of audible sh.e.l.ls being at least five a minute. We could also see the white bursts of shrapnel from our field artillery. In the afternoon I went to Waggon Hill, and with the help of a telescope made out a large body of men--about 1,000 I suppose--creeping up the distant crest and spreading along the summit. I could only conjecture them to be English from their presence on the exposed ridge, and from their regular though widely extended formation.
They were hardly visible except as a series of black points.
Thunderclouds hung over the Drakensberg behind, and the sun was obscured. Yet I had no doubt in my own mind that the position was won.
It was five o"clock, or a little later.