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Here birds sang and cattle grazed; here the sun shone undimmed by the smoke of cannon, only high up in the blue and silent air long streams of vultures could be seen winging their way to the Plain of Isandhlwana. The ground was very rough, and Hadden's horse began to tire. He looked over his shoulder there some two hundred yards behind came the Zulu, grim as Death, unswerving as Fate.
And now I have done with dull explanations, and will go on to tell of the disaster at Isandhlwana or the 'place of the Little Hand, and of the noble defence of Rorke's Drift.
Speaking with some experience, Isandhlwana is the toughest thing that has ever travelled my way, and I don't hanker after any repetition of it with 'The people of the Spider Why, what does this mean?" The words, quick, hurried, broke off. On the faces of both men was a look of keen, anxious alertness.
This force, under the command of Colonel Glyn, and accompanied by Lord Chelmsford himself, left Isandhlwana at dawn on the 22nd, a despatch having first been sent to Lieut.-Colonel Durnford, R.E., who was in command of some five hundred friendly Natal Zulus, about half of whom were mounted and armed with breech-loaders, to move up from Rorke's Drift and strengthen the camp, which was now in charge of Lieut.-Colonel Pulleine of the 1st battalion 24th regiment.
On the 20th of January, 1879, one of the British columns that were invading Zululand broke its camp on the left bank of the Buffalo river, and marched by the road that ran from Rorke's Drift to the Indeni forest, encamping that evening under the shadow of a steep-cliffed and lonely mountain, called Isandhlwana.
Then I let it fall again, and lo! it rested on the head of a dog which went on licking it. A dog! What dog? Now I remembered; one that I had found on the field of Isandhlwana. Then I must be still alive. The thought made me cry, for I could feel the tears run down my cheeks, not with joy but with sorrow. I did not wish to go on living.
But though some such disaster was daily expected by a few, the majority of both soldiers and civilians never dreamed of anything of the sort, the general idea being that the conquest of Cetywayo was a very easy undertaking: and the shock produced by the news of Isandhlwana was proportionally great, especially as it reached Pretoria in a much exaggerated form.
But their heart was never in the war; they defended their country against invasion indeed, but by Cetywayo's orders they never attacked ours. Had they wished to do so, there was nothing to prevent them from sweeping the outlying districts of Natal and the Transvaal after our first great defeat at Isandhlwana, but they spared us.
Sergeaunt to Matabeleland Its melancholy termination The Isandhlwana disaster Departure of Sir T. Shepstone for England Another Boer meeting The Pretoria Horse Advance of the Boers on Pretoria Arrival of Sir B. Frere at Pretoria and dispersion of the Boers Arrival of Sir Garnet Wolseley His proclamation The Secocoeni expedition Proceedings of the Boers Mr. Pretorius Mr.
Now it may interest you to know that these last words are written with a pen that was found among the bones of the dead at Isandhlwana. Bromhead died recently. THIS is the story of the first finding of America by the Icelanders, nearly five hundred years before Columbus. They landed on the coast, and stayed for a short time; where they landed is uncertain.
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