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The men they wrote to were on their way to the prisoners' camp on Pretoria racecourse. A miserable tale is best told badly. On the night of Sunday, October 29, No. 10 Mountain Battery, four and a half companies of the Gloucestershire Regiment, and six of the Royal Irish Fusiliers some 1000 men in all were sent out to seize a nek some seven miles north-west of Ladysmith.
"Hardly," he said, with a laugh. "What are you, then?" "Making a mistake, it seems," he replied. "But your people are Boers?" "They're going to beat them," he replied, "as soon as they get a chance. Have you seen them up the Nek yonder?" "Yes; I was running away from them. They were shooting at us last night." "Hi; Robsy! Steady there!" roared my new acquaintance. "Steady, I say! Friends.
Already they were out of the wood and upon the plain, when from their right a body of horsemen swooped towards them, seven in all, of whom one, the leader, was Swart Piet himself, cutting them off from the Nek. They halted their horses as though to a word of command, and speaking rapidly, Sihamba asked of Zinti: "Is there any other pass through yonder range, for this one is barred to us?"
When he led the Boers at Majuba and Laing's Nek, in 1881, he was in the prime of his life energetic, resourceful, and undaunted by any reverses. In 1899, when he followed the commandos into Natal, he was absolutely the reverse slow, wavering, and too timid to move from his tent.
The dream beckoned and he must follow. The moon shone bright, but he took no trouble to hide himself, it did not seem to be worth while. Now he was in the nek and drawing near to the place where the guard was stationed, still he marched on, boldly, openly. As he thought, they were on the alert. They drew out from behind the rocks and barred his path.
Gladstone's miserable surrender after our disasters at Laing's Nek and Majuba have puffed them up with such an idea of their own fighting powers and our weakness, that I believe they think they are going to have almost a walk over.
"We fired on the Red Cross" they instanced Elandslaagte and the battle of Nicholson's Nek; in both instances their waggons were behind kopjes that our gunners could not possibly see through. I threw them back their similar offences the afternoon of Nicholson's Nek and their firing on the Town Hall hospital at Ladysmith.
I had often heard of Echo Nek before, and had some vague idea that if any one shouted there the tones of his voice would be reverberated from the face of the cliffs; but I had never realised the true reason as I did now. The firing went steadily on, the Boer outpost being evidently under the impression that their action would drive back the force approaching to get into their country.
Ralph, it is true, was for going into the Nek and attacking him, but, as Jan showed him, such an act would be madness, for they were many, and we were few; moreover, they could have picked us off from behind the shelter of the rocks.
At Bronkhorst Spruit a small British force was taken by surprise and shot down without harm to their antagonists. The surgeon who treated them has left it on record that the average number of wounds was five per man. At Laing's Nek an inferior force of British endeavoured to rush a hill which was held by Boer riflemen. Half of our men were killed and wounded.
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