BY CAPT. W. R. KING, 74TH HIGHLANDERS. With Illustrations. LONDON SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET. 1853....

The following pages make no pretension to a detailed history of the military operations of the Kaffir War. Written during leisure hours, in a lonely fort, or by the camp fire after the fatigues of the day, and mainly embracing the movements of one Division only—often of a Single Brigade or Corps—they attempt merely to convey a general idea of the country, and of the scenes and passing events of the Campaign. Should any comrade who shared its dangers and hardships peruse this account, it is hoped

The service companies of the 74th Highlanders were under orders to sail from Cork for Gibraltar early in March, 1851. Our heavy baggage had already been sent by a sailing vessel to anticipate our arrival, H.M.S.S. "Vulcan" lay at Queenstown ready to take us on board, and the all-engrossing topics were the cork-woods of Andalusia, yachting in the Bay of Algesiras, or the chances of future quarters among the olive-groves of Corfu; when, in consequence of tidings received by government of the serio

On arriving in Simon's Bay our first anxiety, of course, was to learn the latest tidings from the seat of war, which fully confirmed the unfavourable intelligence that had led to our sudden change of destination. The natives were in open rebellion, plundering the frontier farms, attacking post after post, and committing the most deliberate outrages and murders; and all the efforts of Sir Harry Smith to check them were comparatively ineffectual without fresh reinforcements, which he was now anxio

From the daily reports brought in from all sides, it appeared that the enemy was concentrating a large force, and that greater or less bodies frequently made their way through secret bush-paths by night from the Amatolas to the much discussed Waterkloof, so that it was with more pleasure than surprise that we received, on the 11th October, a sudden order for a general movement of the troops against that stronghold. Next morning, a little before daylight, General Somerset left the camp with the A

On the morning of the 4th of November the camp was left standing, guarded by the invalids and least efficient men of each regiment, and we marched, under command of Lieut.-Col. Fordyce, up the Blinkwater Pass, and bivouacked at Eastlands, the enemy being reported to be re-assembling on their former ground. The whole of the grassy plain was glowing with bright gladiolus, blue lobelia, everlasting flower, and the graceful sparaxis, of which we found a variety, peculiar to this mountain, of a deep

On the night of the 20th, the Kaffirs who, since their unsuccessful raid, had been constantly hovering about in small parties on the hill sides, watching our cattle and our movements, treated us at midnight with a volley into the middle of our encampment, which woke us suddenly from our first sleep; the bugles sounded the "assembly," and we had to tumble out of bed. As I groped about in the dark for my clothes, I felt a peculiar sensation of unprotectedness, in my night-shirt, as the balls whist

On the afternoon of Sunday the 12th of September, as we were leaving church, the 73rd regiment, from King Williams' Town, under Colonel Eyre, marched through the town on their way to join the force assembling for a grand and final attack on the Waterkloof. They encamped on the other side the river, on the Blinkwater road; though absolutely in rags, patched with every description and colour of cloth and leather, many a shirt tail dangling from under the lappels of their coats, they looked most so

Nov. 9th.—The surmises of some impending movement, which for several days had formed the chief topic of conversation, were confirmed by the arrival of an order from head-quarters for the assembling, on the 20th inst., of a force of 2500 troops at Burghersdorp, a Dutch town, two days' march beyond the Orange River. The object of the expedition was to demand satisfaction from the Basuto Chief, Moshesh, whose "Great Place" lay some hundred miles beyond the Orange River, for the constant and increas

C——, who had been unwell from the time of our tremendous soaking the day we waded the Caledon river, when we had to remain two hours standing in wet clothes, waiting for the waggons crossing the drift, had become so ill as to be unable to march. The excellent missionary at Platberg, Mr. Giddy, had shown him the greatest kindness possible, doing everything in his power to add what comforts he could to the hard fare of camp life. He was now placed in an ox waggon, which, jolting and bumping over t

In 3 vols. 8vo, with a new and important Map, laid down by the British Officers of the Expedition. Original Portraits of Druse and Maronite Chiefs, and Illustrative Landscape Drawings, by F. Halpen, Esq. With Descriptive Sketches of its Scenery, Productions, &c.; the Manners and Customs of its Inhabitants, particularly of the Druses and Maronites; and a full and correct account of the Druse Religion, Historical Records of the Mountain Tribes, from Personal Intercourse with their Chiefs,