FURTHER PARTICULARS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3048, 2 April 1881, Page 4

FURTHER PARTICULARS.

Motjnt Prospect, Tuesday, Feb. 28. I had to cut my account very short yesterday in order to ensure its going through the wire. To supplement it now. Ifc was about one o'clock, that a sudden and most terrific fire came from our left. Immediately every available man of reserves was hurried up to meet it and they commenced it well for ten minutes. There were men of Naval Brigade, Highlanders, and 58th, all firing as best they could, perhaps fifty in all, against 200 Boers. The Boer fire was now very telling ; our men were shot right and left at this point, as they exposed themselves. No man could show his head without a dozen shots fired at him. In ten or fifteen minutes the men wavered and broke, but in answer to shouts of officers, " Rally on your right" (that would bring them more to the left rear where the General and about fifty men were), they did rally, and came up to the crest of the bill, at the point I indicate Colonel Stewart, Major Eraser, Captain McGregor, staff officers, and indeed every officer present, now revolver and sword in hand, encouraged the men by word and action. The whole of the Boer fire was now concentrated on our present and last point of defence on tbe left rear. Crowded as our men were by the necessity of finding cover at all behind this small clump of stones on the ridge, the officers called and directed the men to deploy slightly right and left, to prevent us being flanked on our rear direct. The other side of the hollow basin was at this time only held by some fifteen or twenty men ; our direct front by a score more ; but they sent word to say that there were not many Boers there in our direct rear; in fact, the ground was so precipitous that no one could scale it, To the front it was also free to a certain extent of cover for tho enemy. The Boers had evidently made up their mind to take points of the crest in detail, and now all their efforts were concentrated on the left. Major Eraser sang out " Men of the 92nd don't forget your bayonets." Colonel Stewart added, "And the 58th." "And tho Naval Brigade," came from another officer, Captain McGregor, I think, the General at the samo time directing movements as coolly as if at a review. The men did fix their bayonets, and, standing shoulder to shoulder in a semi-circle, poured volleys back for the volleys fired by the enemy. Numbers of our poor fellows now fell, and they could not be carried far, for there was no shelter of any gi'eafc safety to take them to. The stand made at this last stage lasted perhaps ten minutes, and then our men fell short of ammunition. It must be remembered that there were only the seventy rounds carried by our men in their pouches. At the same time a party of Boers crept up to the two score of men holding our true front and extreme rear, and they poured in volleys at the little band of defenders, who fixed bayonets and charged down on the enemy. Perhaps not more than three or four ever came within thrusting distance, so hot was the fire on them as they charged the twenty yards separating them from their foes, to return again to where the General and staff and main body, now not more than 100 of our men, where, the officers still encouraged tho men to fire low, and only when the Boers jumped up to pour volley in. " Give them the bayonet next time after they have fired," was the last command I heard given, and in a moment our poor fellows broke and rushed for the crest in our rear. I ran with them,

being only four or five yards behind the | , line that had made the lust stand. How j anyone gained the ridge at the roar, and escaped to camp down tbe precipice—there a fall of thirty feet clear and then on and over enormous boulders and bush, a good quarter of a mile further vet to go before the foot of the bill was reached under the bullets that rained on us from all sides —I don't know. Four men dropped by my side as I ran with the crowd across the basin before oven reaching the head of the precipice. Fortunately there was a kind of heather I gi'owing out of the side of the precipice—l can only speak for myself, and I managed to save myself, from injury in jumping down by catching at this herb. 1 hen immediately I found I was with two or three others who came after me exposed to a dreadful fire as we scrambled over the rocks. Tho bullets rained on the stones, and several poor fellows, panting and bleeding, we?e struck as they tried to scramble away. I determined to give up running, as I could tell by the way the bullets came that Boers were all round us, though I could not sec them myself, having thought best to follow a donga shrouded in bush, taking shelter as best I could in a dry gully covered with slabs of rock. I determined to wait till nightfall, and then try to reach camp. All the while, and for at least half an hour after we had made a rush away, the bullets of the enemy pelted incessantly in the bush and on the rocks in every direction, as T could hear by the sound of powder and lead. Then I heard big guns firing, and took hope, thinking a party from camp, with artillery, had been pushed to the base of the hill to cover the flight of the fugitives. Half a dozen shots from the big guns, and then tho fire of the Boers above my head, and right and left ceased, and I heard a voice speaking in English, and several others in Dutch close around us. Knowing that they must be searching 1 for their enemies, I came out of my hidingplace, and sung out to them. " Hare you any gun ?" The reply was, " No, I have no gun. lam not a soldier." " Then come up here, we will not shoot." I accepted the invitation, and clambering back up the rocks through a bush, saw a gentleman, who said lie was a field cornet. I told him my business, and asked to see the Gf-eneral. Hearing an English voice, a dozen of our poor fellows who had been hiding within twenty yards of me, sang out for help, and J told them to come out as the Boers would not riul'fc them. Crawling as best they could (everyone wounded), they clambered delivered up their arms — those tnem — ancl we all went to :L * „ -n, finding on the way Lieut, the crest ag a .- Mg arm ' injared Hill'of the 5S»»„ ,as oh f v d by abu let wound br,„ , h h h _ the misfortune and as quiet - f h ihg was the matter. This i 3 the " distinguished himself by carrying wounu. from under fire at Langeneck. Seeing Mr Smifc, the General, I told him who I was. He said there had been six correspondents to him already. There happened to be only a correspondent of the Daily News, Standard, and myself in this action. I showed my pass, and got leave to return to camp \ on condition I would send them a copy of my account of the fight. First ho asled', " who is the officer killed ?" I said, "Take me to him and I will tell you if I can." I accompanied him to the spot where our final stand was made. There lay a body, it* face covered with a helmet. By the clothing I recognised it at once. Lifting the helmet up [ made sure that it was our poor General, the bravest soldier of the day, : a gentleman who had shown me many kindnesses since I have been in camp there —a commander who was loved and admired by every man under him, from highest to lowest. Knowing I would be first to carry this sad news back to camp, I wanted some token to bear out my information, but could find none about the body save a white handkerchief, and that not marked. _ The Boers doubted me when I said, "It is the General," but when they questioned me again and again, "Do you know him ?" I replied, " I give you my word of honour it is General Colley." They were satisfied. No word of exultation escaped their lips when they learnt this. I said " You have killed the bravest gentleman) on thisfield," and they answered 1 ,. "Yes, he fought well." One 1 man said, "He was a very nice gentleman; he dined at my house when he- went to Pretoria," and another said "He' did not think we were wrong, but he was a 3oMier, and he must obey orders." Another remarked, " It was no use fighting against men who had right on their side." Round 1 the General lay the dead and wounded— Captain Romily, Naval Brigade, and Lieut. Maude (lately joined the 58th), I myself saw amongst the former —but I hurried away with a guide and the white flag past the enemy's videttes, and accompaned by Cameron, of the " Standard," whom we picked up on the way down, our guide took us safely outside the Boer lines down the road we came up previously. Before we got far we saw the Boers on horseback, to the number of two or three hundred, galloping round the base of our hill to the laager made by the Highlanders at the foot. Shots were exchanged, and then the guns at camp opened on the Boers, and kept them in check until the garrison of the j laager had fallen back on camp, defiling through a narrow pass. This Aye saw as .we ! descended the rocky slope, and also still more painful, wo saw at every twenty or thirty paces our poor fellows either dead or wounded. They dotted the ground as far as the last bridge we passed. Poor Captain Moms, of the 58th, attended by his servant, was wounded in the shoulder. , Cameron and I hurried on, anxious to give the information we had, so that help might be sent to the suffering. A mile from camp, Cameron knocked up, and I trudged on promising to send a horse for him. Close to camp an artilleryman coming out gave me his horse to ride, and so I arrived in camp.