MB FORBES’ RIDE TO LANDS MAN’S DRIFT.

Kumara Times, Issue 966, 4 November 1879, Page 4

MB FORBES’ RIDE TO LANDS MAN’S DRIFT.

Mt Archibald Forbes has returned to England from the Zulu war, whither he trent from Afghanistan, as the special Correspondent of the Daily News. In a long letter to a friend he describes in detail his long and gallant ride from Ulnndi to Landsman’s Drift, and from lADdfiihan’B Drift to Pietermaritzburg. Mr Forbes tells us how he came to attempt the ride in the first instance. It was not to serve the. newspaper with which he is connected, for, as he explains, In a newspaper sense all this speed did him do good. " Had there been a cable to England it would have been a repetition of the eld Plevna ttUd Shipka Pass business ; bat as it was I rather lost by it than otherwise, forafbjfiow can’t be riding andwritingat the same time. ” MrForbes was merely anxious that Sic Garnet Wolseley should hear as soon as possible the tidings of a victory by which his own combinations would be influenced. Yet, when the battle was over, and Mr Forbes had returned, wounded by a spent shot, to the laager, he learned that Lord Chelmsford did not intend to send off a despatch that evening. He therefore cried, in his haste, " I will go myself,” and, having once uttered the words, had not the courage to withdraw them. The kindly opposition of many friends was in vain. Lord Chelmsford himself sent some private telegram, bat soon altered his mind and despatched an official messenger with an escort an hour after Mr Forbes had ridden out into the dusk. This messenger was Mr Guy Dawnay, whose hardihood and courage have already been favorably ably spoken of in the history of the Zulu war. Now, Mr Dawnay, giving Mr Forbes an hoar’s start, and receiving some three stones In weight, arrived at Landsman’s Drift some seven hours later. It is true that he was probably handicapped by his escort, which would waste more time in changing steeds than a single horseman. The practical advantage secured by Mr Forbes’ early start and resolnte riding was that Sir Garnet Wolseley received the good news some two days earlier than he would otherwise have done. The value of prompt knowledge in warlike matters is too obvious to require insisting on at length. The news which Mr Forbes volunteered to bear to Sir Garnet Wolseley was, as be observes, " of the deepest importances to Wolseley in view of further operations on the other line of advance.” In carrying it Mr Forbes rendered a public service which certainly bears comparison with any achievement of this war; and both Sir Garnet Wolseley and Sir Bartle Frere have expressed their sense of the remarkable exploit. Mr Dawnay’s ride was also a remarkable one when we consider that he too had been in the fighting near Ulnndi; bad been in the saddle since early morning, and probably had not fared much better in the matter of food than Mr Forbes himself—that is, had eaten little or nothing. The danger, apart from the mere laboriousness of the exploit, is made perfectly clear by Mr Forbes’ letter. His first stage of fourteen miles, through the brushwood and up the country to our stationary camp on the ridge, was perhaps the most perilous of all. The Znlus, though routed, bad not been driven ont of the whole district. There were dongas deep enough to shelter half a regiment of rallied stragglers. Evsty clamp of thorn and tu't of tall bush grass was cover enough for a handful of exasperated Zulus. The fate of Mr Drummond, assegaied on the afternoon of the fighting at Ulundi, was precisely that which might have been predicted for a solitary horseman, or even for a small body of men. It is extraordinary that the Zulus—“plucky idiots,” as Mr Forbes calls them—did not take advantage of those features of those features of the ground to attack Sir Evelyn Wood’s column on the match. A single horseman could hardly expect the luck of the troops as a body. A torn of the rough waggon track was much more likely to lead him to a death like that of Mr Scott Douglas than in the direction of Landsman’s Drift. At snch a moment a man might have been excused for reflecting that irritated Zulus have many cruel superstitions. If captured, he would assuredly meet no clean death, but would be sacrificed to the manes of the fallen warriors with such exquisiteness of torture as the most experienced official medicine-men could suggest. These were disagreeable things to ruminate on as the dusk grew till all the ways were dark. Far in the rear the flames of Ulnndi went up into the night, and on each hand were seen the camp fires of straggling Zulus beacons that at least taught the wayfarer what to avoid. In the dark Mr Forbes lost his way among the waggon tracks and very near blundered into a dangerous bog. At last the stationary camp was reached, the good chesnut was unsaddled, and the soldiers drank to our victory, before they escorted Mr Forbes once more through the night, now illuminated by the risen moon. The first stage waa the worst stage; there was most to dread from tlm vengeance of the scattered foe ; and the light was more treacherous than it afterwards became. In one spot Mr Forbes had actually to dismount and l »if? kenda in the wet grass for the track of the wheels. So determining his route he reached Fort Marshall, where he was hospitably welcomed, and after that the exploit was chiefly one of endurance. Adding the ride to Pietermaritsburg, where be pushed to meet Sir Garnet ■ Wolseley, to that from Ulundi to Landsman s Drift, makes a total of some 280 miles, executed in 94 hoars, out of which the messenger only slept six. It is not parbcabfy astonishing that these exertions have caused the wound from the spent bullet to sloogb, and have invalided

this vigorous horseman, but we hope that he may soon be restored to health, and we are confident that when duty again calls him he will be ready and willing to do his work with that truthfulness and pispatoh which have made his name a household word throughout the four quarters of the globe.

Tha Wellington Post says:—“The accident to the Hnia in Tory Channel on Satnrday has directed attention anew to the urgent need of leading lights for that somewhat dangerous entrance. The necessary lights have been ordered from home by the Marine Department, and will be erected at the earliest date possible. The lights will be placed so as to indicate clearly and nnmisUkesbly the mid-channel passage. This will tend materially to lessen, u not entirely to remove, the perils at present attending the entrance of Tory Channel after dark, when most of the coasting steamers are timed to arrive there, and should render t as safe as most of our New Zealand harbors, and also a convenient refnge in stormy weather."