Incidents of Camp Life.

Manawatu Herald, 3 May 1900, Page 2

Incidents of Camp Life.

Trooper E; West, No. s-.New^gfea-land Continget, writing to Mr ' Frank Moeller, Masonic Hotel, Napier^n the course of a letter received by "Tues■lay's mail, says, under date, March 3th:-

I am writing this in a Kaffir's hut, md about a dozen little kids are sitting around me, jabbering away like fury in their own language* .We are now on the march to Carnarvon, wattes>v >c rebels are doing a lot of harm* About 120 of us are at Kaffir's Kraal, the rest of the New Zealand Contingent going by a different route. The Royal Horse Artillery follow, us. At Carnarvon the rebels are supposed to be 2000 strong with four big gUQ£. / The loyalists in Victoria West village were very good to us. Before leaving that place we were drawn up fn ilne :■' to give the war cry to the residents, who looked more frightened than pleased, but cheered us until we got out of sight. We could pick the Boors out all right as we rode along the street by the black looks and ugly*' faces, they pulled at us. Mostly all the people are Dutch. At 630 p.m. on the sth -we were. 27 mile§ JnlaodL The march was very hofcfWw^BOTr" with not a blade oP* grass to be We camped for the night at a Boer farmer's place, and he did not like the idea of it, so a strong guard was put on. He wanted to charge us 6d per quart for water, but Major Cradock would not stand that, and we simply took the loan of what we wanted. We started off again at 6 a.m. next day, the heat being terrible. The horses are looking grand, considering the hard time they have had this last - week.

On arriving at Carnarvon we were well looked after by the ladies of the town, and the use of chinaware was quite a luxury. About 300. Kaffirs were in waiting to lead the horses to water. The Kaffir boys ; are yexy^.anxipusjto work, and "will do atiythifcg^r^fffi -: . we give them the mess fins to clean^ out, for they ajre often out all 4aM^K^ without anything to eat. TJtejs^qSl thing to do during the day mrtwolr after our -horses. We are generally finished at 9.30 a.m., with the aid of our Kaffir orderlies, and* after that we go into town, which is about 200 yards from camp. It is a very small place, every house being built of brick, but most of them could only be called whares. The people are very kind here, and they were praying for us to come, as the rebels are within 80 miles of the*town. On Sunday church pa« rade was held, when all in the little town turned out. I went to the Kaffir church at night, the singing was splendid, although we could not, of course*

Understand what they were saying, but it was beautiful all the same.

The Boers are advancing towards us now. We have been making trenches around the town all day, and expect to get into action to-morrow morning. The wires have been cut by them between here and Kenhardt, and the people are getting very frightened. The remainder of the second contingent join us to-morrovf, together with the Canadian Artillery and other mounted corps, about goo all told. The Boers are supposed to be between 2000 and 3000 strong, but most of them will be cut off before they reach us, as the Royal Horse Artillery are round the neighborhood somewhere.