CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 662, 6 December 1851, Page 3

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

[From the Southern Cross, November 21.] (Extract from a private letter to a Relation in Auckland.) In Camp, August 30, 1851. “I have been a wanderer and a vagabond ever since I landed, having been under canvas all the time, with the exception of about three weeks at different times, when I was in barracks at Fort Beaufort. Though more regiments are arriving now, it must be a good while yet before the war cau be ended. The Kafirs, when they have been cut to pieces in one place, come out ail the stronger at another at some distance. Our movements are very uncertain, we are sometimes for many days inactive, and then are sent out (when some bad news has arrived) on an hour’s notice to infested parts of the country with orders to kill—kill—-kill, and to take •io prisoners# Wljer> >vo wp commonly find that there have been some Kafirs or Hottentots lately there, but that they have twigged us in time to bolt. Sometimes we find the fires burning; at times even they have cut off in such a hurry as to leave their meat cooking on the fire. I get on very comfortably, even when out on patrole. lam allowed a public horse and panniers to carry my instruments and medicines, but as these do not take up much room, he carries in addition a few comforts in the grub line, and an extra blanket or two, and it may be, one or two bottles of brandy, of which we consume a vast quantity. The Hottentots in our camp are great psalm-singers, and in the evenings go on fiom one doleful dump to another for hours. The Fingoes, a friendly Kafir race, as black as ■, of whom there are also a good many with us, occasionally indulge in a war dance and a war song, very much in the style of the North American Indians. In this they get tremendously excited, and yell and brandish their assagais furiously. The Fingo children are strange little creatures, jet black, naked, potbellied, and woolly-headed. “ This is a very good country, if there were only peace. The climate is very fine, there is seldom a cloud to be seen, and the air is pure and dry. The only bad days we have are when the wind is from the North. It is then very close and sultry, with a dense rain of dust.... Even now, when the winter is scarcely over, the bushes swarm with all sorts of beautiful birds. The flowers, too, are beginning to come out. It would be a paradise if there were more water, but the rivers, which are at best but muddy ditches, are few and far between.

"Though our life in camp is wearisome from having nothing to do, we manage to make ourselves at home by building with bushes kraals round our fires, inside which we sit sheltered from the wind. I have a share of a tent with my surgeon, but prefer sleeping in my patrol tent, which is a little thing that

just covers me, with a small door just large enough to creep in at. “Everything is very dear here, butter 3s. a pound, potatoes 2d, to 4d. a pound; no other vegetables to be got. Eggs, when they can be procured, are 2s. per dozen There was a strong report in England that the Vulcan, in which we came out, had been lost with all on board.”

(From the Sydney Morning Herald, No l ,. 1.) H>M. steamer Hermes, returned to East London from Mauritius, with her usual expedition on the 3rd inst., having on board about 550 men of the 12th regiment. Having communicated with the shore by signal, she proceeded on to Algoa Bay, and landed there the troops, who were at once marched off to Graham’s Town.

We learn by the frontier post, that some smart skirmishes had occured in Kafirland

Major Kyle, 45th Regiment, commanding at Fort Cox, made a sortie from that place on the 13th, with 152 men of his own regiment, and 12 C.M. Riflemen, He quickly met the enemy, who still occupy the Amatolas in great force, and was engaged for several hours; eventually, however, driving therewith loss from the positions they had taken up to annoy his small force. His own casualties consisted of one killed and three wounded. Capt. Vialls, with an escort party of 70 men of the same regiment, had been engaged with a body of the enemy, estimated at 200 strong, well supplied with ammunition at the Debs Neck and flats. He returned to Fort W Lite without loss, and reported that many of the enemy were seen to fall during the engagement. From Fort Alice increased boldness is reported on the part of the enemy. A Mr. Hinton had been assassinated there by rebel Hottentots. From the actual seat of war—the frontier districts of Albany, Fort Beaufort, Somerset, and Uitenhage, little or no encouraging intelligence has been received. The house and farm buildings at Maastrom, the property of Sir Andries Stockenstrom, had been burnt by Kafirs. Colonel Eyre was endeavouring io organise the Lower Albany district, for the expulsion of its ruthless invaders. Messrs. Pullen, Moxon, and others, were, al*I» ’ * <.uvUgu ueauiug very luauequate forces, actively engaged with the enemy’s ‘ wolves,’ in the fastnesses of the Zuurbergh, Sunday’s River, &c. No change had taken place in the political aspect of the northern sovereignty.