BRITISH HEROISM IN NATAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8203, 6 August 1906, Page 7

BRITISH HEROISM IN NATAL.

SPLENDID COURAGE IN THE FIELD. Captain Clerk, of Royston's Horse, tellß a graphic story of the fight at Nkandhla on June 3rd, when thirtythree Irregulars held their own ' against 400 rebels. "My party," he says, "came to a patoh of undergrowth trodden down by hundreds of hurrying feet. A rebel suddenly stepped from behind •a tree and fired at us, and then hi& poured out. It was like overturning a beehive—they came out in swarms. Our levies bolted, and my small party of Irregulars was left alone to face the rebels' attaok. "I emptied my revolver into the thickest of them, but two of them nearly had me. 1 shot one in the Bhonlder. Ihe other lunged with an assegai, which I parried with my carbine, bnt I swung myself off my feet, slipped, and rolled into a donga. The rebel CRASHED AFTER ME. through the brushwood. I had nV time to reload my revolver, but slipped a cartridge into my carbine, and dropped him with a shot in % the chest. Then someone called out •Here you are, sir." The air was e THICK WITH BULLETS Jknd assegais, but I pushed through To my men. Sergeant Frazer, a New Zealander, had his white shirt cut with many bullets and assegaiß, but did not get a scratch. Trooper Flynn, an American, had his FACE COVERED WITH BLOOD from an assegai cut in bis cheek and a bullet in the corner of his eye, which was blinded. \ Corporal Woolnougb, a Oroydea man, lay on the ground in agony, his ankle smashed by » Blug. ..,.,. ••Corporal Alexander was killed by an assegai, which nearly transfixed him. He seemed done in a moment. When the assegai struck him all he said, in a sort of choking groan was, 'Ob, my God,'and then, as he fell back 'Pull this out.' One of the chaps extracted the assegai, the blade of which was nine inches i broad, but Alexander died where he * lay. "Trooper Hawsins, of St. Ives, Cornwall, had two assegais in the fcaoK, and WAS STAGGERING ABOUT with the things sticking oat, streaming "Shoot me—put me out of my rfliaery." "It was not pleasant. I bad just tired the last cartridge from my carbine when I felt my right baud and fingers go numb. I was hit by a dum-dum in the arm. • "All the fighting lines then sat " down and tried resting the carbines between their knees, but they had to give up because they could not load quickly enough. One wounded « trooper, propped up 'against a tree, ! and' coolly using his bayonet, reaohed my last six cartridges. "Both my hands wer« paralvsed, but with my crooked little finger I loaded my revolver, and somehow got five of the rebels with it. 1 had my sixth cartridge left when two s great lusty rebels, their eyeballs rolling and covered with sweat and blood, began aiming at me from the top of a bank. 1 dropped one AT THE FIRST SHOT and someone else got the other. "I have heard men use the rough sides of their tongues in fight before, but seldom have I listened to such downright purposeful swearing as in this sbcrt rally. Royston's and our men coming up, reached us in the nick of time. --* "Lieut. Hopkins, who was runJ ning ahead of Colonel Royston, j?as shot in the head. Royston stopped and wrapped his hankderchief round the wound, [and sent Hopkins behind on a stretcher. Trooper Harding, of Bognor, Sussex, was KILLED IN THE FIRST RUSH with twenty-seven assegai wounds. "Some 9f the native levies fought splendidly. One old chap, with a shocking cut on the face, insisted on fighting on. "Captain Clerk tainted before the fight was over, and was picked up with five wounds in his body his right arm smashed with a dum-dum bullet, and an assegai through the left arm. He saw na£cb fighting with erl in the Boer wnr, and has gone through bush fighting m Australia, but be says he 'never saw a better lot than Royston's.' "