BRITISH HEROISM IN NATAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8205, 8 August 1906, Page 3

BRITISH HEROISM IN NATAL.

SPLENDID COUR/iGE IN THE FIELD. Captain Clerk, of Rojston's Horse, tells a graphic story ol the fight at on June 3rd, when thirty-three Irregulars held their own against 400 rebels. "My party," he says, "came to a patch of undergrowth trodden down by hundreds of hurrying feet. A rebel suddenly stepped from behind a tiee, and fired at us, and tnen his fellows poured out. It was like overturning a beehive—they came out in swarms. Our levies bolted, •and my Hinall party of Irregulars was left alone to face the rebels' •attaak. "I emptied my revolver into the ,thiok of them, but two of them nearly had me. 1 shot one in the shoulder. The other lunged with an assegai, which 1 parried with my ■carbine, but I swung myself off my feet, slipped, and rolled down a <longa. The rebel ' CRASHED AFTER ME through the brushwood. I had no time to reload my revolver, out slipped a cartridge into my oarbine, and dropped him with a shot in the chest. I |"lhen some one 'called nut, 'Here you are, air.' The air was THICK WITH BULLETS and assegaie, but I rushed through to my men. Sergeant Frazer, a New Zealander, had his v/hite shirt oat with many bullets and assegais but did not get a scratch. Trooper Flynn, an American, had his *ACE COVERED WITH BLOOD from an assegai cut in his cheek and a bullet in the corner of his eye, v»bicb was blinded. Corporal Woolnorigh, a Croydon man, lay on the ground in agony, his ankle smashed by a slug. "Corporal Alexander was killed by an assegai, wnioh nearly transfixea him. He seemed done In a moment. When the assegai struck iim all he said, in a sort of choking groan, was, 'Ob, my God,' and then, as he fell back, 'Pall this out.' One of the ether chaps extracted the .assegai, the blade of which was nine inches broad, but Alexander died where he lay. "Trooper Hawkins, of St. Ives, •Cornwall, had two aseegais in his back, and WAS STAGGERING ABOUT ■with the things sticking out, screaming out, 'Shoot me—put me out of my misery.' "It wasn't pleasant. I had just fired the last oartridge from my oarbine, when 1 felt my right hand 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 j to give up because they could not load quiokly enough. One wounded trooper was propped up agaiust a tree, coolly using his bayonet. I reached my last six cartridges. "Both my hands were paralysed, but with rry crooked little finger 1 loaded my revolver, and somehow got five of the rebels with it. I had my sixth oartridge left, when two great lusty rebels, their eyeballs rolling and covered with sweat and b'ood', began aiming at me from the top of a bank. I 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 never have 1 listened to such downright purposeful swearing as in this short lally. Royston's and our men coming up, reached us in the nick of tme. "Lieutenant Hopkins, who was running ahead of Colonel Royston, •was shot in the head. Koyaton stopped and wrapped his handkerchief round the .vouud, and sent Hopkins behind on a stretcher. Trooper Harding, of Bognor, busses, was KILLED IN THE FIRST RUSH •witu twenty-seven assegai wouuda. "Some of the native levies tought splendidly. One old ohap, with a shocking cut on the face, insisted on flcbting on. "Captain Clerk,fainted before the fight was over, and was picked up with five wounds in his body, his right arm smashed oy a dum-dum bullet, and an assegai through the left arm. He saw much fighting with the Queenslanders in the Boer war, and has gone through bush fighting in Australia, but he says be never saw a better lot than Royston's. 1 "