ISANDHLWANA AND RORKE'S DRIFT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2298, 2 April 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

ISANDHLWANA AND RORKE'S DRIFT.

p Eight years ago to-day, last 22nd of January, on the slope of Isandbiwana-hill, disaster overtook the British arms at the hands of Cetewayo's Ravage hordes. 'Tis but such ti short time, and incidents of those stirring days crowd thick upon one's memory, and to whom would they not come who lived'jn the colony at that period and shared the anxieties and dangers that gathered on all sides. South Africa has been the grave of many a reputation, but surely amongst them none has been lost or tarnished by a more unjust sentence than that which the. English nation or their representatives pronounced upon Sir Bartle Erere. That that great statesman and Governor, noted for his philautrophy and acumen, lightly and without thought of the consequences urged on the Zulu war cannot be. sustained iti the inind of anyone who is at all acquainted with the previous history of Cetewayo, and the standing menace that his vast army was and had been for many years to the thicklypopulated colony of Natal." What greater argument can be used than to point to the blood-stained field of Isandhlwana and to ask, " What if this savage host had broken in upon Natal?" Ah! gallant 24th and brave Volunteers, you did not dis in vain upon that fated d.iy. Yours were the breasts that shielded the wives and daughters—the homes and livn.s of your fellow-countrymen; but for the terrible lesson that you taught Cetewayo's soldiers, worse, fur worse might have happened.

Even those who escaped from the slaughter could give but little idea of the events of the dreadful catastrophe, it was over m> rapidly—the enemy in sight, the unwise advance of skirmishers, the falling back on tho camp, the closing of the Zulus, the last wild rush with its mad battle cry, "ITsntu, Usutu," and then came the end. A fe.w whites on horseback managed to reach the banks of the Buffalo, and here even some of these fell beneath the assegaies when almost within sight of safety. Here died Coghill and Melville and other brave men whose names are not handed down in the history of that day.

But Koike's Drift, how well fought! how gallantly defended ! The little garrison on the river's bank—l 3!) all told—entrenched behind their frail biscuit boxes and treacherous bags of mealies, which <mly required the edge of the keen assegai to fall all to pieces, standing, as darkness fell, surrounded by nearly 30 times their number of relentless foes. "The lons night fight, lighted by the blazing timbers'of the hospital, the uncertainty of help, the heroic hand-to-hand conflicts as the savages charged again and again, invading even some of the minor defences, the retreat of the Zulus in the morning, and the arrival of the remnant of Lord Chelmsford's troops. This and Isandhlwana saved Natal, for there can be. little doubt, though many actions were foutrht afterwards, that the great .slaughter of Zulus at Isandhlwana and Rorke's Drift was never forgotten by our enemies, for the former was a dearly-bought victory—a victory carried by overwhelming numbers, in which the victors counted their slain as two to nne.

Yes ; Isandhlwana was the. result of an error ; but one for which tho British soldiers and tho Colonial Volunteers were not answerable, and nobly they fought though outnumbered and outgeneralled ; an error of over-confidence at tho first, and of Want of concentration at tho vital moment. So eight years have rolled by, and many, many more must bs numbered with the past ere Natalia forgets the deeds of those brave men who died in her defence. SOUTHKRN' CItOSS.