THE NATAL SOCIETY OFFICE BEARERS, 1980 - 1981 President Vice-Presidents Cr Miss P.A. Reid M . .I.C. Daly A. C. Mitchell Dr .I. C1ark S.N. Roberts Trustees A.C Mitchell Dr R.E. Stevenson M.J.C Daly Treasurers Auditors Messrs Dix, Boyes & Co. Messrs Thornton-Dibb, van der Leeuw & Partners Chief Librarian Mrs S.S. WaIIis Secretary P.CG. McKenzie COUNCIL Elected Members Cr Miss P.A. Reid (Chairman) S. N. Roberts (Vice-Chairman) Or F.C Friedlander R.Owen W.G. Anderson F . .I.H. Martin, MEC A.D.S. Rose R.S. Steyn M . .I.C Oaly Pro!". A.M. Barrett City Council Representatives Cr H.D. Browne Cr H. Lundie CrC.W. Wood er W . .I.A. Gilson EDITORIAL COMMITTEE OF NAT ALIA Editor T.B. Frost W.H. Riz\cy .I.M. Deane Or W.R. Guest Miss M.P. Moberly Mrs S.P.M. Spencer Miss .I. FLtrrer (Hon. Sec.) Natalia 11 (1981) Copyright Natal Society Foundation 2010Cover Picture The Column' from Tseketsekc Valley. Photograph hy Malcolm Pearse SA ISSN 0085 3674 Printed by Kendall & Strachan (Pty) Ltd., Pietermaritzburg Contents Page EDITORIAL ) UNPUBLlSI lED 1\lANUSCRIPT Lofthouse Letters from Natal 7 ARTICLE Soldiers' Letter from the First Anglo-Boer War, 188() - 81 Frank Emery 16 NOTE The Meaning of Majuba for Natal W.R. Guest ................................................................ . 27 ARTICLE Images of the Natal Drankensberg John Pickles ........... . ........................................... . 29 ARTICLE The Anglican Diocese of Natal: A Saga of Division and Healing. fan D. Darby ............ ......................... ................... 43 ARTICLE FitzPatrick, Natal and the Unification of South Africa. W. R. Guest .......................................................... 67 OBITUARIES Mrs E.E.M. Russell 57 Prof G.M.J. Sweeney )9 NOTES AND QUERIES M. P. Moberly .............................. ............................ . 61 BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTICES 77 REGISTER OF RESEARCH ON NATAL J. Farrer ............................................................... 87 SELECT LIST OF NATAL PUBLICATIONS J. Farrer 89 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS T.B. Frost ............. . 90 INDEX: NATALlA Nos. I - X DJ. Buckley and M.P. Moberly 91 --- 47OUR NEXT ISSUE We hope to publish among other things in Natalia 12 (1982) articles to commemorate the Centenaries of Norwegian Settlement in Natal and the establishment of Dundee, as well as a study of the Umsindusi River and an enquiry into the origins of the name 'Botha's Hill'. 5 Editorial Natalia enters its second decade with this eleventh issue under a new Editor, whose first duty it must be to pay tribute to his predecessor. John Sellers guided Natalia',\' fortunes through the vicissitudes of producing Numbers g (now already out of print and a collectors' piece), 9 and 10, Those who know him and have worked with him might well agree that the word "meticulous" is one that can be most readily associated with him. A gifted and witty chairman of the editorial committee, no detail was too small to escape his concern. The Natal Society, and indeed all who value the preservation and development of Natal's heritage, are much in his debt. The eleventh issue also provides a suitable opportunity for the publication of an Index to the previous ten. For the very considerable amount of work in its compilation we have to thank Mr David Buckley of the staff of the Natal Society Library, For preparing it for the press, our thanks go to Miss Margery Moberly, a long-standing member of the editorial committee, Even a casual perusal of the Index will indicate how wide and interesting a range of material has been covered by Natalia in the past decade. But, as Mr Buckley observes, the Index serves also to highlight what has not been published, and therefore point to gaps in the study of Natal's history. One major omission is the Indian community. Little has been written on the lives, struggles and achievements of Indian settlers. The contribution to Natal of churches and clergy other than Anglican has also been overlooked, yet the Duteh Reformed Church is the oldest Christian denomination in Natal, and the Methodists the second olclest. The Metropolitan Methodist church hall - the original church - is the oldest church building in Natal still in use for worship. Methodist ministers played an important part in the history of Natal which deserves study. Similarly, the history of other religions in Natal - Jewish, Hindu and Moslem - has also been neglected. These are omissions which Natalia will endeavour to rectify in its second decade, Having said this, Natalia cannot hut note the elevation of two Natal men to high office in the Anglican church during the past year. Philip Russell, Bishop of Natal, is the first Natalian to become Archbishop of Cape Town, having been unanimously chosen as the tenth Archbishop by his fellow Bishops after the Elective Assembly had failed to obtain the two thirds majority in both houses necessary for an election to be made. Archbishop Russell is an Old Boy of Durban High School and most of his ministry has been in Natal: a first curacy at St. Peter's, Pietermaritzburg, rectorships in Greytown, Ladysmith and Kloof, and since 1974, occupancy of the See of Natal. Meanwhile, in Natal, D.H.S. has been succeeded by Maritzburg College, so to speak. Archbishop Russell's elected successor as Bishop of Natal is Rt. Rev. Michael Nuttal1, a College Old Boy who took his initial degree at the University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg). Bishop Nuttall returns to Natal from the Diocese of Pretoria and is to be enthroned in January 1982. 6 Sadly, but inevitably, every year Natalia must record the passing of eminent Natalians. Two who, having fought the good fight and now finished the course, are Mrs E.E.M. Russell, long a commanding figure in Maritzburg society and the city's first woman Mayor, and Professor Maurice Sweeney who was to the Durban branch of the University of Natal much what the late Professor Petrie was to Maritzburg. We publish tributes to them elsewhere in this issue. Tt is also with deep regret that only a year after the death of Professor Petrie we must record the untimely passing, while still in his early forties, of one of his successors, Professor Magnus Henderson, sixth Professor of Classics in the University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg) and, like Professor Petrie, a brilliant classicist, a gifted teacher, and a witty, canny Scot. He was always happy to share his knowledge in the schools and Training College, and Professor Henderson's death is a sad loss not only to the University, but to the wider field of education in this Province. Scarcely had news of the death of Magnus Henderson been received when another young Natal academic with outstanding talents, Professor Barend van Niekerk, whose article on the Queen's Tavern in Durban appeared in our last issue, died in South America. His passing is a loss not only to the Durban section of the University, but also to the cause of conservation in general and the campaign to save the old Durban Station in particular, one of the many crusades he fought with originality, energy and panache. February 1981 saw the Centenary of the first Anglo-Boer War, an event marked by ceremonies at Majuba which were indeed commemorativc but at times nationalist and quasi-political in tone. We are grateful to Frank Emery, whose studies of soldiers' letters have cast a fresh and human light on Victorian colonial warfare, for a specially researched article on this particular campaign. Our annual feature, a previously unpublished piece, this year two letters written by Martha Lofthouse, came into our possession by a curious concatenation of events noted by Mrs Shelagh Spencer in her introduction to them, and provide some interesting new insights into the 1850 settlement in Natal. Natalia I carried an article on a proposed new Cathedral in Pietermaritzburg and subsequent issues have carried progress reports on the project. Now that the new Cathedral has been built it is fitting that we should be able to close this chapter with an article by Rev. Ian Darby tracing the saga of division and healing, of which latter the new Cathedral is the physical embodiment. Or John Pickles's article offers a new look at the most valued of Natal's assets, the Berg, while Or Bill Guest, a member of the hard-working editorial committee, 'has far exceeded the bounds of duty by himself providing a scholarly article on the role of Sir Percy FitzPatrick in Natal at the time of Union. To all these people, as well as to the many who have contributed book reviews and to Notes and Queries, our grateful thanks, May you, the reader, enjoy the fruits of their labours. May the knowledge that they have done their bit towards enriching and conserving Natal's heritage be their reward. T.B. FROST 7 Lofthouse Letters EDITORIAL NOTE These letters 01 ,"lartha (Patty) Lolthouse form part of a small collection of Lolthouse letters in the possession of a descendant in England, Mr Neil Lofthouse. In addition to these there is Martha's diary written aboard the Haidee in 1850, two letters written by William Boast (5 Oct. 1850 and 5 Jan. 1851) and a letter to Natal from a relation, Emma Lofthouse in Yorkshire (7 Sep. 1 ~ 5 0 ) The Lofthouse family was well represented on the Haidee. Besides Martha, there was her husband Benjamin, his brother John and sister Hannah with her husband William Boast. Benjamin died in Natal on 28 Jan. 1852 (according to the Lofthouse family Bible he was drowned) and Martha and their two sons left Natal for Port Elizabeth in December of that year. At the end of her Haidee diary the following sentences have been added 'Left Port Elizabeth on 19 Dec. 1853 by the Alexandrina Captain Norris. Saw the Lizzard light on my road home on 16th of Feby. 1854'. Familv tradition has it that Martha remarried and left her two children with the Lofthouse family. Mr Neil Lofthouse is the grandson of the younger one Benjamin. The emigration scheme under which the Lofthouses and the Boasts came to Natal was a cooperative one initiated by William's cousin Henry Boast (1816 - 1850). Henry was a prominent Wcslcyan preacher and the scheme was primarily directed at Wesleyans. Recruiting was undertaken mainly in the North and Fast Ridings of Yorbhire. Two members of the organizing committee, William Lund and lames Tutin, went to Natal ahead of the party to choose and purchase land, while Henry Boast chartered the Pallas from the shipowner Joseph Rylands. On inspection the agent of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners declared the Pallas unseaworthy. By this time 230 prospective emigrants had converged on Hull to meet the sailing date of 3 Apr. 1850. Rylands was at first unwilling to produce another vessel but finally the Haidee, due to sail for Bombay, was substituted. There were more delays and the Haidee. instead of sailing on 20th April, left only on 10th July. Besides the problems occasioned by the securing of a vessel, Boast also had the responsibility of caring for some of the emigrants who were quite without the means of supporting themselves during the long delay in Hull. When an action for redress was brought before the magistrates it was found that legally Boast not Rylands was liable for the subsistence expenses of all the emigrants. Boast's anxieties led to his mental break-down, and then his death six weeks before the Haidee finally sailed, Mrs Boast took over her husband'> responsibilities and kept the party together until the Ilaidee was able to sail. There were even more Boasts on board than Lofthouses. Besides Mrs Henry Boast and her three children. there was Henry's sister Marianne and her husband George Potter, his three cousins Henry, I)avid and Dr Charles Bird Boast. and of course William and his wife Hanllah. In addition to the Lofthouse/Boast papers' importance in giving an insight into the everyday doings and difficulties of the ordinary Natal immigrant, they have a further significance in that they suggest that all was not straightforward with the Yorkshire immigration scheme. Up to nOI\ the general impression has been that it was a well-intentioned scheme devised for the good of its participants - and possibly it would have remained that way had Boast lived. Another revelation is the attitude of Mrs Boast's father loseph Smith - until now he has been considered her mainstay in her troubles. Onc of William Boast's letters presents a different picture - - Smith harrassing his daughter and threatening to sell her up if what he had put into the scheme was not paid back. William Boast sums it up thus: 'in fact she has a time almost like a dog with him'. Another concept which is upset by these letters - or at least left open to query is the amount of involvement of Benjamin Lofthouse with the scheme. Professor Hattersley in his British settlement of Natal names him with Lund and Tutin as Henry Boast's principal associates and states he and others went touring the country interviewing would-be immigrants. There is nothing in Martha or William Boast's letters to suggest he had anything to do with the committee. However one could argue the Martha's dislike of 'the committee. the honourable committee' might be explained by disagreement between them and her husband. According to the son of one of its members, William Smith, the committee consisted of his father Robert 8 Lofthouse Letters 9 Lotfhouse Letters Smith, Henry Boast as Chairman, Lund, Tutin, Richard Brough, Samuel Cordukes/Cordeaux and Joseph Smith - i.e. no mention of Lofthouse. Copies of these letters and the diary were sent by Mr Lofthousc to Mr and Mrs W. Thomson of Charleen, Roberts Road, Pietermaritzburg. He has since kindly given permission for their publication. The Thomsons met Mr Lofthouse while staying with their daughter in Fngland. When he heard they came from Pietermaritzburg he showed them the letters and the diary and asked them to try to trace information in Natal on his great-grandfather, or on the Lofthouse family generally. Should any Lofthouse descendants know anything about the family, Mr Lofthouse would be interested. It is known that Benjamin's brother John eventually settled in Pietermaritzburg and had at least eight children. One daughter married Gilbert Stace Phipson (1862 - IlJ31), son of Thomas Phipson. William and Hannah Boast remained in Durban. Besides the baby that died on the Haidee they had at least six other children. Their eldest daughter married in Durban William Henrv Whyte (died 1916). Mr l.ofthousc's address is: c/o National Westminster Bank, 37 High Street, Wootton Bassett, Swindon, Wilts. Martha Lofthouse's original spelling and grammar have been retained in the letters which follow. SHELAGH SPENCER LETTER I Anchored in Port Natal Bay Haidee Monday 7th Oetober My dear Uncle We arc here at last after many ups & downs, We have lost poor Enoch Welburn1 of a fever, the only case on board, had one case of small pox but the man recovered. Mrs Briton died but she was more like it when she came on board than living for she was one of those that thought that Port Natal would bring dead people to life again or at kast her husband' was, and 3 or 4 infants, Mrs Walker3 was confined and child dead, Mrs Potter' ditto and Mrs W. Boast ditto all sons & a little boy two and a half years old. 1 have been very poorly a great part of the voyage very mueh troubled with sea sickness but rather better since we got near the Cape. Sunday 10th November My dear Uncle I have now found time and opportunity to write again. We landed on wednesday the 9th October and were about a fortnight before we got all belonging the tent. We were staying with Mr & Mrs Laburn' in one they had borrowed for they could not get theirs from the ship. We got our tent up on the 25th and then John and Benjamin started the next morning for Pietermaritzburgh to buy some Oxen to take the luggage up the country it being the cheapest plan as they want Oxen, and they charge so much for waggons do the Dutch. Then they could not go before for they had to stay to look after the goods for the ship's company were so long of unloading the ship & so careless that half the things belonging to a many people were wasted a part of our largest plough was lost overboard into the sea so one plough is of no use for a new part will cost as much as a hew one altogether. Durban from the Berca ridge, 1 X51. Ph(ltograph ul il watercolour in the W , papers, NCll;t! Liorarv 10 Lofthouse Letters It would have been much better if they had brought nothing or at least next to nothing with them for all that is wanted in the farming line at Natal can be had hear quite as cheap as in England close and everything that is required. The less people bring the less they have to waste and to trouble about. They have bought 18 Oxen, 6 that have been drawn, 6 ready for use & 6 young ones. The land is not half ready and I do not know when it will. They are obliged to get the village land allotted for there are so many poor people that they do not know what to do with but get them settled down somewhere but the larger allotments will be long enough before they get settled al out and when they are, the committee, I have no doubt, will have the best share for there is a great deal of rogishness about it. The committee want to make us pay 35 or 40 per cent for the expenses of the concern all together that will amount to between 30 and 40 & 10 or more for extra luggage something more for landing and something after that for land surveying and what more I cannot tell you, but there is no end to the ways they have to get peoples money from them as yet all as been going out, when the coming in is to begin I do not know, but a load is to start for the Haidee Village tomorrow if all is well. It is a week's work to go there and back and we have 4 or 5 load so that it will be some time before we get settled down with all our things around us & then when the land gets allotted we shall have to move again, onto that, so it will be nothing but moving for some time yet. It certainly is a very fine country, and after a time there may be a living made in the farming line but there is no market for wheat or any kind of corn at present feeding Oxen seems all that can be done but Mealeys & Oats grown and cut green and made into hay, and a few vegetables are all that are grown but it is to be hoped we shall soon be able to grow our own corn but their is only one mill in the Colony. Mr Allison" had sent some wheat to grind and it was 4 months before he got it back so if it is 6 months of growing and 4 of getting ground it will be some time before we have any of our own flour. I do not much like D'urban for I have never been well since I landed and the people say that it is from the badness of the water but I do not think it at all healthy. It is very low and marshy in many places and abounds with all kinds of water vermin, and the dry land and trees abound with toads and Frogs the most beautiful little frogs that you can imagine all colours of the rainbow but the toads are very large and there are all kinds of insects both flying and creaping but of all the most disagreable are an insect called ticks they are not quite like the ticks in England they are between a bug and a sheeps louse but they fasten into ones skin and they are past pulling out and the larger ones will make very bad places and lame a great many. I have had a many on me but always got them off well. They make large black places on me like bruises but if their heads are left in when they are pulled of they make what is called a Natal sore and very bad it is I understand but as I was saying I had not been well I have had the diareiha ever since I landed and a sore mouth and nothing does me any good and the Sunday after we got the tent up John and Ben had gone up the country and our man7 was gone out for a walk and a port Natal wind arose in a moment and was carrying our tent away. There was but two stakes that was not secure & the wind just came out of that quarter and Mrs Welburn and me had to hold with all our might, Mr Dunning8 had come to help us and just when they had begun, their tent was off completely so of they ran. 11 Lofthouse Letters After sometime Mr Bentley 9 came to our assistance but I had then held to long the poor tent accomplished what sea sickness nor anything could do before. I was never well after but did not get confined till Thursday the 31st of October a seven months child. The Dr thought it would not live but he had it in a warm bath and the poor little thing is alive yet a face about the size of a tea cup & would go into a quart pot and sleeps day and night but when it is dressed and fed so it is not a deal of trouble. Mrs Welbourn says she is sure there is an appointed time for all to die or me and the Baby would both have gone this week, but I have 60t wonderfully better and can sit up and get about already but am very weak, for I had not gained much strength before in the room of that I lost by sea sickness. January 7th My dear Uncle I hope now to finish and get it sent. I hope you have spent a merry Christmas and trust this a new year will be all you can wish. I should have written sooner but we are yet just in the same unsettled state that we were at Hull. The town land is ready but we do not know that anything else is. One load of our luggage is gone to the new town of York but I say Yorkshire Humbug. We are still in the tent at Durban and they make a little with their cart and Oxen. They have brought a brick yard here but it will be a little time before they make much of it but in time I think it will pay very well so Ben and I will go to the land and John will stay here. Mr and Mrs Laburn have gone to some land about 4 miles of us so Mrs L came and spent 3 days with me at Christmas we had Firmity & Roast Beef & Plumb Pudding good old Yorkshire fare. The Beef is much better than I expected to find it. We had Mr NickelsonlO spending the day with us yesterday, he speaks very highly of the place altogether he says the land is much better than he expected to find it. I do not know for I have been no further than D'Urban yet and there is little else but sand and Rushes & Bush that I have seen and my idea of the place altoge[her if people would do and live in England as they have to do when they get here they would make nearly as good a living and not work much harder. The climate certainly is beautiful and agrees with me very well for I am getting fat. I shall soon be like the Dutch ladies if I go on at the rate I am doing and things will live for my little boy grows the most suprisingly. He has deceived all that have seen him but none more than me. He is quite a fine little fellow I should be sorry to lose him for he is nice company for me or at least something to spend my time with. Mr Lund" another of our managing men has falen from his horse and broken his leg in two places a fortnight since but is doing well. It has rather delayed the land business. I wish it was settled and we were up at the land for there are so many nasty vermin here and there is none up the country we shall try to get soon now there are some been there some time but did not know their own land so of course could not build any houses and could do little or nothing but shoot Bucks and they are scarce and very shy fed(?). Powder and shot expensive. I hope I shall be able to tell you what I think of York when I write again. I do not think much of this place, fruit is very scarce. I have not time to write London. Perhaps you will let them know how I am and give my best love to all Friends. Hoping you are all well, write soon & direct for me at the Post office Pietermaritzburgh for we shall be gone up the country before it can reach us. We shall be sure to get it if it 12 Lotthouse Letters only gets to Port Natal. Give my best love to my dear Grand-mother and all Friends. I remain My dear Uncle your affectionate Niece Patty. I am going to write to Burn Butts (7). I have not heard or seen anything of young Otterburnl2 yet and tell Mr & Mrs Grainger all the particulars of this, for I have not time to write to them now. I did not know untill tonight that Mr Tutin13 was going to leave for England and he wants all letters hy seven in the morning hut I will write to Mrs Grainger soon. Give our best love. January 7th 1851 LETTER 11 Durban August 19th 1851 My dear Aunt I begin to think wc arc forgotten by all our English Friends. I have never heard from onc hut Emma Lofthouse since we left our native land. I can now tell you something of the land we live in, I can safely say that it will grow anything that will grow in England and a great many things that England cannot produce, there was some potatoes shown at the shaw' on the first of this month, the third crop of the same piece of land since October 5th 1850 very nice ones indeed. They were not quite so large as those that got the prize but as large as the general English potatoes, they were sweet potatoes as large as anyone had and something they call Yams, they are a sort of potatoe. They eat them to meat and some very large turnips and Carrots and everthing that grows in England in the vegetable line as well as African productions. All the things that were shown were grown near O'Urban, but the land up the country will grow anything to much greater perfection than near the sea. I do not think wheat will grow near here nor think that it has heen tried but I have seen some samples that has grown near to York but I think the York Hills' have not tried it there yet but I expect it will not he long before they do. We are not gone to the great town of York yet and I do not know when we shall. The committee The honourable committee have given us 100 acres of land for our 100, that is they have charged us 1 an acre for land that they bought for 2s an acre after we landed. They have robbed everyone out of all that they possibly could and now to crown all old Smith3 of Market Weighton has robed them out of there draw backs and it nips them very hard, but then robing other people is quite another thing, in there consideration my advice is come to natal or go to any other colony in the world but have nothing to do with the methodists, they are the worst set you can deal with. There is not one in 100 that does not put there religion on for a cloak to lead honest people by the nose and get all they can out of them. I am rather affraid Old Smith has done what will transport him and it will he a sad affair at his time of life. I must not forget to tell you that they have turned Richard brough' out of the committee. The reason I do not know unless it is because he is not a religious young man but I should think you have heard all about it from his friends before now. I can now say wc are very comfortable and been some time in a nice little house. Ben built it himself. We have a nice sitting room 13 Lofthouse Letters The Customs House of Port Natal, 1851. Photogra ph of a watercolour in the W.J . Irons papers, Natal Societ y LihrilfY and two bedrooms so you see we have not forgot to provide for a friend and been at a brick yard I need scarcely tell you that we have a nice brick fireplace and our oven set. It was a very lucky chance that I married a man that had ingenuity to build a house for if he could not I do not know what we should have done before now. He thought it would take up too much time to make doors and windows he could be making more money other ways and perhaps get them maid better. They have been to come 3 months since and were ordered some time before that so we offer up calico as a substitute and we are quite near to the bush that was no longer than last year that an Elephant was seen at the brick yards for warter but we have seen nothing of any wild animals. We had the impression of a Tigers foot left in some bricks some time since and we see monkeys sometimes but not often and they are quite harmless. Game is rather scarce, Bucks, guinea fowls and wild Turkeys and partridges are what is most general. Some time since there were some nice birds they call Odedoes5 here. Ben shot in many of them. They were very much like goos - but not so large - when they were stuffed with sage and onions and they made very good pies but the season was soon over for them. We have not seen any lately. The birds here are some of the most beautiful you can imagine - all colours and some very curious looking but few or none that I hear are in any way musical. Warter Wagtails are very tame and come to the door to pick crumbs. Robins I have never seen but plenty of swallows. John and Ben have got divided all but the Brick yard and I do not know when they will get that done for John will neither sell his half nor buy Ben's so there as no dealing with such a customer as that. I am sorry to say we have been very unlucky with our Oxen - we have lost somewhere betwixt 30 & 40. There is only one sort that will live at the Bay and they are generally to small for work, good ones of that sort are very bad to meet with. Sheep will not live near D'urban long 14 Lofthouse Letters but they live very well up the country and if they were kept as they are in England I have not much doubt but they would be as plentiful and as good. They have in general one lamb at a time and two in a year but if they had plenty of good Rape which I think would grow well hear they might he made to produce 4 or more in the same time. Mutton is 6d lb. Some of our friends in England think a leg of mutton a rare thing on our table. We are not particular to a leg I can assure you. We generally cook the yonkey as the caffers call the whole at least when we can get a nice lamb which T think rather better than mutton. Pork is 6d lb, Beef 2d 2112 for the best pieces and not half so tough as was given account of, fowls Ducks & Geese very scarce, eggs PI2 each at Is4d to Is6d a lb, fruit is very scarce, and any thing will grow but there are very few things planted and not many to be had in the colony. I should like if anyone was coming to Natal that you knew of at the time of year if you could without much trouble or expense send me two or 3 red apples from the moor for I should like some apple trees. I think they would grow well here, pineapples grow well hear. I must not forget to say we have some very large botanical gardens begun here, they are about 10 minutes walk from our house. It was their that the ploughing match and Horticultural show was held on the 1st of this month. You would have been quite surprized to see, as my Uncle used to say, the living Tulips and roses that were their. I can assure you I have seen no better attendance at some places in England, we shall have young England hear after a little more time gets over. Clothing generally is nearly has cheap has it is in England, Tea, Coffee Sugar and those sort of things are much the same has you have them. Ale and porter are rather dearer but spirits are much cheaper than you have them. Wood is cheap enough but Iron work is very dear. If you know any one that is likely to come out hear you may tell them they may bring good waggon or cart wheels and axeltrees. Bodys are made hear to suit the place hetter than in England at least. Waggons, Ploughs & arrows are at a discount, nails & those sort of things are very useful and wanted. After that money is the most useful article they can bring. We sell Bricks burnt 32s delivered for 1 000. There are a good many brick houses at D'urban now. As many letters that go from hear are sent back again in the paper I beg that you will not publish this or let it go out of your possession for anyone else to do so for we do not wish to be the means of bringing anyone from their native land here, for people coming with out money has no chance to do anything and people with money must lay it out in a careful way and work hard into the bargen and they will find it the same go where they will. Please to read the inclosed and sent it to my Father, I do not know where to direct to him. Ben joins me in kind love to you my dear Aunt and all my cousins as well as all friends. Tell Mrs Holtby I got my set of tea things she so kindly gave me landed without one been broke and they are quite a new pattern here. Give my best love to all my Aunts & Uncles also my dear Grandmother and tell her if she was at Port Natal without the trouble of the voyage she would like it very much. It is a most beautiful climate. I remain my dear Aunt your Affectionate niece Patty Lofthouse. Lofthouse Letters 15 Durhan 26th August Mr H. Dunning came to see us from Pictermaritzburgh yesterday and has returned today so wc see some of our old friends and ship mates when they come to D'urban on business but visiting days at Natal are rather in their youth yet. Mr F. Dunning has gone this week to Australia with Mr Green6 , a Surveyor. I must not forget to tell you that I like Port Natal very well better than I expected I should, but there is not the money to be made that was represented though anyone that will work may get a good living, but that can be done in England. I call assure you a Colonial life is not without its Ruffs but the ship fits you for anything. If we came by train we should take badly to it. Mr Dunning desires to be remembered to all friends. Adieu. NOTES Letter I I Enoch Welburn came from Beverley, Yorks. and was servant to the /.ofthouses. Possibly. as was sometimes the case, the Lofthouses paid his and his wife Mary's and son Rohert's fares in return for a certain period of service in Natal. 2 James Brittain (died 1863). a joiner from Bridlington. Yorks. He was afterwards Poundmaster. Ward 1, Durhan County. . Fsther. wife of John Walker. The Walkers came from Wetwang near Driffield, Yorks. They went to Australia in 1852. Marianne (born Boast). Charles and Eliza Labron from York where Charles had hecn a tobacco manufacturer. Allison - there are no Allisons on the Haidee passenger list hut there were two Allerstons, Alfred and William Francis, young men from Bridlington. 7 'our man' - possibly Robert Welhurn. H The Dunnings - Henry and Franeis from Great Driffield, Yorks. Henry later in 1850 estahlished a general dealer's business, Yorkshire House. in Pietcrmaritzburg. Francis went to Australia. " Mr Bentley - George Bentley from Hull. formerly of Helmslcy. Yorks. The Bentleys were onc of the Haide(' families that went fanning at York. III Nicholson - presumably either William or John Dugglehy Nicholson who settled near Richmond. They and their families had arrived in July 1850 on the Sandwich. Both had been born at Watton. East Riding. 11 William Lund. 12 Presumably Richard Ottcrbourne (born c. 1822) who emigrated to Natal on the Lady Bruce, arriving in May 1850. 1.1 .lames Tutin. Letter II the Natal Agricultural and Horticultural Society'S show. York Hills - possibly a reference to lIaidee passengers John Barnby Hill and his father-inlaw Charles Claybourn who appear initially to have farmed at York. In later years they purchased erf 33 Boom Street on which stands Pictermarit7hurg's oldest house. The adjoining Claybourn Street is a reminder of this. J. B. Hill and family were the onlv Hills to eome on the Haidee. Joscph Smith. Richard Brough. 5 ? Hadadas or green Ibis. 6 William Green came to Natal in 1849 via the Cape where he had previously been admitted as a land surveyor. Green and his family left for Australia via Mauritius in Octoher 1851 on the Cheshire Witch. 16 Soldiers' Letters from the First Anglo-Boer War, 1880 81 Compared with the newspaper coverage of wars in Zululand or Afghanistan in IH79-80, the British press gave scant attention to the military (as distinct from the political) character of the "Transvaal War" that erupted after Bronkhorstspruit. There were cogent reasons for this, related to the local circumstances of the conflict. In particular, the reporters and correspondents were unable to reach the Transvaal-Natal border in time to cover the early fighting. The first newspaperman to arrive at the front, T. F. Carter of the Natal Times. took a week to ride 120 miles on horseback. It poured with rain every day. the drifts were difficult, and he was just too late to report the opening battle at Laingsnek on 2H January 1881.' Setting as it did the pattern of defeat for the relieving column commanded by H.E. Major-General Sir George Pomeroy Colley. it is a pity Laingsnek was not witnessed hy an experienced war correspondent, home or colonial. Colley's objective was to force his way into the Transvaal to relieve the Brit;sh garrisons bottled up at Pretoria and six other towns. The effective sealing off by the Burgher commandos of the capital, and of so many troops scattered through the Transvaal, also made it virtually impossible to put together a coherent story for the reading public in Britain. Another factor was the brevity of the campaign: hy the time the reporters arrived. it had entered the tortuous phase of peace negotiation. Melton Prior (his whisky tucked away in hoxes lahelled "Drawing materials", as in the Anglo-Zulu War), struggled up country through thunderstorms, floods, and mud, but sketches did not appear in the lIlusrrated London News until 5 March, when the fighting was over. Even then, they were not from Prior's pen: his later drawing of the Majuha hattle-scene had to be based on the eyewitness description by John Cameron, the London Standard reporter whose despatches were the most widely read by dismayed patriots at home.2 Another veteran of Zululand, C.E. Fripp, came out to see what was happening, but none of his sketches appeared in the Graphic until 23 April. His drawing of the summit of Majuba was done on 24 March, nearly a month after the battle, and was published on 21 May. The Daily Telegraph did not print a detailed account of "The Fight at Amajuha", sent by its controversial Fenian correspondent Arthur Aylward until 15 April. He pulled no punches: "Our troops were out-numbered, flanked, driven back at all points by an enemy that had on two occasions shown the stuff they were made of, and hurled down the mountain side more like sheep than anything else I can compare them to". No doubt all this could have he en printed earlier than it was, but the assassination of the Tsar and the death of Disraeli had overshadowed all other news, and there was also an over-riding sense of unease at home about bad news from the Transvaal. 17 Soldiers'Letters This was compounded of shame at yet another military disaster (Maiuba, after all, came close on the heels of Isandlwana and Maiwand), and of doubts shared beyond Liberal circles that Britain should be at war with the Boers. Both attitudes are reflected in verses that appeared in Punch. First "A Military Ode" to the British infantry: "Britannia needs instructors To teach her boys to shoot, Fixed targets and mere red-tapc drill Have borne but bitter fruit. Our blunders are a standing joke, The scandal of our Isle, And the Boer loud doth roar, Whilst our foreign critics smile, Whilst the Teuton guffaws loud and long, And our foreign critics smile", Then one of the verses of a poem about Majuba and Colley concluded "Today we must praise the slain heroes he led, We'll portion the blame on the morrow. 'Tis scarcely disgrace to such foemen to fall, 'Tis pity such foemen are foemen at all!'" Given the war was far from fully reported, it follows that letters written home by soldiers on the spot would be especially informative, as indeed they are for most of the Victorian campaigns.' Again, however, the circumstances of the conflict, and the small number of troops employed, conspire to keep the letters to a disappointingly low tally. Among the original lettcrs that have been traced are a few from Percival Scrape Marling, then a young subaltern in the 3rd Battalion of the 60th Rif1es. later the King's Royal Rifle Corps. It was a unit that had fought in the Zulu War, from the battle of Gingindhlovu onwards, and so still contained a fair proportion of seasoned campaigners, to stiffen the younger recruits, when fighting broke out with the Boers. As against his surviving letters, Marling tells us far more about the war in his autobiography, published in 1931 with the title Rifleman and Hussar. The book is heavily dependent on the diaries he kept, but unfortunately Marling does not always clearly distinguish between direct quotation from his diaries, and comment added much later in time, presumably when drafting his book. The letters are often simply an alternative version of what he wrote in his diary, naturally enough, but his book is a spirited record of a young man's approach to African warfare. Marling won the Victoria Cross in the Sudan a few years later, and fought the Boers again between 1899 and 1902. Hc tells how the 3/60th Rifles marched up country from Pietermaritzburg, singing My Grandfather's Clock to the accompaniment of two whistles and a drum played on a canteen with two sticks. They reached the British camp at Mount Prospect on 26 January 1881, and were plunged immediately into the fighting at Laingsnek on 28 January. With H Company, of which he was second-in-command, Marling advanced to the foot of the ridge in skirmishing order, to support the left flank of the attack, where they sheltered behind a low stone wall. From that forward position he saw the whole desperate business. So steep were the slopes that the horses of the mounted infantry 18 Soldiers' Letters were soon blown, as were those of the 58th Regiment, whose e.o. and Adjutant (Hingeston and Monk) had to ride up on horseback because Colonel Deane and his staff did so. Deane took command out of the hands of the regimental officers, the 58th "were hustled up without being extended", and failed to carry the heights.' Deane and three other mounted staff officers were killed; the only survivor of the staff who rode up Laingsnek was Major Edward Essex (75th Regiment), whose charmed life had brought him safely from the slaughterhouse at Isandlwana two years previously. Marling's narrative may be set aside for a moment to turn to some soldiers' letters about Laingsnek. Only one combatant's.account has come to light from a newspaper source, written by Lance-Sergeant W.J. Morris of the 58th. He wrote on 30 January to his mother at NoiThampton, describing how his regiment, carrying seventy rounds of ammunition and two pounds of biscuit and bully beef per man, were ready for action on 27 January." Torrential rain caused the attack to be postponed to the 28th, when he was roused at 3 a.m. and formed up in column at 6 a.m. in bright sunshine. Having marched to within 2 000 yards of the Boer entrenchments on the ridge, the six fieldguns fired three or four rounds apiece, their shells bursting out of sight behind the crest. This performance was repeated by the three rocket tubes of the Naval Brigade. After an hour had elapsed, Brownlow's mounted force attacked the slopes in skirmishing order on the right; they met strong opposition and were forced to retire, although (according to Morris) only four men had been killed and 'a dozen horses knocked over. Then, as the mounted troops were retiring, five companies of the 58th skirmished ahead under a very heavy cross fire from the Boers. "Before we got half way up the hill many of us were mowed down one by one. We got up to the top, when we opened fire, and kept it up for some time till the order was given to fix bayonets and prepare to charge ... We charged the hill, but could not hold it, as we had no support. The Boers were only about thirty yards away when we reached the top, and they were advancing on us in hundreds. Colonel Deane was shot in the arm. He afterwards got off his horse and used his revolver, and he had not fired many shots when he received the second shot and fell backwards. Someone then said, 'Retire men, retire, as they are too strong for us,' As we were retiring we lost several men under a deadly cross fire. How the remaining few escaped was quite a miracle". Morris then relates how the regimental colours (never again taken into action by a British regiment) were barely saved from capture by the determination of Sergeant Bridgestock, who scrambled them away on horseback and eventually on foot. The remnant of the 58th, which suffered 34 per cent casualties in killed and wounded out of a strength of 503 attacking officers and men, marched back to where the field ambulances were parked. "A flag of truce was hoisted and taken up to the Boers, asking permission to bring the wounded and bury the dead, but they would not let us touch them till they had taken all their arms away from them, and when we went up the .groans of the wounded were something fearfuL In a horrible state we brought all the wounded into camp that day, I am sorry to say our loss is most of the officers and 19 Soldiers' Letters non-commissioned officers, as it appears the Boers were dead nuts on them . . . I must also tell you we were bringing in the wounded at twelve o'clock at night, and the groans in hospital were shocking. We are not going to attack that hill until we get reinforcements, and then we will pepper them for what they have done". Indirectly, perhaps, one can say that Majuba was to be the reinforced second attack on the Boer positions at Laingsnek, but the peppering then certainly did not go as Morris had hoped. The fighting of 28 January was also witnessed by a non-combatant N.C.O., Henry Coombs, a sergeant in the Army Hospital Corps. He wrote to his friends in Sheffield, telling them of the repulse of the 58th. "The British troops had to retreat, beaten; hut, oh, what a retreat it was, they were nothing but marks for the enemy. The Boers were frightened to leave their position, and when out of range all firing ceased ... I shall not forget to my dying day the whizz of those bullets past my head, and to see those men shot down as though they were dogs. It was pitiful, but only what we expect in war. I was on the field dressing wounded, and could see it all, and we had a large amount of wounded to dress and carry away. We had 40 hlacks carrying the wounded off the field. I kept with the doctor all the time, and many a time we thought we were done for, but we escaped all right, and it took us till e i ~ h t p.m. to clear the field of wounded men".' Whether we accept 8 p.m. or midnight (according to Morris, and the discrepancy may mean the difference between carrying the last wounded soldier off the battlefield and installing the last of the casualties in the hospital tents) as bringing the day to a close, Laingsnek set a pattern of extreme hardship for the wounded men that was to be repeated in the other engagements of this drastic war. Marling of the 3/60th Rifles noted in his diary for 29 January, "All night we could hear the wretched wounded groaning and crying out"." He was not impressed with Colley, who had spoken to the demoralized survivors, taking all the blame on himself. "It is an extraordinary thing he made such a mess of if', wrote Marling in a later comment, "As our old man (i.e. the C.O. of the 3/60th) said, 'You don't win a battle by making speeches or writing despatches' ,"" and it was soon the turn of Marling's regiment to be put on the rack at Schuinshoogte. The scene for that sharp conflict, at least as wretched for the men involved as most of the fights against the Zulu two years previously, is set by Sergeant Coombs: "On the morning of the 8th February, the native runner came into camp (i.e. Mount Prospect), saying that the Boers had nearly caught him and had taken two of our men prisoners. Some 20 wounded were sent away this same morning, and it was feared that they would harm them, or perhaps steal the ambulances. Sir G. Colley took part of the force out to clear the road, when, after he had gone four miles, the Boer army appeared in force, and a battle ensued". 10 Coombs tells how ColIey was ambushed after crossing the double drift at the Ingogo river, on the road to Newcastle, and it seems from his letter that he was present at, and survived, the British defensive fight on the Schuinshoogte slopes. For a more realistic picture of this sanguinary little 20 Soldiers' Letters confrontation, however, we should turn to Lt. P.S. Marling of the 3/60th Rifles. He says that whereas the purpose of Colley's sortie was to safeguard the road for the mails between Newcastle and Mount Prospect, the telegraph had not been cut and was still working. A fight was patently not expected, because Colley did not bother to take along a water cart, and ordered dinner in camp for his men at 3.30 p.m. In intense heat, five companies of the 60th marched out, with thirty mounted men (again under Major Brownlow), two 9-pounder and two 7-pounder guns of the Royal Artillery. The latter pair, together with K Company to which Marling had been transferred since Laingsnek, very fortunately for him, did not cross the Tngogo but stayed on the north bank, guarding the drifts. Suddenly, at about 11.30 a.m., he heard such firing from the main force ahead across the river that he knew "desperate hard fighting was going on" ." He heard all about it from Lt. Francis Beaumont, who lay hidden behind a rock for four hours; "a very little fellow" who had coxed the Oxford University Eight for three years, Beaumont came through unhurt. At the outset the Boers shot nearly all the horses of the mounted troops and artillery, there being no cover for them on the bare plateau of Schuinshoogte; one of the horrors of later in the day was the trampling of wounded men by wounded horses, galloping over the battlefield. By about 2.30 p.m., pinned down by merciless fire and sustaining heavy casualties, Colley thought the encircling Boers were about to rush his position on the left flank. He sent one of his staff officers to ask Colonel Ashburnham to advance a company of the 3/60th to cover this threat. Only I Company was in reserve, and Ashburnham pleaded that only half of it should be sent, but the staff officer insisted on taking the whole company, and leading it into position himself. He was Captain l.e. MacGregor, of the Royal Engineers, who had served in the Zulu War and at the taking of Sekhukhuni's stronghold, but there was more to his action on 8 February 1881 than a recent account by G. R. Duxbury would suggest. 12 Many of the soldiers of I Company were young recruits, recently joining their regiment, and MacGregor led them, riding his horse, to a position within 50 yard of the Boers. "There is no doubt that he took them farther than he should have done. Captain MacGregor was himself killed, it was inevitable, considering the mark he presented" .1.1 A letter written by Lieutenant B.M. Hamilton, 15th Regiment, who was Colley's A.D.e. (and brother-in-law), taking part in the fight, adds more detail: "Poor MacGregor had gone with one of the companies of the 60th to show them where to post themselves, but, unluckily for him and the whole company with him, he took them too far below the brow and they got detached from the rest of our line, and being on the side of the hill the Soers could see them from the top of the one opposite". '" Only nine men of I Company came through unscathed, including Lt. Beaumont, the diminutive Oxford cox; the remaining 56 were killed or wounded, decimated at least in part through MacGregor's ineptitude. Colley knew the full story, of course, but to read his despatch one would think otherwise. It is a sad reflection on the Major-General's powers of judgement and lack of realism. This is what he wrote about MacGregor, his Assistant Military Secretary: 21 Soldiers' Letters Major-General Sir George Pomeroy Colley . a most promising officer, who would certainly have risen to distinction if spared, of soldierly bearing, of distinguished ability, and possessing in an eminent degree all the most valuable qualifications of a Staff Officer. He was killed early in the engagement, while pointing out the ground to Lieutenant Garrett, of the 60th, as the latter brought his company into action". 15 Fine words, but empty of meaning in terms of what happened at Schuinshoogte, and far from telling the full story. As the afternoon wore on, thunder and lightning began to accentuate the sporadic firing from either side, and it started to rain heavily just before 5 p. m. - so heavily that, in Marling's words, "all the old hands say it was worse than anything they had in Zululand". lh The Boers, who were being reinforced steadily, then (at about 5.30) showed a white flag. Bugles sounded "Cease fire", but the Boers simply used this as an opportunity to advance, firing, on the silent 9-pounder guns; Duxbury does not mention this incident. 17 Two officers and 13 men of the Artillery were killed or wounded, out of a total gunner strength of 27; the guns belonged to N/5 Battery, part of which was wiped out at Isandlwana, while the wounded officer, Lieutenant C.S.B. Parsons, R.A., had been out with Lord Chelmsford's force on 22 January 1879 when the camp was taken by the Zulu. At Schuinshoogte, the rainstorm continued as darkness fell, and the shooting stopped at last. Most of the wounded were collected together in one spot, getting immediate attention from Surgeon M'Gann and his orderlies, but when Colley decided to quit the battlefield at 9 p.m., it was clear that the wounded would have to be left where they lay. The only 22 Soldiers' Letters horses fit for work were two for each gun and two for one of the ammunition limbers; the other limber was also left behind when Colley, his staff, and the survivors (in the case of the 3/60th, only 130 out of the 217 actively engaged) plodded off into the darkness. Bad as it was for the wounded, there were still hazards ahead for those returning to Mount Prospect, as Lt. Bruce Hamilton wrote to his sister, Lady Colley: "About 9 o'clock we marched off in a hollow square, guns in the centre, and remainder of Mounted Infantry Rifles in skirmishing order all around. When we left the hill we all expected a real hand-to-hand fight before we should be able to cross the river, and if the Boers had occupied the drift I don't know how we should have been able to cross, with the water so high from the rain ... You ask me if Sir G. was in danger that day. He was, and more danger than I hope he will be in again"." . At the Ingogo, danger came from the river itself. When they crossed it on the morning of 8 February, the soldiers splashed across with the water barely above their ankles. Now, after the rainstorm, the Ingogo was almost up to their armpits, and they had to link arms to get across. Despite this precaution, and no doubt because of their exhaustion after a hard day at Schuinshoogte (when none of the troops had anything to eat, and only a canteen of water apiece), six unfortunate men of the 3/60th lost their footing and were swept away by the current. Perhaps the most tragic postscript of all came the next day, when Lt. E.O.H. Wilkinson met his death. Having survived the fight, he went back alone to the battlefield on the 9 February to do what he could for the wounded left there, but on his way home again to Mount Prospect he too was drowned in the Ingogo. His body was not recovered until the 18th, five miles below the drifts, and he was buried on the 20th. In the auction of his effects the next day - proof positive of how down-to-earth the military have to be - Marling (who calls him 'Peter') bought Wilkinson's soapbox and suit of flannel pyjamas. He had served as adjutant of the 3/60th since the Zulu War, from which he wrote (for his housemaster at Eton) an excellent account of the battle of Gingindhlovu, before he was invalided home through sickness. 14 His remains lie in the Mount Prospect military Cemetery, (grave no. 34), next to three officer casualties of Schuinshoogte - Captain C. Greer, R.A., in command of Colley's artillery, Lt. O'Connell, and Lt. Garrett of the ill-fated I 3/60th. Marling's company did not get involved in the fighting, but he had an exhausting time of it. K Company went on outlying picquet at 5.30 p.m. on Monday, 7 February. Coming back to camp at 7 the next morning, they marched out an hour later towards Schuinshoogte, and remained on post guarding the Ingogo drifts until Collcy's remnant force had made their way back to Mount Prospect. They did not return themselves, escorting the longsuffering wounded, until the afternoon after the engagement. "These men and myself only got a cup of tea from 6 p.m. Monday till 4 p.m. Wednesday. We were hungry".'o Such are the incidental hardships of war. Nor was the miserable saga of Schuinshoogte yet brought to a conclusion. On 12 February, at Colley's personal order and in pouring rain, a party of soldiers went out under a flag of truce to exhume the bodies of the officers killed five days previously. 23 Soldiers' Letters Vultures by the score covered the battlefield feeding on the dead horses and the men, who had been buried hastily in three huge pits, scattered over half-a-mile of ground. "The men would dig for quarter of an hour", says Marling of this disgusting work, "and then be violently sick. To show how fierce the fight had been one helmet had five bullet holes in it, and many had two or three". 21 Only Lieutenant Maurice O'Connell was recognisable. Marling could see no sense in this business, but perhaps Colley was sensitive still to the criticisms made of Lord Chelmsford in leaving the dead at Isandlwana unburied for so long. Morale was at a low ebb after Schuinshoogte. One veteran officer voiced his opinion that Colley ought not to be trusted with a corporal's guard on active service, and Marling wrote in his diary (10 February): "The General telegraphed home the fight at Ingogo was a success we certainly did pass the mails through to Newcastle and remained on the field of battle, but one or two more Pyrrhic victories like that and we shan't have any army left at all. As it is, we are not more than 700 strong at the most now, not much of a force to advance in an enemy's country as large as the whole of the United Kingdom"." Colley was powerless, having lost his entire staff except for the indestructible Major Essex (acting as Brigade Major), and his personal A.D.C., Hamilton. Nor was it only a case of depressed morale, at this stage of the fighting, due to Colley's incurring heavy casualties in mismanaged actions. There was also the sense of insecurity because of the low numbers of men he left to defend the base camp at Mount Prospect. It was held by only 200 soldiers, some of them barely effective, during Laingsnek, while no more than 150 men defended it when Colley was so hotly engaged with the Boers at Schuinshoogte. The camp was truly vulnerable to attack on 8-9 February, but perhaps Colley was willing to gamble on his knowledge that the Boers were always hesitant to attack a prepared and fortified position. It puts in a different light G. R. Duxbury's remark that "it should have been apparent to Colley that the Boers were prepared to meet him on any ground"." So, finally, to Majuba. At the very time that the Bocrs were securing their total success, Marling was writing a letter in camp. He had seen Colley's mixed force set out on the night of 26 February: "Fortunately the night was very dark and there was no moon. At 9.30 off they marched with 3 days' rations of biscuits and entrenched themselves on a hill to our left front (Majuba). Directly it was light the Boers discovered what had happened and our troops have been engaged since about 5.30 a.m. this morning, firing is still going on as I write. 12 noon. A message has just come in to say that poor Romilly, commander of the Naval Brigade, is seriously wounded. I never saw such a wonderful thing as the Heliograph ... Very heavy firing is going on at this minute" .'\ The first hint of the magnitude of the debacle came at about 2 p.m. when a wounded sailor reached Mount Prospect with news that the troops had been driven off the mountain. "He said it had taken him five bloody hours to get up Majuba, but he only touched the ground five bloody times on the way down".2' The summary of events on the summit given by Col. Herbert Stewart (who was Chief of Staff to Colley) deserves more quotation than it gets: 24 Soldiers' Letters The first page of Marling's letter to his grandfather. Reproduced with permission of the Gloucestershire Records Office. 25 Soldiers'Letters "There was a complete panic in the front line; they retired and, the reserves heing advanced at the same time, the greatest confusion resulted. The line then retired behind a ledge of rocks, but it was impossible to get the men steady and to fire properly. notwithstanding the exertions of the officers. The line at last hroke and fled. Sir G. Colley was retiring slowly the last of everyone waving a handkerchief when he was shot". 2n Again, as at Schuinshoogte, it was the wounded who fully experienced the horrors of war. Surgeon Edward Mahon, of the Naval Brigade, narrowly escaped being shot down while attending the wounds of Commander Romilly, R. N., then carried him to where the other casualties lay: "When about half-way across we were surrounded by Boers, who were with great difficulty prevented from shooting the Commander as he lay, they being under the idea that he was either Sir Garnet Wolseley or Sir Evelyn Wood ... 1 had all the wounded, 36 in numher, placed on one spot near the well, and luckily we found blankets and just enough waterproof sheets to cover them all. All wc had to give them was water and a little opium, the Boers having taken all our brandy. It now commenced to rain heavily, and continued to do so without intermission during the whole night, which much aggravated the sufferings of the wounded. Tt also became bitterly cold towards morning"." Predictably, letters from survivors of the Majuba fighting are thin on the ground. but an important one comes from Major Thomas Fraser of the Royal Engineers. He served as Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General to Colley, and after the battle he was the senior surviving officer, of all those who saw what happened at the summit, fit enough to write an official report for Evelyn Wood. who praised him in despatches. Fraser also wrote a private letter on 2 March: "I never had such a climb before. but we (the General, Stewart. and I) knew what we risked if we failed to reach the top in time. and hefore daylight. So I shoved on. on my hands and knees. Colley was so eager. he followed close behind Stewart. As we neared the top, remembering we had seen the night before a picquet on the point we were approaching. I took a rifle from a 58th man behind. and got on top at 3.40 a.m., feeling rather foolish at finding no one. I at once extended the 58th as they came up ... The men were very done. and the General too." So to the moment of crisis, after noon: "The Boers now advanced on us in great numbers. firing with extraordinary rapidity. The two Highlanders on my right and left fell dead, shot through the head as they rose to fire. We could see nothing but rifle muzzles and smoke. I looked to the General and saw him with a cluster uf men round him. with his face to the enemy, retiring, about twenty yards from the line. It was just then he was shot dead through the forehead. ,,'" In view of what happened at Majuba. it is ironic to read back through Col\ey's letters: for instance, in early February he wrote: "I hope it will not be long before I have force enough to terminate this hateful war" .'9 As events turned out, he did not at any time secure a mastery of the military 26 Soldiers' Letters situation, while his unfortunate soldiers did not receive so much as a clasp or a medal for their pains, despite the ferocity of the fighting in which they took part. FRANK EMERY NOTES: I Thomas Fortescue Carter, A narrative of the Boer War, its causes and results, 1882, pp. 157-9. , The war is not included in Peter Johnson, Front Line Artists, 1978. but there is a substantial coverage of events in 1880-1 by R.J. Wilkinson-Latham, From our special correspondent: Victorian war correspondents and their campaigns, 1979, pp. 159-68. The best concise account is by Brian Bond. Victorian military campaigns, 1967, pp. 201-40, 'The South African War, 1880-81'. , The first poem appeared in Punch for 7 May 1881, p. 210, and the other, entitled 'On the Majuba Hill'. in Punch for 12 March lR81, p. 114. 4 See Frank Emery, The Rcd Soldier. Letters from the Zulu War, 1879, 1977. and 'From the seat of war. Letters by Victorian soldiers', History Today, vo!. 31, June 1981, pp. 26-31. 5 P.S. Marling, Rlj1eman and Hussar, 1931, p. 40. h Morris's lettcr was printed in the supplement to the Northampton Mercury, Saturday. 19 March 1881. under thc title 'The disaster at Laing's Nek. A Northamptonshire man's account of the fight'. Details of movements and casualties may be found in Russell Gurney. History of the Northamptonshire Re[?iment, 1935. pp. 260-5. 7 Coombs wrote his lettcr at Mount Prospect on 17 February, and it appeared in the Sheffield Daily Tdegraph for 5 April 1881. K Marting, op. cit., p. 42. Y {bid., p. 41. III Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 5 April 1881. I r Marling, op. cit., p. 43. " G.R. Duxbury, The Battle of Schuinshoogte, 8 February 1881', Military History Journal, (South African National Museum of Military History), vo!. 5, no. 2, First War of Independence, 1880-1881, Centenary issue, December 1980, pp. 72-4. 13 Marting, op. cit., pp. 46-9. 14 Sir William F. Butler, The Ufe of Sir George Pomeroy Colley, 1835-188{, 1899, pp. 418-20. 15 Ibid., p. 415. 16 Marling, op. cit., p. 45. 17 Duxbury, arl. cit., p. 73. IS Butler, op. cil., p. 420. 19 Emery, op. cil .. 1977, pp. 196-9. 20 Marling, op. cit., p. 49. 21 Ibid., p. 50. 22 Ibid., p. 51. n Duxbury, art. cif., p. 74. 24 Gloucestershire Record Office, Gloucester: 0873, CIIO; See plate on page 24 of this article. 25 Marling, op. cit., p. 53. 26 S.G.P. Ward (ed.), 'Majuba, 1881. The diary of Colonel W.D. Bond, 58th Regiment', Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, LIll, no. 214, Summer 1975, p. 95. 27 Mahon's official letter to Commodore Richards, R,N., was printed in full in The Army and Navy Gazette for 7 May 1881. 28 Fraser's letter is printed on pages 39-40 of volume two of Whitworth Porter's History of the Corps of Royal Engineers (1889). The details of his somewhat miraculous escape down the western slopes of Majuba arc borne out by the excellent discussion of the engagement by Major G. Tylden, 'A study in attack: Majuba, 27th February, 1881', Journal of Ihe Society of Army Historical Research, XXXIX, no. 157, March 1961, pages 27-36. 29 Butler, op. cif., p. 315. 27 The Meaning of Majuba for Natal (Reprinted, by kind permission, from Convocation Newsletter No. 3, 1981, of the University of Natal.) In the context of 19th century military history, the skirmish fought on Majuba mountain on 27th February 1881 was but a minor engagement. Yet its effects were far-reaching and its memory, no less than that of Isandlwana two years previously, hung heavy over Natal for many years thereafter. Nervous of the effect which the outbreak of hostilities might have on their trade with the Transvaal, but confident of a speedy victory for the British forces, the Natal colonists were dismayed at the series of military setbacks which culminated on Majuba, and they reacted with incredulity to the peace negotiations which followed. Natal suffered little material damage, her boundaries were not altered and few of her inhabitants were actively involved, but her pride as a loyal British colony was severely bruised and her confidence in British arms undermined. Hundreds of imperial troops had demonstrated to the silent ' black' gallery who witnessed this 'white' war Majuba. Victorious Boer commandos gather roLlnd General loube rt's field headquarters after the battle. Ori gi nal ly puhlishcd in t he (i ra"h ic. I XR l 28 Meaning of Majuba that they were apparently unable to retain the Transvaal territory which Theophilus Shepstone, at the head of no more than 25 Natal Mounted Policemen, had annexed for the Crown in 1877. Moreover, by immediately concluding a peace, Gladstone's new Liberal Government in London had allowed the invasion of Natal to go unpunished and had permitted the Boers and their descendants to escape with the mistaken notion that they were militarily superior to anything that Britain's Empire could throw against them. It required the further agony of 1899-1902 to demonstrate the extent of their error, to the cost of both sides and at the price of a further deterioration in Anglo-Boer relations. In the meantime, it mattered little that, during the course of 1881, Gladstone was burnt in effigy in various parts of Natal, while in Pietermaritzburg's Market Square the Union Jack was unofficially lowered and, before burial, was funereally drawn on a wagon through the streets of the town by a team of oxen, each of which was named after a prominent Boer leader. In the Natal Legislative Council elections the following year, the colonists nevertheless rejected the opportunity of acquiring responsible government status for themselves, in favour of retaining the dubious security of a British garrison. Celebrated in some quarters as an early triumph for the cause of South African independence, Majuba (and the self-indentification which it promoted in persons of Dutch extraction throughout the subcontinent) was a blow to the notion of confederation under the British Crown which white Natalians had supported in principle throughout the 1870s. As such, Majuba could more readily be interpreted as a divisive setback to the movement towards 'closer union' as a British dominion, which was only effected in 1910. Amidst revived talk of con federal structures in southern Africa, in preference to the extension of the 'closer union' concept across existing ethnic frontiers, Majuba should serve as a reminder to all Natalians of the hazards inherent in any attempt to redivide those whom the course of history has brought together in this part of the world. It should highlight the danger of having to re-experience that history if we choose, for current political purposes, to ignore it. W. R. GUEST 29 Images of the Natal Drakensberg It is a pity indeed to travel and not get this essential sense of landscape values. You do not need a sixth sense for it. It is there if you just close your eyes and breathe softly through your nose; you will hear the whispered message, for al!landscapes ask the same question in the same whisper. '[ am watching you - are you watching yourself in me?' L. Durrel!, 1969, p. 158. Present attitudes towards the Drakensberg suggest that it is a valued and important place for at least a section of the population.! In a recent questionnaire survey of 1 142 people in the Drakensberg' 94,()O;;, thought the Drakensberg was quite important or very important to them, and as a whole respondents ranked the Drakensberg as the most beautiful area in South Africa (Figure I). This paper will layout some of the more important influences on the way we now see the Drakensberg, and will then outline the present view of the area as expressed by visitors in the Drakensberg. For travelling explorers in the first half of the nineteenth century colonialromantic conceptions - valuing the wild and sublime in the landscape were prominent in South Africa. Such early travellers as Arbousset and Daumas, Gardiner, and Bell, who passed into and through the 'terra incognita' of the Drakensberg in the 1830s, reflected these conceptions as they described the expected fear and horror of the new and wild places - so prevalent in earlier explorations of the Cape Province (Pickles, 197R) - hut here tinged with expressions of wonder and delight. Arbousset and Daumas in 1836 travelled across what is now Lesotho and visited the 'Blue Mountains' "which so far as known, no European foot had yet trode." (Arbousset and Daumas, 1968, p. 42). There appeared to be nothing before us but a world of mountains piled one above another in strange confusion, which seemed to rise and recede from us as we approached. When we thought we were ascending, we were only going around a peak, or laboriously winding about so as to pass a link of the chain. We were ever reaching new ridges, new precipices, new defiles; there seemed to be no end to them . . . Here everything around conspires to plunge the soul into deep thought and dreams of the past. The profound silence of the solitude is scarcely disturbed by the murmur of the river ... In the state of mind into which the contemplation of this scenery had thrown me, little was wanting to hring my emotion to a height. and to burst the floodgates which pent up the feelings rising in my heart. Arbousset and Daumas, 196R, p. 44. At the same time to the north increasing numbers of Voortrekkers were moving over the Drakensberg and entering Natal. The view from the brow of the Drakensberg reputedly was "the fairest prospect" that Retief had ever 30 FICURE 1 14 13 12 \1 10 9 I Cf) ...; ex: 8 0 U rJl ;..:J 7 ~ ~ Z 6 ex: 4 2 o Ranking Score Natal Drakensberg SCATIFR(;RAPII OF /{I\"JKING SCORES FOR L\"JI)SCAPE AREAS 01' SOUTH AFRICA Natal i)rakensherg ( ;ardcn Knurl' Wild Coast ( ;rear Escarr"men! ot the Eastern TranSlaal South West Cape Natal North Coa"t Natal South (\)ast Transl'aal !.owl'cld anJ Kruger l\alional Park ZululanJ Natal ;\1idlands Eastern Province Cape ;\1"II"nds, the Creat Karoo and the Northern Cape Northern and Western Transvaal Sout hern Transvaal llighvcld Orange hee State L (Frequency of each Rank x Inverse Rank Number) N 31 Natal Drakensberg set his eyes on (Nathan, 1937, p. 174); the place subsequently has been known as 'Blyde Vooruitzicht' (Pleasant Prospect). The Voortrekkers had traversed the mountain foothills to the south and west of the Malutis and this prolonged contact was probably instrumental in their ready acceptance of the Drakensherg foothills for farming - an acceptance reflected in their choice of farm names' such as Great Happiness, Harmony, Beautiful View, Peace Fountain, Luck and a thankfulness following the hardships of the trek such as Rest, Well Earned, Long Awaited. Typically, however, there were hardships and there were strong memories of past hardships; Misfortune, Battle Laager, Desert, Hungry Ravine, Struggle Corner, False Hope. The implementation of a formal colonial administration with the British entry into Natal resulted in an increase in the number of travelling observers - topographers, tourists, officials. Many of these paid little or no attention to the Drakensberg area; an area designated as 'Nomansland' and regarded as a buffer zone between different population groups, and as a landmark in discussion of settler activity along its fringes: Thus, in 1855, Holden could claim, The natural features of the Sovereignty are on a hold, hroad scale. But little of the picturesque and beautiful presents itself to the eye of the traveller, bald monotony prevailing, except in some favoured spots. The plains, or "Flats", as they are generally called in South African phraseology, appear interminahle. The mountains rise high, until cloud-capped; the giant Quahlamba is lost in the heavens; whilst Moshesh's heights look blue, almost frowning black, in the distance. Holden, 1855, p. 339. But, at the same time, Dr W.H.l. Bleek records thaL The mountains are steep everywhere, with almost perpendicular precipices. A correct picture of the country can only he drawn by imagining it as mountain scenery in the Alps or Cordilleras Mountains, which run precipitously and steeply towards the sea. Many parts of Western America, Chile, for instance, could he compared with this scenery ... Consequently, the scenery is very beautiful. Bleek, 1965, p. 39. The period following the mid-1850s saw the extension of settler influence into the Drakensberg as the Bushmen were 'eradicated', as farming interests expanded into the foothill areas, and as the inner reaches of the Drakensberg were hetter surveyed. This was paralleled by the widening of attitudes towards the landscape, and increasingly detailed and later poetic descriptions of their qualities. The increasing concentration on the individual features of the landscape expressed by artists such as Gen. G.H. Gonion (1865) and T. Baines are followed by increasing interest shown by natural historians and natural philosophers such as the German traveller Fritsch, who outlined a model of formation for South African mountain forms as he passed through the northern Drakensberg (Fritsch, 1868). As contact increased British settlers moved into the foothill areas, making their new homes as 'familiar' as possible. The naming of places and farms can be used to reconstruct this process of encounter and familiarization and the attendant impressions of this new landscape. Most farm names recalled places from the settler's past, facilitating the acceptance of a strange and unknown area as a home and known place, hut some reflected the landscape 32 Natal Drakensberg Twin Stream, Sylvan Cliffs, Game Pass; some the experience of the landscape - Arcadia, Compensation, Contention, Good Hope; others the feeling of exile - Solitude, Forlorn, Forget Me Not. This practice of making the unknown known and familiar was also clearly evident in the promotional literature of the time, to encourage immigration to the new colony. In general, attitudes towards the Drakensberg were considerably ameliorated and enriched during the second half of the nineteenth century. This can be seen in Wolseley's exposition in 1875 of the qualities of the area, a description which articulates some of the experiences commonly associated with the Drakensberg at the present time. Although we really saw nothing of the great falls, still I never enjoyed a day more; the air at the height we were at about 7 000 feet above the sea was delightful; one felt invigorated by it: drinking it was like drinking some sparkling and exhilarating wine. So much is talked at home about the freshness of the seaside air, but to my mind it is nothing like the air on a high mountain. Wolseley, 1971, p. 205. The first systematic investigation of the Drakensberg occurred in 1908 with the combined Basutoland and Natal expedition to traverse along the top of the Drakensberg to identify and block all passes into the Basutoland Protectorate to protect it from an outbreak of tick fever on the east coast. The records of this party were