, I got an
excellent view of the drift and its southern approach just over the
bulge of the hill, and a clear view of the river further east and
west. I thought at first I would demolish the few grass and matting
huts which, with some empty kerosene tins and heaps of bones and
_debris_, formed the Kaffir kraal, but on consideration I decided to
play cunning, and that this same innocent-looking Kaffir kraal would
materially assist me to hide my defences. I made out my plan of
operations in detail, and we had soon conveyed all our stores up to
the top of the hill, and started work.

Upon the return of the patrols with their prisoners, the Dutchmen and
"boys" were told off to dig for themselves and their females. The
Kaffirs of the kraal we had impressed to assist at once.

My arrangements were as follows: All round the huts on the hill-top,
and close to them we dug some ten short lengths of deep firing-trench,
curved in plan, and each long enough to hold five men. These trenches
had extremely low parapets, really only serving as rifle-rests, some
of the excavated earth being heaped up _behind_ the trenches to the
height of a foot or so, the remainder being dealt with as described
later. In most cases the parapets were provided with grooves to fire
through at ground-level, the parapet on each side being high enough to
just protect the head. As with the background the men's heads were not
really visible, it was unnecessary to provide proper loopholes, which
would have necessitated also the use of new sandbags, which would be
rather conspicuous and troublesome to conceal. When the men using
these trenches were firing, their heads would be just above the level
of the ground. These firing-trenches having been got well under way,
the communication trenches were started. These were to be narrow and
deep, leading from one trench to the next, and also leading from each
trench back to four of the huts, which were to be arranged as follows,
to allow of men to fire standing up without being seen. Round the
inside of the walls of these huts part of the excavated earth, of
which there was ample, would be built up with sand bags, piece of
anthill, stones, etc., to a height that a man can fire over, about
four and a half feet, and to a thickness of some two and a half feet
at the top, and loopholes, which would be quite invisible, cut through
the hut sides above this parapet. There was room in each hut for three
men to fire. In three o