. The
reader will now understand my anxiety to put some check on these
lawless brigands. The instructions to the commando which I had sent
out, and which would reach M'pisana's in two days, were briefly to
take the fort and afterwards do as circumstances dictated. If my men
failed they would have the desperadoes pursue them on their swift
horses, and all the kaffir tribes would conspire against us, so that
none would escape on our side. A kaffir was generally understood to be
a neutral person in this War, and unless found armed within our lines,
with no reasonable excuse for his presence, we generally left him
alone. They were, however, largely used as spies against us, keeping
to their kraals in the daytime and issuing forth at night to ascertain
our position and strength. They also made good guides for the English
troops, who often had not the faintest idea of the country in which
they were. It must not be forgotten that when a kaffir is given a
rifle he at once falls a prey to his brutal instincts, and his only
amusement henceforth becomes to kill without distinction of age,
colour, or sex. Several hundreds of such natives, led by white men,
were roaming about in this district, and all that was captured,
plundered or stolen was equally divided among them, 25 per cent. being
first deducted for the British Government.

I have indulged in this digression in order to describe another phase
with which we had to contend in our struggle for existence. I have
reason to believe, however, that the British Commander-in-Chief, for
whom I have always had the greatest respect, was not at that time
aware of the remarkable character of these operations, carried on as
they were in the most remote parts of the country; and there is no
doubt that had he been aware of their true character he would have
speedily brought these miscreants to justice.

CHAPTER XL.

CAPTURING A FREEBOOTER'S LAIR.

Early in the morning of the 6th of August, as the breaking dawn was
tinting the tops of the Lebombo Mountains with its purple dye and the
first rays of the rising sun shed its golden rays over the sombre
bushveldt, the commando under Commandants Moll and Schoeman were
slowly approaching the dreaded M'pisana's fort. When within a few
hundred paces of it they left the horses behind and slowly crept up to
it in scattered order; for as none of us knew the arrangement or
construction of the place, it had been arranged to advance very
cauti