HLI Chronicle 1914 - The Royal Highland Fusiliers

HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY CHRONICLE. 89the farm, but I was hit and could not rise,80 I crawled up to a low stone wall there happenedto be near and commenced to fire,as now and again I could see the heads ofthe soldiers showing above the rocks on thekopje." Unfortunately, the wall I lay behind wasso low that it afforded very'little cover, andthe bullets, just missing my head, struck mylegs, and I was twice shot through the feet,Finally, while aiming round the corner of a bigstone, a bullet caught me on the nose, splittingit right down and covering me with blood." This perplexed me [as he put it]. I coulddo no more, so I held up my hands and surrendered.I had two bullets through my hat,one in the thigh, one through each foot, andlastly my nose was shattered. Your men shotvery well."All honour to a brave man. A real pluckychap and fine fighter was T. Heynecke, Adjutantof Theron's Scouts.The other Boers escaped in the dusk beforethe farm buildings could be rushed with thebayonet, as our men were going to do directlyit was sufficiently dark. To have attemptedit in broad daylight would have meant uselessloss of life and probable failure.Leaving Mafeteng at break of day 011 February3rd, we start,ed on our trek south, doinga hot 14 miles along a dusty waterless track ata very slow pace, as the heat and the roughhilly road tried our oxen severely. What, withhalts and breakdowns of waggons it waslong past mid-day when 'we reached ourcamping ground near Shiloh, the only placewhere there was sufficient water for our largenumber of animals. Throughout the wholemarch our great difficulty was water, and bywhere it could be found was the length ofe~ch day's journey regulated.*Being midsummer and towards the end of along drought, many of the streams or "spruits"were quite dry; few had but a limited supply* Twice I received telegrams from Lord Kitchenerworded .. Why this delay?" a kind of .. hurryup." However. on each occasion I was able to replybriefly, and with truth, "No delay."of water, for even the torrential rain of athunderstorm very soon ran off.By two or three o'clock all our beasts,several hundred of them-oxen, horses, mules,and ponies-had been watered and turned outto graze under" cattle guards."1'he column settled down, as we hoped, fora comfortable night; but as the sun set in aglorious blaze of crimson, masses of inky-blackclouds came rolling up, the air became strangelystill and oppressive, and just at nightfall wewere in for a typical South African storm,which in no country is surpassed for violence.Deafening peals of thunder almost instantaneouswith most dazzling and perfectly terrifyingflashes of lightning were accompaniedby a hurricane and deluge of rain, so manand beast passed a bad night.Nowhere in the world have I seen thunderstormsto equal those of the uplands of SouthAfrica.February 4th.-A lovely cool morning afterthe storm, the mountains away to the eastappearing quite close, though really some fewmiles off. Marched 14 miles to the nextwater, Kornet Spruit, running big after theheavy rain. Getting all the wagons safelythrough the drift (ford) caused considerabledelay, but these Basuto streams, though, tearing down in a terrific spate after a storm,very quickly run down. All hands enjoyeda much-wanted bathe in Kornet Spruit, itbeing close to our camping-ground.Though in a neutral country we took everymilitary precaution, both on the march andwhen halted, for we were travelling very closeto the Orange River Colony, and I was twicewarned that our long, slowly moving convoywas going to be attacked. For three days aBoer Commando moved parallel to us, theirscouts often within sight.The next few days were ones of long tryingmarches, past Mohalea Hoek and Maputseng.We passed several villages, crowds of Basutosaccompanying us, principally women andchild 'en.On 6th February four robust and verylightly attired girls of 17 ~or 18 marchedior