THE SKETCHES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 55

THE SKETCHES.

THIRTY AGAINST A THOUSAND. The Heroic Stand of Colonel Wilson and His Men Against the Matabeles. The heroic deeds of brave Englishmen will always linger in the minds of their countrymen, and any additional particulars that can be obtained in connection with such deeds are always welcome. A representative of the Matabele Times, a paper published in Buluwayo, recently succeeded in obtaining a narrative from M'Kotchwana, one of the .■warriors of the Inguba regiment which attacked and annihilated Wilson's force. It took some time getting M'Kotchwana to speak of the affair. He was quite ready to talk about the crops, locusts, etc., but it ■was not until he was twitted as to whether lie had ever done anything but till the land like a woman that he spoke. " Yes, my father," he answered, " I have fought in battle," and then he related rbe following account of that grand stand cf 34 Englishmen against overwhelming hordes of an infuriated savage enemy : — - v ''When the white incos Wilson came across the big River Shangani," said the native, "we watched him, and although he 'knew it not, he was surrounded on all sidrss by the remnants of regiments which had fought at the Bembesi, the Imbezu, the Insugameni, the Nyama Indhlovo, and others. At nightfall we missed the white majakas, but toward the rising of the sun, ..TJmjaan, the great chief, came to us and 'said — 'I have heard the white warriors in .the bush; come, let us go and kill them.' -We were about 1000 in number, and without noise we went and surrounded the place ■where the white men had their fire. Two of them were standing up looking into the bush. Some of us made a little noise. One of the white men standing awake went and awoke another man. I think it was their incos. He came" and looked all around into the bush, and then aroused all the other amakiwa. They got up, and I saw they "were busy getting their ammunition ready and saddling their horses. As it drew near the time for the sun to peep over the edge of the world, we started firing at the /white men. They mounted their horses and tried to proceed in the direction of the great Shangani. But our men shot well, and their horses dropped dead. It was a cloudy morning, and the rain fell fine and swiftly. There were as many amakiwa as three times the fingers on my two hands. Most of them had on black covers over their shoulders (capes). " When the white warriors found they could not go on they shot the living horses and stood behind them waiting for us. We fired our guns at the white men, but at first they did not do us much harm, as we were well protected by the trees and bushes. lAs the sun rose we noticed several of the •white warriors lying dead. Umjaan gave orders to rush up to the enemy. We issued from behind the protecting trees and triad to run up to kill all I'Wilson and his party, but they killed many of us with the little guns in their hands and wounded more." " How many were killed and wounded in that first rush, M'Kotchwana?" " As many as six times the fingers on tny two hands — so many," and the old warrior waved his hands six times. "But how many were killed outright?" "So many," and M'Kotchwana signified 40. " Then we went back behind the trees and fired often, till many of the amakiwa fell and few remained. Again Umjaan said — ' Let us kill all that are left,' but some of them said, ' No ; they are brave warriors ; let us leave the life in those who are not yet dead.' But the men of the Imbezu said — ' No ; let us kill all the white men.' "Again we rushed against the few who remained standing. When they saw us coming they made a big singing noise and then shouted three times. They killed more of us. I was struck near the temple and remembered no more. My brother told me afterward that all the white men fell fighting till the end. They were brave men, my father. The next day at sunrise we took all their clothes and skinned the face of the biggest white majaka and took it to Lobengula, who was away one day's journey. Ihe great chief said that was not the skin of the leader. We returned and took yet another skin off the face of a white chief. "When Lobengula saw it he was satisfied. Ec asked whether his Imbezu regiment had done all the killing. When he heard that they had not done more than others, he said — ' Have I then all this time put -my trust in a lump of dirt?' I hajd two_ sons killed that day, my father," said M'Kotcn"wana, "and my brother was shot in the stomach. Ther amakiwa were brave men ; they were warriors." Asked how he obtained possession of the cane, M'Kotchwana said it was on a white ' soldier who was killed before the first rush ; He fell outside the 'ring of dead horses; they thought he was not dead and kept on shooting at his body. When the natives ran up M'Kotchwana seized this cape olf the white man's body. — Chicago InterOcean.