Omitting such small “affairs” as were consequent on the extension and for long purely1 coastal2 expansion of our Empire in Africa after the long war, there is little to record until 1834. The conquest of the Dark Continent had been gradual, and practically commercial. It had been largely based on geographical3 discoveries. War and political occupation followed missionary4 enterprise here as elsewhere. Nothing is more curious to watch than how often the proselyte is followed by the soldier and the sword. The colonist5 and trade follow the first, and with him or them come trade-rum, trade-firearms, and all the so-called blessings6 of civilisation7. After both comes first friction8, then fighting, and finally conquest. These are usually the phases of Anglo-Saxon colonial expansion, unless we add to them the last end of all, the practical extermination9 of the native races.
So it was in America, where the red man is dying out; and so in New Zealand, though to a less degree, for the natives there are of better stock. It is not yet to the same extent in Africa, solely10 because the population, in the latter days of the nineteenth century, is too redundant11. But unless the black can assimilate with the white, he must as assuredly give place to those who have the mental and physical power, as the red man has been driven westward12 against the mountain ridges13 of America.
Asiatics alone, among the races of colour, have held their own, because the people are intellectually sound. In that country, built up of many countries, there has been always,352 as far as historic time goes, civilisation. In Africa there has been none, save that alone of immigrants. In China, again, there is no dread14 of such extermination; its people, though barbaric, are intellectual and more than semi-civilised. In Japan the extreme case is met with. A nation of high artistic15 and intellectual power, not a quarter of a century ago ranking among armour-wearing barbarians16, it has shown its strength in its recent war with China, and won respect and equality among the leading nations of the earth.
This Africa has never done, and its history therefore, as far as Great Britain’s army is concerned, is not that of the barbaric or semi-barbaric powers with whom we have come in contact, but that of savage18 powers who are incapable19 of improvement or absorption, and whose only destiny is to remain hewers of wood and drawers of water. As the red man numbered millions when the eighteenth century was dying, and within a hundred years is far less than a quantité negligéable, so the black man, numbering millions when the nineteenth century is also a-dying, may possibly, before another century, fade out too. There is no room for either, unless the black mends his ways better than the red man did.
The earliest occupation of the African littoral20 was that of the North-West Coast for purely trading purposes, and that of the Cape21 of Good Hope for those of colonial expansion, and as one of the chain of ports uniting our Eastern and Far Eastern possessions with the mother country. In early days they were the dep?ts whence the essential necessaries of food, water, and stores were replenished22. Now they are even more vitally important as the coaling stations for the ocean steamers.
As already referred to, the Cape of Good Hope was seized by conquest in 1805. The West African settlements at Gambia, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, and Lagos, united in 1806 into one government, bear date from 1787, etc., and were made primarily with little serious opposition23. The West African is a less serious fighting personage than either his stalwart brother of Zululand or the “Fuzzy Wuzzy” of the Soudan. There was little antagonism24 at first, that is353 to say, after the conquest of the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch. There was plenty of room for expansion, and the population was for a long time meagre.
But in 1817 the 72nd was engaged in suppressing a rising of the Kaffirs of the Great Fish River; and in 1834 it was again employed against Macomo in the same district. The frontier troubles were getting rather more serious, and the Kaffir invasion of the colony was marked by the usual savage atrocities25. Almost the only military operation of the practically peaceful reign26 of William IV. was the punitive27 expedition of Colonel Peddie’s Highlanders against these tribes.
The frontier, however, still remained restless for some years after this; and in 1843 the tables were somewhat turned, inasmuch as the 91st Regiment29 was despatched to assist the Griquas, who had placed themselves under our protection, against the Boers, on the Orange River.
Shortly after, in 1846, the first serious Kaffir war broke out, and in it the first and reserve battalions32 of the 91st, the 6th, 73rd, 45th, and Rifle Brigade were actively33 engaged for nearly two years. There was much hard fighting in the Amatola Mountains, at Burn’s Hill and Block Drift, and one noteworthy act of bravery may be recorded of Privates Walsh and Reilly, who, when Fort Cox was beleaguered34, managed to convey a despatch30 through the investing savages35 to Governor Maitland.
At the close of the year 1850 the racial antagonism again appeared, and this second Kaffir war lasted until 1853, requiring the services of the 2nd, 6th, 43rd, 45th, 60th, 73rd, 74th, and 91st Regiments36 of the Line, besides the Rifle Brigade, the Cape Mounted Rifles and Colonial Irregulars. The British frontier, when war broke out, was supposed to be represented by the Kei River, between which and the Great Fish River the country had been informally considered more or less neutral. But all buffer37 states are dangers as a rule, and neutral belts are no better. So thought Sandilli, a powerful Kaffir chieftain; jealous of his own waning38 power as that of the white man increased, and also at being deposed354 by the governor of the colony, he broke into open revolt. The country was dense39 forest, roads rare, and the conduct of the war desultory40. To destroy the rude kraals of the enemy, carry off his cattle, cut down his crops to starve him out, and finally assault some central stronghold such as are to be found in hill districts like the Amatolas, or some isolated41 hill honeycombed with caves, was the method of procedure then as it is now. Nothing has changed less in the army’s history than the tactics of savage war, especially in Africa.
Sir Harry42 Smith, who commanded, was not particularly successful either in his conduct of the campaign or in his judgment43 of the military situation. There were several small disasters, such as befell detachments of the 6th and 73rd under Mackinnon at the Keiskamma defile44, and which partook then, and often after, of the nature of ambuscades. A detachment of the 45th escorting a convoy45 was cut off. The garrison46 of Fort Cox was for a time surrounded and completely isolated by the Kaffirs. Meanwhile, numerous European villages were destroyed by the enemy, and in many cases the inhabitants massacred with extreme barbarity and with horrible mutilations.
In the spring of 1852 a determined48 advance was made against the Amatola Mountains, in which was Sandilli’s stronghold, and the Highland28 “tortoises,” as the enemy called the 74th, from a fancied resemblance of their tartans to the markings of the land tortoise of South Africa, after much heavy fighting and hard work, succeeded in clearing the district, but it took until September, when there was a sharp skirmish at Kromme.
Early in October the Kaffirs assembled on the Waterkloof heights, where the fortress49 of Chief Macomo was attacked seven times before the enemy were subdued50. It cost the lives of many officers and men, including that of Colonel Fordyce of the 74th. Thus hostilities51 practically ended, as the expedition across the Orange River against the Basuto chief Moshesh, with the 2nd, 43rd, 73rd, 74th, Rifle Brigade, and 12th Lancers, with some artillery52 and irregulars, was not opposed.
355 The next important outbreak of hostilities occurred on the West Coast. There had been, long before 1873, frequent troubles in the Hinterland of the West Coast settlements. There had even been war about 1824 and 1826, when we had to defeat the natives at Accra, after much previous desultory skirmishing, in one of which Sir Charles Macarthy, the Governor of the Coast, was slain53, and the force with him practically destroyed. There was a further slight disturbance54 in 1863; but in 1870, a more serious dispute arose as to the ownership of Elmina, which we had taken over from the Dutch. Many impolitic acts were committed as regards the assistance that might have been rendered by us to those tribes most exposed to the Ashanti attack, and finally, in January 1873, the Ashanti army crossed the Prah, and attacked the Assims and Fantees, and these after a while were worsted, and the roads to Cape Coast Castle and Elmina were thus left open. The Elminas and Ashantis fraternised, and made an effort to seize the Elmina Fort, but were repulsed55 by Colonel Festing, with some Royal Marines and a Naval56 Brigade; and thus matters remained, with 20,000 Ashantis at Mampon, ten miles distant from the British forts, until the arrival of the expedition commanded by Sir Garnet Wolseley, which reached the coast in October 1874. Partly by way of a diversion, and partly as a punitive expedition, a small force was first sent to Elmina, and landing there, advanced against the allied57 natives at Essiaman, and dispersed58 them with little loss. Native levies59 were raised, and placed under the charge of European officers; posts were prepared, and the road improved between Cape Coast and the Prah, one result of which preparation was the abandonment by the Ashantis of their Mampon camp, and their falling back behind the river. Sundry60 other small expeditions from Dunquah and towards Abracampa also assisted.
In addition to the main advance, another was prepared under Captain Glover and Captain R. Sartorius, and was designed to advance from Accra on Coomassie. It was composed entirely61 of native levies led by a few British officers,356 but did not reach the Ashanti capital until it had been captured and abandoned by the main column.
This was composed of the 2nd Battalion31 of the Rifle Brigade, the 23rd, and the 42nd, and by New Year’s day, 1874, these troops had landed at Cape Coast Castle. No expedition could have been better managed or organised. Every attention was paid to the slightest detail. Sir Garnet’s instructions for the officers, as regards their attention to their men, are more than instructive: they evidence the patient study of details necessary for the well-being62 of his command, which only a careful leader knows to be as essential to success as the fighting of his men when the time for action comes. Sir Garnet’s Notes for the Use of the Troops should be read by everybody who has to conduct a similar campaign.
When the advance began, the stations between the coast and the Prah numbered eight in the sixty-nine miles that covered the distance.
Soon the Prah was reached, the river that the Ashantis believed would never be crossed by a white man; but Lieutenant63 Grant of the 5th crossed it first, none the less. Here the stream, some 70 feet wide and 9 feet deep, was bridged with a crib bridge, and King Koffi Calcali sent ambassadors to treat for peace. But it was too late, even if the barbaric potentate64 could be trusted.
The army pushed on, deserted65 at times by the carriers, and little helped by the native allies; though the black regiments commanded by Russell, Wood, and Webber did some useful work.
The Adansi Hills and Bahrein river were successively crossed, and a skirmish occurred at a village near Adubiassie, in which Captain Nicol was killed; but the first serious battle was that of Amoaful, in which the Ashanti army stubbornly fought for more than five hours before they fell back beaten.
The bush was terribly dense, the tracks were but 8 feet broad. Paths had therefore to be hewn by the engineers in every case where the slightest width of front was necessary.
357 Strong in numbers, and acquainted with the jungle tracks, the Ashantis were able to assail66 both flanks and rear of the column as well as hold it in front. Simultaneous attacks could be, and were, made during and immediately after the battle on the fortified67 posts along the line of communication with the Prah and Cape Coast at Quaman, Fomanah, etc.
The fighting formation that could best meet these difficulties was, as in most of our African wars, a species of square. The advance was made in three columns. The centre, which formed, so to speak, the front face as far as possible, and was composed of the 42nd and the detachment of the 23rd, with Rait’s guns, was to seize the village of Egginassie. The left column, the Naval Brigade, and Russell’s native regiment, with some Royal Engineers and two rocket troughs, was to move by a road cut through the bush some few hundred yards from the central column. The right column was also built up of the Naval Brigade, with another native regiment, and some Engineers and rocket tubes. The 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade formed the reserve or rear face, if required, of the square. The village of Egginassie was occupied with but little opposition, and the firing was continuous and heavy, as the troops advanced farther. Fortunately the missiles were slugs, not bullets, or the loss would have been serious. As it was, many men were hit, some severely68, and Captain Buckle69 was killed. The total casualties amounted to 250, while the Ashanti loss was heavy, and their leader, Ammonquantia, was slain.
The following day the village of Bequah was taken, and further severe skirmishing took place at the passage of the Ordah, which had to be bridged, and while the baggage convoy was being packed at Ordahsu, a further effort was made to disturb the column, and Lieutenant Eyre was killed. Here the defence was half-hearted, and the capture of the capital, Coomassie, was not opposed. It was “a town over which the smell of death hangs everywhere and pulsates70 on each sickly breath of wind—a town where, here and there, a vulture hops71 at one’s very feet, too gorged72 to join the filthy73 flock358 preening74 itself on the gaunt dead trunks that line the road; where blood is plastered like a pitch coating over trees, floors, and stools—blood of a thousand victims yearly-renewed; where headless bodies make common sport; where murder, pure and simple, monotonous75 massacre47 of bound men, is the one employment of the king, and the one spectacle of the populace.”68
One of the many reasons for the war was a wish to put down the barbarous horrors of King Koffi Calcali’s reign, and a stipulation76 to that effect was made in the treaty, but it was disregarded. It required a second expedition to carry the measure into effect, by the deposition77 of the king’s successor, Prempeh, and the bloodless occupation of the capital—measures over which gloom was cast by the death of Prince Henry of Battenberg. Finally, in the first expedition, the city was set on fire, the king’s palace destroyed, and the army turned back to the coast. It was quite time; the rains had set in, and what were rivulets78 on the march up were now unfordable streams on the march back. Men half swam, were half dragged over these, their clothes being carried on the heads of natives. In one case, the bundle was lost, and, it is said that the unfortunate owner paraded the next morning with nothing but his helmet and rifle!
The war was over, and a treaty of peace signed; but after the retirement79 of Sir Garnet Wolseley from Coomassie, Captain Reginald Sartorius, who led the advance of Captain Glover’s force from the Volta, rode alone through the ruins of the city to communicate with the general commanding, and won thus the Victoria Cross. But this expedition was too late to join hands with the main column, though it had some skirmishing on the way; as also were those of Captain Butler with the Akims, and Captain Dalrymple with the Wassaws. Small as the war was, and of very short duration, it was sufficiently80 deadly. By July 9, 1874, thirty-eight officers of the whole force were dead.69
359 Turning once more to South Africa, it will be remembered that the Kaffir wars of 1850–53 had been chiefly fought about the valley of the Kei, south of which river was British Kaffraria, including the tribes of the Fingoes and Gaikas, while in the Transkei district are the Galekas, Pondos, Griquas, etc. The war broke out much as before. The Gaika chief Sandilli and the Galeka chief Kreli attacked our old allies the Fingoes in 1877, and the Kaffirs, being better armed with rifles than in 1850, were now rather more formidable.
The enemy developed an increasing knowledge of tactics. The old irregular rush of a mass of men had given way to more methodical formations. Thus Kreli in his advance on the police post of Ibeka—the frontier police had taken the place of the Cape Mounted Rifles, which had been disbanded—had about 2000 of his 10,000 men mounted, and advanced in line of columns covered by skirmishers. But the fire of the breech-loader, together with that of rockets and 7-pounders, checked then, as before, the savage ardour. The war, which lasted more or less intermittently81 until 1878, was mainly carried out by colonial and irregular levies; but many detachments for holding the defensive82 posts with which the country was dotted were furnished by the 88th, the 24th (whose bandsmen were trained as gunners to work a 7-pounder gun), a naval brigade with marines, the 90th (one of whose men emphasised the value of the Martini-Henry rifle by hitting a man who was whooping83 and dancing 1800 yards away), the 2nd Buffs, and the 13th, and most of these regiments shared in the prolonged war. The losses were more serious both with officers and men, for the better weapons the Kaffirs had secured told.
But the end, though long in coming, was decisive. Kreli surrendered, Sandilli was killed, risings in Griqualand were suppressed, and the Basutos were crushed when their chief Morosi’s heavily-fortified stronghold was stormed. The theatre of war had extended north as far as Mafeking, where there was hard fighting with another Basuto leader named Letherodi.
360 The next campaign against the natives was far more serious than the preceding one. The Zulus were probably the bravest of all these southern tribes, and had some form of discipline, organisation84, and tactics, though their arms—clubs or “knob-kerries,” shields, muskets85 of sorts, and assegais—were much the same as in other parts of Africa, save that the latter were shorter, blunt at the end, and broader in the blade, being intended for stabbing rather than throwing. In other respects the people were bloodthirsty, superstitious86, and sanguinary, given over to “witch doctors” and brutal87 massacres88. There had been frequent raids on the Natal89 frontier by them from 1838 onwards until 1878, when the spirit of restlessness increased, and General Thesiger took command of the army at the Cape, which then consisted of the 3rd, 13th, 24th, 80th, 88th, and 90th Regiments, with two batteries of Artillery and some Engineers. The country was to be invaded by three columns. The first or southern column, under Colonel Pearson, consisted of the Buffs, the 99th, with some Artillery, a Naval Brigade, and local levies; the second or central column was to move from Helpmakaar under Colonel Glyn, and contained the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 24th, a battery, and other levies; and the northern, which was based on Utrecht in the Transvaal, under Colonel Evelyn Wood, in which were a battery and the 13th, 60th, and 90th Regiments. A fourth column under Colonel Durnford was to march later, between the first and second columns.
Opposed to them were supposed to be about 40,000 fighting men. They were organised in large masses, and used skirmishers. Speaking generally, their tactical method was to form a complete ring, if possible, around the body attacked, and then close. On the 12th January 1879 the troops marched, and on the 22nd Pearson had a smart brush with the enemy at Inyezane, but reached his first objective, Etschowe, where a dep?t was to be formed, without further opposition.
The central column had been less fortunate, for, crossing the river at Rorke’s Drift, where a detachment of the 24th361 were left, the small army pushed on to the isolated hill of Isandhlwana. Here, while the general was reconnoitring to the south-east, the Zulu army passed across his front and attacked the camp. A desperate resistance was made, but against 14,000 Zulus there could be only one result. Few of the British escaped, and one colour of the 24th was lost, the “Queen’s colour” of the 1st battalion being carried safely as far as the river by Lieutenants90 Melville and Coghill, who gallantly91 died there in its defence.
This colour was subsequently recovered, and the “regimental” colour had been left safe at Helpmakaar. Of the regular troops 26 officers and 806 men had fallen, and 24 colonial officers and many men had also perished. The only gleam of sunshine on this gloomy and disastrous93 day was the gallant92 defence of the commissariat camp at Rorke’s Drift by Lieutenants Chard and Bromhead of the Royal Engineers and 24th respectively. For when the victorious94 “Impi” continued its advance, it found the post hastily fortified with biscuit-boxes, mealie sacks, and bags of Indian corn, and so desperate was the resistance of the small band, 139 men in all, of whom 35 were sick, against 4000 Zulus, that they fell back beaten. The brave defence had prevented the invasion of Natal, and in all the annals of the army there is no more brilliant episode than the defence of Rorke’s Drift.
Wood’s column had meanwhile reached the White Umvolosi, and while a stone fort was being built there, and named “Fort Tinta,” many reconnaissances were made towards the Zungen range; but though there were many skirmishes, there was on this side no serious fighting yet.
So ended the first stage of the war. The general’s first idea was to fall back on the Tugela and await reinforcements; but, leaving to Colonel Pearson to act on his own discretion95, that officer decided96 on remaining at Etschowe and fortifying97 it. Here for some time he was completely isolated, but several successful raids were made, in one of which Dabiulamanzi’s Kraal was burned. Relief came on the 2nd362 April, when a force under Colonel Low, consisting of a naval brigade, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the Lanarkshire Regiment, detachments of the Buffs and 57th, the 37th, the 60th, with some guns, rocket tubes, and Gatlings, etc., advanced as far as Ginghilovo, and these, when in laager, were attacked by a force 10,000 strong, who fought with the greatest bravery, closing up to the very rifles of the defenders98; but the fire was too heavy, and when they fell back in disorder99, a charge of Barrow’s mounted irregulars completed their discomfiture100. They had lost 1200 men, at a cost to their opponents of 9 men killed and 52, including 2 officers, wounded. After the relief of Etschowe, the force fell back to Ginghilovo and encamped. As the right wing had fought a successful battle and altered its position, so the left wing was to copy its example. For Colonel Wood, leaving Fort Tinta and entrenching101 at Kambula, made many raids thence, including that to the Inhlobane Mountain, a famous natural fastness of the Zulus, where the natives had been for some time collecting. Here the force was attacked by a strong Impi formed in a line of five contiguous columns, forming the “chest” and “two horns,” covered by skirmishers; but, owing to a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, the retirement was effected in some disorder and with much loss. Nearly all the Border Horse were slain, as also was our staunch Boer ally, “splendid, manly102, honest, simple, and taciturn Piet Uys, whose fathers, uncles, and cousins fought and fell in the old war with Dingaan”; while 15 officers and 79 men were killed, and 1 officer and 7 men wounded. But Colonel Buller, Lieutenant Lysons, and Private Fowler, for distinguished103 bravery, earned the Victoria Cross. Success emboldened104 the Zulu chieftains, and, pushing on, they attacked the Kambula laagers on the 20th March, with 25,000 men, and after one of the most serious and prolonged battles of the war, fell back beaten, and were pursued for many miles. Out of the British force of some 2000 men, only 18 men were killed, and 8 officers and 57 men were wounded.
363 As Rorke’s Drift saved Natal from invasion, so Kambula preserved Utrecht and the Transvaal.
An incident in this phase of the campaign was the attack by the Swazi freebooter Umbelini on a convoy, guarded by a detachment of the 80th, when on its way from Luneberg to Derby in the Transvaal, in which the convoy guard lost 62 men out of 106, and Lieutenant Harward, for riding off to get assistance, was tried by court-martial, but acquitted105.
The final stage of the war was approaching. Reinforcements were rapidly arriving. These were the 1st Dragoon Guards and the 17th Lancers, two more batteries, and Royal Engineers, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, 59th, 60th, 91st, and 94th; and among the fresh arrivals was Prince Louis Napoleon, who was appointed an extra aide-de-camp on the headquarter’s staff, and Sir Garnet Wolseley.
The reorganised army again formed three columns, but Wood’s command was to act as an independent flying column in the north; the next column, No. 2 Division, under General Newdigate, and based on Utrecht, moving by Landmann Drift across the Ityolyosi on Ulundi.
It was in a reconnaissance towards the last-named river that Prince Napoleon was slain, an event the sadness of which cannot be over-estimated, and over which it is well to draw a veil. Finally, on crossing the White Umvolosi the 2nd Division was joined by Wood’s column, and, leaving one battalion of the 24th to guard the baggage, the remainder formed a huge hollow rectangle, with the baggage in the centre. Marching in this formation with bands playing and colours flying, until a suitable position was found within sight of the king’s kraal at Ulundi, it there awaited battle four ranks deep, the two front of which knelt. Brave as was the assault, a bravery which asked no quarter, it was powerless against better arms and better discipline. The fight had lasted barely an hour when the Zulu power was utterly106 broken.
Meanwhile, the 1st Division under Crealock on the right had been operating in the south by the lower Tugela and Etschowe, moving somewhat close to the coast and in the364 direction of Ulundi; but through no fault of its own it did not reach the field in time, and when the final battle was won, the army as then constituted was practically broken up. Other arrangements for its distribution were then made, and a series of forts and fortified posts held by sufficient garrisons107 were formed all along the Zulu frontier. But the closing scene had yet to come. Two columns were formed for the final military exploration of Zululand, the one under Colonel Clarke, which had among its number the 57th, 60th, and 80th, and the other under Colonel Baker108 Russell, which included the 94th. The former was to occupy Ulundi, and thence attempt the capture of the king. This was effected by Major Marter after much trouble, and the war was thus at an end. On being captured, Cetewayo remained, though broken, a king, and objected with dignity to being taken by a private of dragoons, with the words, “White soldier, touch me not—I surrender to your chief.”
Baker Russell was to search the southern and eastern part of the country, and after doing so, enter the Transvaal about Luneberg. This was done, and the last shots in the Zulu war were fired by his column in an attack on the Manganobas in the Intombe valley.
The war had cost the army 76 officers and 1007 men killed, and 37 officers and 206 men wounded; while in addition 17 officers and 330 men died from disease, and 1286 were invalided109 home. The cost to the country financially had been ￡5,230,323.
Sir Garnet Wolseley’s lucky star had again shone over him in these operations. His presence in South Africa coincided with the period of success and the capture of Cetewayo. There was one more knotty110 point for him to settle, that of the still insurgent111 chief Sekukuni, who had been a thorn in the side of the Boers, whose territory we then possessed112. It will be seen next how his good fortune, based on careful attention to details both moral and physical, led to the surrender of the last disturbing element in this section of South Africa,—at least as far as the natives were concerned.
365 It may be considered a matter of regret that the State did not undertake the annexation113 of Zululand, as it did the absorption of Indian tribes a century ago. Our brave but bitter enemies, the Sikhs, have become our most reliable soldiers in India. Similarly there was no personal hostility115 when war ceased between the Zulu and the English soldier; rather the reverse. They had received the elements of military organisation, and had shown themselves apt pupils in applying them. To have substituted for Panda’s discipline and training that of our own army under able and skilful116 officers, accustomed to make of native levies regiments more or less irregular but of the highest military value, would have been easy with our Eastern experience. A Zulu militia117, well trained, well armed, and led by whites, would have conduced to the peace of South Africa as much as Sikhs, Beloochees, and Ghoorkas do to the preservation118, by military means, of peace among the discordant119 elements, both national and theological, which go to make up our great Eastern satrapy. Such a force would have fought for brave leaders, and with them, as the hastily raised levies of the Mutiny fought for Fane, or Probyn, or Hodson.
Such an army, created mainly for defensive, and not necessarily offensive, purposes, would have created a military peace. Fear of it would have kept turbulent and restless peoples in wholesome120 fear. Trained and led by British officers, it would have been the police of South Africa at the smallest possible cost to the English State. To have kept alive the military instinct of the Zulu, to have instilled121 into him the soldier’s habit of discipline and cleanliness, would have saved him.
We have won South Africa purely and simply by the sword and so must we keep it. But we could keep it best—as we keep the peace in India—by not ignoring the military spirit of the people, but by showing the justice of our rule, and keeping alive the soldier feeling as a national police. Any other course is impossible with savage or semi-barbarous people. Nothing is despised more than a weakness which they366 translate as fear. It is a fatal day when a nation, whose history throughout is one of conquest, forgets how she has made the empire, and thinks to hold it by other means, such as by a popular opinion which it takes centuries to create and make good. To forget the traditions of the race is equally fatal. Our empire was never made by concessions122; it was made by forcible possession, and that, as a general rule certainly, for the eventual123 benefit, as far as civilisation is concerned, of the people we have conquered. The neglect of this is at the bottom of the disastrous campaign that followed the destruction of the Zulu power.
“Vestigia nulla retrorsum.” To go back is weakness with all except the highest intellectual nations. We took the Transvaal, and stated that the former condition of things there should never be restored! The wisdom of the first step may be a matter of opinion. The evil of the “afterwards” is another question altogether.
Anyhow, our annexation of the Transvaal in 1877 had led to collision with Sekukuni, a turbulent Basuto chieftain, and at first the operations taken against him were unsuccessful, Colonel Rowland’s force, which included a company of the 13th, having to fall back to Lydenburg. During the Zulu campaign he had openly sympathised with Cetewayo, and had had frequent skirmishes with the Transvaal Boers. When, therefore, the Zulu war terminated, Sir Garnet Wolseley’s attention was turned towards this constant source of trouble, and in October 1879 he moved against the “fighting Koppie” with detachments of the 21st Royal Scots Fusiliers, 86th, and 94th, in all 1400 European troops, and 4000 native levies, to meet a force estimated at 14,000 men, strongly entrenched124. The district occupied by Sekukuni lies in a bend between the junction125 of the Oliphant and Steelpoort rivers, and was surrounded by fortified posts. The fortress itself was naturally strong: “Its whole interior was honeycombed by nature, intersected by passage and gallery, leading into great chambers126 with chinks, clefts127, and crannies, forming natural loopholes for musketry, and in one place there yawned an appalling128 chasm129 which had never been367 fathomed130, and was believed to contain water at the bottom. When in the agonies of thirst on the third day of their blockade, some of Sekukuni’s people went down by means of great leather thongs131 tied together, none of them ever came up again; no more was heard from them.” This is a good type of the African rock-fortress.
On the 28th of November the attack was made, and was fully132 successful, but some of the caves still held many who would not surrender, and who preferred rather to die of thirst and starvation than give up either themselves or their chief. The conduct of these warriors133 was chivalric134 in its devotion to Sekukuni, who did not surrender until the 2nd December, and was then conveyed to Pretoria. There the 4th, 58th, 80th, the 1st Dragoon Guards, and Curling’s battery paraded for a review of the largest body of regular troops yet seen in that town, and Commandant D’Arcy as well as Privates Flawn and Fitzpatrick of the 94th received the Victoria Cross. Sir Garnet Wolseley left the Transvaal with a small garrison, and, he thought, at peace.
So it might have been had there been greater firmness and more tact17 displayed after he left. But there was friction between the British and the Dutch settlers, who had refused to remain under our rule long years before. In 1845, three companies of the 91st and some Cape Mounted Rifles defeated 500 Boers, who fled after making but a faint resistance. Collision again occurred in 1848 at Boomplatz, the second of a series of small conflicts which one by one have sought to wrest135 from the Boers the territories they had conquered and in part reclaimed136. The tendency throughout had been to treat them as only another sort of semi-barbarous occupant, to be got rid of when their land was wanted by others. In this skirmish were engaged some companies of the 45th, 91st, and Rifle Brigade, with two squadrons and two guns, and they routed a Boer command, estimated at 1000 strong, though strongly entrenched behind breastworks of piled stones. There was but little loss on either side, and it is said that a drummer of the 91st, tired of the long waiting, while the men were lying down firing, himself368 beat the charge, and the men went in with cheers, and the enemy fled without an effort to rally. Then they retired137 behind the Vaal to form the Transvaal Republic, and in 1851 the Orange River Territory, which had been annexed138 by us in 1848, was relinquished139 to form the “Orange Free State.” But now for reasons that the future historian will wonder at, we annexed the Transvaal. Our past experience of the Boer had taught us nothing. Anyone who will read the Parliamentary Blue Book and Colonel Brackenbury’s despatches must see that war was inevitable140. Yet, with a fair knowledge of what Boers were, and with an idea of superiority which was to have a rude awakening141, we entered into a serious war with a light heart and with a force that was insufficient142 to meet even a Zulu impi. The war is remarkable143 in every way, primarily as the first instance, since the firearm was introduced, in which regular soldiers came under careful, well-directed, aimed, rifle fire, and were in every case beaten. The only parallel instance is that of the war of American Independence. There also a people goaded144 into fighting by wrong were victorious; and succeeded both because the justice of their cause strengthened their moral fibre, and their guerilla warfare145, for it was often little else, was in many cases accompanied by careful shooting. But the difference in the nature of the weapons at the end of the eighteenth and that of the nineteenth century is so great as to mark, by the heavy loss the defeated troops sustained, the terrible nature of modern rifle fire when carefully directed.
The Transvaal had been annexed in 1877, though in 1852 it had been recognised as a free and independent State; the reason assigned, among others equally unreasonable146, being that the State was bankrupt. The true Boer, the “Dopper,” is the descendant as much of French Huguenots as of the Dutch employees of the East India Company. “They are,” writes Sir William Butler, “a homely147, sober, quiet, dull race of beings, as full of faith in God and fair dealing148 between man and man as this world holds sample of.” Doubtless there are many exceptions to their character as thus drawn149, but the369 vast majority agreed in one thing, protest against the loss of their freedom. Meeting succeeded meeting, appeal followed appeal. To threats of force the answer was, “We do not rely upon regiments, but on right.” When, therefore, the storm burst, there were but three battalions (the 21st, 58th, and 94th) of regulars in the Transvaal, with a detachment of the 4th, a squadron of the King’s Dragoon Guards, and a battery of artillery, while the nearest reinforcements were the 3-60th in Natal, and the 91st at the Cape.
Hostilities began in this way. In December 1880, the 94th, about 250 strong, under Colonel Anstruther, was acting150 as convoy guard on the road from Lydenberg to Pretoria. On crossing Brunker’s Spruit, they were opposed by 150 Boers, who opened fire when Anstruther, on being informed of the declaration of the Republic, refused to retire, and in twenty minutes 120 men were hors de combat, of whom 7 were officers. Mrs. Smith, the wife of the bandmaster, who was shot by her side, and was herself wounded, behaved with the greatest gallantry in assisting the wounded, and was afterwards given the silver medal for deeds of gallantry on land. Meanwhile the isolated garrisons in the Transvaal at Pretoria, Rustenberg, Wakkerstroom, Standerton, Heidelberg, Lydenberg, Middleberg, Fort Victoria, Fort Albert, and Marabos Stadt, were more or less invested, and the Boers, crossing the Natal frontier, placed a strong force à cheval the road from Newcastle to Standerton about Laing’s Nek.
Open sympathy with the Boers increased rapidly and came from all sources, the Cape, the Orange Free State, the Dutch in Holland, and even Belgium. Every effort was made to bring about an understanding, but all to no effect. The evil cry on our side, “Restore us our prestige and then we will treat” prevented peace as yet. So a “relief” column left Newcastle for Potchefstroom and Pretoria, under Sir George Pomeroy Colley, consisting of detachments of the 58th, 60th, 2nd Scots Fusiliers, and a naval brigade with 6 guns and 2 Gatlings, but the total strength was not 1000 men. A purely frontal attack, by men conspicuous151 with white helmets, against the steep and partly entrenched position of the370 Boers at Laing’s Nek, on the 28th January 1881, met with a severe reverse, 208 men being killed and 80 wounded. The fighting had been close, for, as Joubert reports, “One of the officers even fired in among our men with his revolver before he was shot, but then the Lord helped us!”
The reverse was somewhat startling to those who thought there would be no opposition. Two companies of the Gordon Highlanders were hurried up to Mount Prospect152 Camp, between which and Colley’s base at Newcastle ran the Ingogo River. It was south of this stream that the second fight took place, and was brought about by despatching a force, including some of the King’s Dragoon Guards and the 60th, to assist in covering a convoy which was expected from Newcastle; but as the Boers had already interposed between Newcastle and the Ingogo, it had returned to the town. The ground favoured the tactical skill of the foe153, “men who could neither march, man?uvre, nor even form sections of fours, but were resolute154 in heart, muscular in figure, and deadly marksmen, who were accustomed to bring down the fleet springbok at full speed from their saddles, and stalk all the great game with which Southern Africa abounds155.”
So the British loss was heavy. Most of the killed were shot through the head as they essayed to fire over the boulders156 that sheltered them; the two guns were soon disabled, and the wearied remnant returned to camp, with a loss of 132 officers and men. Still, the men had behaved well and coolly, and suffered no panic.
Private 24th Regt 1879
Meanwhile, reinforcements consisting of the 92nd, 2-60th, the 15th Hussars, a naval brigade, and the Natal Police under Sir Evelyn Wood, met Sir George at Newcastle. The additional cavalry157 had enabled the general to make more extended reconnaissances round the Boer left, which proved that they were still entrenching, and showed no signs of wishing to avoid battle. On the evening of the 26th February, General Colley played his last card, and lost his life as well. Contrary to usual custom, he formed, with the utmost secrecy158, a force to occupy Majuba Hill, an isolated and371 precipitous koppie, which to a certain extent dominated the right flank of the Laing’s Nek position. It was made up of detachments of the Highlanders, the 58th, the 2-60th, and 65 bluejackets, in all some 545 bayonets. In the advance, made in the dark, a company of the 92nd and one of the 60th, with a dismounted troop of hussars, were left at a point about midway between the hill and the camp, and the remainder stumbled on, and after great exertion159, about 5 a.m., reached the summit. This was a saucer-shaped plateau about 1000 yards round, and when day broke, the presence of British soldiers produced wild confusion in the Boer camp. But not for long. While one portion hastened to man the trenches160 at Laing’s Nek, the rest rode towards Majuba, and, dismounting, opened fire. It was said at the time that the “covering party” consisted of the married men, the storming column of the single men who could best be spared. Be that as it may, between twelve and one the fire suddenly increased in intensity161 and the assault was made. It was only too successful. The British were driven from it in the utmost disorder, and left behind them Sir George Colley and 18 other officers, with 218 men killed, wounded, or missing, of about 600 men who had left Prospect Camp the night before. One instance of devoted162 bravery marked the terrible day, and for it Corporal Joseph John Farmer got the Cross for Valour, for, “while the Boers closed with the British troops near the well, Corporal Farmer held a white flag over the wounded, and when the arm holding the flag was shot through, he called out that he had another. He then raised the flag with the other arm, and continued to do so until that also was pierced by a bullet.”
The Boer loss is stated, by themselves, to have been between 24 and 50, but the details are very conflicting. An armistice163 was soon agreed to between the belligerents164, during which the army, now commanded by Sir Evelyn Wood, consisted of the 6th Dragoons, 15th Hussars, and a squadron of the King’s Dragoon Guards, 14 guns, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 60th, the relics165 of the 58th, the372 83rd, 92nd, and 97th, together with a naval brigade and some mounted infantry166. Finally peace was declared, and the beleaguered garrisons were relieved.
No war of such small magnitude, as far as the numbers engaged are concerned, has left more grave results. For long years after the peace was signed, the Boers showed the greatest arrogance167 towards all British subjects, whether civilians168 or soldiers, and in many cases it was accompanied with open and undisguised insult. The surrender of the Transvaal was ruin to many an Englishman who, “confiding in the public declaration of Sir Garnet Wolseley and Sir Bartle Frere that the annexation of the Transvaal was irrevocable, had invested capital in the country, and their property was now worthless and their capital lost, owing to their having put faith in the words of Her Majesty’s representative.” But the blame does not rest with him.
The disastrous war had cost in all 29 officers killed and 20 wounded, and 366 men killed, with 428 wounded.
One result of the British defeat in the Transvaal was to increase, not unnaturally169, the restlessness of the Boers. Both Zululand and Bechuanaland suffered from unauthorised incursions of what were really filibusters170, whose efforts at colonial expansion were too frequently attended with murder. In one of these, against Chief Montsoia, an Englishman named Bethel was barbarously murdered, and hence an expedition was despatched, under Sir Charles Warren, to Bechuanaland in 1884. An attempt had been made by the Boers to annex114 Montsoia’s territory, which, by the Convention of 1884, was under our Protectorate; there was no doubt, moreover, that the whole of the disturbances171 had been directed from the Transvaal, and if not distinctly fostered by that Government, met with its tacit approval. But hostilities were happily averted172. President Kruger met Sir Charles Warren in conference, and the conflicting clauses were adjusted. But the operations, insignificant173 as they may seem militarily, were politically important. They, temporarily at least, restored the position of Great Britain as the paramount174 power in South Africa.373 The last collision in the Transvaal between Dr. Jameson’s troopers, led by British officers, and the Boers of Pretoria, etc., was decisive in another way; but it is not a part of the story of the regular army, and is of too recent occurrence to be commented on here.
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1
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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2
coastal
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| adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的 | |
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geographical
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| adj.地理的；地区(性)的 | |
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missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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colonist
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| n.殖民者，移民 | |
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6
blessings
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| n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福 | |
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7
civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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friction
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| n.摩擦，摩擦力 | |
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extermination
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| n.消灭，根绝 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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redundant
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| adj.多余的，过剩的；(食物)丰富的；被解雇的 | |
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westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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13
ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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15
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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16
barbarians
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| n.野蛮人( barbarian的名词复数 )；外国人；粗野的人；无教养的人 | |
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17
tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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18
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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19
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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littoral
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| adj.海岸的；湖岸的；n.沿（海）岸地区 | |
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21
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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22
replenished
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| 补充( replenish的过去式和过去分词 )； 重新装满 | |
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23
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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antagonism
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| n.对抗，敌对，对立 | |
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atrocities
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| n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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punitive
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| adj.惩罚的，刑罚的 | |
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highland
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| n.(pl.)高地，山地 | |
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regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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despatch
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| n./v.(dispatch)派遣；发送；n.急件；新闻报道 | |
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battalion
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| n.营；部队；大队(的人) | |
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battalions
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| n.（陆军的）一营（大约有一千兵士）( battalion的名词复数 )；协同作战的部队；军队；（组织在一起工作的）队伍 | |
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actively
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| adv.积极地，勤奋地 | |
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beleaguered
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| adj.受到围困[围攻]的；包围的v.围攻( beleaguer的过去式和过去分词)；困扰；骚扰 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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buffer
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| n.起缓冲作用的人(或物)，缓冲器；vt.缓冲 | |
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waning
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| adj.（月亮）渐亏的，逐渐减弱或变小的n.月亏v.衰落( wane的现在分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡 | |
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39
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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desultory
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| adj.散漫的，无方法的 | |
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isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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44
defile
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| v.弄污，弄脏；n.(山间)小道 | |
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45
convoy
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| vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队 | |
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46
garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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47
massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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48
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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49
fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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50
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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51
hostilities
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| n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事 | |
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52
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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53
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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54
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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55
repulsed
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| v.击退( repulse的过去式和过去分词 )；驳斥；拒绝 | |
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56
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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57
allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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58
dispersed
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| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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59
levies
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| （部队）征兵( levy的名词复数 )； 募捐； 被征募的军队 | |
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sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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62
well-being
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| n.安康，安乐，幸福 | |
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lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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potentate
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| n.统治者；君主 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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assail
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| v.猛烈攻击，抨击，痛斥 | |
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67
fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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68
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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69
buckle
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| n.扣子，带扣；v.把...扣住，由于压力而弯曲 | |
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pulsates
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| v.有节奏地舒张及收缩( pulsate的第三人称单数 )；跳动；脉动；受（激情）震动 | |
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71
hops
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| 跳上[下]( hop的第三人称单数 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花 | |
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72
gorged
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| v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的过去式和过去分词 )；作呕 | |
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73
filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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74
preening
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| v.（鸟）用嘴整理（羽毛）( preen的现在分词 ) | |
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75
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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76
stipulation
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| n.契约，规定，条文；条款说明 | |
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77
deposition
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| n.免职，罢官；作证；沉淀；沉淀物 | |
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78
rivulets
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| n.小河，小溪( rivulet的名词复数 ) | |
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79
retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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80
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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81
intermittently
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| adv.间歇地；断断续续 | |
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82
defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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83
whooping
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| 发嗬嗬声的，发咳声的 | |
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84
organisation
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| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
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85
muskets
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| n.火枪，（尤指）滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 ) | |
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86
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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87
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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88
massacres
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| 大屠杀( massacre的名词复数 )； 惨败 | |
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89
natal
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| adj.出生的，先天的 | |
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90
lieutenants
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| n.陆军中尉( lieutenant的名词复数 )；副职官员；空军；仅低于…官阶的官员 | |
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91
gallantly
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| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
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92
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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93
disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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94
victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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95
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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96
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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97
fortifying
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| 筑防御工事于( fortify的现在分词 )； 筑堡于； 增强； 强化（食品） | |
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98
defenders
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| n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者 | |
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99
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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100
discomfiture
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| n.崩溃；大败；挫败；困惑 | |
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101
entrenching
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| v.用壕沟围绕或保护…( entrench的现在分词 )；牢固地确立… | |
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102
manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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103
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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104
emboldened
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| v.鼓励，使有胆量( embolden的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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105
acquitted
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| 宣判…无罪( acquit的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（自己）作出某种表现 | |
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106
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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107
garrisons
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| 守备部队，卫戍部队( garrison的名词复数 ) | |
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108
baker
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| n.面包师 | |
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109
invalided
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| 使伤残（invalid的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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110
knotty
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| adj.有结的，多节的，多瘤的，棘手的 | |
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111
insurgent
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| adj.叛乱的，起事的；n.叛乱分子 | |
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112
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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113
annexation
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| n.吞并，合并 | |
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114
annex
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| vt.兼并，吞并；n.附属建筑物 | |
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115
hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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116
skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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117
militia
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| n.民兵，民兵组织 | |
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118
preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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119
discordant
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| adj.不调和的 | |
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120
wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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121
instilled
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| v.逐渐使某人获得（某种可取的品质），逐步灌输( instill的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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122
concessions
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| n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权 | |
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123
eventual
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| adj.最后的，结局的，最终的 | |
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124
entrenched
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| adj.确立的，不容易改的(风俗习惯) | |
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125
junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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126
chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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127
clefts
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| n.裂缝( cleft的名词复数 )；裂口；cleave的过去式和过去分词；进退维谷 | |
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128
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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129
chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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130
fathomed
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| 理解…的真意( fathom的过去式和过去分词 )； 彻底了解； 弄清真相 | |
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131
thongs
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| 的东西 | |
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132
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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133
warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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134
chivalric
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| 有武士气概的，有武士风范的 | |
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135
wrest
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| n.扭，拧，猛夺；v.夺取，猛扭，歪曲 | |
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136
reclaimed
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| adj.再生的；翻造的；收复的；回收的v.开拓( reclaim的过去式和过去分词 )；要求收回；从废料中回收（有用的材料）；挽救 | |
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137
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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138
annexed
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| [法] 附加的，附属的 | |
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139
relinquished
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| 交出，让给( relinquish的过去式和过去分词 )； 放弃 | |
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140
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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141
awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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142
insufficient
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| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
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143
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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144
goaded
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| v.刺激( goad的过去式和过去分词 )；激励；（用尖棒）驱赶；驱使（或怂恿、刺激）某人 | |
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145
warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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146
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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147
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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148
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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149
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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150
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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151
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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152
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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153
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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154
resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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155
abounds
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| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的第三人称单数 ) | |
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156
boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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157
cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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158
secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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159
exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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160
trenches
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| 深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕 | |
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161
intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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162
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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163
armistice
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| n.休战，停战协定 | |
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164
belligerents
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| n.交战的一方（指国家、集团或个人）( belligerent的名词复数 ) | |
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165
relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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166
infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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167
arrogance
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| n.傲慢，自大 | |
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168
civilians
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| 平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓 | |
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169
unnaturally
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| adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地 | |
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170
filibusters
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| n.掠夺兵( filibuster的名词复数 )；暴兵；（用冗长的发言）阻挠议事的议员；会议妨碍行为v.阻碍或延宕国会或其他立法机构通过提案( filibuster的第三人称单数 )；掠夺 | |
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171
disturbances
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| n.骚乱( disturbance的名词复数 )；打扰；困扰；障碍 | |
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172
averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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173
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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174
paramount
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| a.最重要的，最高权力的 | |
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