As soon as the force under Colley had got to
the opposite crest of the ravine through which the river runs, they were
attacked in great force. They took shelter among the boulders, and
fought as bravely as it was possible for men to fight. The guns,
however, were useless, for in half an hour every officer, man and horse,
was killed or wounded. However, the Boers could not pluck up courage to
make a rush, and the little force held on till it was dark, by which
time more than two-thirds of them were killed or wounded. A lot of rain
had fallen, the Boers thought that the Ingogo could not be forded, and
so, believing they would have no trouble in finishing the little force
in the morning, they were careless. Colley, however, sent down and found
that the water had not risen so high as to make it impossible to pass,
and in the darkness, covered by the blinding rain that was falling, he
and the survivors moved quietly off, crossed the river, picked up the
party left on the eminence commanding it, and returned to camp.
"It was certain now that unless succoured our fate was sealed, but
fortunately Evelyn Wood came up to Newcastle with a column that had been
pressing forward from the sea. Colley, of course, ought to have waited
for him to arrive before he moved at all, and if he had done so, things
might have turned out very differently.
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