Frederick Russell Burnham and reporters for the Westinster Gazette and Tuapeka Times

“ And how, let alone horses, the other debris of a troop will tell you what condition they are in. It may say : " These men are reduced to dead horse, served with boiled grass. Press on, and hit them while they're weak." Over - delicate readers, please skip. But how a little thing brings before one in a flash all the cunning and all the hard, brutal necessity of war ! ”

“ Burnham: "About the size of this room, and quite hard. We held it for some time. Wilson jumped on the top of the ant heap and shouted 'Every man pick his nigger.' There was no random firing. I would be covering a man when he dropped to another rifle, and I had to pick another. "Now we had the best of the position. The Matabele came on furiously down the open. Soon we were firing at 200 yards and less, and the turned up shields began to lie pretty thick over the ground. It got too hot for them ; they broke, and took cover in the bush. ”

“ But of course it is by sight we go. In daylight, when the ground is too hard to take footsteps, you must go by a leaf turned here, a blade crumpled there, a stick pressed in, and so on, trying on from one bit to another. ”

“ Taking this account in connection with that of Major Forbes, it seems clear that both Wilson and Forbes underrated the difficulty of each other' 3 position. Major Forbes was expecting to be attacked by an impi himself, and did not like to risk crossing the river with the whole column. He explains that he acted on the assumption that if things were as threatening as was hinted Wilson would have brought his whole patrol back when he sent the three messengers. ”