bank, ten or fifteen yards off, was fired into us, the bullets
passing through the tent of my cart, one of which must have mortally
wounded poor Elliott, who only uttered the single word 'Oh!' and
fell headlong into the river from the carriage. I immediately sprang
in after him, but was swept down the river under the current some
yards. On gaining the surface of the water, I could see nothing of
Elliott, but I called out his name twice, but received no reply.
Immediately another volley was fired at me, making the water hiss
around where the bullets struck. I now struck out for the opposite
bank, which I reached with difficulty in about ten minutes; but as
it was deep, black mud, on landing I stuck fast, but eventually
reached the top of the bank, and ran for about two hundred yards
under a heavy fire the whole while.

The Boers then invaded Natal and took up a position on Laing's Nek,
four miles inside the Natal border, from which, on January 28, Sir
George Colley endeavoured to oust them with a mounted force of 70 men
and some 500 men of the 58th Regiment. The position is one difficult
enough to climb unencumbered by military accoutrements, but the
disposition of the little mounted force covered the approach. By some
unexplained mistake, however, half of the mounted infantry charged
and carried the Boer position before the 58th had climbed the hill,
but were too weak to hold it and retired, leaving the 58th uncovered
in a terrible ascent. But few of the exhausted men reached the top of
the hill, and those, led by Colonel Deane, only to be shot down. Of
the mounted men, 17 were killed and wounded; of the 58th, 73 were
killed and 100 wounded. The result was absolute defeat of the British
forces. The number of Boers engaged is not known, but the force
behind the Nek consisted of several thousands, and no doubt a fair
proportion engaged in the fight.