-columns. A few cavalry scouts preceded the brigade:
the main body of the Royal Dragoons, under Lieut.-Colonel J. F.
Burn-Murdoch, watched the left flank, his officers' patrols moving
down to the river's bank, without provoking any fire. Colonel
Burn-Murdoch despatched three successive gallopers to inform General
Hart that these patrols reported the enemy in force on his front and
left. General Hart replied that he intended to cross by the drift in
front of him, and would ignore the enemy on his left, unless they
attacked in strength. The column, therefore, continued to move
steadily on the point, near to the western bend of the loop, where the
sketch had placed the Bridle Drift. But, as the brigade was crossing a
newly-ploughed mealie-field, within 300 yards of the entrance of the
loop, the Brigadier riding at its head perceived that the map was
misleading, and on enquiry, the Kaffir guide pointed up the loop, and
stated, through the interpreter, that it was in that direction that
the ford lay. Almost simultaneously a Boer gun opened on the column
from the underfeature below Grobelaar Mountain, and its shell, passing
over the whole depth of the brigade, burst behind the rear battalion.
A second shell, passing over the heads of the Dublin Fusiliers, fell
in front of the Connaught Rangers. A third almost immediately followed
and knocked over nine men of that battalion. These, the first shots
from the Boer side, were fired by their artillery, in disobedience to
the orders of Louis Botha, who had not given the signal, and hoped to
entice the attack to closer range. The time was now a little after 6
a.m. The Dublin Fusiliers immediately front-formed and extended to the
right; the battalions in rear were deployed to the left in single rank
in quick time, and were subsequently opened out with from two to three
paces interval, the enemy meanwhile continuing to shell them with
shrapnel. The ground on the far side of the river presented a
formidable appearance to these troops while deploying. It rose rapidly
from the left bank to a line of hills, which, towards their crest,
seemed steep, rugged, and inaccessible. After Hart had deployed, his
brigade moved on the same point by rushes, the right half-battalions
being directed on the gorge of the loop, while the left
half-battalions overlapped this gorge, and were cramped by the bank on
their western flank. As the brigade came near the river it was
subjected to a very heavy fire fro