Note 75 — CAMPAIGNS IN SOUTH AFRICA. 1834–5.

“At the moment he was hit, he was giving directions to a company of his own well-loved corps, which was skirmishing in the bush, and the position of which he wished to alter a little. Whilst raising his arm to indicate the ground he alluded to, a huge Hottentot stepped rapidly from a thick clump close by, and delivered the fatal shot; observing with characteristic cunning the irreparable mischief he had done, he screeched out, in hellish accents, ‘Johnny, bring stretcher,’ and, turning on his heel, dived into the clump again before the infuriated 74th. could wreak their vengeance upon him.

“Fordyce lived a quarter of an hour after receiving his death-wound. The ball had passed through his abdomen; and, as he was borne away in the consciousness of approaching death, he was just able to utter, in faint accents, the words—‘Take care of my poor regiment—I am ready,’ when he passed placidly away.”—United Service Magazine, April, 1852.