The week's news from South Africa as to the actual
fighting is, on the whole, satisfactory.. It shows that the new invasion of Natal has failed, and that the attacks on Forts Itala and Prospect, in which the Boers showed a desperate courage, were met with a courage, equally desperate by the British defenders. The full accounts of the attack on these two- forts on the _Zulu border show, indeed, that the defence was one of the'most gallant acts of the war, and one fully worthy to be reniembered for all time in the history of the British
Army. Fort Itala, garrisoned by some three hundred men of the Mounted Infantry, with two guns and a Maxim, was attacked by about two thousand Boers, and after nineteen hours' almost continuous fighting the defenders drove off their assailants, whose casualties are estimated at nearly five hun- dred. The first attack fell on an outpost of some eighty men, who fought with splendid gallantry against great odds. They were overwhelmed after a hand-to-hand fight, though not before they had killed a greater number of the enemy; and thus the main defence was conducted by hardly more than two hundred men. When, after a day and a night's continual attack, the Boers ceased firing and drew off, the British had almost exhausted their water and ammunition. While the attack on Fort Itala was proceeding another large body of Boers attacked a small post called Prospect Camp, held by twenty men and a Maxim. But the gallant little band, though vastly outnumbered, would not give in, and it is said that they accounted for over a hundred Boers. Since Waggon Hill the Boers have not fought with such persistency.
