In Chapter 5, Conghill and Skidd described the Battle of Majuba Hill. The battle occurred in South Africa on February 27, 1881. The British forces were massacred, effectively ending the First Boer War.[1]
In the game, Conghill and Skidd served in Her Majesty’s 6th Light Infantry. During the battle, everyone in their unit was killed except for Conghill and Skidd. However, it might not have been the Boer army that killed them. Conghill recounted his experience to Wakefield:
- "The attack of the Boer army had taken us by surprise, and our regiment was forced to split up. We quickly found ourselves alone, just a few men lost on the barren plain… In the cold air of dusk, a thick fog formed quickly, masking everything around us. We could barely see each other."
- —Sgt. Conghill
Conghill felt something nearby, which he described as "a murmur or a beating," [note 1] and he saw that all of his comrades had died. Only Skidd was missing. When Wakefield found Skidd, he corroborated Conghill's story:
- "I will never be able to forget that day. Nobody knew what really happened. Command decided that we must have been ambushed. Now I know better. There was something in that fog. Something that did not like us entering its domain. A... sentinel of some sort. That thing is what killed my soldiers."
- —Cpt. Skidd
- "[Skidd’s] results are extraordinary, Anthony. It is the best chance we have of avoiding the gaze of the Custodian."
- —Devitt
- "There can be no doubt that the Captain survived an encounter before. He even kept a companion from harm."
- —Alexandre
Historical Sources[]
According to historical accounts of the battle, a dense mist formed at dusk, like Conghill described.
- "But night was gathering in rapidly, and a heavy cold mist even at this time was settling over the Majuba heights; it augered ill for the chances of finding those scattered about the slopes and ravines of that terrible mountain."
- —Thomas F. Carter (p. 299)[2]
- "Some Boer leaders saw the sudden descent of a thick mist as God’s way of telling them to go thus far and no further…"
- —John Laband (p. 210)[3]