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CHASE OF
FREDERICK HOPPIN HOWLAND
THE CHASE OE DE WET.
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in
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University of Toronto
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FREDERICK
HOPPIN
HOWLAND.
THE CHA8E OF DE WET

Amy
OTHER LATER PHASES OF THE BOER WAR

AS SEEN BY AN AMERICAN
CORRESPONDENT
BY
FREDERICK HOPPIN ROWLAND

WAR CORRKSPONDENT FOR THE LOXDOX DAILY
.MAIL
AND THE PROVIDENCE JOLRXAL
PROVIDENCE
PRESTON AND ROUNDS COMPANY

1901
COPTRIGHT,
19U1,
Fredeuick Hoppin Howlanu.
TO
M. H. H.
CONTENTS
Cliapter.
ra,iic.
I.
II.
From
Bay
the Solent to Table
Cape Town
in 1900,
(!
III.
The Censor at Jiloemfontein,
IV.
Seeking the Elusive Front,
18
The Front
.>0
y.
yi.
yu.
The
at Last,
Land
^"ast
Fitting
i;5
of the IJoers,
40
>ut for the Front,
,j2
VIII.
The Relief of Yryburg,
.-,<)
IX.
Invading the Transvaal
G8
X.
Incidents of the Marcli,
7.")
XI.
XII.
XIII.
Xn'.
XV.
X^'I.
XXIF.
-Will.
Wet
Outwitting De
at Potchefstroon:,
Peace-Making with Lord
^Vitll
De Wet
Bay on
Bay
at
Legins,
118
Vaal,
tlie
130
at Vredefort,
i:]8
Wolf,
148
Own
Boer on
XX.
'I'lie
Lessons of the Chase,
The Home
Kx;
114
De Wet
of
.\t
....
Hunter Again,
The Chase
s.")
!1G
^letliuen.
Tlic
XXII.
Seeking Lord ]\Iethuen,
XL\.
XXI.
liis
153
llcatli,
171
Trail,
The Men Who Fight England's
182
J}attles,
188
CHAPTER
From the Solent to
I.
Taisle Bay.
The good ship " Scot," still, I believe, holder of the

record between The Needles and Green Point, drew
alongside her dock at Cape Town, on her fourth
outward voyage from England, on the nnjrning of
Wednesday, April
24, 190(),
No
Southampton.
seventeen days out from
one who loves the sea can re-
gret an hour spent in those jileasant waters that
between Cape Finisterre and the Cape

AVe had touched at Madeira, that
garden spot, sunning
itself so
of
ill-kept,
lie
Good Hope.
picturesque
smilingly in the lovely
summer sea, and had spent a few boisterous hours

bumping over the greasy cobble-stones of Funchal
in
palanquins drawn by diminutive bullocks and rest-
ing on primitive runners, in deference to the local
Portuguese prejudice against wheels.

to sea again, with course
Cai)e de Yerde,
noble peak of
we had gazed
in
Tenerifi'e, rising
awe next day
glimpse of
it
the afternoon did

its
in
it
at the
sheer out of the sea
to its majestic height of 12,000 feet.

first
Putting out
shaped due south to round
AVe caught our
the dawn, and not until late in
flash its last greeting to us
gleaming pinnacle.
And
from
as the ship cleaved her
placid Avay through the tropics and across the line,
THE CHASE OF DE WET.
our faces caressed
l)y
the soft aud constant trade
winds, we leaned for hours
af>'ainst
the
the dolphins lazily tumhlino- over the
and the tiny
The
rip})ling-
waves
them the most
terrifying
monsters of the deep that they spend their
harassed lives
to find
watching-
skimming- away from the
fl3dng--fishes
sides of the great ship, to

of all the
rail,
ship's
in fleeing from.
company were such
as one
voyaging out to South Africa
The British army,
that year of grace.
to retrieve the disasters suffered
would expect
in the spring of
just
beginning
under Methuen and
Gatacre and Buller, was represented on board by

half a dozen
young
Avay from India via
Bloemfontein
at a glance,
need
the
all
to join his regiment at
he and a few of the others, you knew
were of the type of
in Africa
of blood
One had come
officers.
England
M'hicli
there was sore
keen-eyed, stalwart, intelligent
and mettle.
The others were
militia variety, afiecting petty

calciilated to invite attention
of the
men
raw
mannerisms and poses
from the women aboard
the kind that spoke contemptuously of " outsiders,

and that one
Avas sure to find later stellenho^cJied in
some out-of-the-wav corner

watched them come down
far
from the
front.
You
to dinner heavily capari-
soned, and sighed to realize that you would probably
not be able to hear what Kitchener would say to
them
first
in the
mess
dread hour when they should make their
of things.
Then there was a trooper
of
FROM THE SOLENT TO TABLE
BAY.
Stratlicoua's Horse, a reckless, devil-may-care fellow,
who, after teu years of rougli
life in
the Northwest
war
Territory, craved the excitement of
in Africa
and an elderly retired Colonel from Wales,
Godspeed
to bid
front, as
out
to a son about to start for the
he explained to us
twelve hours at
goins;-
all
before
we had been
In the minds of
sea.
war was uppermost, though, with the
all
these the
instinctive an-
tipathy of the Englishman against "talking shop,"

the}"
seldom spoke of
at those rare intervals
ward bound,
in the interest with
the ship's officers

signal Hags.
tlie
still
meaning
only
home-
message
The
of the
No
news,"
Little
Man "
"
resting at Bloemfontein after Paardeburg.
arms claimed two naval
One, retired before his time, had made a
failure of life
front to
it
a ship
which they asked
of the
relief that "
Finally, the profession of

officers.
proof of
The answer each time was
and we realized with
was
You saw
it.
when we passed
and was seeking an opportunity
redeem a wasted
past.
at the
The other was on the
threshold of a career which, I like to assure myself,
be marked with l^rilliant service. High bred,

"tight and taut from truck to keelson " one might say
will
in nautical parlance, his actions reflected
the recklessness of youth
and so
jolly,
giving off so
somewhat
but he was withal so manly
much
of the frankness
and
the freshness of the sea, of that In-ave, free spirit
with which the sea endows the sailor, that we
all
4
to
g-rieved
anchor
see liim over the side as
off Fiinchal, wdiere
Of the
he
left
we
drop]ied
us to join his
men, temporarily released from the London

tlie
Daily Mad, with leave to
Avas
office of
indulg-e in a brief vaca-
To the other passengers
tion at Madeira.
shiji.
were pale-faced newspaper
rest of us, twô
the war
an event of interest only because of
its effect
They were mostly
colonists
upon
their biisiuess.
returning from a visit home, or gathering at Cape
Town
to be ready for the half expected collapse of
the Boer resistance that would start the wheels of
business turning again.
Scattered
among these were
a consignment of raw youngsters going out to take
up positions as clerks in the Standard Bank

Two young married women, one
Africa.
going' out to be nearer her husband, from
had been parted
l)y
but fragile Colonial
who smoked
less
list
South
a bride,
whom
she
the outbreak of the war; a bright

girl
another army
cigarettes on deck, but
charming
up the
of
and a couple
officer's
of nursing sisters
of fair passengers
wife
was none the
made
and contributed the
necessary element of frivolity.
The time passed
as
it
usually does under such cir-
cumstances, given a company resigned to such congeniality as

of
much
was
restraint
possible,
and aided by an absence
and an atmosphere slightly flavored
with the recklessness due to an appreciation of the

fortunes and risks of war.
There
Avere
harmless
THE
FEO.Ar
S(,)LEXT
TO TABLE BAY.
sports on deck in the daytime, o-ames of a less iunoc-
nons character
in the
smokino--room in the eveniuo-s,
and the daily auction pool on the ship's run, which

brought
its
usual revelations of the characters of
Then the baud played
winners and losers.

three times a day
aud
in
for us
the placid equatorial
waters, through which the ship ploughed
its
way on
an even keel for days and nights together we danced

in the
romping English
fashion, on the moonlit deck
of an evening.
It
was
a pleasant life that
we took
enough.
But
of Table
Mountain, grim symlwl of a
world.
it
was
all
forgotten in the
to willingly
tirst
glimpse
verj^ different
"
CHAPTER
Cape Town
Cape Town looks very

verdure
nestling- in the
II.
in 1000.
fair as
tliat
seen from the sea,
covers the l)ase of that
great, overtowering rock that is one of the sights of
the world.
Impressive, too,
is
one's
first view" of
As
harbor and the innumerable docks.
the
the " Scot
steamed slowly up to her berth on that rare April

morning, the busy
army's chief
life of
base of
a great port and of a great
supplies was
about
all
us.
Transports just arrived from England, from Canada,
from Australia, and from India, huge numbers on

their bows,
crowded the roads or riibbed noses
at the
docks with full-rigged ships from China or tramps
from the Brazils.

just discharged
Steamers with the cargoes of war
were hurrying past us out to
meet others heavily laden hurrying

ing'-sided warships
swung
chors here and there.
in.
sea, to
Great, gleam-
majestically at their an-
A forest
of slender
masts and
massive funnels hemmed us in so closely that it seemed

as
if
filled
there could he no Avay forth.
And
the air was
with the staccato pufiiug and rattling of busy
donkey engines, the creaking
of derrick arms, the
hoarse voices of ship's officers calling out orders to
CAPE TOWN
IX 19()U.
the crews and wliarf Kaffirs emptying and
and with
tilling-
the accompanying' sounds of
all
holds,
and
stir
bustle that go with such a scene.
But
ise it
at a nearer
view the town
held out from
was
It is true there
afar.
prom-
l)elied the fair
life
you threaded your way in the

enough about you
dingy cab out of the labyrinth of docks into Adderley
There all was martial l)ustle, and the tint of
street.
as
Squads
khaki was everywhere.
of soldiers
afoot,
troops of horse, batteries of artillery, tramjied and

clattered
and rumbled along the side
some dustj^ camp
way to the squat railway station
or to
on the outskirts of the town.
It all
and
front,"
" the front "
was apparently
hlase officers
strolling along twirling
air of inditierence
seemed out
of place.
"
every-
in
worn
The
sticks
l)y
to
are j'ou
exchange greetings on a corner
the answer, " to-night
"
a few
their flimsy
When
off?" was the question heard most frequently
men stopped
" the
suggested
body's mind.
bamboo
on their
streets
when
;
and
or " to-morrow,"' generally
evoked ex^jressions of congratulation or envy as the

speakers hurried on again.
everybody wanted
to
"
The front " was where

I met an officer who
be^^later
was drinking himself to sure disgrace under the weight

of orders tliat kept him indeflnitely at Cape Town.
Lord
Rol)erts'
teiu
but
tlie
army was
still
i-esting at 131oemfon-
knowledge that the foi'ward movement
towards Pretoria was .ubout to l)egin had somehow
THK CHASE OF DE WET.
Klipl)ed })ast tlie press ceiisor,
And
one
aud uo one with blood
veins could stay beliiiid content.
ill liis
there was nothing- al)out Cape
o-lad to linger there.
Town
it
it
Mountain would perhaps dwarf
Talile
attractive.
make
make
lacked as a city al)ont everythino- needed to
any collection
to
Aside from the troops,
of building-s
l)ut certain it is that
the
eye, seeking- vainly for anything- noteworthy alougtlie city's streets,
stately peak.
The
cheap and squat

dirty
and
returned always to rest upon that
l)uilding'S are
hunger, and dirt
in.
"Poverty,
were most forcibly suggested by
"
life of
the streets.
tidiness pervaded the town,
when one
and
l)adly cared for outside
the normal
nearly uniformly
unsubstantial looking, and mostly
general air of un-
and was disappointing
realized that there were iirosperous mer-
chants and thriving business houses in what was after

all
one of the great seaports of the world.
It maj-
be that the prevailing wish of the average English-
man
leads
to get l)ack "
him
Home "
again as soon as he can
to regard a habitation in the colonies as
merely a temporary one, and thus not worth the care

that he would otherwise take to
make
his surround-
ings as cheerful and as comfortalile as he might but

some such carelessness has left its stamp on Cape
Town, and it takes its outward character from dingy
;
hotels,
ramshackle
Dutchmen and
jmblic
Kaffirs,
vehicles,
who outnumlier
and slovenly
the tidy East
CAPE TOWN IX lUOO.
Indians whose turbans and
than
Xew
waistbands qiye the
and picturesqueness
sole g-leani of coh:)r
Cape Town was
the streets.
.i;"ay
York, but
it
to be seen in
settled only a little later
remains to-day coniparal)le
only to a third-rate village of the more sparsely settled AVest or
It lacks dignity.
nent.
save
Northwest of the North American conti-
in
Its sanitary arrangements,
the suburban dwellings of the l)etter class,
where alone the refinements
of life
seem
to be con-
sidered, are hardly l)etter than Havana's were under
the Spanish regime.
The
hotels in the city are inde-
scribably dirty, and the food in the pul)lic places far
from good.
Even the
eg-gs are
brought from Madeira,
Dutch being too lazy to keep hens.

The contrast l)etween such surroundings and those
amid which the army was moving at the front between the lazy, even sordid, life of Cape Town and
the strenuous work the hosts assembled from the
the
four quarters of the globe were doing with the " Little
Man " up
to
make
country
us,
would
whose
army, im])atient to
life
settle
was now centered
in that of the
l)e otf.
hurried tlirough
little
alone have been sufficient
my
])re])arations,
taking what
time I could to learn enough aV)out the Boers to
most
of
my
doubts as to the respective rights
of
Boer and Briton
of
May,
and on the evening of the third
after seeing th(> various
that contained
my
kit safely
bundles and boxes
stowed awav,
took
mv
10
place, dressed in khaki, id tlie corner of a lirst-class
railway carriage
the uig-htly traiu for Bloemfou-
in
A few minutes later
tein.
we were on our wa\% and
I coug-ratulated myself that the final stage of
my
journey to the front had at last begun.
The
train
meek
of
was
filled
civilians;
with
officers,
with a sprinkling
and besides the carriages there
were several trucks well laden with supplies.
were
all for
the
army
it
These
was not until long afterwards
that goods for anj' other consignee were permitted to
leave Cape Town.
two
of the
my compartment were
whom the authorities had
Sharing
few civilians
One was
consented to permit to go forward.
little
doctor of Bloemfonteiu, sufiering sadly from asthma.
He was
greatly depressed at
first
but his
affliction
abated as we gradually reached higher altitudes, and

V)y
the second day he was quite cheery.
My
other
companion was a lanky, sour-visaged individual, apparently young, but evidently in very poor health,
who had taken prompt advantage

of
of
my inexperience
Cape Government Railway methods
to himself the lower berth I
to appropriate
had reserved before
leaving.
Thus
I spent the first
two nights
of our dreary
journey in the upper berth, unsuccessfully trying to
fathom the meaning- of the strange glances which I

kept meeting in the eyes of the occupant of
berth.
It didn't
make much
my lower
ditierence after all
what
CAPE TOWN IN 1900.
one lay upon
eoiicli
ing-.
These
l)ertlis
it
11
was simply a matter
of climb-
were not beds such as those Avho
travel in Pullman cars are
accustomed to. They needed
no attention from a porter.
Retiring,
you ^Tapped
3"ou, and laj" down in your clothes

upon a leather mattress, with a hard l)olster under
your head for a pillow, and a rail six inches high to
keep 3'ou from rolling out. But it was such a couch
your rugs about
as I learned later to yearn for as a luxury.
The railway northward from Cape Town traverses

monotonous country almost to the border
a dreary,
of the
Free State.
Pleasant
villas,
set in smiling
gardens, surround the port but they are cpiickly
left
behind, and thereafter for a day you are in the Karroo

desert, with a
parched plain as level as the sea
around you, and not a shrub to cheer the eye.
all
Near-
ing the outer border, black rocks begin to crop up
on the horizon, which grow later into
rounded outlines and then

;
at last, as
hills, of softly
one draws near
the Orange river, the hills rise into mountains, and
you look with
relief into lilue distances
and upon
green-clad slopes.
"At that time
front.
One
it
was
a diflicult matter to get to the
Avas comparatively
unmolested as
far as
Norvals Pont, the railway station on the border be-
tween Cape Colony and the Orange Free State.

there the drift
l)y
But
whicli one gained ;iccess to the
enemy's country was guarded by an army Cerl)erus
THE CHASE OE
12
T)E
WET.
wlio used every device wliicli red tape could

to turn
most
There the
companion.
ever,
i)eoi)le,
little
proved
and especially
sug-.^êst
civilians, back.
asthmatic doctor and I lost our lanky
My
papers, as well as the former's, how-
sufficient;
and with a complaint about
the carelessness of the officials at Cai)e Town,
had
left
out a date in copying-
Roberts, the
Staff
Officer
permit from Lord
young lieutenant who acted

iudulg-eutly wrote
"Permitted to proceed."
after an
my
who
the
as Eailway
endorsement
And (m Sunday
morning-,
uneventful journey of three days, I dulj-
arrived in Bloemfonteiu.
CHAPTER
The
III.
Cexsoi; at Blcêmfoxtein.
At Bloemfonteiu
met with
my
lirst
cheek.
Roberts, with that gracious courtesy which
minent a part
of his nature,
is
Lord
so pro-
had dictated a telegram
to Sir Alfred Miluer " gladly according- "
me
permis-
sion to accomiâny his force as press correspondent.
But he had sent that message a few days before, when

his headcpiarters
were
still at
Bloemfonteiu
liy
the
time I arrived there the long-looked-for forward
movement had begun, and he was iightiug" his way

across the Yet river when I presented my credentials
to Lord ^^'olverton, left l)eliind as press censor.
I
have Ijefore me now the endorsement which his lordship, in
answer to
my
request for the necessary au-
thority to proceed, wrote across the ofldcial cojiy of
my telegram from the

chief.
This
Field Marshal commanding"-in-
is it
"I cannot grant a pass to Mr.

permission from Lord Stanley.
Howland
(Signed
Wolverton."
In vain I expostulated and argued

attention to the terms of
until I get
in vain I drew
Lord Roberts's message.
;
14
Lord Stanley
and as
lives,
(lie
was press censor
sucli held in
headquarters,
at
the hollow of his
hand "onr
our fortunes, and our sacred honor") had
strict
left
orders that no correspondent was to go up
name appeared on
unless his
This
Wolverton.
left
list
did not include
list
with Lord
my
name.
Orders were orders, said the obdurate censor; and
was conLord Wolverton could only assume that he
as far as the Field Marshal's telegram
cerned.
had changed
his
mind
since wiring
me
that I might
come.
I
sought out the General commanding
fontein,
wîtli
my
and a council
no other
of
at
Bloem-
war was duly convened, but
result than a further
papers, signed by the chief of
endorsement on
stall',
in the follow-
ing terms
is
"Until authority is received from the press censor it

regretted a pass cannot be given you to proceed."
And Lord Wolverton

to slip
up
if
"Of course you can try

you wish, but I advise you not to play
He
any such games."
me communicate
said
did consent, however, to
with Lord Stanley
l>ut
let
the wires
were crowded with military matter, and I could not
hope to avoid a delay

the
of several days, during
army would be advancing
This was galling, because

join General
Hunter
still
my
which
further northward.
instructions were to
at the earliest possil)le
moment,
THE CENSOR AT BLOEMFOXTEIX.
and
lie
was then
at
15
Fourteen Streams, on the western
border of the Free State, moving toward the

Mafekiug.
until I
relief of
These instructions I could not carry out
had seen Lord Stanley personally, and eyery
hour of delay increased the distance I should have to
and back
travel to headquarters
tein,
whence I must proceed
ag-ain to
l)y rail
Bloemfou-
around to Kim-
berley.
However, there was nothingsuch patience as I could
for
but to exercise
it
so I took a
room
in the
Free State Hotel and gathered notes for a column or
two about Bloemfontein.
And
vince
abandoned
capital
saw enough
to con-
that enforced stay in the
was not entirely
me
uni)rofital)le.
that those
good people
home who were
at
crying out against the tyranny- and rapacity of John

Bull would he greatly benefited
pleasant village as
it
thousand troops had camped there
and departed without leaving a

stoep of the hotel that
first
The sun had
for
scar.
many weeks
I sat on the
It
was a beautiful even-
set in that glory of delicate color-
ing which one
rarelj- sees in
at once the air
had become deliciously
change
Seventy-five
evening and watched the
scene on the public square.

ing-.
a sight of that
l)y
then appeared.
after a hot day.
other lands, and almost

cool, a
welcome
As the wondrous shades
of
pink and green and turquoise succeeded one another
and then began to fade out
of the sky, leaving the
THE CHASE OF
16
moon and
half
a solitary i)lanet in full possession,
frocks and sun-bonnets
little g-irls in Avliite
of the ueiglilioring-
came out
houses and beg-au to romp.
Small
"Tommies" and now and then a company

regiment passed l)y, the men looking business-like
gToups
or
WET.
1)E
of
in their dust -worn
khaki
and every once
in a while
drawn by a bullock or a mule, and
a cart Avent by,
driven by a uig:ger as black as the ace of spades,
giving eA'ery
yek
moment
or so his sharp cry of "
to urg-e his slow-going steeds
"
Yek
East
along-.
Indians in turbans, flowing jackets, and putties encasing distressingh" thin legs, their black and often
handsome
faces always severe,
passed constanth^,
chatting lightly but in sul)dued tones, and taking-
Some
note of everything.
said "
Salaam, Sahib
"
of
them
yon
in passing-
or g-ave you fuller greeting-
down
in their native tongue, calling-
imagined, on the Heaven-born.
blessings, one
Now
and again an
orderly or a despatch-rider aml)led by on his pony,
saddlebags and holster

ously displayed.
them
most
carr^'ing-
of
them
full,
Officers
and side-arms conspicu-
were everywhere, most of
the inevitable
in helmets, l)ut
little
baml)oo stick
some wearing the
little
l)eaked cap, cocked jauntily over the right ear.
i^rimmer touch was added to the picture

of artillery
much
went by on
noise was
its
made by
there was no bustling and
way
a piece
to the station
a traction
ikj
when
engine.
crowding.
and
But
Evervone
THE CEXSOK AT BLOE3IF0XTEIN.
moved
iu leisurely fashion, uoav that peace
tled over Bloemfontein
contrast would be with the
and
17
had
set-
wondered what the
same khaki-g-arbed Tommy
at the front.
Next afternoon I found the square much more

the attraction being the baud, which
crowded,
pla3êd for a couple of hours,
and played
well, too.
Shortly before eight o'clock the square liecame
most deserted;
after that
al-
hour, Ijy order of the
Military Governor, no civilian could Avalk the streets
without a pass.
The native Boer was little in evidence at any time,

made one realize what the demand Avas for
able-bodied burghers at the front. The toAvn was
Avhich
never
verj-
busy, l)usiness l>eing constricted Avithin
narroAV limits
owing
to the lack of supplies resulting
from the monopoly of the railway by the army.
CHAPTER
lY.
Seeking the Elusive Front.
My
to
visit
Lord AVolvertou's
little
the
oliice iu
posts and telegTaplis lûildiug' of the defunct Boer
Government
was my last.
He had come
eag-erness to be
me
the third day
in tlie early mornini;- of
and on
off,
cheerily with the
to sympathize with
my
he greeted
this occasion
announcement that he had
heard from Lord Stanley, who had wu'ed that I
might come up.

out a pass
Lord Wolverton
and within an hour,
at
once wrote
me
after hustling to-
gether such food and clothing as I absolutely needed
and swallowing-
way
a hasty breakfast, I
was
at the rail-
station.
There they told
had been Lord
But
fore.
was the
in
that the train for the front left
Kolierts's headquarters the
inevital)le
custom
\iy>
country,
we were under way.
it
was
long-
Attempts to
schedule had early proved aliortive, and had
long since lieen abandoned.

ticular case
was due
Cape Town
a trainload of sick
We
day be-
accordance with what I soon found
after nine before
keep
me
and that the Avay was clear to Smaldeel, which
at nine,
The delay
in this par-
to the necessity of getting- off to
hnallv started a
and wounded
little after
noon.
soldiers.
There were
SEEKING THE ELUSIVE FRONT.
The
HO such luxuries as carriages.

entirely of trucks
front,
and a
choked
g-uard's
of
full
19
train consisted
supplies for the
van at the rear end.
Several
a part of the " supplies."
hundred Tommies made up

They disposed themselves cheerfully on the top
of the
tarpaulins which covered the hig-h-piled freig-ht, with
no shelter from the broiling African sun
while the
Major in charge, with a couple of lieutenants, a scout,

a civilian supply agent, and myself, shared the van
with the g-uard.
There were not enough seats to go
made ourselves comfortal)le as

we could among the boxes and kit-bags and
around, so most of us
best
various other ]iackages and personal belongings
which the
It is
Yet
floor of the
about
fifty
river, wdiich
Avitli
van was strewn.
miles
l)y rail
from Bloemfontein to
turned out to be "liail Head," or
The Boers
had blown up the l)ridge, and l)eyond there we had
to make our way to the front by more primitive means
the terminus at that time of the road.
of transportation until the
Royal Engineers and the
Railway Pioneers had completed the "deviation," or

temporary
like
line across the river bed.
After working-
beavers for three days and nights, they finished
the job in record time on the following Sunday,

their sui)i)ly trains were sent across
the next break, at
yond.
Doom
river,
some
thirty miles be-
The same story had been repeated

The Boers
Avay u}) country from Colosburg.
when
on their way to
all
t]i(>
as they
THE CHASE OF
20
WET.
1)E
retreated blew iip the bridges and culverts, and
tli<^
advance guard as
repairers, following after the
it
cleared the country of the enemy, built their deviations across the various rivers
many
and repaired the dam-
ingenious ways, that
the
precious sup|)ly trains might not be delayed a
mo-
aged culverts
in
ment more than was necessary.

Our tr;un took just seven hours to cover those fiftj'
miles to Yet river. There we were all Ijundled out
in the
darkness to lind ourselves on the edge of a
camp occupied by some

guard the mass
2,000 troops, left behind to
of stores there
accumulated after
Lord Eoberts's advance columns had driven
off the
Boers.
The
who was bearing despatches
scout,
to head-
quarters, the supply agent, and myself, as the three

travellers
most eager to get
Dumping our luggage
forces.
side the line,
means
to the front,
of
we took turns
had joined
out on the veldt be-
in searching for
some
conveyance onward, two doing the search-
ing while the third stayed behind to watch our possessions.
This
lot at first fell to
for the others to return, I
on duty, a genial captain
me.
While waiting
was accosted by an
King's Royal
in the
officer
Rifles,
one of the famous Irish regiments whose valor had

})laced the shami'ock in its present jilace of
inspired the
Emerald
Queen
Isle.
to
honor and
make her pilgrimage
into the
Capt. Harrison, I found, had spent
SEEKING THE ELUSIVE FEONT.
21
my own far away conutry, within a

my old home and oiit there on the veldt,
several years iu
few miles of
nnder the Southern Cross and the

southern hrmament,
mering- about us,
me much
aid
haunts of
his.
brig-ht stars of the
witli the liglit of camp-fires g-lim-
we became
fast friends,
he lending-
and comfort as a wanderer from old
AVe had talked together for a half-hour or so when
my
two companions returned to report that the ad-
vance had moved on beyond Smaldeel, and that we

could hardly hope to catch up with
Elliott, the
been placed
should
news
at
fail to
of a
that night.
our disi)osal for the
nig-lit iu
case
we
get on and Farquhar, the scout, brought

:
Cape
for the few
it
supply agent, reported that a wagon had
camp which we might secure
cart in
days necessary for our journey.
down
Elliott
camp at once but Farquhar

and I felt we ought to make one more effort to get
on, convinced that if we travelled all night we might
catch u]) with headcpiarters next day. But fate was
was
for settling
against us.
cart,
fire,
found Captain Foote, the owner of the
bundled up
cam})
in
iu a greatcoat
but he was
(piite
warming himself by
naturally unwilling to
part witli his vehicle, even temporarily.
So we were
forced to spend the night in camp.
We
proceeded to the wagon discovered by Elliott
and there were served

two obliging Tommies.
Avith a
toothsome repast by
After satisfying a keen ap-
22
and some
petite witli coftee, a snbstautial stew,
and jam, we crawled into the wag-on and,
lu'ead
taking- off
only our spurs, rolled np in our karosses and sank

into dreamless sleep.
Next morning we were up

found
wagon
tlie
dawn.
at
abode that he
sucli a luxiirious
decided to wait and proceed by
it
Elliott liad
but Farquhar and I
concluded that we must push on at once.

out
oul" friend
Captain Foote, we
Searching-
with his
finally,
help, secured two nags, sorry enough to look upon,
but promising- to carry us at least another stag-e on
our journey towards that elusive
had with him
his saddle
and
front.
l)ridle,
them
both, having perforce left
Farquhar
but I was minus
at
Bloemfontein.
After a g-ood deal of rummaging, a dilapidated saddle
was
finally
strolling-
found, which had been taken from a
and suspected Kaffir the day before.
lacked girth and stirrup leathers,
Init to
It
supply the
former Farquhar dispensed with one of his
and we
improvised the latter with a strap for one and some

twine for the other.
thus completed.
charge of
my
My
I left
outfit,
most
Irish captain,
of
my
a water-bottle and a haversack
my
shoulders, I
my
it
up
was, was
my
kaross
saddle and slinging
Avitli
two days' rations
mounted my Rosinante.
get-up was so weird that one of the
helped nie patch
it
kit in the kindly
and strapping-
and waterproof cloak behind

over
such as
insisted
officers
The
who had
upon taking a photo-
SEEKING THE ELUSIVE FliONT.
graph
me ou my mount, aud
of
I left the
the heartiest laughter riiigiug iu
Farquhar's Argentine and
23
my
camp with
ears.
my sorrel Boer pony bore
us safely across the Vet, aud the
first
of the six miles
to Smaldeel passed -without incident.
The country
near the river, and we forbore to press our

Then we struck the level veldt and, mindful
of the advantage of a good start, sought to urge our
steeds onward at a more lively pace.
But that
proved impossible. Neither whip nor spur could
prevail ujion our poor l)easts to move beyond the
was
hilly
steeds.
Three miles
slowest of walks.
enough
at a snail's
pace were
to convince us that Ave should never catch
up with headquarters with such transport. To make

any sort of a change, however, threatened to be a
serious dilhculty,
Avere
folloAving
not an impossibility; for Ave
if
in
the
mounted men, and the

side,
of
Avake
of
thirty
thousand
corpses, along the dusty road-
the animals that had succumbed to the
strain ])ut
upon them Avarned us that
Ave
should be
we found any serA'iceable horseflesh

left behind.
Luck and our Avits Avere our only resources. Push on Ave must and we made the l)est
lucky indeed
if
of (mr Avay over the veldt toAvards Bmaldeel, along a
dusty road badly cut up by

preceding
us.
Our horses
tlie
multitude of convoys
faltered
more and more
Avitli
each lengthening step, and threatened to droj)
dead
at iin\
moment; but
tiiiallv
those six miles were
24
We
covered.
had
left
Yet river
earn]) at 8::50
it
was
nearly ik)ou of a very hot day
when we reached
Smaldeel, a
poor
collection
little
of
houses and
hovels clustered ai'ound the railway station.
We
o-et
had already decided that our only chance to

in tindin,"- some Cape cart and command-
on lay
eering' that; serviceable
the question.
wê
Our
mounts were
relief
caught sight of several
two wheels,
much
clumsy vehicles on
carts,
on the principle of a hansom but
built
carefully Ijalanced.
less
clearly out of
was gTeat, therefore, when
It
still
however, to secure two horses to drag one.

look was discouraging.
in sight,
remained,
The
out-
There were several ponies
cropping painfully
at the veldt
grass or
standing with drooped heads in some of the yards
but there never was a more dejected and hopelesslooking
lot.
But
after a search
we stumbled upon a
of them show-
corral of sore-l)acked creatures,
some
ing signs of not having lost
strength and s^nrit
all
and to us as we stood looking them over came a stout
man who
confessed to the
proved to be very timid.
name
of
Schwartz and
These were Government
horses, he apologetically ex^dained, that
had been
placed in his charge to recover of their wounds, and
under no account, his instructions were, was he to part

with them.
We
informed Schwartz, however, that
make all haste to the front

and that we must have two of the
we were under orders

with despatches,
to
SEEKING THE ELUSIVE EKOXT.

liorses
and a
Schwartz, with
set of harness.
misg-iving-s, finally g-ave in,
25
and undertook
to
many
lit
us
out on our signing a receipt for the animals and
None of them
but we had to take
promising to restore them next day.

looked as
if
they could survive,
We
that risk.
spent two hours in selecting two that
would consent
to
go
then transferred our
in
harness without balking
kit to the cart,
made
a hasty
meal of bully beef and bad bread, supplied by the

good-natured mother of ten
dirt}' brats,
and, discard-
ing our two wrecks of saddle-horses, started on for
Zand
river,
twenty-four miles away, where inquiry
we should
led us to believe
We
iiud headquarters.
started on across the veldt at a fair pace, and
soon began to pass supply wagons draAvn by
six,
and ten span of oxen and mules, which gave us

some idea of the transport problem upon which Lord
eight,
Kitchener was engaged.
oxen which had

frecjuent as
under the
us,
we
The bodies
of horses
fallen in their tracks
toiled our well-nigh trackless
l)lazing sun, the
and
grew more
boundless veldt
all
way
around
dotted Avith innumerable ant-hills, rising often to
a height of
two
feet,
and relieved only occasionally
by a few isolated kopjes.
The
dreary khaki color,'witli only

of green as
nant water.
veldt
liere
was
all
of the
and there patches
we drew near and passed a pool of stagThe scene gave us a hint of the task
England had before
lier in
carrving on a war in an
26
filmost arid country 7,000 miles
away from her base
of supplies.
Thirteen miles out of Smaldeel we came upon what
was surely a prosperous farm before the war.
There
we replaced one
of our horses with a little mare,
which looked
enough,
tit
had had to use signs
in
Farquhar
thou,o-li in foal.
making our wishes known
the white people had abandoned the place, and the
few blacks
behind spoke nothing but Dutch and
left
Kaihr, in neither of which tongues was he jirolicient.
Howerer,
was war, and our ap})earance
this
from going too
understand
AVeeks
us.
being
what we wanted discouraged the
fully able to take
Kaffirs
of
far in their attemj^ts to mislater,
by one
of those hap^jy
chances which war brings, Farquhar and I met again

in
Johannesburg, and the
about the
The
pace.
first
question he asked was
mare who had served us so
little
rest of that
Ant-hills
days journey Me made
well.
at a fair
grew more numerous and kopjes
less
so as the veldt flattened out into a boundless, sun-
baked
plain, with
own.
no trees and no shadows save our
few miles beyond the farm we passed a large
convoy halted
l)y
the side of a pool.
had been outspanned, and scores

were busy in their own
the animals.
We
noisj^,
The animals
of native drivers
lazy fashion watering
stopped for a few moments to ex-
change greetings and surmises
-with the officer in
charge of the few troops forming the convoy's guard.
SEEKIXa THE ELUSIVE FRONT.
27
and tlieu resumed our journe\'. At Doom river we

found another wrecked l)ridge and overtook and
passed another convoy streaming- across the
The passage
of this river,
creek, with a tiny stream of water
foot of the deep-cut channel

lianks,
drift.
which was nothing but a
meandering
at the
between steep, rugged
we made without much
difficulty,
thanks to
Proceeding along on the
the lightness of our load.
northern side, our surroundings repeated themselves
monotonously: more dead animals, more

fewer and fewer kopjes.
skedaddled
No wonder
there wasn't cover
for
ant-hills,
and
the Boers had
even a hare.
Presently the sun sank below the horizon, and the
sky blazed out into the glorious colors
Avliich
are
The
we were jogging along
such a revelation to dwellers in other climes.

after-glow faded, and soon
under a
moon and a sky studded with twinkamong which Venus, sinking slowly into
brilliant
ling stars,
the west, reigned easily supreme, her splendor dim-
med but
little by the moon.

About an hour after sunset we gained the
crest of
a slight rise, and a wide circle of low-lying flame
came into view.

the Zand Piiver
We
cam]),
thought
and congratulated ourselves
on ai)proaching our journey's end
showed us that
We
it
the camp-fires of
it
but a nearer view
was only the veldt grass
liurning.
drove on another mile before unmistakable camp-
fires
twinkled before us, on higher ground ahead,
THE CHASE OF
28
WET.
DI-:
we rii^litly hssuiikhI to be Ijeyoiid tlie river.

now caiig-lit up with the laro-est convoy of
the day, and were threadini;- our way past innumerable wagons, heavily laden, slowly drawn along bewliicli
\\ e luid
long lines of patient oxen and straining mules, the

negroes walking alongside or running up to the leaders or
back again to
up some unwilling worker,
stir
crying strange cries and dexterously plying twentyfoot whi[)s.
Troopers trotted
l)y,
carbine slung on
shoulder and blanket rolled behind the saddle, and
now and then an
wrapped
officer
in his great-coat
galloped past in the dust.

Virginia was the
of the Zand,
now
hually drew up a
by an impassable
mies
all
name
of the little station this side
a bustling
little after
line of
camp
and here we
seven o'clock, checked
crowded wagons, with Tom-
around us preparing the evening meal about
the camp-fires, chatting and joking gaily.
ever seemed to disturl)
He
put up with
all
Tommy's equanimity
Nothing
in
camp.
sorts of hardships with the
same
careless good-nature.
It
was a cheery sight
to
watch
these dust-stained warriors peacefully cooking and

tasting, bantering each other with good-natured chafl";
and as
wê
looked about
us,
and noted the ever-chang-
ing lights and shadows, as the
fires fiared
up and
sank down again, throwing the forms into clear
and anon leaving them

our
trials of the dav.
in
relief
gloom again, we too forgot
It didn't take
us long to find
SEEKING THE ELUSIVE FIJONT.

tliat
the drift was blocked by the transport and that
would be hopeless
it
29
to attempt to get across that
Headcjuarters were only two miles beyond,
iiig-ht.
however, we were
catching
n]:)
and we
told,
felt
contitlent
of
morning.
in the
Outspanning, we picketed our weary horses behind

the cart, gave them feed, and then sought out a spot
Up
to lie ujion.
found a
in
pile of
ag-aiust the side of a
corncobs
South Africa
and
shanty we
mealies, as they call
of these
we made
them
and
a clean
by no means uncomfortable couch. We then boiled

some water over a neighboring lire, brewed some
" taliloid tea," and with that and some more bully
beef that had come
ing-house,
u])
on
all
we made
oui" corncol)
spite of the cold,
way from
couch, and,
we dropped
a Chicago pack-
At nine, we rolled
warm and snug
in
asleep under the stars.
by a wandering- pony
I knew we Avere lost
if either of them wandered away int(^ that mass of
animals, and so jumped up to head him off. But he
was a strang-er.
Oiir two were standing quietly
where we had picketed them, sleeping that standing-
woke up about
the
a good meal.
which looked
one, disturbed
like
one of ours.
sleep of their kind.
It
was
they had been lying down
;in
encouraging sign
I sliould
if
have feared they
But they had grazed bountifully

scrub, and were fit enough, though not
were i)layed out.

on the veldt
to
be too hai'd
woke
witli the
i)r(^ss(Ml.
sun
in
I turiuMl in again,
luy eyes, just
above the
and next
hoi'i/on.
CHAPTER
The Front at
Y.
Last.
More tea and liully beef, with some
)iscnits,
formed
onr l)reakfast next moruiiig-, and iuspanuing' we Avere
among the still

crowded wagons towards the drift. They had been
crossing- all nig-ht by the light of the moon until it
soon wending- a very devious way
set,
but the line
Doom
We
river.
stretched far back towards
still
made our way
to the bank,
and
there seemed no nearer the other side, for there was
no
wagons on the drift. But here
l^reak in the line of
my
companion's despatches stood us in good stead
again, and an obliging transport otticer halted the line

to give our cart a place.
and
difiicult
it
wagons; but we
so did they,
looked impassable for the heavier
of
much
we found
side,
and
yelling.
On
reached the other
finally
by dint
the other side
The way across was steep
lashing-
and
that the advance guard, after
overcoming a rather stout resistance from the enemy

the day before, had halted not two but seven miles
further on and had resumed their
There was nothing for
we
did, stopjiing every
and
it
march
but to peg along
few hours
l)y
at
dawn.
and
this
a wâyside
wêll
waiting- cur turn at the water with the hurrying
soldiers.
'
AVe were soon fairh' up with the rear guard,
unci
troops were
THE FKONT AT
LAST.
all al)out us.
Our pace
and slower as the
liot
day wore
31
fast,
gave our journey
monotony.
chief
the middle of the afternoon
we did not
a circumstance that
dare nrge our ponies too

its
g-rew slower
on, for
But towards
we passed
the balloon,
which had long been the most prominent feature

the landscajie, and a
farmhouse, nestling
Eoberts and his
caught sight of the
little later
among some
staff
of
poplars, where
had pitched camp
Lord
for the
uig-ht.
Half an hour later we had reached our journey's

end.
and
The tiower
walled farmhouse was

tent pitched against
movable
army was all about us,

drawn up behind the red-
of England's
there, unostentatiously
" Bolus's "
it.
wagon wdtli his office
Two armed
at the entrance.
and Kitchener were deep
Sikhs stood im-
Within, we learned that he

in counsel.
Staff officers
were everywhere, copying desjjatches, coming or going witli reports or orders, or washing away the stains
of the day's
march horses were picketed in groups and

;
long lines here and there, while troopers groomed and

fed them, and other
themselves at
fires
Tommies pitched
tents and bivouacs of the officers

sive farmyard, but the trooj^s
pitch theirs, as the
tents or busied
brewing the four o'clock
army was
to
tea.
The
crowded the exten-
were not allowed to
move again
at
dawn,
the coiiiiiiander-in-chief being resolved to waste no

time, but to keej) the
enemy moving back
till
Kroon-
THE CHASE (W DE
32
stad, then tlie
and now
c-ai)itai,
WE'l'.
l)ut a
day's marcli
away, was in his liands.

After outspauniug- and watering' oar tired ponies,
my
comjianion and I separated, he to deliver his de-
spatches, and I to search for

I
sor.
Lord Stanley, the cen-
found him stripped to the waist, enjoying the
He greeted me
with my troul^les at
Inxnry of a liath in a portable tub.
most
and sympathized
cordially,
Bloemfontein, which he said I might have V)een s})ared.

fact, nobody could have been more courteous or
more helpful than Lord Stanley was to me. Later in
In
the evening I had the
official
authority to go where
Ileturuing from his tent I
I pleased with the army.
caught sight of Lord Eoljerts himself, standing near

his headquarters.
The
and
in his
erect as ever,
familiar iigure
was
alert
and
eyes was the look which was
had done and all he yet

was equally easy to understand how
so true an index of all he
would
do.
It
he could lead such an army to splendid achievements
from which under him there could be no turning back,
and why every
Tommy
fectionately as "
I
walked by,
The
me
Little
to take a
ficer of his staff,
field offered
in the
who
ranks spoke of him
Man " and
cup
af-
adored him.
of tea Avith a genial of-
in the trvie
comradeship of the
the hospitality of his tent
and
later
I dined with the Earl of Kerry, A. D.
C, at his mess,
where I also fared most eujoyaljly and in the l>est of
company.
Afterwards Lord Kerry and I strolled over
THE FRONT AT
to the
camp
of the Coldstreams,
where
quaiutauce with Captain Marker,
low-passenger on the " Scot."

gling to get supper for his
not yet come up,

ters,
At
we
33
LAST.
ac-
a fel-
him strugmen, whose supplies had
strolled
Leaving-
back towards headquar-
and shortly afterwards separated
my own
renewed
who had been
for the night.
my colleague, Barnes of
whom I discussed my pro-
bivouac I found
the Daily Mail, with
spective journey back to Bloemfonteiu, and thence to
Kimbeiiey and Fourteen Streams, to
General
join
Soon Farquhar joined us with the good

news that he had got his commission under General
Hunter.
Pole -Care w, a fact which I regretted only because
would deprive me
of his
company back.
Tlien
it
we
turned in for another night on the veldt.
At dawn we were up again, and

of vantage
whence
I took a position
to see the arm\'
advance started as soon as
it
move
was light.
whole force was on the march, moving
later the
serried ranks towards Kroonstad,
glitter of
uniform
in
There
accoutrements and no brilliancy of
in that khaki-clad array,
none the
oil'
which Lord Roberts
entered without opposition that afternoon.
was no
The
on.
Half an hour
but the sight was
less inspiring, well calculated to convince
the Boer of his folly in challenging Britannia to gird
on her sword and go forth to war.
By
seven o'clock
regiment after regiment was streaming by, and clouds

of dust obscured the vieAv
3
ahead and
far out
on either
34
flank.
The balloon division had started before all, and
the huge, yellowish bulk of that monster was already

Along- the side of the line of
far in the lead.
march
the transport cattle were being inspanned and started

off,
and
troo]is
to the rear as far
back as the eye could reach
eager to catch up were streaming on.
meanwhile
"
Bobs "
himself, attended
ener and the rest of the
and with
a Indef
up the
had quietly mounted,
word or two the
cavalcade had trotted

to l)ring
staff,
ofi',
rear.
And
by Lord Kitch-
little
headquarters
wagons
a while the work
leaving the supply
watched
of ol)literating all signs of
for
the camp, and then, as
my ponies and started

my track to Bloemfonteiu. My
time was precious, inspanned
back to retrace alone

rations
had given
out,
but a fellow correspondent
me with what I needed, and it only remained for me to pick up a black boy somewhere
provided
along the route to be fully equipped.
Going back,
made
better time at
tersburg road I stopped to
make
first.
At Yen-
inquiries about
getting a servant, and had the good fortune to find

the railway inspector looking for just such a chance
to get to
Yet
river,
my own
olijective,
catch the train for Bloemfonteiu.
where I could
The
inspector, a
long-transplanted Scotchman who, though taciturn,
proved
of great assistance, got his blanket
bottle, and, jiimping
started on again.
into
and water-
the cart beside me,
we
THE FKOXT AT
Eeacliiug'
Zand
my
river,
35
LAST.
campiug--place of two
marked only by increasing

signs of distress from one of the ponies, we ontspanned for Inncli and a two hours' rest. The ponjin question seemed nearly dead beat, and I began to
nig-hts before, after a stage
would be blocked again
fear our further jirogress
But
lack of animals.
for
after drinking three buckets of
water he consented to eat some mealies, and shortly
we felt justified in starting on

The little mare, meanwhile, had
again with him.
proved herself to l)e made of excellent stuff.
before live o'clock
We
pushed on
railwaj^,
some
for a ganger's cottage along the
dwelt a friend of
Zand
Ijeyoud
six miles
river,
my companion's. My good
where
fortune
was now demon-
in securing
him
strated, for
he was able to promise a swifter mode of
for a fellow-traveller
conveyance which should

far as
enal)le us to get at least as
Smaldeel that night.
It
Mas evident that
my
weak pony would not he good for much more. Only

by incessant lashing could we get him to move faster
than a walk, and wielding the Avhip took all the attention of one of us, while the other
I
put
miles
tlie l)east
we must
cover,
on the desolate
ever,
down
if
veldt.
we should be
At the cottage,
lie
as
good
managed the
for just
reins.
about the
six
we did not want to l)e stranded

If we coidd cover that, how-
all right,
said,
jiromised
we could
my
inspector.
shift to a railway
hand-car, here called a trolley, and on that, as
it
was
80
a down grade uearly all tlie way to Smaldeel, we could

make good progress the rest of the way.
Two miles out from Zand river uig-ht fell. Fortunately we still had the moon, and thus could see our
way. But that last four miles in the Cape cart
proved, none the less, exciting enough. The road
across the veldt, such as
it
was, had l)een rendered
hy the i)assing of the miles of transport

that
we had to keep to the sides. That took us
wagons
among the ant-hills. The diminutive heaps we meet
so heavy
with at
home
are nothing to worry about
substantial structures erected
but these
by the African white
ant are amply solid and high enough to upset a Cape

cart.
The moon furnished
l)arely
enough light
to en-
able us to see these formidable obstructions just before
we were on them. At a walk we might have avoided

them easily enough. But at that pace our i)onies
could not have made two miles an hour, and so walking was out of the question. We decided that we must
risk an upset in order to reach our destination in time,
and that the ponies must be forced into a run even
though they might drop dead before

over.
So I gathered up the
reins,
and
their task
my
was
companion,
leaning out over the dashboard, laid on with the
whip.
AYe succeeded in infusing new
animals, and in a few
along
at
what
rattling pace.
Avas, in
It
took
life
into the
moments we were bowling
comparison with the other, a

all
my
attention to avoid the
LAST.
37
them we did not
see (they are the
THE FRONT AT
Many
ant-hills.
of
same color as the veldt
they loomed up
itself) until
between the ponies' heads, and I had to keep them

steady to let the mounds pass between the wheels.
Once, in spite of
went
over.
all care,
we did
hit one,
Another time half the
and nearly
cart, as it
seemed,
disappeared into a yawning ant-bear hole, and again
we were nearly gone. But tiually the cottage appeared, a dark shadow ahead, and, to make a longstory short, we reached it safely. The ponies were
left in
good hands, and
after a
cup
of hot coffee, pro-
vided by the ganger's family, the trolley was fitted to

the track, and, shifting our kit to
we
it,
settled our-
The trolley
The motive power was
selves for the last stage of our journey.
was simply a small
flat
truck.
furnished by two niggers,
who ran behind and pushed,
imitating as they did so the pufhng sound of an

engine.
After practice,
my
inspector told me, they
could push such a load up grade at the rate of

miles an hour.
Of the twenty miles
lay before us, however,
all
but six were down grade,
along which the trolley would go by
tum with no other
effort
live
to Smaldeel that
its
own momen-
necessary than to control the
brakes.
It
on
one
was seven o'clock when four
of us took our seats
this rolling platform, our legs
hanging over,
of the strangest rides I ever took.
boys started the thing going.
for
The two black
They ran along behind
38
for a few
minutes uud then took a
and we went rushing- along

hour.
At
first it
was
at a
fiyinir
leap aboard,
good twenty miles an
exhilarating"
enough, after our
previous slow progress in the Cape cart
but after a
by in the dark and

we passed over the culverts with a roar, I began to
wonder whether the brakes would hold, whether the
gangers had not overlooked some rails misplaced l)y
the Boers, and how manj^ pieces there would be to pick
None of these thoughts
up if we jumped the track.
disturbed my companions, however thej' had been
while, as clumps of bushes rushed
"
working on the railway
"'
for years,
and midnight
rushes of this description were everj^lay incidents to
them.
They
sat carelessly- in their places
and uncon-
cernedly swapped j-arus al)out trivial incidents of the

war.
Nothing haj^pened during the

which we did
at
lii'st
than an hour.
thirteen miles,
Then we drew up
another section station, paused for another cup of
coifee,
of
in less
changed trolleys, and went on with a new brace
boys and another section foreman on the box seat
in place of the
one who had started with
us.
We now
struck the up-grade stretch, and I curled up and went

to sleep, soothed
human
engines,
with two
l)ol)
up an hour
by the puffing and panting
whom
apiece after they had got us up.
later to
of
our
I drowsilj" resolved to present
hud our
car
drawn up
at
woke
another
cottage and another transfer of trollevs and crew go-
THE FEOXT AT
ing- on.
The
last
darkness, thus
two
h:)sing-
boj'S
LAST.
3!)
had disappeared
iu
the
the two bob, a fact which I sin-
cerely regretted.
was now eight miles down grade
It
was
told, as
we shoved
off.
The
to Smaldeel, I
few miles went
first
by smoothly enongh, but then what I had inwardly

expected all along happened. We jumped a switch,
and in a twinkling I was gazing upon my companions
sprawling on the ground about the
car,
which had
given a few clumsy jumps over the ties and then
come
to a stop with a
heavy
list
to starlôard.
I lis-
tened for moans, but heard welcome laughter instead
and
all
in a
moment
everybody picked himself up, and
reported no injuries.
We
we
got the car back on the
and amid the chuckles of the negroes resumed

our descent. Shortly afterwards we reached Smal-
rails,
deel in safety, and building a
woman's Avaiting-room
fire in
at the station,
of a cold supper, the inspector
selves for the nisrht.
the grate in the
and xDartaking
and I disposed our-
CHAPTER
YI.
The Vast Land of the

Next morning-,
some
after
Boeiis.
we pro-
chafing- delay,
ceeded for Yet river by another
There were
trolley.
several broken culverts along- our route, but an inex-
haustible supply of trolleys and trolley experts, and
we
at
whirled
finally
down
bank
to the
of the
Yet river
about eleven o'clock of that Sunday morning. The
camp
there was a familiar sight, and there was the
railway, clear to Bloemfontein and Kimberley.
was
soon among- friends again, and was told that a train
would leave
of the King's
of
my
dowu
Royal
Rifies, the
friend Captain Harrison,

to Bloemfontein,
But we
The
I also found a Captain Creag-h,
at noon.
Avere
troops, after
same Irish regiment

who was also g-oing
and we foreg-athered.
doomed
to
disappointment again.
working night and day since Wed-
nesday, had just completed the deviation across the

river,
and every engine
the
g-et
stalled
leng-thened, and
got
oft".
in the place
was needed
The delay
supply-trains across.
it
was midnight before
But those hospitable
best of care of me, and
to
Ave finallj^
Irish officers took the
my only grief was
that I should
probably miss the next morning's train to Kimberley.
And
I did.
That
last stage of
my journey back to Bloemfontein
THE VAST LAND OF THE BOEKS.
open coal-truck.
I passed with Captaiu Creagli in au
But the
uiy-ht
41
was the most comforta])le
withstanding', for
we
up an
rig-g-ed
of
with a huge tarpaulin, and slept like tops

after sunrise,
back
all,
not-
effective shelter
till
well
when we found ourselves once more
in Steyn's ancient capital.
After such a journey as that which I had just completed, one Ijegins to c(^mpreliend something- of the
characteristics of the
mighty continent
of Africa.
Looking- back upon the closer acquaintance which
my later
experiences gave, I find that the impression
made by the surroundings

found
made
its latest
in
which the British nation
opportunity to prove the
of is still a very strong- one.
to see can look out
No
stutt' it is
one with eyes
upon a South African landscape
without being sensi1)le of that feeling of awe which

great anti({uity always inspires.
The mystery and
the indefinable charm of vastness and of

that ancient land
unknown
man and
in
more
made manifest on
familiar spots of the earth,
nature are closer
where the
light of
day
is
allies
friends.
A laud
know anywhere, nature
those great spaces, whicli are

else to
and
where
the fiercest and the dark of
night the blackest one can
seems as nowhere
ag-e are in
a mighty scale
still
almost
all
in
her own,
be governing- her kingdom
on lines too great for man to
trace.
from some solitary eminence, man
Looking- forth
feels a ])uny
atom
indeed when he rc^dizes that that liori/on which he
THE CHASE OF DE
42
sees so clearly
of the orreat
is
AVET.
three score miles away.
South African
|)lateaii
The
veldt
looks as ancient as
The ,i>Teat black rocks that crop out here

and there seem to lie just where they fell ages back,
after that mighty convulsion which heaved rip Africa
the sea.
out of the sea
and the
softly
rounded outlines
of the
kopjes and the mountain ranges are the outlines of

the everlasting
Earth and sky seem
hills.
full of
Haggard must have felt

when he chose those surroundings for so many of his
weird tales of imagination. The whole atmosphere
ancient mj'steries, as Eider
of Africa suggests irresistibly the mysterious
and the
unknowable.
To
wonderful clearness of the
this effect the
To
lends a large share.
air
see such an extent of country
spread out before one like an open palm; to note

the main features of earth and sky repeating themselves endlessly and changelessly,
is
to gain a first
impression which one can never forget, though he

find
it
far
to define. To get such a range

own land we should have to go far
beyond him
of vision in our
up from the earth
in a l)alloon,
and then the
effect
we should
a field become
w(juld not be the same, for from a lialloon
simply see a landscape in miniature
the corner of a garden, a city shrunk to the propor-
In South Africa cities are few

up in a balloon there nothing would
would simply see more vastness.
tions of a doll-house.
and
far apart
shrink
oiie
THE VAST LAND OF THE
For it
the vastiiess of au open plain,
is
43
150ERS.
tlie
luig'eness
of black volcanic rocks as large as mountains, that are
The few cities Cape

Town, Bloemfoutein, Kiml)erly, Johannesburg and
characteristic of
South
rural towns
the
little
are
all alike
Africa.
and
villa-ges scattered far apart,
hopelessly dwarfed by the vastuess of
the silent veldt around them, out of wliich you
upon them
as
upon a ship
in
mid-ocean, and
l)y
come
which
you are swallowed up again when you leave them

behind.
One
idea that
man and all
haunted
is
his
in
South Africa with the
works are insignificant amid
nature's heights and breadths and
The equatorial sun
is
sovereign lord of
here the giantess unshackled
bonds.
And man,
mighty distances.
all
nature
is
by any Lilliputian
constrained to adapt himself to
her huge scale, hnds that a thousand-acre lot must
be his barnyard, wherein the strutting fowls are
grown to stately ostriches and the monstrous cattle

wear horns that would shame a Texas steer.
Such is the land which the degenerate Boer declared to be too small to contain himself and so
as one
much
Englishman besides, when he formed those
petty plans of his to drive the English into the sea
and yet
in all its
length and breadth
England aroused
way.
later,
Paul,
when
herself at last, could find no spot
remote enough to hide

sooner or
Oom
Tommy
in
no
cover into which,
Atkins would not find his
THE CHASE OF
44
in
WET.
the sense of vastuess wliieli
Coiiti'ibutini;- also to
overwhelms one
T)E
South Africa
the lack of tree
is
much of the boundless veldt. Whatmay be in summer, in the rainless winter
or shrub in so
ever
it
season
khaki
it
wears the dull yellowish -brown hue of
and one may travel over
seeing- a single
green thing.
And
one feels alone indeed.

session
of
for
it
days without
Alone on such a
sea,
that feeling takes pos-
one even with an aimy for company,
whether on the march, steadily and
pushing
silenth"
onward, or at rest in camp, with tents and campfires

all
gleaming, artillery and cavalry horses picketed
around, and cattle grazing far out on every side.
Geologically as well as historically, Africa

of the oldest continents
ance of
its
is
one
and the venerable appear-
stocks and stones impresses one as pro-
foundly as the vastness of
its
empty
In the
spaces.
seamed, bronzed face of Tal)le Mountain, that majestic sentinel of
Good Hope, one
the Cape of
sees the traces of the passage of
but the imagination
is
carried back
still
the remotest past in the effort to guess
was
in the world's
ages,
further into
how
morning that the peak
early
off.
Cape northwards as
far as Pretoria,
limit of the author's journeyings,
The configuration
it
of that
And everywhere from
huge rock was razed
of age.
not only
unnumbered
the
which was the
one notes the signs
of the plains of the great
plateau, which ranges from the Great Karroo on the
THE VAST LAND OF THE

south to
high vehlt of what was but hitely the
tlie
Transvaal,
45
BOEliS.
is
such as one imagiues that of the l)ottom
of the sea to he
aud the kopjes
risiug-
everywhere
out of the uuduhitiug" vehlt, aud the hig-her hills aud
mountains marking- the course of the Yaal
river,
northern l)oi;udary of Basutoland, and
tracing- the
sheltering the golden AVitwatersrand around Johau-
have the softly -rounded outlines
ueshurg-, all alike
which the forces
of nature
must have
ag-es of undis-
turbed labor to fashion.

It
was natural enough that the Boers, who had
enough
lived long
in
South Africa
fectly familiar with the
should find
it
easy at
first
become per-
to
features of
the country,
to resist with
success the advance of a British
army
signal
as large as
new to them as it
Cronje and Botha and De Wet.
Buller's, operating in a country as
was well known
The wildernesses
to
of the veldt are traversed
feAv lines of single track,
main
line
by only a
narrow gauge railway.
The
northward from Cape Town remains a
single line until
400 miles away.
it
reaches
There
it
De Aar
Junction, over
branches, the main line
continuing northward along the western border
(^f
the Free State and the Transvaal to Kimberly and
Mafeking, the latter town being 850 miles from
Cape Town
while the branch goes southeastward
to Naainvpoort Junction, and thence northward, with

a slight trend eastward, to Ijlot'infoiitein, .biliannes-
46
some 900 miles northward from the sea.

This main line, the comparatively short line running Avest and southwest from
Johanneslmrg to Klerksdorp through Kruegersdor})
and Potehefstroom (the old Boer capital), and the
line from Johannesburg eastward to Portuguese
and Pretoria, the
burg-,
last
East Africa, are the only roads affording anything

but l)ullock and horse transport across the country
of the Boers.
will
show what
glance at any
map
of
South Africa
vast tracts of territorj^ remained to
be traversed by the ancient methods of stag-e-coach,

l)ulloclv
wagon, and Cape
cart.
Lord Roberts naturally made the railway* line his

line of communication. But columns had to be
sent off east and west to overrun the whole country,
main
and these columns had
depend
to
for the transport of
the g-reat stores of food, ammunition, and the thousand
and one things that
army
a great
g-o to
make up the ijnjMdimenta
in the field
horses, which at best can
miles a day.
It
was
in
of
upon bullocks, mules, and
make but twenty
or thirty
doing the endless trekking
which the British operations under such circumstances entailed that
Tommy
Atkins and his
officers
learned to curse South Africa during those moments
when
much for tiesh and

Nobody complained when the fight
the strain seemed almost too
blood to bear.
was on
Avlien there
or a target to be
were Boer trenches to he carried
hit.
But when the enemy took
to
;;
THE VAST LAND OF THE BOERS.

liis lieels,
47
and, marcliino- with that extraordiuaiy
bility of his,
mo-
kept always a day ahead of his pursuers
when
the troops had often to follow along- a doubtful
trail
over vast plains which seemed intermina])le,
around kopjes from some snug' eyrie of which the
might
bag-g-age train
at anj^
moment be threatened
by Boers who could always get away liefore they

could be come u}) with through defiles and across
drifts that always proved too much for some of the
;
patient animals
bitter cold
l:)y
under a blazing sun by day and
night
in
with water scarce and bad, and
firewood sometimes scarcer
still
was under
it
cir-
cumstances such as these that Tommj' drank deep of
monotony and apparent impotence

that compose the most g-alliug bitterness of war.
There was little faltering when the " kerchunk, kerchunk " of Mausers was making music in the soul
when the deep bass of the field-guns was waking the
that drudgerj^ and
echoes of the
hills
when the enemy had been
located in front of right or
left
or centre.
endless trekking, trekking, trekking

in the
dark and starting
off
It
at last
was the
halting wearily
again l)efore dawn, that
wore out stout hearts of man and beast. One reached

the summit of one ridge strong in the hope that the
goal must be in sight from there, only to find another
and
still
otlier
ridges beyond which in their turn
must be traversed.
up
The
veldt looks Itare and level
to the very skyline, sixty miles
away
but
in real-
48
ity it is a
tween
successiou of hills and valleys that
and
in its
lie
be-
slow and toilsome progress forward
the long- line of march was liidden from the distant

oliserver as often as
They
are just as hoofs
the roads
and wheels have made them
hard and smooth only where the

to resist
And
was revealed.
it
soil is of
wear and tear and where

;
heavy as a plonghed held.
it is
Dnring
a character
soft
and sandy,
their years of
all
occupancy of the land the Boers have never expended

an hour of
lal)or in the
improvement
of the roads.
They have contented themselves with devising

and wag-ons
of exceptional streng-th to
carts
withstand the
strains that they will not labor to lessen,
and
in de-
velopiDg- a race of drang-ht animals of unusual hardi-
The idea of making an ally of nature occurs

them l)ut seldom, and is acted upon only l)y the
ness.
to
few wdio deserve to be called enterprising.
The lack of water

winter, when nearly
during- the long dry season of

all
the streams run dry,
other characteristic of South Africa Avhich

traced to the indolence of the Boer.
cal illustration of this
ter's division
is
an-
may be
AVe saw a typi-
on the march of General Hun-
from Yryl)urg northward and eastward
into the Transvaal to Lichtenburg.
days of trekking the
troojis
depended
During eight
for water xipon
a few^ tanks while near the railway, and thereafter
upon brackish pools, sometimes twenty feet below

the surface, known in the Dutch jargon as pans.
49
and au occasional small lake where a farmer of the

had built a dam across a stream and thus
rarer type
held the water prisoner, truly in durance
days one marched twenty miles
encountering- even a brackish pool
For
vile.
at a stretch
without
and when
it
was
found the water was too often poisoned with the

lender such circumstances
g-erms of typhoid.
natural that the veldt, which

level in that region, should
be
is
it
was
almost perfectly
little
more than a
parched desert, without a tree or even a shruli as
far
as the eye could reach to relieve the overpowering-
remember the joy of

our small advance party one blazing- noonday when
we caug-ht sight of a clump of half a dozen green-
monotony
of vast tracts.
Avell
leaved willows beside a well wherein there
mained a few
feet
stagnant water.
of
still
re-
Our meal
under that shade was the pleasantest we had tasted
But even that simple solace was denied

to the main force following- us, for there was not room
under that green awning for more than half a dozen
in a week.
at a time.
And
yet those very trees were a rebuke to Boer
indolence.
They drew
exhaustible sup[)ly
labor to bring-
it
(jf
up
the poorest thirsty
their sustenance from an in-
water that only wanted a
man
or beast.
that arid country well have told
Men who know

me that almost
everywhere, at a depth of twenty or thirty

4
little
to the surface, Avithin reach of
feet,
water

50
is
abundant.
sunken shaft and a windmill are
simple arts needed to

like
the rose.
And
make
so
it
sucli a desert
tlie
blossom
doubtless will be
when
British law and order invite the pastorally inclined

to
make
their
homes
in a laud
which
offers a far
greater reward to the industrious than manj^ a tract
now
flourishing like the green
suns and
Most
bay
tree
(^f
the towns and hamlets and isolated farms
scattered over South Africa reveal the

teristics.
under other
stars.
A very
few (more's the
adorned with close-set
trees,
pit}'
same characgenerously
),
blooming with gardens,
alive with sleek cattle and healthy fowls,
man
can do
if
he
will.
All about the countrj' are
scattered Kaffir kraals, set

fields
and melon
model
of cleanliness
show what
iâtches,
down amid
each hut of which
and prospering
of the occupants are lilack,
rich mealie
thrift.
and their faces are not
beautiful according to our Caucasian standards
many
is
The skins
but
of them have the Iwdies and limbs of ApoUos
and Yenuses, and they are cleaner under their gaudy

blankets and furs even than are their floors. Other
aljodes of the Boer,
by
far the greater
number
farms
with their rude hovels built of sun-baked clay, with
ragged thatch
of rotting straw
villages of galvan-
ized-iron shanties or scpiat, one-storied Imildiugs of
wood, with broken windows and decaying stoep
show what the white man
of the couutrj- is generallj'
51
many
pretentious
conteut with.
town
stoue
in
halls
;
and g-overument
but he
what
The Boer has

is
Iniilt
l)uildiug-s
eudnring-
generally satisfied to dwell himself
and
his cleanly
virile
forbears of France and
Holland would deem no better than a
But the Boer
of
pig"-sty.
not what he once was.
is
He
has
lived too long- in an unnatural isolation to preserve

his ancient virtues
and South
Africa, " the grave of
rei)utations," has sucked from him most of his old

virility
to slow
and
is drag-giug-
and sure decay.
down
a once respectable race
CHAPTEK
Fitting
YII.
Out for the Front.

had
Tlie i-oiindabout raihvay journey I
to take to
Kimberley from Bloemfouteiu would have l)eeu

much more dreary than it was in any but an un-
reacli
familiar country,
new and
tiug-
straug-e to claim the attention.
the
g-o all
where there was much that was
way back
to
De Aar
We
had
Junction before
to
g-et-
the train for the north, and there being no at-
tempt
to
make
close connections, I
had
to sjiend four
dreary midnight hours on a cold and cheerless sta-
want to see again, by night

The train from the Cape fiuallj^ came in,
however, and I was soon fast asleej) in a fairly comfortable l)erth which I had the good luck to find untion platform that I never
or
by day.
occupied.
There were fewer delays beyond De Aar, that part

of the
Colony having by
Boers
this time
and on the evening
been purged
of that
of the
day I reached
The town was chiefly conspicuous at

first sight for the huge piles of gray earth on its
outskirts, that mark the entrances to the diamond
Kimlierley.
mines, and for the galvanized-iron shanties that constitute the greater
was
noW'
number
wathin
of its buildings.
easy distance of
Fourteen
FITTING OUT FOR THE FRONT.
Streams
ouly remained to procure the outlit
it
53
wherewith to accompany the
army.
We
corre-
spondents had to provide onr own transport, and

g-euerally "find ourselves" in everything- save
and army forage,
rations
to
for
army
which we were entitled
draw upon the Ai"my Service Corps
at the rate of
four shillings a day for each man's ration and live

shillings for a day's supply of forage for our animals.
The next morning
who
found an honest auctioneer
contracted to furnish a
harness, and
Cape
cart, three ponies,
We
body servant complete.
wasted no
time in coming to terms, and before sunset the outlit
was assembled on the edge

ready for
my
approval.
of the
public scpiare
Everything was satisfactory
except two of the ponies and the servant.
mer
had
to
The
for-
send l)ack for exchange the next day
but as sul)stitutes I secured two excellent beasts,
one of which, AYolf, survived

faithfull}^
him
all
our experiences, and
earned the reward which on parting with
I stipulated he should receive
three
months
of
To obtain a
reliable black boy proved a more difficult task.
The
one selected l)y the auctioneer was drunk when I
absolute rest and generous feeding-.
arrived,
and was
at
once dismissed.
I looked over
who had gathered about
the dozen or so
to see the
and found none of them prepossessing.

There was one, liOAvever, whose appearance promised
de^sarture,
sobriety at least
but he
tlincluMl
when
I explained to
54
that
liiin
would have
lie
wage should be sent

On that I let him go.
also stipulated that his weekly
back to his wife
among
Finally,
their services
Kimberley.
at
who were
the others
eagerly ofltering
and protesting that they were eager to
face any danger,
my
eye
upon a Cape boy
fell
shabby appearance, but with a steadiness

that I liked
and he
to g-o with the army,
and
beckoned him out
He
His name was Lewis.
of
in his eye
of the crowd.
was married, he
said,
but was willing to receive his wages in person.
The
t(Jo
auctioneer vouched for his good character
the condition that he l)ring
renton within good time.

all
and
satis-
he would do, I engaged him on the spot, on
lied that
my
outfit safely to
War-
This he did, and during
our subsequent wanderings proved a good and
faithful servant.
My saddle-horse was of
the polo-pony Ijreed, small,
He
wiry, and sound, save as to his knees.
veloped an incorrigible tendency to
later de-
down
fall
at reg-
ular and brief intervals, and a few weeks later I seized
an opportunity to trade him
much more
oft'
for a less
dapper but
sober and reliable animal.
The road between Kimberley and Warrenton, the

town on the south bank of the Yaal, opposite Fourteen Streams, was very heavy, I learned so I decided
;
to send
my
cart
and horses on ahead
proceeded myself by
tion of
my
kit
rail,
with me.
light, wdiile I
carrying the heavier por-
So I started Lewis
oft"
that
FITTING OUT FOE THE FRONT.
55
afteruoon, and next moruina", Friday, the 18tli of
May,
the
left
little
myself
1)y train.
Four hours
later I
reached
hamlet, and established myself at the AVar-
ren Hotel, a humble roadside inn set
among
poplars, in a neighborhood chiefly noted, I
a few
was
told,
for snakes.
The Warren Hotel was popular with the officers in

General Hunter's camp across the river, where the
fare was strictly regulated by the resources of the
army supply department, and I spent twenty-four
hours there in pleasant company waiting for my
transport.
had
left
me General Hunter
;
of worth,
at the
the raw type of officer behind

preferred to be served
and the subalterns
Warren Hotel were
all
whom
men
l)y
down with
I sat
the best of fellows.
Lewis turned up early the next morning, driving

four ponies instead of the two I had turned over to
him
in
at
Kimberley, and with a
answer to
The
original
short
my
tale of
in({uiries as to
team had given
way from Kimberley
woe
to tell
why he was
out,
late.
he explained, a
they were no good, any-
how and he had put back
two more.
to obtain
These had been temporarily supplied by the auc-
was safely
The arrangement seemed the best
tioneer, the others to be returned Avhen I
across the Vaal.
that could
1)6
made, so
I, ])erforce,
few hours later I rode to the
approved
river,
it.
and crossed
over to where General Hunter's tents were "leamiug.
5G
chase of de wet.
tiif:
The Yaal
is
oue of the few South Afric<au rivers that
does not dry up in winter.

strong- there at
water on the
I found the current
Fourteen Streams, with three feet of
and a stony Ijottom that made
drift
My
easy matter to get across dry-shod.

it
g-allantly,
however, worked his way forward
the other animals in the stream of

across,
wagons
and
and
ward
made my way
among
moving-
to the press
to General Hunter,
answering the searching
(piestions
traffic
and found ourselves on
was introduced hy him
after
no
minutes we were safely past the
in live
struggling- through,
the northern l)ank.

censor,
it
pony took
l)ut straightfor-
he put to me, was duly granted
authority to attach myself to his force.
Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Hunter, when I
was presented
to
him that day hy Major Fasson,
his
Brigade-Major, was seated at a small table in the

recesses of a
of his
commodious
tent pitched in the centre
camp, which occupied an extensive area on the
high ground rising from the north bank of the Yaal

river.
As we halted
at the entrance to
quarters, the General looked
his head-
up from the mass
of
papers over which he had been bending, and fixed
me
me
with a keen glance, preliminary to questioning

as to
my
fitness for the diities to
been assigned.
some man than
which I had
have seldom seen a more hand-
he,
or
one more generously en-
dowed with those physical
characteristics
which go
FITTING OUT FOIi THE FRONT.
to
make up
one's heav ideal of
and commander.
and
Tall,
tlie
57
successful soldier
of splendid
physique,
strength of character was stamped on every feature

of his striking- face.
was a face that would
It
attention anywhere, but
it
attract
was most particularly
in
the searching glance of his clear, l)rown eye that one
knew him
mand.
for a
man long
He had
trained in the habit of com-
ask a question to compel the
l)ut to
frank and upright answer.
But once
satisfied that a
man, whoever he was, was what he professed

he thereafter, as I can
euce, treated
and
left
testify
him with
no room
for
all
my own
from
to be,
ex^jeri-
frankness and courtesy,
doubt that under
all
circum-
stances he would meet with the consideration due
from
man
to
man.
One had only
do his duty and
to
bear himself manfully, and he would have no cause

to
complain of General Hunter.
stamped upon his face
and
all
That much was
his actions
keeping with the promise there written.

all that,
control.
were
in
But with
nothing ever betrayed him into loss of
self-
He knew well how to keep his counsel and

my sul)sequeut service with him
;
although throughout
he never failed to give

jects
concerning which
me full
it
information on
was proper
all
sub-
for the press to
be instructed, he just as frankly refused to discuss

matters which the proper conduct of the cami)aign
required should not for the present be known.
whether his answer was consent or
refusal,
And
one always
58
left
him
satisfied tliat
it
was
Sucli censorship
rig-lit.
as he exercised over our des|)atches was eminently
and there were no complaints from any
fair,
war correspondents attached
Hunter and
Colonel A.
to his forces.
of the
General
his courteous Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-
J.
Murray, gave me, for one, every cause
to appreciate as a privilege of the highest the op-
portunity to witness those operations of the Tenth

Division.
Like most of the higher

tinction in
officers
who have won
dis-
South Africa, General Hunter had seen

where he had
service in Egypt,
first
displayed the
high qualities which later enabled him to render

such
al)le
assistance to General
him
White
Some time
defence of Ladysmith.
Fourteen Streams, he had been intrusted by
at
Lord Roberts
Avith the relief of
Mahon
he sent Colonel
Mafekiug.
to
Of how
forward to the brilliant
achievement of that plan England
need
diiring the
before I joined
at least
does not
be reminded.
After foregathering with two other correspondents
whom
found
in
General Hunter's camp, I recrossed
the river to liring
noon
my
plies
and other
cart,
before sunset
of
my
up my establishment.
now
That
stores,
my little
was got safely
across,
and
bivouac was pitched near that
fellow correspondents, and I settled
life at the. front.
after-
heavily laden with mj^ mess sup-
down
to
CHAPTER
YIII.
The Eelief of Yeyburg.

^Ye remained iu camp at Fonrteeu Streams for
only two days more, awaiting news of the fate of
Colonel Mahon's expedition for

king-.
On Sunday
I sent back to
unserviceable horses.
tlie relief of
Kimberley
On Monday
Mafe-
my
tv\o
the press censor
news that Baden-Powell had been

a day ahead of the time set by
relieved,
successfully
Lord Eoberts. The way was now cleared for General
g-ave us the glad
Hunter's advance northward and eastward into the

Transvaal, to be ready,
if
necessary, to co-operate
with Lord Roberts's main column in overcoming any
Boer resistance
Pretoria.
to the
advance on Johannesburg and
The preparations
for striking
camp were
at once begun, and on Tuesday we correspondents
obtained permission to start on in advance of head-
move iu a day or two for

morning we started on our lonely
quarters, which wore to
Vryburg.
T]iat
trek across the veldt, cheered
by the expectation
soon seeing some fighting and
of
of assisting in the
taking of Pretoria.
Our
four hours' horseback ride that day to Border
siding was through a countrv niTxch
more interesting
60
THE CHASE OF
tliau the level
and not too
State that
I)E
WET.
fertile tracts of
we had previously
traversed.
the Free
Seen across
the Yaal river from Warrenton, Griqualand looked

for all the world
traveling-
through
due to closely
set
the richest woodland
like
it
we found
and
that appearance to he
clumps of thornlmshes, which often
grew high enough
Further down
to be called trees.
country nothing rose higher al)ove the veldt than the
omnipresent
ant-hill,
save an occasional clump of
poplars marking some pool of water.
Most uoticeal)le of all that we now saw about us was the green
in the landscape.
It was a cheering change, for the
all-pervading khaki of the Free State and northern
Cape Colony wearied the eye and the soul. In Griqualand one realized what results might be obtained
if a colony of enterprising farmers would turn to, dig-
down
the necessary twentj^ feet to the water Avhich
exists at that
land,
in
depth
most parts
or rather all under, that
all over,
and freshen up the
soil,
of the world,
which
is
and richer
as rich as aujfar
than tracts
were originally.
some parts of America now fertile

But we speedily found that the
Boer was content
if
in Australia
and
in
he wrested a bare living out of
the soil (and a bare living for him was bare indeed)
his nearest neighbor
was too
far
away
to stir
him
into
competition, and so a country with almost iutiuite

resorirces
is
and blessed with as
fine a climate as there
anywhere, went begging for some nation of workers
THE RELIEF OF YRYBURG.

to
redeem
61
That appeared to be also the situation
it.
in the neig-hhoring- parts of the Transvaal, for
it
was
only an imaginary line a hundred yards from where
we pitched our bivouac

it
from British
that evening- that separated
From
territory.
the top of a kopje
across the border, where Captain Robertson of the
Connaught Rangers,
in
command
of the small
depot there, had built a most businesslike

I looked oiit that afternoon over
thousands of acres
green with verdure
of the richest pasture-laud,
and
in that clear
atmos-
]iair of field-glasses failed to
reveal
though one could see sixty miles

phere, a strong
supply
little fort,
a sign of hiiman lial)itation.
We
started on from Border siding the next
ing, the 23rd,
and
after a halt of four
wani, to rest our horses,
and started
oli'
we
left
hours
morn-
at Pliok-
the line of the railway
across country towards Taungs.
Our
progress that afternoon was retarded by one of our

ponies giving out, and darkness found us on the
veldt, miles
away, apparentlj^ from anywhere.
nally halting at about half-past six,
Fi-
we sought
in
vain for water for our horses, and in the end had to
outspan and leave tliem thirsty until day should
we had enough
break.
For
bottles,
and made a good meal. Then we
tent,
oiirselvos
and spent the night
We
were up
at
dawn
in
our water
})itclied
our
in entire comfort.
to find visitors in the
form of
two grizzled Kallirs and throe ebonv children,
all
62
wrapped up
morniug
in scauty karrosses
cliill,
wlio had
and
sliiyering- iu
come down from
a kraal
the
which
daylight revealed to us on rising ground half a mile
The same distance to the wêst the gleam of

running water, which had been hidden from us in the
darkness, caught our eye, and we at once sent our
away.
boys
off
with the horses,
refreshed.
We
friends that
we were
wdiicli
managed
just
soon returned visibly
to learn
from our Kaffir
beyond Banks
Drift,
on the
right road to Taungs, and that the latter i^lace was
only a few miles away.
Meanwhile our
visitors,
whose numlêrs kept
creasing until there were ten or twelve
in-
men and
children about us, eagerly helped us to build our
magnet to draw them forth from their huts, and also drew
water for us from the neighboring Harts. One cannot imagine a more picturesque group than these
fire,
the prospect of w^hich had proved the chief
natives formed, in the wilderness where they were

living just as they
had done since the beginning,
showing the traces of
weapons and
civilization only in their lack of
in the cast-off white
man's garments
of them wore beneath their buckskin

The most interesting and oldest of the
which some
karrosses.
party
tribe
we learned was the

and lord
of the kraal
Abarub, he told
us,
chief of the neighboring
on the
hill.
His name was
and we managed to hold quite a
conversation with him Avith the aid of one of the
THE RELIEF OF YEYBUKG.

youngsters,
who
could speak a few words of Eug-lish
and acted as interpreter.

old cliap,
Abarub was a most g-euial

and I took plioto-
tliouo-li dig-nilied witlial,
him and the
graplis of
grouped,
rest, iuteresting-ly
Paxton made a sketch
w^hile
63
ground and gazing toward
of
him
squatting-
his kraal.
At
on the
first
he
refused to face the camera, of which he was plainly
very
much
immensely.
jam-tins,
afraid
We
but Paxton's sketch pleased him
gave him presents
which the youths
of tol)acco
and
in his train licked clean,
and he acknowledged our beneficence with grave

courtes3^ "We left them with mutual expressions of
regret and pushed on towards Taungs.
were Kaffir huts

indeed,
we had not seen one
The undulating
All about us
no white men appeared anywhere

veldt,
since leaving Phokwani.
studded with mimosa bushes,
might almost never have been trodden by white men,

so few traces had they left behind as they passed by
with their occasional bullock teams.
was
fertile
The
enough, however, as the mealie
melon patches
of the Kaffir testified.
couutrj'
fields
and
Abarub's peo-
ple were evidently prosperous.
We
There we met
King Malala. He lunched with
tent, and we all shook hands and
reached Taungs about noon.
Aliarub's overlord,
us in an
officer's
exchanged greetings with most interesting ceremony.

Shortly after
we
arrived,
General Hunter's train
steamed in from Fourteen Streams.
Walker
a]id I
'I'HE
(;4
boarded
CHASE OF DE WET,
and entered Yrybiirg with him,
it
leaving-
our two companions to bring- on our carts by road.
General Barton's brig-ade had reached this
town on the precedingtically
little
to be enthusias-
greeted by most of the fifteen hundred inhabi-
who
tants,
Wednesday,
for seven long-
and weary months had been
cut off from railway and practically
all
other
commu-
nication with the rest of the world, and overrun with
The
Boers.
traces of the enemy's presence were not
They had stripped the town of about

everything- in the way of food and stock, and left l)ehind tilth and bad smells, in accordance with their
ditiicult to see.
simple and pastoral habits.
why
community should
an invader
who
It is easy to
rejoice to
locks horses
and leaves them there to die

discovery
made
in this
Colony
it
after the
to
himself would not have smiled
story, rectangular
street, close
of the
rot.
That was the
of cleaning-
of Genup Cape
l)e
one that Hercules
at.
Vryburg- was entitled to better treatment.
was a pleasant enough
no
dwelling-houses
Boers should have been driven out
was evidently going
And
be delivered from
in
neighborhood by one
The labor
eral Barton's officers.
of
up
and
understand
way
little place.
of its one-
houses were built along- one broad
upon two miles

wîtli
Most
It
long-,
lofty willows
g-ardens, but there
and lined
for
AVe saw
and poplars.
were many open
lots
most
on which
the veldt grass and scrub grew luxuriantly.
Above
THE RELIEF OF VEYBURG.

all,
O'Reilly's Spriiit
an am])le supply of
and iuuumerable wells furuislied

best water, wliicli eveu the
tlie
Boers had uot beeu
65
contaminate.
al)le to
The townspeople were
Eng-lish
in fairly ecpial proportions.
of a rebel strong-hold, but
and Dutch, mixed
had been somewhat
It
most
of the earnest
Boer
One
sympathizers had by this time cleared out.
remained, however, to run the Vryburg hotel, seeinghis chance to
make much money out
and
take the risk of being sent to Kimberley
to
willing- to
He
be tried for treason.
dressed in Boer fashion

coat, dirty shirt
His food was
minus a
g'ood,
of the Britisli,
waited upon us at meals,
dirty
collar,
trousers and waist-
and a scrag-gy beard.
however, and appetizing-
if
one
did not penetrate into the fastnesses of the g-rimy

kitchen, presided over
by one lone
Kaffir cook.
How
she and he tog-ether managed to provide three meals

a day for forty hungry officers remained an uusolvable mystery to
all
of us.
General Barton's brigade had marched into Vryl)urg from Christiana after having
and twenty miles
made
in
done one hundred
seven marching days, and had
a dramatic entry in three columns amid the
j)laudits
of
the
though not so badly

had plenty
inhabitants,
long-sufiering
oli'
wlio,
as the people of Mafeking,
of troubles of their
same moment the armored
own.
train
At almost the
had steamed up to
the station over the newly repaired line, to be greeted
66
with toiichiug- fervor as the
months.
It
first train
seen for seven
was on the next day, the Queen's birth-
day, that General Hunter came in with his headquar-
Her Majesty's birthday
from Fourteen Streams.
ters
Avas celebrated in beautiful weather,
the troops, some
five
thousand
in all,
with a parade of
and emphatic ex-
pressions of loyalty were drawn from faithful
Atkins by
Tommy
an extra issue of rum.
General Hunter and his
officers settled
down
in
Yryburg, entirely content with the success of his recent operations.
Their chief result, of course, had
l)een the relief of Mafeking-,
made
possil)le
by the de-
Rooidam on May 5th, which split uj)

who had prepared to oppose the advance
cisive battle of
the Boers
of the flying
left
column sent out by General Hunter, and
them with
a force
no larger than Colonel Mahon
could deal with, as he did in the light of
beyond Koodoosrand.
way as far as Yryburg was
The repairing
just
portant event
13tli,
of the rail-
also a satisfactory
satisfactory, because the
May
and im-
Boers had
been boasting that the town would never see an English train again
and important, because the
Mafeking would not

ter's
l)e
relief of
complete until General
Hun-
force had repaired the road up to the gates of
Baden-Powell's stronghold.
And
so
it
was that not
only had the gallant colonel been gazetted a MajorGeneral, but General Barton, as well, had received the
congratulations of the
High Commissioner, Sir Alfred
THE RELIEF OF VRYBURG.

Milner, on
liriDo-iuo-
Yrybni-g- liack
Her Majesty's l)irtliday.

The military operations
67
uuder the
of the past
flao-
ou
few weeks had
pretty well rid this part of the country of the enemy,
and scouts and natives reported only a few scattered
The main body that had

been besieging Mafeking, and most of the rebels, had
trekked east into the Transvaal. Whether thej" would
oppose the invasion at the border or retire upon Joparties in the neighborhood.
hannesburg and Pretoria for a

time entirelj" problematical.
final stand, Avas at that
CHAPTEK
In^'ading
IX.
the Transvaal.
General Hunter's forces rested for a week at Yryburg-, accumulating- supplies
tions for
march
tlie
and completing- prepara-
move
we soon
Our General was to
into the Transvaal wliicli
learned was al)Out to beg-iu.
across from the west, to clear and pacify the
country eastward and northward up to Lord Roberts's

line of
march, then stretching- northward from the
Vaal towards Johannesburg-.
It
was exjiected that
the Boers recently driven from the neig'hl)orhood of
Mafeking- would
l)e
encountered somewhere
General Hunter's orders wêre to scatter them
and
if
he
could, and in any event to occupy the principal towns
and villages
of the western Transvaal
vent their use as Ijases

out, however,
we met with no
were alreadj" disorganized
doned their early policy

converging- from
all
and thus pre-
by the enemy,
xls it
opposition.
turned
The Boers
they had already aban-
of resisting- the
columns now
upon Pretoria, and had inharassing- the British Hanks
sides
augurated the tactics of
and rear which Christian de AVet was
later to
pursue
Thus it was that from Tryburg to Kruegersdorp, the last town occupied by General Hunter before joining- the forces to the eastward
with such brilliant success.
INVADING THE TRANSVAAL.

of Johannesburg-, not a shot
g-ersdorp
itself,
tence of
was
fired
69
and
Krue-
where the Boers made their only preBritish
resistance, the
suffered but one
casualty, a trooper of the Imperial Lig-ht

fell
at
a victim to a sniper's bullet.
Several
Horse who
commandoes
were roaming over the country we passed through,

but they never waited to try conclusions with us; and
General Hunter's mai'ch,
like that of
from Bloemfontein uy, was
little
Lord Roberts
more than
a peaceful
lîlg-rimage.
few days before the movement from Yryl:)urg be-
g-an,
Lieutenant-Colonel Murray, Chief of
Staff,
with
the courtesy which he always extended to us of the
showed us the
press,
force
was
to
The
itinerary decided upon.
move by easy
stages upon Lichtenburg-,
whence the further advance was to be g-overned by

circumstances. The country lying between was bare
and arid
for the
most
part, with not enoug'h water to
support the whole force moving tog-ether, and so the

division
was
split
up
into seven detachments,
which
were to follow one another a day's inarch apart.
The
first
stage of our journey was
made by
rail to
Doornbult, then the farthest point on the line to
Mafeking to which the Royal Engineers had carried

theii' repairs.
The Boers, retreating- before each advancing- column,
expended much energy and dyna-
mite in blowing up culverts and liridges, and in generally
wrecking the railway and such rolling stock as
70
they could not take

in
but
witli tliem
slio-htly delaying-
cordon
closing- in
but they succeeded
the tio-htenino- of the g-reat
about doomed Pretoria.
Doorn-
bult was a typical South African railway siding-.
It
boasted in the way of buildings two shanties rudely

built of galvanized iron
and a few mean Katlir huts.
mile off the line Avas a farm Avhicli liad lieen occu-
pied by a prosperous English farmer.

very thoroughly looted
it,
Natives had
however, and we found the
sole possessors to be half a
dozen ostriches and a few
of the original staff of native servants.
The scene
that evening Avlien
we pitched our
tent
would have been desolate indeed but for the tents

and wagons of the troops. The country thereabouts
more than
Leeuw Kop, two miles
was
little
eminence.
The
veldt
a level plain,
out of which
off to the east, rose as the
only
was parched and dry, and cov-
ered with an acrid dust which everj^ breath of wind
blew into every crevice of one's
Clumps
of the
of thorn-l>ushes
and
kit
clothes.
and occasional stunted trees
beech variety alone served to vary the mo-
notony of the khaki-colored
veldt, save
where away
and willoAvs
marked the presence of water, very muddy, Init good
enough for the animals. Of water tit for man there
was none nearer than three miles, and in fact all along
to the west a small g-rou}) of poplars
the
lirst
half of the route
burg that precious
fluid
from Yr3d)urg to Lichten-
was extremely
scarce.
Such
INVADING THE TliANSVAAE.

as
we
foiiufl
was by no means
was not
thirsty
lowed
it
being- efenerally
i^'ood,
Tommy
stagnant and always mnddy.
at all fastidions,
71
Atkins when
however, and swal-
enongh
eagerly, thus furnisliing one sim])le
explanation of the breaking out of typhoid fever
wherever troops had camped for any length of time.
The wiser
of us ran
water in the evening.

ice cold in the
no such
risks,
standing
Aftei-
and boiled our

all
night
it
was
morning, and we were thus able to
carry with us for the next (hiy's supply water as
pure as one could ask

the surface
in
as the vegetation, such as
the white
Everywhere underneath
for.
that country water
man
first
it
was
exce])t at spots very few
underground supply.
upon the Lord
been touching
if
it
and improvidence.
fa(;t
and
far
The way
worth while,
between, to
in
to satisfy his
it
ta])
which the Boer
the
re-
wants would have
did not bes]ieak such indolence
He met
ever, for nothing could
the
but since
penetrated into the Dark (jonti-
neut no one seemed to have found
lied
enough,
plentiful
was, testified
with his reproof, how-
have been more plain than
that until he helped himself he would con-
tinue without any assistance frcmi on high to dwell

the scjualor and general wretchedness to w
liich
in
the
average Boer, the stupid Kaffir, and the ho[)eless

Hottentot seemed equally indifferent.
Tonnny Atkins, however, wentmarchingon
tlirougli
that land of unt'ultillcd inoniisc with a never faltering
THK
72
CI
ASK or DE WKV.
clieei'fuluess, forgetting- all the
hardships of the day
as soon as his teut Avas pitched at evening
heard the crackling of the
tire
had long since
building. His khaki uniform

trace of neatness
and he
comrade was
whicli his
lost
every
more than worn, and
his shoes were
he was grimy and generally unkempt from head to

foot
but he used to wake us u}) with a song as he went
way
for water or
But then, Lord Piol)erts himself had no
finer or titter
by our
tent in the
morning on
his
forage.
troops in his column than those stalwart troopers and

fusiliers of
General Hunter's division.
Fusiliers, the Scots, Irish,
First
The Royal
and Welsh Fusiliers, the
Connaught Rangers, the Dublin
Fusiliers, the
crack Royal Horse Artillery, the Royal Field Artillery,
and the Scottish companies
less Imperial
eral Hunter's
On
Yeomanry, were
all
of the dashing, reck-
represented in Gen-
command, and formed his main force.

were the names of Dundee, Elands-
their colors
laagte, Nicholson's Xek,
Ladysmith, Colenso
the last
the spot where the troo^js in open order advanced for
miles across an absolutely open plain under
an enemy almost impregnably intrenched on

fore
them
and were
tliej"
all
fire
from
hills
be-
helped to storm and carry Spiou Kop,
through the
terriljle
fourteen days and
nights with Buller on the Tuegela, before they were
formed into the Tenth Division and placed under General Hunter's
command
after
Ladysmith was
relieved.
INVADING THE TKANSVAAL.
Time and again
73
and
during- that tierce
])l()ody
campaign they had driven the Boers out

that no one wouki have been so rash as
could be taken before these
men showed
Natal
of positions
presume
to
the
way
into
them and marked their path through the trenches

with their dead. The ordeal had made men of them,
many
of
whom
were
little
more than
lioys
when they
had come across eight months before, and it was easy

it would g-o hard with the Boers if the latter tried to check them lêtween there and Pretoria.
to see that
Stalwart, bronzed veterans they were now, with a
steady look in their eyes that was good to see
were of their race and of their
friends.
if
you
Ten wars
could not have tried them and proved them as this
one had done,
luit
they made no boasts.
They sim-
ply walked straight and proudly, and held their heads

up, looking every inch the
men
of mettle
who could
carve out a world-wide empire and then govern
wisely and well for the good of
Those days
and
in that
of early stress
camp
scene as night
at
fell
it
all.
were past now, liowever,
Doornbult
all
that evening
was
The
peaceful.
was typical
of
many
another evening that followed. Half an hour after the
sun went down there was only a band of deep yellow
along the western horizon, shading
off
through
deli-
cate greens into the deepening azure of the rai)idly
darkening sky.
then the fainter
Group by group the brighter and

stars came trooi)iug out. Barel}- visi-
74
new moon was sinkdown tlie patlnvay marked by the sun's last ray.
Under the stars a few camp fires beg-an to gleam
From the direction of the little railway
brightly.
ble, tlie slender crescent of the
ing-
platform, where a train from

uji,
now and again
Vryburg had
jnst
drawn
a squad of soldiers, treading al-
most noiselessly over the
soft veldt, slipped into the
range of vision, passed by, and disappeared again into

the gathering darkness.
Sounds came
from
faintly
the distance, where the last few boxes of supplies
were being loaded into the wagons in readiness for

the start at dawn, the softened cries of the Kaffirs
From
mingling with the sounds of jostling boxes.

nearer at hand
one heard the sizzling of a pot
which a group
of lilack
around
East Indian servants, with
turl)ans on their heads, were muttering, cooking the
evening meal for the
officers'
mess.
Little l)y little
these noises grew fewer, one heard a laugh or a
snatch of song, and then the overwhelming stillness

of the veldt settled
which had
down over
l;)lown all
wêst, shifted into
all
things.
day a refreshing
The wind,
l>reeze
from the
the east and took on the biting chill
which would freeze the marrow
in one's
bones
if
one
did not fortify himself with sweaters and greatcoats.

Finally the sweetest sound of
" last post,"
all,
the bugle sounding
rang through the camp, and as the
lingering notes died
away the
silence
ness became alike impenetrable.
last
and the dark-
CHAPTEE
X.
Incidents of the Maijch.
We
left
Doornbult on the 31st of
detaclimeut, aud
between
came
aloug-
ment we managed
to travel
enjoyed to the
full visits to
off the line of
march.
able at
by easy
many
witli
No.
stages, keeping
By
two bodies of troops.
tlie
May
tliat
arrange-
most comfortably, and
Boer farms along aud
Being
just
we were
bj^ ourselves,
places to purchase eggs, milk, and such
other delicacies as had become procurable over night,
aud had many interesting adventures.
Throughout
our march, after crossing the border at Maribogo Pan,
we were
face to face with
ing realities of war.
some
Most
of the
of the
more
farmhouses which
we passed en route we found tenanted only

and children
and they
all,
English, had woeful tales to
had
l)een taken
them
often with
in
distress-
b}-
women
Dutch and broken
tell of
how
their stock
by the English or the Kaffirs, leaving

little or no meat themselves and no
milk for the babies.
General Hunter had
strictly
followed the policy of the English throughout this

war, steridy jn-ohibiting
iug for
all
all
looting by the troops, pa}'-
supplies taken for military purposes, aud
leaving behind enough for the inhabitants to get

along-
Avitli.
The
natives, however, finding theii*
day
76
of reckouing- at last at hand,
were
taking- every op]5or-
tunity to revenge tliemselves for years of Boer oppression.
Many unprotected farms had been visited by ma-
rauding ])ands, and stock driven
had
case, the innocent
to bear their share of the suf-
In some cases Boer
fering-.
when the phices

As is usualh^ the
off
were not looted of everything.
women had
worst atrocities at the hands of the
household was saved

before
we
arrived
l)y
in the nick of
One
time a few days
a squad from the advance g-uard
Four natives
General Hunter's division.
of
suffered the
Ijlacks.
preparing- to torture the
women
Avere
Avhen the corporal in
charge of the squad appeared at the door and ordered
them
to surrender.
The
neg-roes submitted at once
but on getting outside the house and seeing- that

there Avere only five soldiers against them, they
made
a dash back again for their arms and opened
fire.
The
result Avas disastrous for them, however, for the
first
AolleA'
them
up
from the corporal's guard disposed of
Another detachment
all.
band
of thirty or
more
of troops
looters,
had rounded
and had had
to
shoot several of them before getting the others under.
Some Boers
furnished a
of the detachments.
As
little
excitement for some
a rule, those living in the
neighl)orliood through which the columns advanced
They had
slipped back to their farms from commando, after
seeing that the tide had turned against them, and,
came
in
and surrendered their arms.
INCIDENTS OF THE MARCH.

sick of fighting-,
it
were glad enougli to have done with

These, unless something worse
for the time being.
than
fighting- against
Eng-land was known about them,
were, in accordance with
mous
policy, allowed to
main neutral and not
Yeomanry
77
Lord Roberts's magnani-
go
free
upon swearing
to re-
When
to leave their farms.
the
reached Barber's Pan, however, they heard
enemy had been
that a Ijaud of the
in the ueig-libor-
day before, evidently with no intention of

and a midnight raid was made on two
submitting
liood the
The men were too late, however, l)eing- in time only to see thirty or more Boers,
mounted and armed, making off in the distance.
They had presumably been visiting- the women to
obtain such food as the latter had been able to consuspected farmhouses.
ceal.
At a farm not
troo})S
my
from Biesjesvallei, near where the
companions (Mr. Paxton, the

Avere a
ment
London
at the time,
my
one of
Sphere
of our own.
few miles in advance of the Fifth Detach-
under the shade

with
Kaffirs,
and myself got three prisoners
artist)
We
far
had had their In'ush with the
and had just outs]ianned for lunch
of a small
clump
of trees.
We
two,
servant Lewis, were standing- beside a small
we had overseen the watering of our

when Paxton called my attention to a group
well where
horses,
of
horsemen approaching- from the direction
of Pot-
chefstroom, which was well off the line of march, and
78
where we knew that none of onr troops had been.

Throng-h onr
firs.
ho-vvever,
hiter,
One
them was
of
we saw
however, had his
rifle
flag"
and,
I concluded at
the alert.
oflicers,
and had
To keep them from findingmistake was the vital point

we could not
have them learn that we were war corre-
to surrender to us.
out their
afford to
spondents, or the surrendering- would in
have to be done by
only with a revolver.
that the3" had mistaken us,
our khaki and helmets, for British
bility
Another,
sbing across his knees
much on
once from the white
come
rille.
former incidents of Boer treachery, we held
ourselves verj^
in
that they
holdino- aloft a white
handkerchief, tied to the end of his
recalling'
be three
to
distance seemed to be Kaf-
at that
A moment
were Boers.
we made them out
g-Lisses
armed men, wlio
glance back at our
us.
proba-
I alone was armed, and
So we decided to
little
all
blufi' it out.
cavalcade under the trees
showed that it looked formidable enough, and I relied

upon the passag-e of the detachment ahead of us the
day before and upon the presence
of the next
one a
few miles behind us to convince the Boers that we
had plenty
like a
of force at our support.
charm.
As
boldly towards them.
worked
we stepped
It all
the Boers drew near
They came to within twenty

The man with the
paces of us, and then halted.
white flag held up his other hand, and

their hats.
all tlu-ee lifted
beckoned them forward, and when
thej"
INCIDENTS OF THE MARCH.
reached
come
to g-ive
up
Yes," they
all
were delighted to hear
them no chance
g-ave
I directed Lewis,
fluently, to tell
at
then* arms.
We
with alacrity.
we
So
supposed they had
us, said to tliem that I

"
79
to
avIio,
replied
it,
and
change their minds.
of course,
spoke Dutch
them that they must give up
their
guns
once and then wait until headqiiarters came up,
when we would
officer.
turn them over to the
commanding
The}" thereupon handed us their
rifles
and
disgorged about one hundred rounds of ammunition,
which we sent
l>ack to our carts.
AVitli their
arms
in
our possession, we both breathed easier, and returned

ourselves to the trees to eat our lunch and wait for
the column to catch us up, leaving our three prizes

lying on the veldt beside
ponies to await our
theii"
pleasure.
We waited
did not come.
the Boers.
hour or
for an
We
so,
and
began to get
Finally,
two
of
the column
still
restless,
and so did
them climbed up on the
wall of a ruined outhouse, scanned the country" in our

rear,
had
and then came up to us to say that the troops

That meant that we should have to take
halted.
camp ourselves
so we ordered them to
own hoi'ses and taking
their guns and ammunition, we marched our prisoners back.
The detachment had halted half a mile behind us. We reached the camp without incident, the
them back
to
saddle up, and, mounting our
Boers being evidently only too anxious
to
have the
80
fate.
Eiding- up to
them
over
to
the
we
turned
commandheadquarters,
ing officer, Major Moore of the Irish Fusiliers, in command of the detachment. He received them with
b^^smess over and to learn their
thanks, took over their arms and horses, and then
They had
month ago at
examined them thi'ough an interpreter.
away from the commando a

said, and had since been livfarms.
Major
Moore had them swear to
their
ing on
be good to remain neutral and not leave their farms
and then, telling them that he hoped the}" would agree
slipped
Fourteen Streams, they
Avith
set
him
to let In'gones be
them
hands
all
free.
live at peace,
relieved,
shook
around, and an incident extremel}- interest-
ing to us was closed.

rifles
bygones and
The Boers, greatly
surrendered
We
to us,
put in a request for the two
and
later received
them as
souvenirs.
Two
of these
men
wêre lithe,
lows, with swarthy faces
and
all
siuewy young
three bore them-
selves manfuU}^ and like worthy foemen.
cannot be said, however, of

farms,
showed
we met.
The same
At several
released on parole
a desire to propitiate us which did not pre-
possess us in their favor.

the
all
men who had similarly been
fel-
women
better
AVe liked the bearing of
they showed more pride, and de-
meaned themselves much more as man to man.

The rest of our journey to Lichtenburg we accomplished without mishap, having indeed a very pleas-
IXCTDEXTS OF THE MAECH.
aut time of
it,
81
camping
we spent on a dehad been looted by Kaf-
tlianks to luck iu linding- ideal
Oiu" last uiglit ou the road
places.
serted farm
wliicli, tliouo'L it
contained
firs, still
many
evidences of a prosperous
There were over half a dozen buildings
past.
in all,
comprising stables and granaries, besides the dwelling-houses for family and servants. AVater was there
in
abundance, a stream of rare clearness running
throug-h
pool,
it.
A dam
served to provide a large marshy
which was choked with
with frogs and

acre of
Avild fowl,
tall trees of
glowing with the
many
tints of
tall
reeds and swarming
and there was nearby an

varieties, their leaves all
There also we
autumn.
found a heap of firewood, for which we were accus-
tomed
to rely
upon fence poles and broken boxes

we ate our dinner
carried with us, and that evening
before a roaring
camp
cockles of our hearts and

for a week.
which warmed the very
fire
made us want
But on we had
to
to halt there
go next morning, the
column overtaking us before we had finished catching
all of
salting-
the stray hens that had been
away forage
that
we foimd
in
left
behind or
one of the store-
houses.
At another farmhouse where we camped for the

night, we found about a dozen women and children all
by themselves,
a)id
could ask to see.
among them
Buxom
wherein she differed from

6
as fair a lass as one
she was, and rosy withal,

all
other
women we had
so
82
South
far seen iu
many
strange to us for
after
Quite a rivalry, of a sort
Africa.
weeks, sprang up between us
we had pitched our camp
each caught the others
at
that evening-
and
one time or another shav-
ing and washing with unwonted care, and generally

polishing ourselves
not to say
suitt'y,
The maid was rather haughty,
oif.
at first
but she thawed out in the
evening, and even sang us a
Dutch song
in a A'oice
like a calliope.
Next morning we
them, and
consummated an extremely advan-
also
seciired
eggs from
tageous horse deal. At the time of parting, however,
Martha (that was the fair one's name) had frozen uj)
again, and made but a most ungracious response to
our farewell salutations. But she did not appear so
fair by the light of morning, and perhaps she knew
The little children were decent enough looking
it.
youngsters, fair-haired, with blue eyes and fat cheeks,
but very dirty. Yerily, dirt
country.
Nobody who
is
one of the crimes of that
lives there
seems
to care to be
wash the outThe girls are plumi^

enough as girls, but as they grow older they seem
They lack
first to grow very fat and then very thin.
clean.
As
side of the
a rule the Boers don't even
cup and
platter.
the crowning glory of their sex in having Init sparse

locks.
The men seem
to
have created a corner
hair to furnish forth their faces.
no lack
of
There was
in
certainl}^
beards in the Transvaal, which, falling away
IXCIDEXTS OF THE MARCH.
83
from underneatli the inevitable slouch hat, made the
Boers
all
look singularly alike.
The country we marched through was most dreary.

We had hardly crossed the border when the occasional clumps of bush that we had welcomed for
theu' green foliage Aanished and thereafter we never
;
saw a tree save
at intervals of
there happened to
few days
l)e
many
in the Transvaal,
miles,
During
surface water.
where
oiir first
we frequently found our-
selves in the center of a plain as bare as the sea,
without a green spot anywhere to relieve the desolate,
dry surface of the sun-parched veldt.
not imagine what a task

a country.
Poor
it is
Tommy
to
One
can-
march through such
Atkins on foot found
it
As we drew near Lichtenburg,

however, farms grew more numerous, and most of
them could boast of at least a few tall trees, which
most depressing.
fiirnished us the rare treat of shade for each of our

last
few midday meals.
The
little
town
itself,
which
we entered on the morning of the 5th of June, gave

one the impression of being set down in a
we approached
it
we saw nothing but
forest.
As
trees, the build-
ings being mostly oue-storied and never rising above

the encompassing foliage.
Water ran
in ditches
on
either side of the streets, and the latter, lined with
when one Avas in them like

The only open space was the central
with the government buildings, all in
interlocking trees, seemed
wooded
lanes.
square lined
84
stone,
Over
and boasting- a few patches

this as
we came
the head of a
ofiices;
tall
in floated the
of green grass.
Union Jack,
at
flag-staff before the Laudrost's
and there also was General Hunter's red
pennant waving- in front of his headquarters.
At Lichtenburg we heard
That news dashed our hopes
of the fall of Pretoria.

of assisting- at that dra-
matic event of the war, and seemed to indicate that
Lord Roberts's task was

ever, was speedil}^ made
over.
plain.
That
it
was
not,
how-
CHAPTEE
Outwitting
De Wet
XI.
at Potchefstroom.
General Hunters division rested
at Liclitenburg-
until the 9tli of June, completing- the transfer of au-
Boer
thority from
to Briton,
and seeking, not with-
Then
out success, for hidden arms and ammunition.
the rear g-uard was otf again, following up head-
quarters to Yentersdorp, a two days' march away.
We
correspondents accompanied
Mahon,
General
who, after relieving Mafeking, had rejoined the
and was now
in
The burghers
command
Yentersdorp
of
at first
of resisting British occupation.
officers,
for surrender
made
show
There was some
Mahon's camp
criticism in General
which the demand
force,
of the cavalry brigade.
way
of the
was made.
in
Three
including Colonel Edwards, of the Imperial
Light Horse, and Major Keade, General Hunter's

intelligence
officer,
men, went on
in
accompanied
small party of
of truce.
dozen
half a
advance of General Mahon's
which formed the vanguard of the

flag
liy
lialf a
division,
force,
and
this
score entered the town under a
Once
inside,
they published Lord
Roberts's proclamation calling upon the burghers

to surrender their
arms and jiromisiug them
in that
THE CHASE OE DE WET,
8G
event immunity from disturbance on their farms.
Then Colonel Edwards communicated to the town

officials General Hunter's demand for the submission of Yeutersdorii. The reply of the burg-hers was
that there was a Boer commando in laager a feAv
why
miles out of town, and that they saw no reason

this small
advance party should not be made pris-
Upon
oners.
Edwards and
this Colonel
took possession of the town
hall,
his force
barricaded
it,
announced that General Mahon would arrive

the next
atives
daj-,
if
he found that his represent-
had suffered any
and they
if
Yentersdorp would
injury,
This bf)ldness ^-ave the burghers pause;
be burned.
to see
and that
and
earlj^
finall}"
General
announced that they would wait
Mahon
did turn up.
If
he didn't,
they would make Colonel Edwards's party prisoners.
As
a matter of fact, General
Mahon was
until late the following evening-.
He had
not due
halted that
evening" about twenty miles out of Lichtenburg-, intending- to
push on next morning to within striking
distance of Yentersdorp.
And
when Colonel Edwards was

his barricades in the
town
so on the evening
setting sentries behind

hall.
General Mahou's
was resting peacefully on a
little farm, with no

moving before seven o'clock on the following morning. But Colonel Edwards succeeded
force
intention of
in getting' a
message back to Lichtenburg describing
OUTWITTING DE WET AT POTCHEFSTROOM.

liis plig-lit,
and requestiug- that Geueral Maliou be

General Hunter
liurried forward.
at
once sent out a
and these
despatch rider with orders to that eifect,
Mahon by
were delivered to General

struck
87
camp
midnight.
He
and reached
at three in the morning',
Ventersdorp by one o'clock that afternoon, in time

to
extricate
Colonel Edwards's party.
there was no further

burg-hers,
who
dered their
show
Thereafter
of resistance
from the
flocked to the town hall and surren-
Mausers and well-stocked bandoliers.
"We rested at Yentersdorp for only twenty-four
Within that time information was received

to the effect that De Wet with a strong force was
marching- on Potchefstroom, forty miles away, with
hours.
the intention of holding-
Mahon determined
against us
it
to get there
march Avere issued at once
and
first.
and General
Orders to
at four o'clock
on
Sunday afternoon he, with four Scottish companies

Yeomanry and eight guns, left the
of the Imperial
town.
We
marched
four liours in
all
all
night, halting only twice, for
and, stealing steadily and silently
along in the moonlight, by dawn had got to within a
few miles of Potchefstroom, on the edge of the koi)jes

surrounding.
The march by
plished without a
hitcli,
horse.
The work
ended the march
had been accom-
witli tlie loss of
only one
disal)led l)y a fall
from his
and
man, who was temporarily
uiglit
told (m the animals; but they all

in fairly
fit
condition.
THE CH ASK OF DE WET.
88
The mooD
an liour before dawn, aud as we
set half
were now close to the position which the enemy
would naturally
Mahon
General
to attack
for the
select
he intended to oppose us,
halted, posted his force in readiness
from half a dozen points
li.iiht.
When
veal any sig-ns that
unni took up
ing-
if
its
it
came
it
at once,
failed,
and waited
however, to re-
we were expected
and the
col-
advance again, the General dismount-
and leading the way, slightly
in the rear of his
With Hanks and front carefully

screened bj' the cavalry, we moved around toward
the north to cross the railway and enter by the northadvance patrols.
east,
thus securing- the railway line to Johannesburg-
and preventing- the escape

direction. Feeling its
way
of a possiljle force in that
carefully along- through the
bitter cold of the morning, the
column crept on past
stony kopjes which wôuld have furnished excellent

positions for even a small force seeking to oppose
our advance, and proceeded towards the town, which
was
still
lating-
on the
out of sight behind the crests of the undu-
country in our front.

alert, half
jets of flame
side,
and
We
were
expecting at any
all
very
moment
much
to see
shoot out from the stony crests on either
to hear
the whistling- of passing- bullets.
But such expectations were not

were on the outskirts
of the
realized.
Soon we
town, with scattered
farmhouses and Kaffir kraals coming- into view, to

the doors of which
came surprised and sleepy women
aud children aud old men,
Some
at us.
of us
at their
humble threshus hot
g-et
and bread, and cheese, which we found most
march throug-h the
refreshing after our long-
There was no sugg-estion

of these people,
for
rub their eyes and stare
to
drew up
aud they bestirred themselves to
olds,
cotiee,
89
who
wcûld not even accept
what they had given
that the
cold.
of hostility in the attitude
\\h
town was not held
biit
bj'
payment
then they told us
the enemy, which un-
doubtedly made a difference.
The column soon passed the last kopje, and on our

surmounting the next rise the town lay spread out l)efore us, a couple of miles awaj-, at the
end
of a
broad
highway leading down over a gently-sloping plain.

From here we caught sight of iron rails again, for the
iirst
time since leaving Doornbult.
There was an en-
gine off to our right, a mile and a half out of town,

evidently ready for a dash toward Johannesburg
but General Malion detached a score of troopers and

sent
them galloping across the
plain to capture
it,
and the engine driver promptly ol)eyed the order to

proceed back to the station.
All further doubt as to the absence of any hostile
force
was now removed aud

;
ing we entered the town.

street
at ten o'clock that
Marching up the
long-
toward the central square, the troops were re-
ceived with enthusiastic cheers, and, although

Avere
morn-
many
unmistakably English, we had our doul)ts as to
90
some
the sincerity of
the Vierkleur
and
flag--pole,
were
weaving-
the croAvds
of tliem.
There was no sign of
the Union Jack Avas flying- from every
little
gii'ls
and colored housemaids
from windows and doorways, while
it
who
lined the streets shook in our faces
riblwns of red, white, and blue.
thought
it
their
day
terrors unnamable.
dered his
rifle
of deliverance fi"om horrors
and
Later, however, other sentiments
One
found expression.
One might have
old farmer we])t as he surren-
to an inexorable Lieutenant of
Yeo-
manry, who, with a squad of troopers, paid a dom-
and the wife
iciliary visit to his
farm
printer, left liehind
when her husband went away on
commando, amid
tears of rage
of the local
called dow^n
curses
from heaven upon the heads of the English for confiscating- his
property.
who were many
Others of the inhaljitants,
them sturdy, and by no means of

the abject type with which we had become familiar in
previously occupied Boer towns, stated very frankly
of
we were winning, and that

hoped we might be overcome. One such was
that they were sorry that
they
still
the barkeeper and general utility
man
at the
Eoyal
He was a tall, clean-looking Dane, born there,

who had fought at Magersfontein. He was most re-
Hotel.
spectful in his
manner toward the invaders, and served
us with apparent good-will as well as desiâtch; but he

l)reserA-ed a
grave demeanor, and told us, when one of
us observed that the Boers would be
much
lietter ofl*
under English
might be
rule, that that
so,
91
but that
one could not help sympathizing with one's country.
we all agreed. Anby

the sleeve the first
other burgher plucked me
To which
creditable sentiment
evening of our
arrival,
and held forth
for a quarter
an hour about his sentimeiits and of his loathing
of
for those of his fellow
townsmen who, though like

made haste to don hat-
him, burghers liorn and bred,
bands or rosettes of red, white, and blue, cried themselves hoarse cheering the troops, and in sundry
other "slim" waj^s pretended to
l)e
glad that we had
come.
Peaceful Potchefstroom Ave found to be a pleasant
enough
proud
spot, that
but Boers.
ley,
would have been a home
of as well as fond of
It
was
inhabited
if
liy
to be
anybody
ideally situated in a smiling val-
watered by a boisterous stream both wide and
deep.
The houses, nearly
homely, one-story,
all
white-walled structures, with
here
and there the
ubi(piitous corrugated galvanized iron shanty, were

set
wide apart along broad and shaded
rills of
clear water
was pleasant
to
walk through them
twilight hours, or at any time
when
and all-pervading dust was not

boasted several hotels to
its
pretense at
with
side.
in the
It
short
the omnii^resent
flying.
The town
scattered ])opulatiou of
made some successbeing imposing. Most of the build-
four thousand, and the town hall

ful
streets,
running past on either
92
as already stated, were of the familiar South
mi>-s,
African pattern
had
tants
of the
but a few of the well-to-do inhabi-
built themselves attractive little cottages
Queen Anne
Some had
style of architecture.
also g-one in for gardens
aud hedges, looking over
which one got glimpses of
cool,
vine-shrouded ve-
randas, set back from the streets beyond closely-
growing trees and shrubs, comprising such
gum, the
as the callous cactus, the stately blue

pine,
varieties
tall
and graceful willows and birches without num-
Ijer.
But there was the usual
spirit of
use brooding over everything.
languor and dis-
The houses were
more than a neighborly distance apart, every family

seeming to want to huddle away by itself. One result was that it took ten miles of outposts to secure
our lines, so much more sjiace than was necessary did
the town take up.
thing to do.
And nobody seemed
The men,
to have any-
in their soiled, threadbare,
nondescript garments, crowned with the inevitable

formless
and
felt hats,
the
ill-fitting frocks,
women,
in their
sun -bonnets
were forever slouching along
the streets, or standing in silent, stolid-looking groups
open spaces, or
on the corners or
in the
the dusty stoeps.
The men were always smoking an
evil-smelling brand of native tobacco
woman
sitting
and every
on
fifth
held a baljy in her arms, or had a big-eyed,
dirty-faced child clinging- to her skirts.
93
At Potchefstrooiu advautage was taken by the

Royal Scots Fusiliers
ag-aiu,
fort,
of the opportiiuity to raise
over the ruins of a small and long-abandoned
a famous flag that was buried at Pretoria on the
restoration of independence to the Transvaal in 1881.

It
was the Union Jack carried
the 94th Regi-
l)y
ment, which was almost annihilated while
g"oing' to
The
battalion
strengthen the g-arrison at Pretoria.

of the Scots Fusiliers
which formed part
of
General
Hunter's force, attended by four pipers, assemliled

in the little enclosure,
and to a crowd of some hun-
dred of the inhabitants of Potchefstroom, Colonel

Carr, their commanding- officer, recited the history
of
the
flag.
Then the time-stained emblem was
run up the flag-pole, and the troops presented arms.
Tommy
gave three cheers for the Queen, the crowd
gave three more for the Scots Fusiliers, a guard
was placed
was
at the foot of the pole,
and the ceremony
over.
With the constant augmentation
of the force at
Potchefstroom, as the remainder of General Hunter's
came marching in, there came the usual diminution in supplies and very soon we had to cease
division
regaling ourselves with eggs and fresh butter and
vegetables and beer, and returned to bully beef and

biscuits
and "sparklets."
At
first,
however,
were due to the mono])oly of the single
was
woes
it
possible to be very comfortable; and our only
telegrai)li bj^
94
Lord Roberts,
Avliose
Kroonstad had
Hues
everybod}^ was cheerful
an eveniuo- upon the

his staff
commuuicatiou
of
hy the
l)een cut
and
if
at
throug-li
But
Wet.
you had looked
in of
from the General and
officers,
down, seated
active 33e
dinner in the great hall of
the Royal Hotel, and listened to the pleasant clatter
and forks and to the jovial conversation,

you would have thought they hadn't, any of them, a
of knives
care in the world.
After a two weeks' stay at Potchefstroom,
Avliile
General Hunter's scouts and patrols scoured the

country in search of flying bands of the enemj", and
his provost marshal at the
town
hall received sur-
rendered Mausers and commandeered horses, the

force
moved out again
for the last stage of the ad-
We
vance to Johannesburg.
left
with a flavor of un-
certainty and a scent of a possilile fight in the

"which furnished a
welcome
relief to the
air,
monotony
of
our previous six Aveeks of marching and pacification, of peaceful sitting
down
in unresisting towns,
receiving the Mausers of submissive burghers, and
appraising commandeered horses with weak knees
and sore backs.
But again we were disappointed
in
our expectations of seeing some more exciting ser-
We
made our way with little

Welverdieut, Doornkop (the scene
vice.
incident through
of
Doctor Jame-
son's troulJes at the time of his blundering raid),
and Krueg-ersclorp, and
in the last
week
of
June Gen-

eral
Hunter marched
his division, still ten
95
thousand
strong, throug'h the suliurl)s of Johannesburg-, and
took up his position on the railway to the eastward

of that city, in readiness to assist in the operations,
which Lord Roberts was already prei)aring

the northward and eastward of Pretoria.
for, to
CHAPTER
XII.
Seeking Lord Methuen.

AVitli
the successful completion of General Hunter's
pacificatory
march across the Transvaal, most
war correspondents jumped
of the
to the conclusion that
our i)eriod of usefulness was over, and made prepa-
army and return home.
rations to leave the
This
many of
way down from
opinion was strengthened by our meeting-
our fellows in Johannesljurg- on the
For them the long
Pretoria.
strain of
campaigning was over, and we
all
months
of
hard
foregathered at
Heath's Hotel to talk matters over and pass a few
days
in the
enjoyment
of comforts
had long been denied us
On
every side in Johannesburg
that justified
its
and luxuries that
at the front.
we saw
the signs
reputation as being in normal times
the busiest and the gayest city in South Africa.

stantial buildings of brick
princi]3al
and paved
and stone lined
streets
Sub-
all of its
and everywhere were
evidences of the wealth for which, as one of the great
mining centers
But
of the world,
at that time
it
had grown famous.
Johannesburg looked
like a long-
buried city that had just been dug out.
busy
offices
The once
and exchanges were empty and
and the market-places and
streets
silent,
were well-nigh de-
SEEKING LOED METHUEN.

serted, echoing- l)ut
97
seldom to any other sound than
The
the occasional footfalls of the military patrols.

shutters were
down over most
everywhere the
of the
were placarded with military
Avails
proclamations and police notices.

life
of the city
Town and
had depended on them
down
demands
of the
horde that
of the great
The needs
for emploj^ment.
offered the only
in the
refug-ees de-
the shntting-
mines had driven away most
army
A great gap
had been made when the
parted for Cape
of the
windows, and
and
for work,
demand was of course chiefly sujjplied l>y the

troops. The strictest regulations of martial law governed the movements of the shrunken civilian population, among whom were known to be many disaffected persons who would eagerly welcome any
that
promising- chance to embarrass the military authorities.
A few
days after reaching Johannesliurg, I took the
train for Pretoria to learn at headcpiarters
what the
prospects there were of further resistance to the in-
My
evitable from the Boers.
suspicions that
much
yet remained to be done were emphatically confirmed
by Lord Stanley
Avlien I
saw him again
I found that a very thoroug-h
Wet
Avas
being organized,
crushing- that ubiquitous
end
rear.
in that cit3\
campaign
Avitli
ag-ainst
De
the object of finally
Boer leader and
putting- an
to his harassing- operations ag-ainst the British
Ho
Avas
then in the Free State, hovering- about
98
Lord Metlineu's
tianks,
aud makiuo^ oonstaut attacks
weak couvoys and

Lord Stanley advised me to join Lord Metliuen at once
if I wanted to be present at what he predicted would
small British g-arrisons and
ii])OU
be some of the most interesting operations of the war.

General Hunter's division, he told me, would now be
in garrison dut}-, so that I could not
employed
under him.
to see further active service
stroke of
ill
It
hope
was a
luck that only a few days after I had
Pretoria, General Ian
and l)roke his
Hamilton
collar-l)oue,
fell
left
from his horse
and General Hunter was
appointed to the vacancy and assigned to a com-
mand much more important than
that which he
had
just led across the Transvaal.
Lord Stanley could not tell me the exact whereabouts of Lord Methueu's division. He only knew
that he was somewhere in the neighborhood of HeilHe warned me
bron, in the Orange River colony.
that the country between Johannesburg and Heill)rou
was not
pared to
entirely secure,
fall in
and that I must he pre-
with small raiding parties of the en-
I hated to miss the opportunity he gave me,
emy.
however, and decided to take the

g'ood luck
and
to see
me
burg
and on the morning
of June,
horses,
risk, trusting to
to the aid of Lewis's resourcefulness
through.
So I hurried back
took the road with
and Lewis.
My
to
Johannes-
of the next da\', the "25th
my Cape
companions
cart,
of the
three
march
SEEKING LORD METHUEN.
99
across the Transvaal had decided to proceed to Cape
Town, so I had
My
to
make my journey
plan was to strike the railway as soon as pos-
and follow the
sible,
line to
hoped
to be
branch
line to Heilbron.
ful
alone.
able to
g-et
Wolvehoek, where I
transportation over the
We
started out in beauti-
weather; and, everything- favoring
good progress that
first
round Johannesburg.
ful that I did
day over the
us,
we made
hills that sur-
I found the country so peace-
not hesitate to stop at several Boer
farms to buy bread and eggs.
had hoped to make
Meyerton, where there was a small British post, that

evening
but one of the horses gave out, and dark
found us abreast of a
roadside.
mean Boer farmhouse
at the
There I decided to spend the night.
For courtesy's sake I went up to the door and told

the two women I found inside that with their permission I would spend the night in their yard.
women were
English
surly,
me
and professed not to understand

Lewis up to translate my mes-
so I called
sage into Dutch.

told
The
They received
it
ungraciously, and
that a few miles further on I
better accommodations.
Upon
would
that I told
find
them
should have to quarter myself upon them with or

without their permission, and proceeded without further ado to pitch
my
bivouac against the inhospit-
able wall of an outhouse.
spot
It
was a cold and lonely
but Lewis went cheerfully to work at his hre,
100
pre]>ared the evening' meal, and after that was dis-
posed of entertained
smoke with
me
during-
my
post prandial
Boer wife and
t^des of his
of early ad-
ventures of his in the mines of Johannesburg- and
Three small boys from the farmhouse
Kimherley.
drew near and solemnly watched our behavior

a
more
friendly visitor
was a companionable
found her curled up among
my humble
was the
ring-
but
I
rugs when I sought
couch, and there she insisted on spend-
the night as
ing-
my
cat.
my
last
sound
in
sleep,
and she greeted me
when
opened
my
Her contented
bed-fellow.
eyes at
my
pur-
ears as I dropped to
in the
same cheery fashion
dawn next
morning-.
îy horse seemed himself again after the night's

rest
company wdth
we started off again shortly after
At noon we reached Vereeniging-, the last sta-
and
after eating a breakfast in
the faithful cat,

eight.
tion north of the Yaal.

ish force,
l)east.
had
There I found a small Brit-
and was able to draw
My
lost
sui^plies for
man and
horse had weakened again, and I feared
him
l)ut
he braced up after another
rest,
we pushed on towards the Yaal.

by the railway foot- bridge, which
was guarded by a sentry at either end, and by the
drift.
This latter was easier than that at Fourteen
Streams, and Lewis got my cart across in safety,
thanks to brave work by the two ponies. We pushed
and
at three o'clock
One could
on
.to
cross
it
Yiljoen's Drift, a settlement six miles away,
was
wliere there
101
auotlier Britisli post,
and there I
bivouacked for the night in the abandoned hoiise of

an English refugee. It was stripped of furniture, but
was otherwise
in spick
stable,
where
comfortable
my
tired horses could look forward to a
nig-lit
well-sheltered from the
which now always followed the
An
old negro
]ilace
who had been
was busy painting the
his master's return,
when
cold
charge of the
left in
interior, in readiness for
His boss, he
I arrived.
home, and thus welcomed
to a comfortable night
l)itter
setting- of the sun.
assured me, would be very glad to have
myself at
I par-
near by a commodious
find
to
ticularly rejoiced
and span condition.
me make
I settled
down
under cover.
The character of the country had changed at once

as soon as we crossed the Vaal. The kopjes which had
marked the landscape to the north had disappeared.
The veldt was flat, and, unrelieved by stick or stone,
stretched away to the horizon parched and monotonous. The soil, too, had changed from red and hard
to gray and soft, and the main road south was through
heavy sand a good eighteen inches deep. These conditions prevailed for several miles, I learned the next
morning and
;
after striving in vain to urge
through the sand,

easier
my ponies
sought out information of an
way and struck out across the
this desert of im[)assable sand.
veldt, skirting
De Wet,
I learned,
was leading Lord Methuen a merrj^ puss-in-the-
THE CHASE OF DE
102
corner chase, in wliich

to swooi^
had
down
found miiny opportunities
lie
l)eeu to cut the line
We
my
latest exploit
north of Kroonstad
if
I should qet
plodded on, however, and
miles of
His
u])on tlie railway.
began seriously to doubt

Wolvehoek after all.
live
WliT.
liy
and I
through to
noon were within
There
destination.
outspanned
by the side of the road for the midday halt. An

army surgeon, riding up from Wolvehoek, stopped
on his way by and gave me news. Ten men and an
officer had been sniped at the week before at Yiljoen's
Drift, from a house flying the white flag. All ten had
been wounded and the officer, who had just come
;
out from England, had been
killed.
At Wolvehoek,
the surgeon told me, they were in constant expectation of an attack
dence when I
and
of this I
at last safely
found abundant
reached that
shortly before sunset that afternoon.
ings were set
down
little
evi-
junction
The few
build-
in an absolutely level plain, bare
as far as the eye could reach of even a l)lade of grass,
and burned
Boers
lilack; for this
was the country where the
set fire to the veldt scrub, for the
double pur-
pose of destroying the grazing and rendering the
khaki of the British uniforms useless as a concealment.

lip
Against that dark background khaki showed
as conspicuously as pink coats in a hunting field,
and
it
was the Boers
in their
dingy black who became
invisible a short distance away.
The few galvanized
SEEKING LORD METHUEX.
had
iron sliaDties
the
wood
all
beeu
toi'D
down
103
for tlie sake of
that formed their framework, and altoo-ether
camp presented a most doleful appearance.

Captain McQnhinuy of the Royal Irish was in com-
the
little
mand
of the small garrison,
hundred men
of
many
of a few
which consisted
who had
different regiments
been released by Lord Roberts from the Boer prisons

at Pretoria.
McQuhiuny had no
Captain
relied for protection against surprise
and
g'uns,
upon a cun-
"night entanglements"
uing-ly constructed barrier of
made out of Imrbed wire. The Boers were all alôut,

he told me in a delightfully offliand w ay, and they
often crept up after dark to amuse themselves snipingat the camp and the sentries but so far they had not
summoned up nerve enough to make a serious attack,
;
and the only
sufferers
ments had been such
by the barbed wire entangleown men as had forgotten
of his
they were there and had stumbled into them in the

Captain McQuhinny went on to
dark.
tell
me
that
Heilbron had been undergoing a siege as a result of

the cutting of the branch line from AVolvehoek by
Boer raiding
train
parties.
He had
got the
first
supply-
through only the day before, thus relieving the
force there, mostly
a week or
McDonald's Highlanders, who
more had been on
That night was
(piarter rations.
bitter cold.
I spent
it
in a de-
serted engine-house, with an iron Avater-tauk for
couch.
Next
moiiiiiig the
for
my
good-hearted Captain Mc-
104
Quliinuy
me
y-ot
tr<ins])()rt
and
for Heilbron,
on a supply-train lK)vind
I started
on the
last stag-e of
my
lonely trek seated in a truck crowded with the troopers of a reg-imeut of lancers.
high with boxes of supplies.
way
in the
The trucks were piled

They offered nothing-
of comfortable seats
but
Tommy
Atkins
perched himself on top of them with his usual cheerful
nonchalance, and he managed to extract g-reat
amusement, towards the end
jostling of the train proved too
rium
of the boxes,
larg-e force of
to Heilbron,
much for
and they began to
the equilibfall out.
Highlanders guarded the approaches
and the troopers on the train laug-hed
until the tears ran

tics of the "
when the
of the ride,
down
their cheeks over the an-
wee Jocks," as they called
their kilted
comrades, as they raced down the slopes after these

extra rations.
marked the
last
shoAver of falling- biscuit boxes
few miles of our journey
carried into Heilbron the merry

lines of leaping Hig-hlanders
memory
and we
of
long-
pursuing them into the
depths of the ravines that lined the railway.
The
learned, on disembarking at HeilLord Methuen had left the place a

few days before. He was expected back at any time,
however so I had Lewis inspan, and we proceeded
into town to find an abiding- place. I found myself
first thing- I
bron, was that
in
a small village which, crowded as
troops, promised but little in the
way
it
of
wâs
with
accommo-

datious.
I learned that
it
105
boasted of two hotels,
however, and these I sougiit out at once.
was already
away by the
fnll
and from the second
proprietor's wife,
who
The
first
was turned
insisted that as
she Avas Dutch, and the Dutch and Eug-lish were enemies, her hotel was closed against
I
commended her for her spirit, and
to find shelter finally in an

in spite of the cold I
all
men
fared forth ag-ain,
almndoned cottage, where
made myself very
as campaig-ning- teaches a
nights and days I spent
in
in khaki.
man
comfortable,
to do, for the
Heilbron.
two
CHAPTER
XIII.
Peace-MaivIxg with Lord Methuen.

It
was
in the morniuii;- of the
secoud day that I
learned at General Colvile's headquarters that Lord

Methuen was not coming- back, hut that the Xorthampton reo-imeut, then at Heilbron, had been ordered
to join him, and would march in an hour. I at once
made my preparations to march with them, and, pro-
ceeding to the outskirts of the town, found Major
commanding officer, and was by him

courteously invited to accompany him. I was welcomed to the regimental mess by him and his hos-
FaAvcett, their
pitable officers, and for the fortnight that I spent with
them was honored with every

Starting a
little
courtesy.
after noon,
and marching
at
an
easy pace under the genial sun, we reached Lord
Methuens camp
at
Paardekraal at four.
That eve-
ning I found Major Streatlield of the Grenadier

Guards, press censor on his
letter
staflf,
to
whom
had a
from Lord Stanley, and was given a cordial
welcome
to the division as the only
war correspond-
During the two weeks

spent with that division I saw much of Lord
ent they had seen for months.
which I
Methuen, the genial
officers of his staff,
and those of
the other regiments under him, especially the North-
PEACE-MAKIXG WITH LORD METHUEN.
107
amptous and the gallant North Lancashires, who,

under Colonel Kekewicli, had so distmg'uished them-
But here again
selves in the defense of Kimheiiey.

I wâs disappointed in
We
ing.
my
hopes
of seeing-
any
fight-
spent the next fortnight in trekking over a
small area of country and, in
camp near Krooustad,
sending convoys now and then to the latter place and

to Lindley,
porting
whose garrison Lord Metliueu was sup-
hut devoting most of the time to scouring
farms, and never getting within reach of
De Wet.
soon realized that to catch him would take a more
nimble force than Lord Methuen's.

one's ideal of a knightly soldier
That
officer Avas
easy to
Init it Avas
see in the eccentricities of his conduct
how sad
an
mind the campaign since MagersfonHe was no longer

tein and Modder river had had.
the man to direct serious operations in the field. But
effect
upon
his
he was so courteous and kindly a gentleman, and he
commanded such devoted
loyalty from the officers of
his staff, that one could feel nothing hut the sincerest
symi)athy for him in his misfortunes.
The work
that
Lord Methuen
Avas
was the dullest that soldiers are

.do.
It Avell ilhistrated the
make up i)eace-making
in a
then engaged iu
eA'er called
upon
to
drudgery that goes to
at the fag
end
of a Avar.
Once
while Ave heard neAvs that gave us some hope of
running across the elusive ])e Wet, hut

;irri\c(l in
time.
The
Ave
never
futility of these o})erations Avas
108
tyi>ified
day after day
a\1ioii
and ran
tliroiig*li tlie
camp.
once arose
l)ut
A yreat
hue and cry
at
stones, lâyonets, sticks of wood, and
everj'tliiny' else that "vvonld

flying-
a liare lost its Ijearin^-s
through the
air,
serve for a missile went
and dogs went yelping
after
the fleet hare seldom failed to run the g-auntlet
successfulh' and get safely away.
Handicapped as he was, not
least bj^
slow-moving
infantry and ox transport, there Avas nothing- for
Methuen
much
to
as he
Lord
do but wander about from place to place

had done since leaving Bosliof
in the
middle of May, despatching conveys now and then

into beleaguered towns, but generally using- his yeo-
men and
his
guns
in stripping
and produce
in the effort to
the enemy.
Of
both
and
officers
this
farms of their stock
reduce the resources of
wandering and
men
was not even the spice

exactly like another.
of
stripioing I
found
by that time there

variety to it. One day was
heartily sick
The General would
start
oft'
in
the early morning, with a few companies of Yeo-
manrj^ and a couple of guns, and after a march of an

treeless, desolate,
monotonous
a farm, differing in
no essential
hour or so over the

veldt,
would reach
particular from any of the scores visited daily during-
the i^receding weeks.
of poplars, the
a dam, a
mud
There would be the clump
one or two pans of water enclosed in
puddle in the yard
in
which ducks and
geese were swimming, and the few outhouses near
TEACE-MAKING WITH LORD METHUEX.

the main
sig-htly,
or at
thvelliu.u', wliicli
was
109
mean and uu-
g-euerally
with an untidy kitchen garden at the
tlie front, for it
was which.
When
was always
liack,
difficult to tell
which
the General and his staff came
iTp
there was always the same group on the doorstep
an old
woman
erally with a
soiled
in
promptly hegan
weep
t(^
baby
the proceedings a
anywhere from
fifteen years of
and ragged clothes, who
in her arms,
mask
woman, gen-
a middle-aged
who wore throughout
of impervious stolidity
and
ranging from
thi'ee to eight children,
age down to four or three, who wei)t
moved them. The General's first

question always was, " Where is the man " The reor not as the spirit
'?
ply, in those parts at least,
"
On commando."
By
the terms of Lord Roberts's
forage orders, that answer

sufi'er
was almost invariably,
doomed
confiscation of all their stock
women
the
to
and forage, sav-
ing only enough for the household to live upon.
If
the owner happened to be on his farm, then only
what was needed
for the use of the troops
was requi-
sitioned, always provided he took the oath to abstain
from further
fighting.
Such was the foreground

peated
ers,
])ictnr('.
of
this
constantly-re-
In the middle distance were troop-
their horses standing by, loading bundles
forage and bags of mealies into wagons
ground, Kaffirs Avere rounding up and drivingherds of shee]) and oxen; and bej'ond
of
in the back-
all,
off
scattered
110
kopjes, mid the
kliuki-colored
intermiii;il)le
This was the fag-eud of the war
Free State, save
in
occasional
force did succeed
in
coming
in
all
veldt.
over the defunct
s[)ots,
where some
touch with
De Wet,
and an insignificant skirmish, generally withoiit reAnd the warriors who had fought at
sult, ensued.
Magersfontein and Modder river were sick of
sick of the sight of the
tidy farms,
and
of
this uncongenial
the sound of sobs.
work had
They knew
to be done, for each of
these farms was used as a depot by the Boers,
would stay out
finish
De Wet
in
spiring sight to
army
to
have
it
over with
one square, stand-up
be on their way home.

British
who
just so long as they could find sup-
But they yearned
plies.
it
shabby w(jmen and the un-
It certainly
light,
to
and to
was not an
in-
see a Lieutenant-General of the
sitting on the stoep of a
dingy farm-
house saying he hoped the war would soon be over,

to a group of women wringing their hands in his face.
was Lord Roberts's opinion that with De Wet's

capture the wâr would l)e over. Everybody hoped
he was right, for both oflficers and men in that di-
It
by those futile pursuits of an

enemy that would not stand, by the sudden orders to
move at dark hours in the cold mornings, and by the
vision were wearied
forced marches that too often followed them, with
nothing at the end but evidences that the enemy had
been there, but, having received timely warning of
PEACE-MAKING WITH LORD METHUEX.
Ill
Lord Metliuen's approach, had cleared out the day

before.
It woukl not be fair to say that this was the only
work that Metlmen's force was fit for. The Third
Yeomanry, the three
liatteries of artillery, the
North-
ampton and North Lancashire regiments of foot,

effective for any kind of work as any of their
comrades, as they had proved recently enong-h at
Swartzkopjefontein and at Lindley and at Heilbron.
were as
But
was the opinion
it
tion,
at headcpiarters that pacifica-
which was almost entirely police work, was
all
Lord Methuen, whatever troops he commanded,
that
could
1)6
relied
upon
for.
I early resolved to take
And
to other fields.
my first opportunity to
at last
it
On
came.
flee
Thursday,
Lord Methuen received sudden

once with his whole force to Kroon-
the 12th of July,
orders to
move
at
then some forty miles from his camp.
stad,
the orders meant no one

that
and
but
it
was surmised
Lord Roberts wanted the division

it
at Pretoria,
turned out later that that g-uess was correct.
But
to
my
last
it
knew
What
me
it
meant the disappearance
of probal)ly
chance to see any further active service, for
took us away from the
fields that
De Wet
Avas
We
had heard from Lindley that Generals

Clements and Paget, after heavy fighting-, had forced
the Boer down upon Bethlehem, on the Basutoland
scouring.
border; and, what was particularly galling news to
112
me, that General Hunter, wliom I had
left at
Jolian-
more
fis-hting to do, was hurrying- down towards that town
with 20,000 troops of all arms. And so it was with a
heavy heart that I made my preparations for the
march to Krooustad. But an hour later my prospects
nesbnro- in the belief that he would have no
had completely changed.
Yeomanry rode
into
camp
advance guard was moving

left
small detachment of
Lord Methuen's
The detachment had
just as
off.
Bethlehem two days before as escort
to an officer
bearing despatches from General Clements to Lord
Methuen.
It
was
marching
to return immediately,
back to Lindley that night and proceeding thence

with
speed to rejoin General Clements, who with
all
General Hunter was closing
in
on
De Wet and was
expected to give battle at any moment.
have been
folly for
With
alone.
me to
officer,
young Lieutenant
would
attempt to get to Bethlehem
this escort, however, I could
minutes I had made
in ten
It
my
of
do
it
and
knew the
Yeomanry, who was to
decision.
take the detachment back, and he gladly accepted the
my
company. And at six that evening we

Lord Methuen's rear guard had already
disappeared into the southwest, and all that was left
of what had been before a busy camp of five thousand men was a score of smouldering rubbish heaps,
onto which the troops had flung oatsacks, empty tins,
broken saddle-girths, and all the other refuse that
offer of
were
off".
PEACE-MAKING WITH LORD METHUEX.
was not worth
carrying' away, not to
113
mention some
that was, which rewarded the Kafhrs
who roamed
over the scene, after the force had departed, search-
what might be
ing- for
ness had
now
settled
the night had
come the
African midwinter.
Bhick dark-
of use to them.
down over
the veklt, and with
hitter cokl
of
the South
Liudley, whither our
way
led,
march away. But the scent of

our nostrils now; and darkness, cold,
wâs a live hours'
hattle
was
in
and danger were utterly negligible

companion gave
quantities.
My
his final orders for the march, sent
forward his advance guard of
five,
assigned a couple
of troopers to either flank, and detailed half a dozen

more to act as rear guard and with the order " AYalk,
March " he and I placed ourselves at the head of the
;
main body
of a score of troopers
and started forward.
CHAPTEE
With Hunter
Xiy.
Again.
We marelied for three hours, and then

side of the road for a brief rest
hot coffee and

later,
and a scanty meal of
llesuming- our
l)iscnits.
we reached Liudley's
one o'clock
halted by the
way an hour
picket lines a
little
after
morning, and
in the hitino- cold of the
shortly afterwards filed into the sleeping town and
took up our quarters

of the little force,
house where a score more
in a
under command
Lieutenant of Yeomanry, had been
We
remained
in
of a
left
cheery young
the day before.
Lindley during the following day
to rest our tired horses.
I visited the officers of the
regiment guarding the town, whose acquaintance I
had made on a previous

l)y
visit
with a convoy sent in
Lindley was a town which was
Lord Methuen.
occupied, al>and(med, and re-occupied alternately by
Boers and British half a dozen times.

division to hold
it
by one battalion
command
capacity,
of
an
in all
ought to have,
but
of a
it
It
was garrisoned
needed a
for
weeks
famous regiment, under the
officer so deficient in intelligence
the qualities, in short, that a
tliat
and
Colonel
hardh' one of his mess could speak
him without displaying either rage or mirth. The

other officers of the little force were, with one or two
of
WITH HITNTER AGAIN.

exceptious, as liue a set of
Most
anywhere.
of
men
115
meet
as oue could
them had seen
service in India,
and war and death had no terrors for them.

them encamped on the upper slope of a huo"e
the only spot in the place where they could
l)e
found
rock, in
shelled
from oidy three sides at once instead of four, and expecting' every
moment an
attack from
DeWet,
for
which they had a week before been warned by helio-
graph to hold themselves
what
jested as to
enemy appeared,
chances of
their Colonel
as
relief
much
But they
in readiness.
would do when the
as they speculated on the
and their only grievance was that
was such a " bloody fool " that they coiddn't

have a chance to do what they knew the regiment was
their C. O.
capable of doing.
We
left
Lindley, sixty strong, early in the morning
and took the road
of Saturday,
young
I got
officer
much
whom we had
for
Bethlehem.
The
rejoined at Lindley and
entertainment out of the journey.
In
accordance with his orders from General Paget, we

searched
many farms
for
hidden stores of forage, of
which there was great lack among the British troops
we secured a fair (piantity

and we also picked up some fowls, which proved a
most welcome addition to our somewhat scanty su])in
Bethlehem.
ply of food.
Of
this
Straying aAvay from the line of march,
I also ran across a herd of horses that

to pick
up
their
own
had
living on the vehlt
bcM^n loft
when
tlieir
THE CHASE OF
IIG
owners went
off
Among- tliem was a

liad never been
ou comniaudo.
young three-year-old
fine
WET.
I)E
broken, as I found out to
wliicli
my cost
when, after
driving-
him into camp, I caught him and tried to ride him.

He would have made an ideal saddle-horse had I had
time to give him a few more lessons but I had to
abandon liim later when we started off" after De Wet,
;
We
camped
ant Prinsloo.
the time
that night on the farm of
He was
with
in the field
Command-
De Wet
at
but we wêre welcomed by his wife and an
interesting family of twelve, mostly dark-haired girls,
the eldest of
whom was
man
who, unlike the majority of his country-
of parts,
Their father was a
fifteen.
men, ai^preciated the value of a good education

his
evening they invited us
ofiicers into the
and
That
two eldest daughters could speak English.
house and
entertained us for an hour or more singing lij'mns to

the accompaniment of a parlor organ.
Ou
the road next morning
tion with General Paget,
delight that General

still at
into commiinica-
I learned to
Hunter and
his
my
great
whole force were
De Wet, who remained
Bethlehem, watching
in the hills a
o'clock
we got
and
few miles south of the town.
At one
we reached the place and shortlj^ afterwards

General Hunter once again. He welcomed
;
I greeted
me
with
all
his old grave courtesy,
he could of the situation.

trenched in the
hills half
and told me what
De Wet was
strongly en-
a dozen miles to the south,
WITH Hl^NTEE AGAIN.
117
with a force estimated at tifteeu hundred
by the
on him
difficulty iu g-etting supplies
at
once
men and
from
closing- in
but he hoped by the end of the week
to be able to complete the cordon that he

ing-
six
General Hunter had been prevented
or seven g-uus.
was draw-
aroiind him.
HoAv that hope was disappointed
is
now
history.
That very night the wily De Wet forestalled General

Hunter's plans
liy slipping-
throug-h the lines held
Generals Clements and Paget
by
and on the next day
there began the pursuit the incidents of which have
furnished some of the most dramatic and exciting
episodes of the war.
CHAPTEE
XY.
The Chase of De Wet

I
in
woke
my
wliat
Begins.
next morniu^ with the sound of
u})
HniTying over
ears.
gnms
hii^-
to hea(h|uarters to learn
was up, I found standing- outside a grouj) of

conspicuous among- wdiom was General Hun-
officers,
ter talking- to a g-rizzled veteran in the
The former
lirigadier.
strong- force
me
uniform of a
De
that
AVet with a
had slipped out through Slabbert's Nek
during- the night,
Paget, and was

the latter
told
had got safely past Clements and
now tighting
s force.
w^hom he was
his brigade of
a rear-guard action with
General Ridley, the
talking-,
was about
mounted
infantry,
General Hunter advised
thereupon introduced
me
me
even then receiving- his
There was no time to
to
with
officer
to take the field witli
and
g-ive
chase
and
He
accompany him.
to General Eidlej^,
who was
final orders.
lose.
Learning the road they
were to take, I hurried l)ack to the Royal Hotel,
where I had
left
Lewis.
I galloped into the yard,
He was
should have gone away beyond
he was not
far off;
ried search, and set
not in sight
and mj' heart sank

call.
I found
him
him
work
to
when
lest
he
But fortunately
after a brief hurat
once repack-
ing the cart, inspanniug, and getting everything
THE CHASE OF DE WET

ready for an immediate
start.
We
were both well
used to such quick marching- orders, aud

utes everything was done.
119
F.EOTXS.
I ordered
him
in ten
min-
to proceed
once to the spot on the outskirts of the town
at
where we had
for
me
first
halted the day
to wait
to follow us out along the
and then
there,
lief ore,
I then galloped back to headquarters,
Senekal road.
and found General Ridley
just
on the point of leav-
ing.
That scene was
just as
one would expect to see
The
described in a book or depicted on the stage.
two Generals, erect and military, stood
group formed by the
of a
officers
it
in the centre
of their staffs,
those of General Hunter lieing on foot, while General

Ridley's attendants were already in
orderly, with
rille
tlie
saddle.
An
slung on shoulder, and bandolier
stuffed full of cartridges, held the hitter's horse for
mount; while another orderly stood
him
to
own
horse's head near by, bearing the red pennant
of a brigadier,
his General.
which
it
at his
was his duty to carry behind
In the background was the low red-
painted cottage where General Hunter had established his head(iuarters, with flagstaff in front from
which floated his crimson Hag,

in the gentle puffs of
down
tlie
dusty
its folds stirring lazily
wind that now and again blew
street.
Just as I joined the group
General Ridley mounted, his standard-bearer dreAv up
behind him, General Hunter called out a cheery
THE
120
DE
f'HASE OF
'WE'I'.
sôod-bye, and, piitting spurs to our steeds,

off at a gallop.
Our
little
The chase
cavalcade
of
we
eight went
of
started
De Wet had begun.

clattering
through the main street of the town without drawing rein.
AVomen and children scampered out
way, and then stood
to gaze at us.
still
of oiir
At the ap-
pointed spot I passed Lewis, and signaled to him to

follow.
ily
Leaving Bethlehem behind us we rode stead-
on for an hour and a
half,
easing our horses only
at the foot of the occasional hills,
set
drew up
at a respectable
and
at
about sun-
farmhouse built on the
slope of one of the smaller kopjes lying at the foot

of the pass
through which De
early that morning,
when he
Wet had
left his
slipped out
eyrie in the tow-
ering hills that loomed grim and dark before us along

the border of Basutoland.
had already
We
arrived,
General Eidley's lirigade
and was encamped near
dined that evening in the farmhouse,
liy.
in
some-
what haphazard fashion, nearly every mouthful
in-
terrupted by the arrival of an orderly bringing de-
spatches from General Paget, telling of the day's
engagement and
of his plans for the
burden was that De
AVet,
morrow.
Their
accompanied by his brother
Piet and ex-President Steyu of the defunct Orange
Free State, had, as General Hunter had already
formed us, slipped out throiigh Slal^bert's

ing the preceding night
Nek
in-
dur-
that his force was probably
eighteen hundred strong, with a dozen guns
that he
THE CHASE OF DE WET BEGINS.
121
had a couvoy of some hundred bullock wag-ous aud

Cape carts that Pag-et aud Clements had been en;
gaged
all
day with his rear guard without substan-
aud that General Ridley could best assist by marching- as early as possil)le next morning
and joining him Avitli all speed. General Hunter, to
tial result
whom
General Eidley forwarded these reports, made
a different disposition, however, of the forces.
He
retained Clements and Paget near Bethlehem
and
late that night sent orders for

self to
Ridley to attach him-
General Broadwood's force, then a part of
Paget'a brigade, and to proceed with him in pursuit

of the enemy.
General Ridley,
late that evening, ex-
pressed himself as sanguine that we should catch up
But we learned later that

the Boer General had got his main body away withwith the latter next day.
out firing a shot, assigning only a handful of
under Piet
De Wet
to
men
occupy Paget and Clements,
and thus cover his main movement

days later before the British got
in
and
it
was three
touch with him
again.
them their final

camp in the
chilly dawn of the next day. At about ten we caught
up with General Broadwood, who had waited for us,
Calling in his officers and giving
orders that night, General Ridley struck
at once. Our combined force, comMounted Infantry and Broadwood's

Household Cavalry, was about equal in numbers to
and went forward

prising Ridley's
122
De Wet's,
and
but iuferior iu
rendered
wliicli
it
circiimstauce
General Hunter's orders to
fully justified
tempt nothing- more

close behind the
artillery,
unsafe for Broad wood to attack,
for the present than to
enemy
as possible
at-
keep as
and harass his
rear until another force could be stationed across his

l)ath.
This General Hunter hoped to accomplish with

Colonel Little and Colonel Ewart, then moving
down
towards Bethlehem with a large convoy from Lindley.
But these
officers failed to
co-operate in time
get their orders to
and when we joined them the
next day we found that, being in ignorance of the
near neighborhood of our force,
and
let
De Wet
tliej"
had stood aside
pass, thankful at having escaped an
attack on their convoy.
As
a result,
De Wet had
succeeded in slipping between the two forces and
now had
a start of a gôod eighteen miles.
General Broadwood added some of Colonel Ewart's
guns and cavalry to his own
work
his dreary
For information
had
of
to rely
of trying to
force,
and then resumed
keep on
De Wet's
as to the direction he
trail.
had taken,
Ave
upon the natives and such interpretation
hoof and wheel-marks as scouts in our force could
The
supi)ly.
help us
natives were mostly only too willing to
but the wily Boer doubled back and forth
and picked out his course with consummate cunning,

and our march was interrui)ted
bj'
frequent halts dur-

iui>-
wliicli tlie
Kaffirs
123
two Generals would cross-question the
whom we
encountered, or woidd mount some
hiqh kopje and carefully scan the distant horizon for
some dust-cloud or other
si,ij;n
of our quarry, while
our scouts went afield searching- for the

During- the
first
trail.
few days we picked up only the
scantiest scraps of news, valuable only as g-oin^ to
prove that the course which we had followed with so
many
turnings had led us in a generally correct di-
But there were no evidences that we were

closing the g-ap between iis. Once or twice the scent
rection.
failed us altogether
and looking forth across the
up by
trackless veldt to the horizon, cut

circling kopjes
close, en-
and ranges which sadly limited the
we could not but do of the

innumeral)le ways by which our enemy might double
on his tracks or otherwise utterly liaffle us, we began
view, and taking note as
to
weary
of this apparently profitless rising in the
cheerless, chilling dawn,
cess in the chase.
But
and to despair of any sucthe scent
when
lost
was
al-
ways picked up again, thanks to General Broadwood's shrewd judgment in discriminating between
the true information and the false
noon
of
and
in the after-
Thursday, the fourth day of the chase, we
were rewarded
for
our })ersistence by catching sight
of oui" ({uarry at last.
We
were then going westward on a
miles north of Lindley, Avhich town
line
some dozen
we had
encircled
THE CHASE OF
124
in a course of tlie
On
WET.
tlie letter "
us eastward to the
haviiio' led
Tuesday.
shape of
I)E
8," the sceut
soiitli of
that Thursday moruin"-
Lindley on
Kaffirs re-
ported to us that the Boers were not more than a few

hours'
march ahead
the top of a
some
of
rise,
and not
long- afterwards,
we made out dimly in
from
the far distance
their wag-ons, just disappearing- over the
As the Boers when trekking- always sent

wagons on ahead, Ave knew that we must be at
fairly close upon their rear guard.
skyline.
their
last
Pressing- on with a
new
eagerness, towards noon
we
came across
their laager of the night liefore, with the
embers
smouldering
still
in the ant-hills,
which pro-
vide very serviceal)le ovens for the ingenious South
we caught sig-ht of figures

some four miles
ahead. We had run them down at last.
The pace of the column was now quickened, and
our advance and Hank guards were pushed ahead to
reconnoitre. Generals Broadwood and Ridley, with
whom I was riding, trotted ahead with the advance
African
and an hour
later
standing- out clearly on the skyline
g-uard towards the place in the skyline where the
Boers could now be easily counted with the naked

eye.
The
officers halted
ki'aal of Kaffir
some
fifty
yards ahead of a
huts and walled enclosures, and, taking-
out their glasses, closely scrutinized the skjdine.
moment
later,
with unexpected suddenness, the
fig'ht
began, the Boers themselves taking- the initiative by

openiug-
tire
ou our little
spicuously in the open.
had purposely
gi'oiip
it
stood out con-
The wily Boer commander
men
i)laced his
skyline, in order to
where
125
view on the
in plain
draw our attention away from
a ridg-e below, and within fourteen hundred yards of
The ridg-e at that distance attracted no notice,

seemed at a casual glance to be a part of the
main slope leading- up to the skyline upon which all
eyes were directed. As a matter of fact, a valley
separated the main slope from the ridge. The latter
us.
as
it
was crowned
l)y
the partly-l)roken-down stone wall
of an old cattle-pen,
half a dozen
and behind
this wall
were posted
Boer sharpshooters, who knew
to a foot
the range to our position and were favored by
all
the
conditions necessary to a good aim.
Our
first
indication of their presence
den appearance
of
some spurts
of dust
some twenty -five yards ahead
of us,
was the sud-
ou the ground
which was
by that unmistakable sound

The next moment we heard the shrill humming-
stantly followed
lire.
in-
of bullets
(it is
of rilie
not au unpleasant sound) in our ears
as a second volley passed over our heads,
Mausers cracked
ag-ain.
and the
A quiet order, " Take
men!" came from General Broad wood.
The
cover,
little
force wheeled their horses to the right about just as
the Boers fired a third volley.

hit then
but he gave no
One
sig-u of it,
afterwards that we learned
tliat
the
of our
men was
and
was only
it
]>()(n- sliar})sli()()t-
126
had
ers
t'oiiud
mark
at
Officers
last.
aud men
walked back and took cover lieliiud the walls

rear.
" It's the
with you," said General Ridley to
nook on the
to
firing line
watch the
" If I
had
run like
One
in
efi'ect
whence
in
me
our
men
only way to do when you have
we found a
as
comparative safety
of the shooting- aljout to heg-in.
lieen alone, though," he added, " I'd
have
hell."
feels a natural
resentment at
from such close quarters and

General Broadwood
in less time
than
it
at
l)eing- fired at
so nearly
l)eing-
hit.
once called up his guns, and
takes to
tell it
his
cavahy had
dismounted, led their horses under cover, and, with

the gleam of
l)attle in their eyes,
places behind the wall at which
standing and opened

later the
fire
had slipped into

we were already
A moment
on the ridge.
guns began to speak
were resounding with the
and
rattle
once the
hills
of Mausers,
the
at
cracking of the British Metfords at our side in reph',

the quick barking of the pom-poms, aud the hoarse
The Boers who had
roar of the fifteen -pounders.

first fh'ed
on us broke cover very quickly, and we
soon saw them scuttling up the main slope

gallop towards the skyline.
Two
blazed away at the scattering group

wâs not quite true,
and they
all
at full
of our field-guns
;
but our
fire
got away.
In the meantime, from a farmhouse on our
left
and
from other lurking-places, other bands had opened

on
lire
us,
and
peculiar double rattle of the
tlie
Mausers, sounding- for

a
127
all tlie
world
like the lilows of
hammer on an iron boiler, became more incessant

Maxims and field-guns were at once
than ever.
trained on these places too
and Colonel Legge, with
some
of the Australians,
out.
This he quickly accomplished
l)y
was sent
Tommy's extremely accurate
shootingtling
to help clear
;
them
and, urged on
and by good
by the gunners, the Boers were soon scut-
from
all their
rifle fire
advanced positions.
Those on
the skyline opposite our centre Avere also on the
move
now, scampering aAvay from the screaming shells that

were droppingAvith eight
all al^nit
them
and Colonel De Lisle
hundred mounted infantry galloped around
our right to hustle them along.

originally held l)y
more
still
and as
General Ridley, followed
De
From
them he adAâuced
he pushed on, the
them
centre, led
The
in support.
by
gallant
Lisle found a hornet's nest in a spruit l)eyond the
rise,
and suftered a score of casualties
out
but he gaAê the Boers
On
the ridge
to turn
the
though
left
the
all
it
enemy would not stand before Legge,
tlu-ee of the latter's
to a ruse on the part of
khaki and helmets,
range and then with a
He
Australians
fell A'ictims
some Boers dressed in British

beckoned them Avithin easy
curse shot them doAvn. These
avIio
dashing colonials also
Major Moore.
in clearing-
that he got, and more.
lost
one of their best
Avas hit in the thigh l)y
oflicers,
an ex-
THE CHASE OF
128
I)E
WET.
plosive bullet, aud l)led to death before help could
reach him.
Meanwhile General Ridley went
q-alloping over the
with tireless energ-y, taking- close note of every
field
I rode with him,
move.
by being shot
and paid
for that privilege
twenty times before darkness put
at
The
an end to the fighting.
Ijrigadier scorned
to
take any i)recautions whatever, and always followed

the shortest line between one advanced position and
the next.
The consequence was
that he was con-
stantly on the skyline and as constantly being fired

tliej'
came
uncomfortal)ly near us, and dropped several
men
at
But the
by the Boers.
latter,
near by, couldn't quite hit us
and
all
came
By
who were
oft'
though
and General Ridley
immediate attendance upon him
in
scot free.
the time night
fell
we had hustled
the
Boer
rear guard along six miles in tliree hours, and found
ourselves in possession of their main position. There
both Generals estalJished their headquarters, and

orderlies were sent
oft"
to locate the different units of
our force and liriug them closer in from their scattered positions.
General Ridley's transport had not
come up, nor had mine;
Init
General Broadwood hos-
pitably invited us to share his mess.
thus satisfied
but we had no protection from the
biting chill of the night

of reach
Hunger was
air,
our greatcoats being out
with our other baggage.
Our supper
fin-
THE CHASE OF DE WET BEGINS,

isliecl,
and our transport
we drew up around
had
and
built,
to
still failing-
pearance,
tire
tliere in a close circle
129
put
in
an ap-
some Tommies
we sat down on
the ground, each, from the General down, takingturns at warming-
first
our hands and faces and then
turning- to give our freezing backs a chance.
There we
sat or lay, not very comfortable, but cheerful withal,
and passed the time

midnight,
rolled
in
up
one way or another, chatting-
in
or trying to snatch a
little sleep, until just
when our baggage
in
finally
found
us,
before
and we
our blankets to pass the rest of the night
warmth and comfort.
CHAPTER
De Wet
XYI.
at Bay on the Yaal.
General Broathvood had reasoned that

less to
attempt to catch
De Wet
so slow-moving' a convoy as
and
we could
to cut loose
was hope-
while hampered by
we were
and so decided to load as much

plies as
it
carry in light
taking- with us,
way of supwagons and carts
in the
from the rest of the baggage, which
could follow on at
its
own more
leisurely pace.
To
carry out this decision involved a delay of several
hours
and when we started on again, a
noon on the
and
start,
it
De AVet had
following- day,
was five days
later
little after
got another
when we ran him down
again.
But not once during that time did he get far ahead
of us the pace was beginning to tell upon him too.
;
Firing liegau again on the
from scattered parties
first
of the
day
just after
enemy who had lingered
behind De Wet's main column to harass
advance patrols were able to keep

touch with him.
On
dawn,
in
us,
and our
almost constant
the third day Ave crossed the
Bhenoster, and struck the railway at Kopjes Station,
where we again had
to halt for a
whole afternoon to
replenish our stock of supplies, then practically exhausted.
There, however, we learned that
De Wet
DE WET AT BAY OX THE VAAL.
was only
six miles
ahead of
us,
131
and liopes that we
would speedily catch up with him
De
ag-aiu arose.
AVet had found time and opportunity, however, to

iutiict
some more damage on
Crossing- the
his foes.
railway to the south of Rhenoster river, almost at the

scene of his earlier mail-burning debauch, he had cut
it
and the telegraph line
for several miles,
and had also
captured another train which conveniently steamed
up within
This train contained
his reach.
of " hospital comforts," dainties
many tons
and delicacies
rious kinds for the sick and wounded, and a
odd
soldiers as a guard.
Both
of va-
hundred
of these lots Christian
annexed, and then proceeded north towards Yredefort
and the Yaal, which, according to Lord Roberts's
information, he intended crossing, that he might 1 jring

aid
and comfort to his sore-pressed
As soon
ally,
Com Paul.
Broadwood had loaded a fresh stock of

we were off on the trail again.
day was marked only by the usual evidences
as
supplies on his wagons,
The
first
On
that the hare was not far ahead of the hounds.
Monday evening we camped

Yredefort
at
dawn.
defort,
and on Tuesday morning were away again
At nine
we met
shape of
eight miles south of
five
o'clock,
A\itli
the
when within
tirst
a mile of Yre-
encouragement,
in the
wagons, which we caught sight of a
couple of miles to our

into view that they
left.
We could
were moving
see as
at top
we came
speed
a squad of cavalrymen were at once sent
otl'
and
in iur-
132
TITE
Soon the Avelcome sound
suit.
final
CHASE OF DE WET.
gave us
of sbootin"-
proof that they were the enemy's, and we
sure that he was at last within our clutches
all felt
we had
never got within reach of any part of his convoy before.
party he had detached
Satisfied that the small
could deal with the wagons, General Broad wood took

his
main force on
into the little
There, we were told, the

vious night.
There
town
of Yredefort.
enemy had spent the premoment officers and men
for the
gave their whole attention to the replenishment of
mess supplies,
for
during a long absence from shops
such luxuries as tobacco and food other than army
had become uncomfortably scarce. The rewas a descent in force upon the two general
rations
sult
stores
and one liakery
in
town, while small parties
went galloping from house to house

butter and bread and eggs.
in search of
There was no looting,
everything being paid for according to the British

fashion
had
but the press was such that the inhabitants
to trust to the
honesty of the troops,
swarmed behind counters and everywhere
who
else seek-
ing what they might devour.
But meanwhile those five wagons had not yet been

The party first sent after them had proved
too weak to beat off the Boer escort, and a stronger
force of three hundred mounted infantry had been
sent galloping off" to overtake the party, which by
captured.
DE WET AT BAY ON THE VAAL.

this time
was drawing- near
Here,
Vaal.
133
hills that
tlie
line
the
speedih-^ developed, the Boers were
it
posted in force to cover the retreat of the wagons.
The chase grew most exciting as the horsemen, taking

snapshots now, drew nearer to the wagons, which in
their turn were rapidly aiiproaching- their own goal.
For a moment it looked as if they would g-et away
but just
in the
nick of time the British troopers
There was a sharp skirmish almost
caught them up.
the supporting- Boers, but
under the noses
of
quickly ended in
Tommy's
favor
it
and the wagons,
together with eighteen Boers found inside, were soon
on their way back

It having-
ing the
to the rear
under a strong
escort.
become evident that the Boers were holdColonel Legge had been ordered,
hills in force.
so soon as he had captured the wagons, to recon-
ahead, but General Ridley had particularly
noitre
cautioned him against advancing- too

tion,
far.
This cau-
however, C-olonel Legge did not strictly heed,
but led his force of between three and four hundred,

into a position
which subsequently became untenable.
The Boers unmasked a
g-un
on their right Hank, and
Leg-ge speedily found himself under an extremely
heavy
How
shell
heavy
and
it
rifle fire,
was
is
which soon
indicated
l)eg-an to tell.
by the circumstance
that diiring the hour that the fight lasted his
men
fired 23,000 rounds.
For the time he could hold
his own, his
men being
134
THE CHASE
(^F
DE WET.
nuder ôod cover on a farm.

-\vood, seeiui;-
and
in
mined
how
what force
make
to
stroiio(it
But General Broad-
a position the Boers hekl,
was evident that they had deter-
a stand on the Yaal), did not
deem
it
prudent to risk a general engagement, and gave the

order for a general retirement to a ridge a couple of
miles in his rear.
The guns
Avere placed in position
to cover the retreat of the flanks, and slowly
luctantly Legge's
men abandoned
the farm.
and
It
re-
was
during his retreat that practically all the day's casual-
some seven hundred Boers

had come out into the open in their attempt to outflank Legge a rare manoeuvre for them. They failed
ties occurred.
force of
of their object
but they killed or wounded thirty of
Legge's men during the running
ment was
finally eftected in
good
fight.
The
retire-
order, however,
and
the whole force bivouacked in face of the enemy's

position about four miles awa\\
There
it
remained
for nearly
two weeks, awaiting
Lord Roberts, and for the

reinforcements which General Broadwood at once
asked for. The enemy also held his position, making
further instructions from
no attempt to cross the Yaal.

stances,
Under these ch'cum-
what was needed was the despatch
from the north to attack De
Wet
of a force
in the rear.
If
Lord Roberts could have got one down in time it

would have been another Paardeburg. But it was
useless to ho]ie for
Broadwood alone
to settle the
The Boers,
matter.
twice his strength
as
135
later developed,
it
b}^ this
were fully
time, thanks to accessions
from among- hurg-hers who had taken the oath
of
nentrality.
As De Wet passed through the
supposed
have been pacified, these burghers dug
to
up their buried rifles and flocked

his force
was not
districts
to his standard
and
when he
far slKort of 3,500 strong
took up his position along- the Vaal near Yredefort.

In addition to their superiority in numbers, the Boers
had the advantag-e of an exceptionally strong position.

The war had made it plain that a force four
times as
larg-e is
needed
to cope with an
enemy thus
placed and armed with modern weapons, althoug-h on

this occasion
GeUo Ridley was confident that
it
could
be done with another battalion of infantry to hold

the centre while the cavalry turned the flanks, and
another
field battery.
Without some reinforcements,
however, Gen. Broadwood was unquestional)ly right

in retiring.
If
he had attacked,
been to repeat Magersfontein.

of that
it
would only have
And what
magnitude would have meant
a reverse
at that stage of
the Avar can be imagined.
These two engag-emeuts
of Broaxhvood's
were not
to be classed as battles, nor did they bear important

results.
But they were
interesting,
for
if
no other
reason than in giving further evidence that every

fight or skirmish in Avhich the British
gave
o])p()i-tuiiiti('s
foi-
tlir
displ.-iy
were engaged
of
tlic
liigliest
THE CHASE OF
136
The young
courage.
WET.
ou the
officer
day on
faces death twenty times a
from the
DI^
staff of
course
tiring line with the General's orders.
in addition,
and
his trips to
But,
one constantly sees or hears of deeds
such as one performed during this latest fight with
De Wet,
the
report of which carried with
official
recommendation
One
for the Victoria Cross.
medical officers was
behind
the
tiring
Colonel Legge's corps, when an officer
in a
hot
with
line
some disThe Boers
fell
tance in front, shot through the stomach.
were pouring
it
of the
from a distance of only
tire
three hundred yards, but the
"med"
ran out into
picked up the wounded man, and brought him
in.
it,
similar incident occurred at a kraal near the farm-
house occupied by Legge's men.
body
of Australians
when
It
was held by a
the order came to retire.
Another" body was in the open, and both had
An
outflanked by the Boers.
officer
Australians to hold their jiosition for a few
cover the retirement of a small party
ing in a wounded
fast, lût
officer.
The
l:)een
requested the
moments to
who were
bring-
colonials were falling-
they stayed. I saw their Captain come in later,
leading a dozen troopers.
out of a squadron," he said.
"
These are
all I
have
left
There was a bullet-hole
through his cap, and the ambulance was just passing

slowly by with one of his men, with a shattered arm,
walking
lieside
The young
it,
and three more
officer,
inside.
especially he of the crack regi-
137
ments, often talks with a drawl, and appears to be
bored with
best iu
the features of
all
Then
acti(iu.
thing, whether
it
be
But he
life.
is at
his
his utter indifference to every-
Inillets or a
liit
of repartee, sits
very well on him, and you have nothing- but admiration for the calmness with which he salutes his Gen!
eral with a " Right, sir "
and gallops
orders to the hottest part of the
him
folk should see
field.
oflf
His women-
They wouldn't
then.
with his
on him afterwards when he couldn't see a
l)e
so hard
joke.
General Broadwood was an excellent type of the

self-possessed soldier.
of a
It
man
Tall, lithe,
in perfect condition,
was no pleasant thing
ally in the
Boer war,
yet he gave
it
with the lean face
he never lost his poise.
for a British General, especi-
And
to give the order to retire.
on that day outside Vredefort in exactly
the same quiet t(^nes which I heard him use towards
the close of our
first
day's fight with
De Wet, when
he pointed to a nearby ridge and directed an

to find out
if it
officer led his
clear, I
manv
was occupied
bj'
twenty men up to
was glad to see
of the tweiitv
for
the enemy.
it
if
at a gallop.
it
officer
And
It
the
was
hadn't heen, not
would have come back.
CHAPTER
At Bay
De Wet,
XYII.
at Ykedefoet.
contrary to the firm belief entertained at
headquarters at Pretoria, made no attempt to cross

the Vaal
and
for twelve
days General Broadwood
held his position near Vredefort, waiting- patiently

for the reinforcements
first
few daj^s
officers
he had asked
For the
for.
and men worked hard, making-
the position secure and closing- so far as was possible
every outlet through which the enemy might break
away
to the south ag-aiu.
His
first
around De Wet's position a thin

fourteen miles
long-.
It Avas
enemy did not once dare
act
line of
to
draw
khaki
all of
was
not overstrong-
to cross
it,
but the
though he made
several half-hearted attempts, onh^ to lose courag-e in
the end.
was not
Knomug- how
a night
strong- the
enemy was,
there
during that an xious fortnight that we
did not turn in fully prepared to be aroused before
dawn to meet an attack which the officers felt might

come at any moment. And we constantly wondered
why De Wet did not hurl most of his force against
our right fiank, as he was amply strong enough to do,
and, holding that in check, send his convoy off to the
east towards
Parys and Lindeque
Drift,
where he
could hope for an easier passage of the river.
But
139
AT BAY AT VllEDEFORT.
De Wet
(lid
none
done during- that

and
eral Ridley
of the things that he mig-ht

first
week, and thereby caused Gen-
his officers not a little disappoint-
General Ridley was in
ment.
flank, holding,
have
command
of the right
with a thousand mounted infantry and
dozen guns, the weakest part of General Broadwood's long line. But even this would not temi)t De
half a
Wet
and
it
began
to be evident after a while that
not until reinforcements arrived could we expect the
stand-up fight that we hoped would settle the business and clear the field of the last force which, in
Lord Roberts's estimation, prevented the termination

of the war.
And everyone was very keen to close with De Wet.

He had many admirers among General Ridley's officers
and while discussing our dinner before the camp-
fire in
the chilly evenings
we
often sjôke of
how
Ave
make a guest of him if we ever had the luck to

make him prisoner. The British honored him for the
woiild
skill
he had displayed
in
the exciting chase he had led
us across the Orange River Colony. It was a spectacular performance,
fact that
that
it
even when accoiiut was taken of the
De Wet knew every
was
foot of the country,
entirely friendly to him.
And now,
firmly entrenched along the Vaal, he
and
at bay,
was holding
off
the only force that Lord Roberts so far had been able
to send against him, absolute master of the situation
until additional troops could be sent
down from the
THE CHASE OF DK WET.
140
north to invest his position from the rear.
achievement bespoke
That
qualities for whicli manj' of
who had fong-ht him before and hoped to

him again honored him as a foeman worthy of
those
fig-ht
their
steeL
Bnt meanwhile the

fort
officers in
onr camj) near Yrede-
had ample time, notwithstanding the need
of
constant vigilance, for resentment against the authorities for
not despatching' additional troops with more
speed.
The trouble seemed
g-ence
officers
at
shown on many
g-ent as
their
the Yaal.
it
l:)een
occasions, were not always as intelli-
they might have been, had not been able to
make up
that
to be that the intelli-
headquarters, who, as had
minds that De Wet would not cross
Confident that he would, they concluded
would be a waste
of
energy to send more
troops on a stern chase, and so devoted their efforts

to assembling forces in front of him.
But by
ing to reinforce Broadwood they
golden oîpor-
tunity slip by
and
let a
their original plan,
delaj^-
which might
have redeemed the situation, failed because Lord
Methuen, who had by that time reached Potchefstroom, to the north of
De
"Wet's position, Avould not
move down fast enough or near enough to the Yaal.

As a matter of fact, it Ijecame evident two days
after
De Wet
at least he
ran to cover there that for the present
would not leave the Free
State.
AYliether
because his animals were too tired or because his
AT
AT VUEDEFORT.
]5AY
burg-liers refused to leave tlieir
precious days "o
Tliat
In'.
to reach Potcliefstroom
had responded
call for
more
at
own
141
laud,
lie let
two
gave Lord Metliueu time
aud
if
those at headquarters
once to General Broadwood's urg-ent
troops,
it
should have beeu possible to
get up a strong- enough force from the south to en-
him to attack.
Such speculations, comlnned with the
able
strain of
who was am-
constantly watching a resourceful foe
ply strong- enough to dash out and attemi)t to force
our weaker
line, left
the Generals aud their staffs
To
the less hard-worked
little
time for leisure.
cers,
however, and in fact to most of
us, the
hung heavy on our hands and we spent much

;
day sleeping, or lying
lazily in the
oflfi-
time
of the
shade of our tents,
reading old books or newspapers or dreaming of voyages home. Under such circumstances comparatively
unimiDortant incidents acquire quite an overpowering
interest.
On one
eral Ridley's
afternoon nearly everj'body in Gen-
camp, where we lay guarding that right
away from headquarters, was

absorl)ed in watching a duel between two Royal
Artillery tif teen-pounders, in General Broadwood's
flank twelve
miles
camp, and two of the Boer guns, evidently Creusots,

a couple of miles away.
The
latter
were close to-
gether near a farmhouse, barely discernible through

glasses, resting
among some
tall
green trees at the
foot of one of the kopjes wliicli lined the Yaal
while
THE
142
Broadwood's
^'uiis
('HASE OF
DE WET.
were cleverly screened helow the
crest of a tiny Ivopje out in the plain.
From
these
respective positions the rival g-imners amused, themselves and us for three hours
firing-
shrapnel at each
other.
It
was the mutter
guns that
of the far-away
first
called our attention to the fact that something-
Keyed
toward.
expectation that
an attempt
we
iip as
we had been
De Wet might
ag-ainst
at
one or another portion of our

rise
guns,
we
settled
the ant-hills or
line,
below which
our camp was laid out, and, catching- sight of the

clouds of smoke
was
days in the
any moment make
trooped up to the crest of the
all
for
little
away from over the invisible

ourselves comfortably down ag-ainst
stretched out on the ground and
drifting-
brought glasses or telescopes or naked eye to bear.
There was not much to be seen

but such as the spectacle was,
it
at tliat distance
held our closest
attention for the three hours that the entertainment

lasted.
which
After a wliile
inifis
it
became possible
were which.
Those
to
make out
to the left
must be
from Broadwood's guns, we concluded, and those by

the trees from the weapons served by
man
moments
tell
De Wet's Ger-
Very soon we noticed that a few

the thick cloud of smoke appeared, to
artillerymen.
after
that one
pufi" of
gun or another had been fired, a tinier

smoke would show aliove the opposite
lighter
position and betray the Inirsting shell.
It all sug-
AT BAY AT ^TvEDEFORT.
143
g-ested a display of fireworks set off l)y impatieut
who could
enthusiasts
proved to
l)e
uot wait uutil dark, and
We
quite as harmless.
it
watched the
shrapnel bursting- in an ominous cloud apparently

directly in
the
smoke
of
Broadwood's
and
giius^
looked to hear later of serious casualties
but we
learned next day that the Boers had uot succeeded in

hitting even a mule.
" helloed "
As Broadwood
back
to Ridley in reply to the hitter's question,
"What's
"Nothing going on but gunnery." At
sunset the gunnery subsided, and we all went back
to camj:). Next day there was more practice, particig-oingon?"
by two four-poiut-seven naval guns which

had JTist reached Broadwood.
We were satiated
now, and nobody paid much attention this time l)ut
the Boers had the luck to wound four men.
lâted in
Two days
later occurred
an incident w hich went to
show what a part chance plays

Captain Lord Charles Bentinck
General Ridley's Chief of
another
officer to
in the fate of armies.
of the
Ninth Lancers,
had ridden out with

look over some entrenchments that
Staff,
the troops had l)een throwing
up that day. Not

many hundred yards away from these, and commanding very effectively General Ridley's camp, was a
slight rise in the veldt, not quite
marked enough
be worthy of the name of kopje, formed
l)y
to
an out-
crop of rock aud crowned by the crumbling walls of
an al)andone(l KalHr kraal.
Boer
y-un there Avoidd
"
144
have quicklv forced General Ridley to vacate his posi-
Here had,
tion.
As the two
of course,
officers,
quite
been posted
by chance,
a picket.
trotted
up
to
the entrenchments, they suddenly heard the cracklingof Mausers.
A moment
later
an excited sergeant ran
them from the direction of the tiring- and reported that two hundred Boer horsemen had attacked
up
to
the picket and driven
"
it in.
AYhat
are those ?"
men
asked Lord Charles when he had silenced the excited

sergeant, pointing to half a dozen tigures that could
be seen moving about behind the walls of the kraal, a

few hundred yards away.
It
" Ours, sir
had hardly been uttered when,
"
"
was the
ping
rejjly.
!
pliutt
and a sprinkling of bullets sputtered into the ground

about the three men.
stood the score of
had
Not far
off,
l)eeu driven in, leaderless,
what
to do.
huddled
men composing
in a group,
the picket that
and quite
Lord Charles wasted no
time.
at a loss
Sending
one of the men l)ack for reinforcements, he called to

the rest to come on, and led them up against the
kraal, to
which the supporting Boers
were rapidly drawing near.
But he was
in the plain
As
in time.
the rallied picket advanced at the double, the handful of
Boers abeady
in the kraal cleared out,
and as
they joined their comrades the latter turned their

horses and also galloped
But
if
off.
Thus
it all
ended
well.
those two hundred Boers had been allowed to
reach the kraal, they could probably have held
it
AT
until a g'uu
was
I5AY
AT VREDEFORT.
broug-lit u}),
145
and then
it
would have
g-one hard with our camp.
As
a contrast to such strains on our anxiety, an ad-
venture of General Ridley's on that same afternoon,

thoug-h
just
it
missed being- a tragedy, had a happy
ending that put everybody
The
si)irits.
headquarters in good
at
accompanied by a young
Ijrigadier,
olhcer of his staff and three orderlies,
noon
at aboiit
Broadwood's.
left
camp
Five o'clock and sunset came, and
s}ieedily the veldt
was wrapped
but the General did not return.

in
had
to ride the twelve miles to General
in African darkness,
Instead came a scout
from the veldt with the report that four hundred
Boers had made a descent upon a farm l)etween
Broadwood's position and ours, past

the General Avould ride on his
Avhicli
way back
we knew
to camp.
Shortly afterwards tAvo despatch-riders came up with

a message and reported that they had been attacked
at this
farm and that two of them had been cut
off
and captured, the others escaping only through the

fleetness of their horses
hit
by the bullets sent
and good luck
after them.
in not being-
This naturally in-
we had already begun to

The Chief of Staff sat down
creased the anxiety that

feel for the brigadier.
to
compose a cipher message
the veldt, asking-
turn ride
if
and the
for heliog-ra]diing- across
the General had started on his rerest of us
began
to speculate
on
the consecpiences of the cai)ture of such a prize by
146
Two
the euemy.
with orders to
fire
had ah'eady been sent out
iiatrols
on auythiug- they saw in order, the
reasoning- was, that the Avanderer might hear, and,
own camp
lost, locate his
Imt they too had as yet
Then, just as we had aljout made
failed to return.
up our minds
if
the worst had probably hap-
that
pened, the voice of the lost one was heard, and as
we jumped
to our feet he
appeared
in
person within
the dim radiance cast by the candles burning- under
An
the headquarters tent.
"Did you
went up.
did you get
bj- ? "
And
all sides.
well that
audible sigh of relief
see the
enemy?"
and
were cpiestious hurled
"How
him from
at
then he told his story, and told
we were soon shouting with
it
so
laughter.
Just aliout sunset, as he was passing the farm in

question, he
men
had noticed a group
some twenty -five
of
" I couldn't tell
in the distance.
were our fellows or Boers,
l)ut
whether they
decided that
it
would
be unwise to ride up and ask, and so we just ofied
it.
Just as we turned our horses' heads they began shooting, antl
good
between
shootinghere,
between his horse's

but
it
was dark
of
up
But
A second hit the ground
AVe were legging
liy this time,
one of
bullet struck
and a third and fourth went

and
after
after us they sto^jped firing.
what became
yet.
One
was, too.
and me.
feet,
singing over our heads.
more shots
it
my orderlies
it
very
fast,
sending a few
I don't
know
he hasn't turned
and I take a deal
of catching."
AT BAY AT VEEDEFORT.
The
Bi'ig-adier,
speedily
was
won
merrily
when one
came up with a grave
sensations,
telling- of his
his staff to his
at its heig-ht
147
own mood.
The jestingcommanders
of his corps
face, sainted,
and reported that
one of his patrols had just come in with the news that
a party of
set.
The
live
horsemen had been seen

had
patrol
fired
and the horsemen when

fast to the eastward.
"
we were
g-oing-
at
about sun-
on them, but Avithout
last
effect
seen had been going- very
" Yes," replied the Brigadier,
rather fast."
Then we burst out
laug-hing- ag-ain as the picture rose before us of the
General, like young- Lochiuvar, galloping- madly out
by his own patrols.

Then he took his corps commander aside, for a
kindly man was the Brigadier, and directed him to
tell his men that it was all right, and that it had
g-iven him great satisfaction to note how well they
shot. The Boers, he said, wouldn't have come half so
and
of the west,
near
but
hittingit
stops
will
him.
being- fired at
The incident thus closed happily
be a long time before the
and the members
to assume, tell
it
of that patrol will,
with bated breath, for
matter to slioot your
own
General.
telling- of it
it
is
it is
safe
no light
CHAPTEK
XVIII.
Wolf.
Tluis the days passed, with everyone in the British
camp
expectiuij- the
the attempt to get
meet
it
Init
moment to make
phms
all made to
away, and with
enemy
at
every
each succeeding- morning brought us

still "
proofs that he was
sitting tight,"
and each day
closed without any relative change in our respective

positions.
On
the third of August Lord Kitchener
arrived at General Broadwood's
the command, and
would
1)6
we began
to
camp and took over
hope that
his presence
the signal for greater activity on
Methuen's part and would result

of reinforcements
from the south.
General Hart's brigade did join

his Canadians were
marching
in
us.
Colonel Little and

Colonel Otter and
from the railway, and
Lord Kitchener sent over to General Ridley one

lately arrived four-point-seven naval
smith fame
but the movements were
ingly slow, and
Lord
up
in the hurrj'ing
guns
of
of the
Lady-
still
exasperat-
we stayed where we were
for several
days longer, maintaining the same unceasing watchfulness over the enemy's position, and sending occasional convoys back to the railway to keep us supl^lied
with food and forage.
After a wêek, however, signs began to multiply that
149
WOLF.
our camp,
sition,
was uot
was becomins"
began
ley
wliicli
in
au especially favored po-
uuliealtliful,
and General Rid-
With
to talk of sliifting- ground.
tlie
pass-
ing away of the rigorous part of winter had come the

first of
On two
the rains.
torrents,
and we had had
nights
it
poured down
and take
to forego dinner
To keep
such shelter as we could lind under canvas.

dry was a hard enough task
sible
at
for
in
men, and an impos-
one for beasts, which, of course, had no shelter
And dead mules
dead mules.
Eesult:
all.
windward soon lêcome disagreeable, and
to
finally
unbearable.
My own horses
had so
far,
fortune, survived both wet
such had been
and
hard days of heavy trekking.

to
show signs
that
is,
my good
cold, as well as the
But
they, too,
began
of distress after the worst night
but Wolf.
Every experience
of the
all,
campaign
had given Wolf new opportunities to show how day

by day he stored up wisdom to enable himself to meet
the developments of the future. Wolf was a diminutive beast,
somewhat stunted and clumsy
would say
ers
bay
in color,
and hocks, and
in
with
was
one
(m his with-
the middle of his sturdy back,
where the harness had chafed him.
Tommy
of build,
l)are spots
But even
as
Atkins, under his stained and ragged khaki,
like a
Toledo blade of tempered steel
in a rusty,
tattered scabbard, so beneath Wolf's scarred skin
beat a l)rave and faithful heart.
The keen observer
150
would read the proofs

and limbs, aud
all
body.
head
Biit plain to
way he held up his head and stumpy

and pricked up his ears when you came up to
was
tail,
iu his heantifiilly shaiied
in the poise of his
it
in the
greet him, or put his nose in your hand to search for

oats.
Wolf never drooped
his head.
which he had
of a long- day's march,
At the end
spent in doing- more than his share of work in pulling

half a ton over all sorts of country, he did not lose
interest iu
what was going-
of the place
on, nor fail to take note
where some native boy had hidden a bag
of oats or a pail of mealies.
And he
never resented
your caresses, though he took them very calmly, as

if they were a foolish tribute to a horse that had only
done his duty.
And
not only did Wolf do his duty
manfully, modestly, and to the uttermost of his faithful soul,
but he never neglected to show his com-
panion on the other side of the desselboom the way

that he should go.
for I never
Many companions had he
found one who could stand up beside him
for very long
but he tackled each new-comer with
the same good-natured patience, and
made
horse of him before the latter gave out.

hoek, where I secured
my way
to join
rail
x4t
a wiser
AVolve-
transport to Heillwon on
Lord Methuen, Wolf showed the way
into the box-car to live other horses

for an
had,
and mules that
hour had resisted blandishments and threats

an army of blacks and Tommies, distracted
alike of
WOLF.
railway
officials,
and desperate
moment we
spii'ed
151
led
Wolf up
sniffed into the car,
the end of that jolting
mere men
all
examination of the
linal
The
in.
withoiit a protest,
of us
Wolf
g-aze.
saw other horses standing- inside
and comfort, made a
entrance, and leaped
him
open door,
to the
while the other animals dre^v back at
in peace
lu an in-
drivers.
others, led up, followed
and as
ashamed.
if
And
at
journey, which had given most
we could do
to
keep from being
hurled out Wolf, Avhen his door was opened, jumped

;
nimbly doAvn to earth again and surveyed his new

surroundings with the keenest interest, displayed in
his pricked-up ears
AVhen turned
and arched neck.
out to graze, AYolf was always coupled to the least

tractable of
my
He
other animals.
never failed to
keep him near the herd, where the veldt grass was
richest,
and always brought him back safe to his peg-
rope by the cart (and the oats) at evening.
My
black lioy Lewis stuck his head into
my
tent
one evening as we lay outside Vredefort, and as he

laid
away some clothes he had been washing, with a
warning that they would get dusty

wind, he said:
for
him
all
"Wolf been away
over er veldt,
go away, and I not

er odder horses,
mealies he
find him.
bag."
all
He
and dere he
fin' in er
with a chuckle.
sir.
if left
And
day,
sir.
I look
slip his halter
Den
is
outside in the
and
come back wid
by
er cart, eatin'
he Avound
n[)
his tale
Wolf had no more appreciative ad-
152
Haviuo' been oriyiuully a Boer
mirer than Lewis.
pony before he was duly enrolled
in the Kiniberlej"
Mounted Corps, he did not know much kindness
Now
his early youth.
everything else
way
I think he
but
it
it
as he accepted
as somethiuo- all in the day's work,
but that must not

duty.
he accepted
in
pained
l)e
was
me
allowed to interfere with his
own sujierior
when it was all
g-rateful in his
to realize that
over he would not be half so sony to change masters

as I should be to part with him.
CHAPTEE
The Boer on
his
XIX.
Own Heath.
Sucli iucidents as tliese wliicli
marked those days
on the Yaal, and the encounters we had had with
De Wet
since leaving- Bethlehem,
had served
to bring-
out most of the points which characterize the Boer.
Among- other opinions more or
less sincerely held,
outside of Africa, concerning- the Boers,
is
the opin-
ion that they are a sturdy, simple, generallj' worthy

if
not noble race
they were when

cradle of so
they are
in short, that
tliej-
many heroes and
what they were even
still
what
emigrated from Holland, that
later, at
dauntless pioneers
or
the time of the Great
Trek, wdieu they went forth into the wilderness to
conquer for themselves peace, prosperity, and happy

homes.
But those who
cling- to this
opinion have
failed to take account of the iniluences that

at
work upon the Boer character
have been
during- the last
two
g-enerations.
These influences have been both climatic and
There
is
social.
something- particularly insidious about
in the wilder portions of
content with
little,
comparatively
he
little
penetrated into
tlic
South
may
lal)or.
Africa.
ol)taiu
it
AVheii
If
life
man
is
at the price of
the Boers
flrst
wilderness of the high veldt,
154
AvLieli later
became the
territories of the
Orauge Free
State and the Transvaal, they found a coiintry teeming- -with
game
of
many
soil of singular fertility,
varieties,
and possessing a
which responded generously
By
to the simplest forms of cultivation.
process of throwing a
dam
the simple
across a stream, the
Boer
voortrelcker found that he could preserve a supply of
water which would outlast the dry season of winter
and the
veldt,
without any care at
all,
provided sus-
tenance amply sufficient for his flocks and herds.
Thus nature
tion, offered
herself, with
enough
to
but the slightest propitia-
keep l)ody and soul together,
an object which a singularly bracing and healthful

climate reduced to
still
less of a struggle.
But nature went no further than

self for the
huml)lest wants.
on a higher plane,
life
if
If
to provide of
man
he craved even the comforts of
as they are understood in older countries, he
work
for
it
as he
had
it-
desired to live
to
work
for
it
must
in Australia, or in
innumerable portions of the western United States,

or, to
go back further
still,
in the far less genial sur-
roundings that the Puritan emigrants transformed

into the
New England of to-day. And so it happened,
very early in the national existence of the Boers, that

they were faced with the alternatives of accepting
practically as a free gift the plain fare
shelter
which
sufficed to satisfy the
and rude
humblest wants,
or of aiming at a worthier level of existence, and,
by
THE BOER ON HIS O'WN HEATH.
155
exercising- tliose liig-her qualities wliicli distiuguisli
man from
brute beasts, winning for themselves the
possessions which are the reward of hard and honest

toil
almost the world over.
In seeking to explain
why
the Boer, sprung from a
much that is worth

many inspiring examples
every field of human endea-
race that has accomplished so
doing, and that has

of daring
left
and success
vor, should
in
so
have been content to choose the former
of the alternatives outlined above,

of
many
All about
circumstances.
found food
in the
form
one must take note
of vast
him the Boer
herds of game, so
away from a
primitive as never to think of running
man with
rifle,
and procurable
the mere cost of
powder and
their ancient virility
in
shot.
and strength
been impaired, they found
it
any quantity for

Again, l)efore
of character
had
comparatively easy to
subdiie the various native tril)es
whom
possession of the lands they trekked to
they found in
;
and thus,
in
a primeval country, where the conquered were always

slaves, they obtained labor in
l)e
abundance, which could
put to use for no more trouble than the wielding-
of a sjambok.
sloth,
AjkI, as another subtle invitation to
the vastness of the
new country they had
found their way into led them to scatter widely apart

in
small communities, a circumstance which in
turn reduced the
demand
amount necessary
to su])ply
for labor to
its
the small
the simple needs of
CHASK OF DK WET.
TIIK
15()
isolated
I'aniilics, cacli snfik-ieiit
only
taiiiiiii;'
tlio
most easual
to itself,
and
iiiaiii-
I'clations with the others,
the nearest of which was often several days" journey
away across the
Tims the tendency
trackless veldt.
inevitably was, after the natives in the surrounding^
had
district
Ixmmi suhjuiiated, for the
draw himself with

Avliicli
he could
to a pastoral
visit
(^f
life,
some
his family to
call Lis
Boer
to with-
isolated S})ot
own, and there
settle
dowu
which was rarely interrupted by the
a travidler, and into whicdi the (h^nands of
ueio-hborliness entered but
little if at all.
The Eng-
lishman Avho fares forth to seek his fortune in the

colonies, cherishes almost invariably the purpose to
return wluni he has met with success, and enjoy the

fruits of his industry
The Boer had no
home.
at
His hut on the
such incentive to accumulate wealth.

veldt
was
all
the
home he
Avanted
in
those early days
wealth meant nothing to him, for there Avere no
markets about him that offered him anything to

buy.
In some rc^spects this wonld (lonltless a])pear to
be an
ich'al lif(\
It is
what many schools of thought
have sought to persuade us
is
the
life
that otters the
highest form of peace and happiness realizable here

beh^w.
if
But there
is
a flaw in the theory somewhere,
the experience of the Boers counts for anything.
Their early history

not yield
at
once to
th(>
will
show that the Boers did
enervating allurements of the
THE BOEK OX
HIS
OWX HEATH.
sweetness of doins" notliiuo-. The
firm fibre wliieli
fine,
they inherited from their forefathers at

the influences of decay, as
is
shown
157
resisted
first
in the records of
snch men as Brand, early President of the Oran,s-e
whom
Pretoria
undone
in the
Free State, and Pretorius, after
named, both
of
whcmi
left
little
is
at-
Even as
tempt to weld the Boers into a nation.
recently as the period of the present war a g-oodly
number
of the
Boers of the Free State, and a few of
the Transvaal, have

their mettle
are, as
in
most
was
shown that they have not lost all

De Wet, Priusloo, and Botha
Cluistiau
also the venerated Jonbert, not lacking-
of the fine qualities that
were once national
But the
and not merely individual characteristics.
Boers as a whole, especially those of the Transvaal,
and most markedly under the reg-ime

g-er,
of
Paul Krue-
have become hopelessly degenerate.
Declining
to accept nature's friendly challenge to a trial of wits
and strength, which might have served

edge on their
faculties, tlie\'
to
keep the
have proved unable to
withstand the contact with the black races

genation has sapped their physical powers
has set
its
awful brand ow
many families
misce-
leprosy
the discov-
ery of gold has helped to corrupt their morals

finally, political ambition,
coming
a nation lost the force to govern
has hurried on a ruin
\\
liicli,
after they
it
and
or to achieve
inevitable, and,
stern laws of nature^, just tliough
had as
it
is, is
it,
by the
none the
158
less pitiful to
eoutemplate wlieu one recalls what the
race once was.
No
one can have failed to note that there
difference
Boers
of
is
a great
opinion (outside of Africa) as to the
their characteristics, their habits, their rights
and wroug-s, even as to their actual deeds

and certain negotiations.
battles
in certain
One noteworthy
thing al)out this difference of opinion
is
that
it
in-
creases in direct ratio to the distance of the disputants from South Africa.
lishmen and Americans
among
There,
who have
those Eng-
lived with the
Boer
on his own heath, who have done business with him,
who know from actual experience what his laws are,

and who have fought against him among these,
who are certainly the best informed, there are hardly
two opinions.
The pro-Boer sentiment which
or did exist (for
South Africa
who
it
is
already subsiding), outside of
ignoring, of
are pro-Boers
course, those iudi^dduals
by contract with
Oom
for other reasons equallv unsentimental
cere
it
was early possilJe
general causes
Dutch
in
exists,
and
insin-
to trace to one of three
consanguinity, which
Holland and elsewhere
which influenced numbers
Paul, or
of
moved the
dislike of
England,
European States and
communities, and a small element of the American
and misinformation, of the sort which Oom

Paul and his agents have always been such adepts
people
at disseminating,
and which created an honest be-
THE BOER ON
lief iu
mam' generous
HIS
OWN HEATH.
hearts that the
meuts were republics fashioned

high type
and heroic
159
Boer
g-overu-
after Washing-ton's
that the Boers themselves, valiant, holy,
stalwarts,
were worthy successors of Crom-
Avell's Ironsides and that the present war was forced

upon them by England in the determination to satisfy
rapacious greed for land and gold.
It is unnecessary to do more than refer to the
sympathy for the Boers which is founded upon con;
The former modi-
sanguinity and upon Anglophobia.

fied itself
perceptibly upon closer acquaintance by
the cleanly and upright subjects of
with the corporeal presence of
Queen Wilhelmina
Oom
Paul
and the
be lavished iiutil some other

up and announces his ]3urpose to drive
the English into the sea. But the pro- Boer sentiment which is founded upon misinformation is honest
in the main, and therefore merits some attention.
latter will continue to
pigmy
rises
Coutril)utiDg to this sentiment

tion
is
belief iu the fic-
Krueger was the President of a

the term is understood iu the United
that Paul
Republic, as
States, in fact as well as in
name.
For
jn-oofs irre-
futable that the so-called South African Republic
was an oligarchy ruled
was dominated
I)}'
b}^
a clique
which
in its turn
Krueger, who had found seventeen
years as Chief Executive ample time in
Avhicli to
arrogate to himself despotic power, the seeker after

light cannot
do
l)etter
than turn to a 1)ook called
IGO
"The Trausvaal from Within," writteu l)y a g-eiitlemau who lived for mauy years among- the Boers.
Therein
set forth the evidence of facts,
is
supported
by authentic documents, which reveal the full measure of the autocratic power wielded by Oom Paul,
the corrupt methods whereby he wrung- from those
who
desired to do l)usiness in his country the
sums
which went to make up his present handsome fortune,
and the way he used his wealth and his power to
Oom
Paul undoubtedly loved
his l)urg-hers after a fashion,
and had many excellent
further his
qualities
own
ends.
but honesty, to say nothing- of candor, was
not one of them, and neither, most assuredly, was humility, of the kind
their pocket
which the Boers read about
Bil)les.
He had
a strang-e prejudice
against allowing his burghers to acquire

eral
knowledge
and
in
much gen-
his patriotism took the not lofty
form of a belief that what was

for his country.
and
Oom
lêst for him was 1)est

The Transvaal was not a republic
;
Paul was simply a shrewd and oljstinate
old man, with a great deal of ambition and covetous-
ness and not quite so
As
much good
sense.
to the causes of the war, every person of in-
formation in South Africa knows, and not even the
Dutch
Cape Colony have thought it worth while

war wâs England's answer to the
announced determination of the Boers, and the Dutch
of
to deny, that the
generally, to drive the British into the sea.
Before
THE BOER ON HIS OWN HEATH.
1(')1
the real facts of the ante-heUam situation begau to

transpire,
it
was a popuhar impression,
Eng-hmd
in
as
well as in the United States, that inability to agree

of granting the franchise to the
upon the manner
Lord
Uitlanders Avas the chief cause of the war.

Salisbury's government
made no
serious effort to
But, as a matter of
counteract that impression.
fact,
the franchise dispute was the most trilling of side

issues.
A meml)er
front, in the
of Parliament
uniform of an
even more strongly than
whom
officer of the
that.
met
staff',
at the
put
it
He had soug-ht a com-
mission in the army with the object of gaining- in-
formation in the
field
obtained at home.
He
which he could not have

told
me
that he
of a group of Conservative members
certain occasion presented a
had been one
who had on
memorial to the Premier,
begging- that the franchise question mig-ht not be

" I
allowed to lead to war.
came out
" to find that the franchise question
do
Avith
here," he added,
had nothing-
to
the war."
But a few facts about this franchise dispute will

not come in amiss. Much has l)een made in some
quarters of
alleged fairness of Krueger's fran-
tlie
chise pro})osals
and
used to be charg-ed that Sec-
it
him in a wây that

own determination to force a war. As
fact, there was nothing- fair about the
retary Chamberlain split hairs with
revealed his
a matter of
wily Boer's proi>osals
he merely acted upon his
102
sometliiug for
fjivorite policy of trying- to g-et
one of his methods
which consists
l)eing-
will
a display of that slimness
your neighbor that
in persiiading-
are telling the truth
uotliiiig,
when you're
not,
keep your word when you eugag-e
yoii
and that you
Oom
it.
Paul
did say that after a residence of a certain comparatively brief
number
of years in the Transvaal, the
Uitlander mig-ht be held to have satisfied one of the

conditions of admission to citizenship.
But he took
pains so to hedg-e this apparent concession aliout as

to render
of
it
no value whatever.
No
Uitlander's
claims to citizenship were to be considered even after

the condition of residence had been fulfilled until a
majority of the man's Boer neighbors had united in

a recommendation that he
l)e
g-ranted the franchise.
Such a recommendation, the difficulty of obtainingin a hostile community need not be dwelt upon,
which
would
bring- the Uitlander's case before the
raad, or Congress, Avhich in
its
Yolks-
turn would pass an
independent and presumably equally partial verdict
upon the candidate's

g-rant,
even
qualifications.
confirmed by
if
And,
finall}^
the Yolksraad, was
the
still
to be invalid unless the Executive Coiincil, in which
Krueg-er's
word was
final decision there
law, approved.
could be no appeal.
the nature of the " concessions

I have heard
And from
" in
that
Such was
praise of which
some pro-Boers argue themselves quite
out of patience.
THE BOER ON
No
HIS OW"N HEATH.
163
the war was the iuevital)le result of the Dutch
many
conspiracy, which had for

shaj)e, to strip
England
of her
years l)een taking-
South African colonies
and make South Africa Dutch from the Zambesi

Audacious as
it
seems,
that might have succeeded
many
the Cape.
to
was a conspiracy
it
colonials have told
me that it undoubtedly would have succeeded had the

Home Government trifled much longer with the feelings of the colonials, and had Krueger had a few
months more
which to complete his plans.
in
In
that contingency, they told me, the
Dutch
Colony would have risen to a man
and many Eng-
in
Cape
lishmen, in despair of getting a hearing at home,
would have joined them to welcome the Boer commandoes to Cape Town. But that far-seeing statesman. Sir Alfred Milner,
of
wliom
it
will in
time be
Em^nre owes him much, and

South Africa everything, read the true meaning of
written that the British
this
heavy impf)rtation
vaal,
of piano-cases into the Trans-
which he traced back to a period long antedat-
ing the blundering Jameson raid, fathomed the purposes of the Afrikander Bond, Krueger's formidable
ally in Cajie
ernment
at
Colony and Natal, and warned the Gov-
home
in time.
That
iirst
army corps was
despatched to South Africa and Krueger, finding the

;
cat out of the bag, perforce declared war,

his
and started
burghers across his frontiers towards the
soon to suit his
Full |)ur})()se,
sea, too
but with better chances
1(;4
tliuu
if lie
How
liis
had waited
uutil the
Army Corps arrived.

now history, the
levies failed to g-et there is
details of
which
will m?dve
it
eventiially clear that
reasons for their failure Avere bad strategy in
down
ing-,
l)efore
Lady smith, and Kimberley, and Maf ek-
and lack
home
of sufficient courag-e
their attacks ag-ainst
depended
two
sitting-
any
and dash
for their defence hardly at all
position but almost entirely

spirit of the officers
to press
of these towns,
which
upon natural
upon the indomitable
and men l)ehind the guns.
Even
thus early in the war did the Boers prove their lack
of
stomach for
exposed them to
Many
any manonivres which
assaults, or for
fire in
people have
the open.
doul;)tless
wondered how
was
it
that the Boers committed the folly of matching them-
power
selves against a
much has been made
of
England's resources, and
of the resolution necessary to
send a people numbering forty thousand
men
field.
fighting-
against a nation that could put 200,000 in the
The explanation does not properly
recall the
courage of David going forth against Goliath.

matter of
fact,
the majority of the Boers, who,
it
As
must
be remembered, are an extremely ig-norant and

informed people
in the mass,
ill-
had no idea that Eng-
land could send such an army to South Africa and
keep
it
there.
Long
before the war broke out, the
emissaries of Krueger and Steyn began their cam-
paign of cajolery.
England, they told the creduhûs
THE HOEK ON
HIS
OWN HEATH.
could uot possil)ly, such was ber situation
burg'liers,
as regarded the rest of the world, send

70,000
1()5
men
more than
ag-ainst the innumeral)le points that the
Many Free Staters took up arms,

me themselves, in the tirm belief
men were the maximum force they would
Boers could hold.
so they have told

that 20,000
have to oppose
and that the Dutc4i would
at
once
Cape Colony and clear the way for the Boer

Not even much moral cour-
rise in
armies to Cape Town.
age
is
required to undertake an invasion so simple
as that.
And
yet while Krueger thus deceived his
burghers into beginning the war, and cajoled them

with more
nothing
lies into
keeping
left to light for,
to be deceived
that the
Dutch
up arms
for
at
it
long after they had
he allowed himself in turn
by the Bond agents, who assured him

in Cape Colony were ready to take
him and by Dr. Leyds, able

;
chief of that
marvelous subornation factory in Brussels, who convinced Krueger that most of the powers in Europe
would leap
to his assistance so
soon as he should
have won a few successes.

This habit of lying dominates the Boer's national
He has no sense of honor as we

To
understand it.
him a lie is not a cowardly' thing,
but a legitimate means of trying to get the better of
the other fellow. Men who have done business with
him will tell you how foolish it is to trust the averag-e
Boer. And in warfare most of them ])ractise these
and private
life.
THE
1()()
same
CTIASE OF ])K WET.
qualities of slimuess, as tliey call
it.
The
En.i^-
lish at tlie front have, as a rule, g-lossed over tlie
iuc'ideuts illustrative of this fact
it
a (quality of
is
the race to be generous to a foe, and I heard few
complaints among- officers or
men
against the abuse of the white and
of the British
army
Red Cross flags,
instance, while several have sought to explain
men who
the ground that the

didn't see
is
it
raised
by
for
it
shot from under
on
it
But a neutral
Time
their comrades.
not bound by any such delicacy of feeling.
and again the Boers, sometimes on the
field of battle,
but more often from
l)ehin(l the walls of
farmhouse, did what
men
the word would never do
raised the white flag for
the deliberate purpose of getting their

l)ose himself to
an isolated
of courag-e in our sense of
enemy
to ex-
one more volley before the Boers ran
away.
Not
to
all,
perhaps not
such treachery.
thus used
fift^^
times
half, the
Boers would resort
But whereas the
among the
wdiite flag
forty thousand
was
Boers
who took up arms, it was not once abused among

Lord Roberts's two hundred thousand.
Another cowardly trick sanctioned even by De
Wet, chivalrous foe as he showed himself
in
most
respects to be, was the dressing by Boers in British
khaki and helmets, and using the disguise to surprise

an unsuspecting picket or to entice small scouting
parties within easier
rifle
raDge.
This, too,
was con-
THE BOER OX
siderecl only slim.
Ridlej-'s camji on the
HIS
OWN HEATH.
Boer farmer came
1G7
into General
As he prohe had taken the
Yaal one morning-.
duced a pass and a guarantee that
oath of neutrality, he was treated courteously and

invited to share with us our bully beef, cold duck,
hard tack, and whiskey.

asked him
Among- other things, we
he approved of this Boer habit of wear-
if
ing the British uniform in the
was
he
all right,
Boer, as far as
And
said.
my
field.
this
He
thought
man was
experience has gone.
it
a typical
I have seen
others cleaner and less unpleasant to look upon, but
he was of the prevailing type in habits and in morals

:
uncouth, unkempt, and unclean.
small, shifty, close-set, dark eyes.

less linen shirt,
for
tall
He wore
a collar-
of
He came
tAveed.
into cam})
by General Ridley's
troops.
But
some
his
trembled so as he used them at the meal
such poor control of

generally was so
off
His outside garments were a coat

dingy
ostensibly to complain of the driving off of

his sheep
and
which he had evidently not taken
some weeks.
and trousers
He was
an uncared-for, reddish beard, and
well-built, with
liis
much
voice
of
hands
he had
and his demeanor
the opposite of frank, that
General Ridley sized him up for what he undoubtedly

was, a spy, put him under guard, and
convoy
to
left
when
the next
camp, sent him to the railway consigned
Cape T(nvn.
Ho mucli information had been obtained
in
this
THE
168
fashion
Boer spies
])y
being- honorable
OF DE WET.
CHASI-:
men
produced evidences of
avIio
that General Eidley, liolding
the weakest portion of General Broadwood's thin line

against twice his
number
of Boers, ])roposed to take
no such chances, and with
the cheerfulness in the
all
down in a similar manner every Boer,

no pass, who came into the cam]). No charg-e
Avorld sent
pass or
was ever
filed
against them
they Avere simply
understand that the British had

early simplicity and
Once
traits.
was a
sjiy,
lost
some
had learned something-
satisfied
left to
of theu'
of
Boer
from the man's looks that he
any excuse, or none
at all, served for
making- the Boer a prisoner of war.
On
another occasion an ill-favored farmer came
strolling-
up
to headquarters, asking- for the General,
to complain about
favorite
posts.
method of
As General
some stolen sheep.
This was a
spies for getting- jiast the outPiidley put
it,
in telling
particular case, " Their excuse for
sheep have been stolen by
my
heretofore has never varied
coming
scouts.
it
us of this
is
that
3fi8
The number
has always been 368.
But this man's figure was 72. A Boer who is fool

enough to say 72 when he might just as truthfully
say 308 should not in his
large."
that
If
same
own
interests be left at
other British Generals had acted with

clieerj-
firmness which distinguished this
Brigadier, fewer convoys would have been
ambushed
THE
and fewer
BOEi;
OX HIS OWN HEATH.
" reg-rettable incidents "
chronicled in the
Loudon
1G9
would have
l)een
papers.
It is also just as well, in the interests of truth, to
Boers as a people are no longer
state that the
dis-
Decay has sapped their
ting-uished for l)ravery.
valor together with the rest of their ancient virtue.
Most observant people must have noticed that their

They shoot
tactics do not call for much courage.
from
l)eliind
almost perfect cover, and the
the impervioxisness of that cover
running away.
threatened, they
They display dash only
are off to light another day.

in
is
moment
quite so soon
They did not run
during the early campaigns in Natal
they had a
better country to defend, and their o]>iuion of the

qualitj'
of the British soldier, as a result of Glad-
Majuba and of the pitiful

collapse of the Johannesburg Eeform Committee's
plans, was not what it now is.
But they stood up
ag-ainst Lord Rolêrts nowhere between Paardeljurgstone's scuttle policy after
and Pretoria, abandoned the

Avithout a struggie,
and
latter
stronghold almost
in fact since
Cronje surren-
dered attacked only when strong in the ratio of ten to

one, and
made
a defense only from positions which
was an absolute impossibility
them
of the Free State
decadent of
opposed to
Org-auized resistance to the conquest
to carry.
Paardel)urg.
for the force
it
and the Transvaal ended with
Since then the Trausvaulers, the most

all
tlie
Boers, have done practically no
THE CHASE OF DE
170
lig'litiiii^-
at all
way
in the
AVET.
and what success
lias
been achieved
Lord Roberts's flanks and

accomplished by De Wet and his Free
of harassing-
rear has l)een

Staters.
It
would be unfair
to say or to let
that the Boers are a race of cowards.
men
one of the rarest of human
is
inferred
it l)e
Cowardice in
But the
faults.
Boers are by no means the Paladins that some people
would have us believe

test of battle,
Atkins.
" that
"
to
man, and by the
they are far l)elow the level of
Then how
is it,"
many people
Tommy
will exclaim,
the Boers inflicted such heavy losses on the
British,
and made such a showing- early
The reason
Avitli
and man
is
two-fold
in the
war ?"
the Boers never foug-ht save
an overwhelming- advantage of position
they had for some of their
l)est
allies in
and
many
of
number of British
command men in l)attle
those earlier battles of the war a

officers
who were
less
fit
to
than they wei'e to wield the long- whij) of a Kaffir

bullock- driver.
CHAPTEE XX.
The Lessons
On Suuday,
Aug'ust
5,
of the Chase.
by
wliicli
time our patience
was almost exhausted, Lord Kitcliener decided that

the time was at last ripe for closing- in on
and that morning-,
Colonels Leg-ge and
De Wet
orders. General Eidley sent
b}^ his
De Lisle
to the northeast to join
the Canadians on Wildehonde
Kop and
to get in
touch with General Knox, who had on the previous

eA-ening- driven a small party of Boers off Groot Eiland
Kop and occupied that important
commanded
position, Avhich
the Yaal for several miles and
inated the towns of Yredefort and Parys.
als(^
dom-
Meanwhile,
General Broadwood had seized Rhebokfontein without opposition, incidentally capturing- five of the en-
emy's wagons.
Early on
Monday
morning- General
Ridley also struck camp with the remainder of his

force
and towards noon we joined Legge and
De
and took up a fine position between and around

Wildehonde and Groot Eiland Kops. From the latter both Yredefort and Parys were plainly visible,
Lisle,
and the scene below us was picturesque
to a degree.
The Yaal, winding betAveeu thickly-Avooded banks, lay

below us; and beyond it, and also on tlie hither side
towards Yredefort, rose stately peaks and mountains,
THE
172
with one
Boer
CI
.yorg'e whicli
}K)sitioii,
ASK OF DK WKT.
they sheltered, leading- to the
plainly visible, and also another from
its way to the disThe road which the Boers would have to
which the gieamiug- river issued od

tant sea.
follow
if
they attempted to escape to the eastward
lay helow under our g-uns
and a splendid view
large extent of country which
come a
battlefield
Eiland's
commanding summit.
was
we
all felt
might
of a
l)e-
to be obtained from (Iroot
General Ridley chose for his headquarters a
site at
the foot of Wildehonde Kop, a stony eminence dotted
with cedars, with plenty of good water near by
way superior
a spot
we had spent
the previous weary fortnight. Here we prepared to
settle down for another week, until the arrival of Generals Paget and Clements, who were due at Kroonstad
on the 11th, should enable Lord Kitchener to tighten
in every
to that wherein
his grip still further.
But DeWet was not the man
to sit quietly
suffer himself to be surrounded.
waiting, inactive, for the
coming
down and
While we had been

of our
slow-moving
reinforcements, the Boer had replaced his worn-out
animals and reprovisioned his force
Avitli
gleaned from the surrounding country

time we
moved up and
supplies
and by the
closed his last outlet to the
south of the Vaal, he was ready to resume his march

forward.
By
Lord Methuen should have

part to close all means of egress to
this time
been able on his
THE LESSONS OF THE CHASE.
But
the uortli.
explained,
lie
for reasons wliicli yet
had never moved
close enouo-h to the Yaal.
little
strategy
remain to be
his force
down
({nite
De Wet found two
drifts,
ca]ial)le of being-
forced
De Wet's and Hchueman's,

with a
173
and on the
nig-ht of
August
he made a feint at one and, taking his whole force

across the other, g-ot safely around
front.
Heavy and regular
dawm on the
7tli
and lasted
firing,
until
Lord Methuen's
which began
two o'clock
afternoon, gave us in General Ridley's
intimation that
all
at
in the
camp our
first
the good work that he and General
Broadwood had accomplished was undone. Later we

learned that the whole Boer force had got safely away,
the firing we had heard Ijeing* between Methuen and
De Wet's rear g-uard, and accomplishing nothing, and
that the enemy was now trekking fast to the eastward
along the north bank of theYaal, whether with the purpose of turning- south and recrossing at Lindeque's or
Yiljoen's Drift into the
Orange River Colony or
of go-
ing northwards towards Johannesburg and Pretoria,
no one knew. Towards dusk, however, one of General

Ridley's officers returned from a scouting expedition
and re|)orted the main force of the enemy
at Bufi'els-
hoek, between Potchefstroom and Parys.
That
indi-
cated that he had chosen the former course, and also

removed the last doubts that he had got clean away.
It would b(^ only tiresf)me to go at length into the
story of the rpsumi)tion of the chase by Lord Kit-
174
The
chener.
if
he had to
he started
ominous
latter
kill
off
vowed
to catch
De Wet
this time
every mule in the British forces, and
ou the
trail
again at a pace which looked
At noon on Thursday the
for the mules.
force reached Liudeque's Drift in time to frustrate
any attempt ou the part
of the
But they had no intention of

noon I climbed to the top of a
Ridley and his
staff
and
Boers to recross there.

doing- so.
hig-h
That
after-
kop with General
signallers,
and thence
for
over three hours we watched the whole Boer force

trekking- off to the northward, safely out of rang-e,
while Lord
Methuen dropped
ineffectual shells into
his rear guard.
Next morning'
I crossed the
Vaal for the third time
and then followed two days of hard marching- up to

and across the Gatsrand to the railway at Welverdiend, between Potchefstroom and Johannesburg-.
Lord Methuen, some ten miles to our left, manag-ed
to keep in touch with the enemy's rear-g-uard for
most
of the time, but
Lord Kitchener's immediate
force didn't have a chance to
a gun.
lire
De Wet
kept his lead, and a few days later joined Delarey

not far from Johannesburg-.
By
Lord Kitchener's mules were dead
this time
most
of
but De Wet was

and possessed of renewed resources
that enabled him to g-o ou roaming at will over South
still
at larg-e,
Africa,
cutting-
lines
down on detached
of
communication, swooping
forces and posts,
and generally
175
conducting tlie most spectacular g-uerrilla warfare that
modern times have
The chase had ended
seen.
in a
fizzle.
But
it
had not been without
its
which swelled
voy
of
carts,
to 3,000, with a
In a
lessons.
month, with a force which was originally
1,500,
and
dozen guns and a con-
over a hundred hullock-wagons and Ca|)e
De
forming a column several miles long,
AYet
had marched 250 miles across country, from the

Basutoland l)order, across the Yaal, and nearly to
Pretoria.
With two
of the keenest of the British
generals on his heels throughout the march, and with
Lord Kitchener himself directing the
last part of
the chase, he kei>t his lead until he was weary, and
held his pursuers at bay for two weeks while he

rested in the hills along the Yaal
threaded his way
among
successfully
several large l)odies of
troops on the lookout for him, crossed Lord Roberts's

lines of
communication twice, cutting them
cases, captured
plies,
and
two
train -loads of soldiers
finally joined
Delarey
in the
in l)oth
and sup-
Transvaal 250
miles fnmi his starting point.
This extraordinary march of

miniature the story of
war.
all
De Wet's
tells
in
the British disasters in this
Perhaps no other single incident reveals so
clearly the handicai)s
under which the army
Africa worked from the
have achieved
tliis
first.
De Wet
l)rilliant success.
in
South
should not
Making every
170
allowance for his own rosourcefiiliiess,
was
wliicli
remarkable, aud for his knowledge of the country,

Avhich Avas perfect, the fact remains that his
march
was not so much a
aljility
as a reflection
credit to his
upon
British generals
still
tlie
in the fleld.
perhaps natural
It is
at best
own unusual
incapacitj^ of a few of the
in
Europe and America, where
but an imperfect idea of the conditions in
South Africa may be formed, that

plain
tlie
be credited with extraordinary

is
in seeking- to ex-
disasters of the British, the Boers should

lighting- abilities.
It
doubtless some consolation for the English and for
those
who sympathize with them
they have failed to
to think that
i)ress their attacks
Ijeen outg-eneralled or baflled
it is
faced an always worthy foeman,
splendid valor, born of ardent,
if
home
when
or have
l)ecause they have
who fought
misguided
Avith
jiatriot-
ism.
But
self.
Indulging- in them, one fails to do justice to the
in
such reflections one only deludes him-
unconquerable heroism of the

Roberts's army, and one
is
raidv and file of Lord

more than generous to
The story of every battle, everj- skirmish,

show that the Boers are not lirave in
the soldier's sense of the word are skillful in a milithe Boers.
of this
war
will
tary sense only in their remarkable
aptitude for
taking advantage of the blunders of their opponents,
which have been,
The Boer
verily,
most generously distributed.
fights determinedly only
when
in greatly
THE
THE CHASE.
LESSOXrt OF
177
superior force, wlien seeking- to extricate himself
from a desperate situation, or when snugly entrenched

behind well-nigh perfect cover, which he knows so
well
how
The Boer always has one eye on

and he is on his pony and away
to find.
his line of retreat,
the
moment
his inability to hold his position l)ecomes,
He
not necessarily certain, but simply possible.

his life dearly only
when
cornered, wherein he
braver than the most timid of animals.
many have
war may be
exag-geration to say, as
British disaster in the
competency
of
traced to that source

victories,
won
in
many
and
it
spite
would have been disasters
if
every
But
disasters
it is
may be
is
equally true that
of
bad
g-eneralship,
Tommy Atkins were
not
fig-liter
is.
Lord Eoberts's advance to Pretoria

evidence enough on these points.
The Boers
The record
is
no
traced to the in-
the well-nig-h unconquerable and incomparable

that he
is
may be
said, that
some British commander.
true l)eyond cpiestiou that
many
It
sells
of
scattered before his columns like chaif before the
wind.
Earlier successes against other commanders,
and De AVet's achievements since impregnal^le Pretoria fell i)ractically without a struggle,
possible by blunders which
Lord
were made
Iloberts, or
Sir
Archibald Hunter, or any other able General, would

not have made.
territory in
12
But so extensive was the
South Africa that
liad to
hostile
be covered to
THE CHASE OF
178
1)E
WET.
be made secure against constant raids

ordinarily mobile
])v
an extra-
enemy, that two conditions
creasina" the jiossibility of disaster
force even two hundred thousand
were created
strong- liad to
be
in:
di-
vided up, after the main campaisfu conducted by Lord
Roberts was over, into innumeral)le comparatively

small bodies
and every commander had
part of his etiective force to
Hunter had
ordinate.
his Pao-et
Buller,
and
his
Hart and
after
his
sul)-
Barton and
him Kitchener, had
And one might add many
Methuen.
to trust a
some incompetent
his
others to the
list.
De Wet should not have got away

Slal)bert's Nek practically scatheless, as he
Christian
throug-h
did.
The blame
be divided be-
for his escape is to
tween Generals Paget and Clements
how and why
come out in due course. It is true that General

Hunter, hampered as he was by the difticulty of getting supplies into Bethlehem, had not time to draw
will
his cordon about
wished.
cient,
But
if all
De Wet
his forces
quite so tightly as he
and his resources were
his subordinates
with him, to
maim De Wet
break
Had Clements and Paget
free.
suffi-
had properly co-operated

seriously before he could
l)een Avorthy
of the reliance which General Hunter had to jilace

upon them, De AVet would have had but a ragged
remnant with which to re-inforce his Transvaal allies.
Once through the cordon, with
all of
South Africa

before him,
179
De Wet fouud ample means to keep ahead
of his pursuers.
One
of the
most important factors
that have eontril)uted to the successes of the Boers
has Ijeeu their superior mobilit3\
do on the scantiest
on a
i)iece of biltong-
which adds practicalh" no weight
materially lessened to
cient for the
days together
equipment, the necessity for transport
at all to their
is
Subsisting- as they
fare, aljle to live for
little
more than what
ammunition needed
in the iield.
is suffi-
Again,
they have the best horses and the best trek-oxen, which
they can
jDick
out at a g-lauce from among- the herds on
the farms through which the}- pass, and which the
white inhabitants are only too glad to give up, to re-
such other animals as have broken down.
jjlace
The
native horses and oxen have learned to live on the

veldt grass and such simple forage as the country
provides, so that the prol)lem of olitaining food for
both
man and
beast
is
which has confronted the

cipally
d(j
much
simpler one than that
British, forced to rely prin-
on imported and unacclimated animals, which
not tlmve on the food-stufifs of the country, and
which
in addition are
required to carry
much more
weight than the lightly-equipped Boer horseman

straps to his saddle.
Finally, the Boers never failed
to take advantage of the fact that bullocks trek best

at night,
rise.
and
will
not feed between sunset and sun-
Knowing the roads and
the country as perfectly
as they did, they consequently did their marching at
180
CHASE of de wet.
Tin:
uig-lit,
aud
Avere
til lis
euabled to turn their auimals out
to graze during- the heat of the day.
Naturally, there-
fore, their
animals were under iiormal conditions
much more
lit
work they had
do
whereas
the British, often ignorant of the countrj^
through
for the
which they were moving-, did most
to
of theii' marching-
by daylight, seldom halting before dark, and
tlius
often denied their draught animals the opportunity

to obtain their sorely-needed nourishment.
Under these circumstances, and with the added advantage that almost ever}" one of his burghers had an
extra horse w ith the convoy,
cover twenty-five miles a

This rendered pursuit
De Wet seldom
failed to
daj' to his pursuers' twenty.
futile unless his jn'ogress
be impeded from
in front
throwing troops
across
and
his
it
was the
could
difficulty of
ever-changing course
that gave the authorities at headquarters their chief
trouble in seeking- to
British would
umn
hem
The
in the agile Boer.
learn his direction
and station a
col-
across his path, only to find out later that
"Wet's watchful
and extraordinarily
efficient
De
scouts
had given ample warning to enable their commander

so to change his direction as to make necessary a
new
disposition of the forces seeking to check him.
And
it
generally happened that before precise infor-
mation of the Boer change of front had been obtained,
DeWet had
slipped by, and
left in his
the British force that a few davs or a few hours
rear
lie-

fore
had
lieeu in front.
181
Everyone who has attended
a football g-ame in America has seen similar tactics
employed by a swift sprinter rnnning- with the ball

behind good interference, and threading- his way
throng'h the opposing eleven towards the latter's goal.
Tims
it
was that De
Yaal on August
AVet, after g-etting- across the
and successfully
Methueu, was never again

before he
made
in
slipping- past
Lord
danger of being- stopped
his conjunction with Delarey.
The
time he had spent in resting and replacing his ani-
mals and securing- fresh supplies from friendly farms
and towns
forces
in
neighborhood had repaired his
whereas Broad wood's and Ridley's transport
had suffered
of the
his
seriously,
owing
to the unhealthfulness
camp where we had spent those two
weeks and
profitless
to the necessitj^ of sending- constant con-
Lord Methuen hung on to

De Wet's rear guard with a persistency which if
earlier displayed might have borne fruit and Lord
Kitchener, relentlessly forciDg- on his mules and bullocks at a killing pace, followed hot and fast on De
Wet's trail and tried by every means to overcome his
latest lead.
But it was a hopeless task, and the
'result was inevitable.
De Wet joined Delarey not
voys back to the railway.
far
from Johannesbui-g, and went on roaming- over
his hai)])y hunting-
grounds
at liis
own sweet
will.
CHAPTEK
The Home
It
XXI.
Trail.
was evident by the time we readied Welverdieud,
OD the raihvay between Potchefstroom and Johannesburg, that
De Wet
Kitchener's force.
could not
The war had now
was
the chance
to
it
was over from the standpoint
of a
it
formerly possessed
war correspondent
special
lost the dra-
matic interest which

satisfied that
caught by Lord
l)e
and so
I decided to take
the railway ofiered
^^llicll
Johannesburg and thence
General Ridley approved
to
my
me
to proceed
Cape Town and home.
decision
and on Sun-
my
day morning-, the twelfth of August, I took

well of that g-allant and tireless l)rig-adier
type of the
in
officer
any army
I
was back
Imck from the
in Joliannesl)urg-
morning-, having-
made
my
Cape
and
his
comrades
sold
my
which
find
Monday
again on
I.
Vs.
for companions,
cart in another truck l)ehind,

in a
Avill
front.
the journey in an open truck
with a dozen officers of the C.
with
fare-
as tine a
and the gentleman as you
and started
box-car ahead.
and Wolf
Next day I
outfit for a fair i)rice, keeping- only
faithful beast I presented to
Lewis
Wolf,
and
at
two o'clock that afternoon he and I proceeded to the

Park Station to await the train for Elandsfontein, the
;:
THE HOME
183
TKAIL.
junction of the main line with the Johannesburg-
branch, where
tlie
we were
to connect with the train for
Cape.
There was
little
bustle at the station on that day,
and not many waiting passengers on the platform

one or two
officers, half
a dozen Tommies, a group
of "undesirable" Hollanders, evidently
under sen-
tence of banishment, and a dozen or so negroes, com-
The
prised the gathering.
officers
wore the bored
look that I had become familiar with in that country
Tomni}^ was careless and happy-go-lucky as usual

the Hollanders and the negroes looked anxious.
hospital train drew in just before ours was due.
One
or two invalids were carried out, and during their
removal we heard another from within cry out wildly,

in the voice of delirium,
"Another man gone!"
was hushed by a comrade, and a moment
Soon afterwards a
train pulled out.
warned us
it
of the
approach of our own
He
later the
shrill whistle
train.
Quickly
appeared, rounding the curve from the main station;
and glided
SAviftly
up
to the platform with that ease
and smoothness characteristic

rolling-stock.
of the light English
There were only open coal-trucks be-
hind the diminutive and gentle-looking engine. Into

these
we
all
clambered, hauling our belongings in
after us, officers
and Tommies
sombre black, negroes

to cover
them; and
in
five
in khaki,
Hollanders in
anything that wf)uld serve

minutes
later, witli a shrill
184
shriek from the engine,
we were
off for
Elandsfou-
tein.
Elandsfontein
is l)nt
u short distance from Johan-
nesburg; we were there
in thirty minutes.
At
this
important junction, where the railway lines from Johannesburg-, Pretoria, Cape
verge, the scene
and
bustle,
was one
Town and
Natal
con-
all
of indescribable crowding-
and vastly more impressive than that
the railway station in Cape
there fifteen weeks liefore.
Town when
had
at
left
Since then the front had
been pushed up to lêyond Pretoria, and the tracks,

clustering like the filaments of a mighty wel) around
the
little
station platform, were closely
packed
Avith
jammed with
supply-trains, troop-trains, and trucks
every imaginable collection of things, from a brigade

of infantry to a train-load of
boxes.
The platform
of humanity, mostly
in its turn
Army
Service Corps
was a seething mass
composed, of course, of troops
in khaki, but containing also a sprinkling of civilians.
Among- them the railway
staff' officer
threaded his way
on his ceaseless round of petty duties, answering questions
when they were not
too foolish or
when he was
caught for a moment in the press, but generally
waving people
off
and pushing on
riages and trucks which
he ever found.
his hand,
it
in
search of car-
was a constant marvel that
Every few moments he would
and a train would glide swiftly out
station, generally carrying- a
raise
of the
regiment of soldiers to
THE HOME
tlie front,
185
TltAIL.
who from where they
sat
on boxes of sup-
or lay stretched out on tarpaulins covering- the
])lies
truck-loads of other l)oxes, harness, or great guns
with grim, khaki-painted muzzles protruding- over

the next truck, called out a cheery farewell as they
One
were whirled by.

in instantl\' to
more
I
train once out, another
occupy the empty
track,
came
and discharg-e
soldiers or supplies.
was watching-
all this
turmoil, engrossed in the
busy scene, when suddenly the sound

a high treble key caug-ht
my
train of g-aily decorated
ears.
and crowded trucks come
sweeping- in from Johannesburg.

kleurs, the proscribed
of cheering in
I turned to see a
Transvaal
flag,
Two huge
vier-
formed the main
decorations, draped over the sides of the two centre
Standing' and sitting in these was a crowd of

Boer women and children, gaily decked out in such
striking coml)inatious of theii* national colors as might
trucks.
be expected to prove annoying to their foes and captors.
One woman held over her head
a monstrous
umbrella covered with strips of the red, white,
g-reeu,
and yellow; and everywhere
in endless repetition
flaunted the same colors.
We
these were
women
quickly learned that
l>eing taken to the
Boer laagers
outside Pretoria, to be turned over to their
and
fathers,
whom
were
husbands
they, while in Johannesl)urg and
other towns held by the British, had been furnishing

witli
valualde information.
As
their train
drew
in,
THE CHASE OE DE
186
lliiiig-
tliey
could lay toucfue to
ti'uck
was surrounded
and Briton,
sex,
were
around tliem
at tlie troops
tliey
in
l)v
WE'J'.
Tommies and Boer

;
accordance with the immutal)le laws of
g-aily chattin-
and
But there was
for
denly drew
and
train
at
once there began a
There were only a
mad rush
coujile of carriages
the trucks, and seats in the former were prec-
ious.
us to enjoy such an
which we had been waiting sud-
from Pretoria
among
left
refiising to suc-
Without any warning the
entertaining- sight.
in,
time
little
and generally
jestint>-,
making merry, only a few surly ones

cundj to Tommy's blandishments.
for [)laces.
the taunts
minutes later each
l)ut five
cheerful
iill
few
officers,
two or three women, and myself,
were fortunate enough to secure these
human
tide
delay.
At four o'clock the
the rest of the
There was
surged into the trucks.
little
train pulled out again,
and
the journey to the Cape was safely begun.
The
activity of the
enemy was such
that
it
safe for trains to proceed after dark north of

fontein.
The
first
slow
the
Bloem-
night we spent at Yiljoen's Drift,
on the other side of the Vaal.

all
was un-
way down,
as
Our progress was
we had
to wait at nearly
every siding to allow trains carrying troops, guns,

horses,
and supplies to go
l\y.
We
reached Kroon-
stad at two o'clock on the following afternoon, l)ut
there learned that our train would not be allowed to
go on
until next
morning.
This promised a Aveary
THE HOME
period of waiting-
187
TliAIL.
but there were several
otiicers
ou
board who jiroved congenial comi)auions, and the
A few
time passed pleasantly euongli.
on the
train, invalided
down and
dejected
from the
front,
of the officers
looked broken-
but the others had known the
joy and profit that comes from the crowded hour of
glorious
that had
life,
as one read in one clear glance of eyes
grown
alert
and watchful during weeks of
looking over the veldt, searching the distant horizon

for
some
men who
ture,
trace of the foe,
and
in the elastic tread of
mouths had been close to earth and naand were hardened into the very perfection of
for
physical health and strength.
The next evening, the third since we left Johannesburg, we reached peaceful Bloemfoutein. We rested
there but a few hours, and thence continued our
journey unbroken to Cape Town, where we duly arrived early on
Sunday morning,
on the train for Kiml)erley
Nelson hotel
in
Cape Town
at
I having put
De Aar. At
I dotted
the
Lewis
Mount
my travel-stained
khaki and transformed myself into a civilian again
and on the following Wednesday boarded the
" Scot,"
then homeward l)ound on her next voyage, and set

sail for
home.
CHAPTEE
Who
The Men
XXII.
Fight Exglaxd's Battles.
Before closius' this record of some personal experiences of " the strenuous
I should like to say a
life,"
word about the British officer, whom it was mj'

privileg-e to watch at close rang-e doing- the work that
final
only
men
can do and underg-oing- those great tests
that prove the mettle and the measure of a man.
Let me say
ranks
at the outset that of the officers of all
whom
I met,
on terms of
g-reater or less inti-
macy, every one, with but few exceptions, extended

to
me
every courtesy, and gave
me
their wish that onh' the best of
constant proofs of
good
feeling might
prevail between the two great branches of the
Eng-
lish-speaking race.
"Duke's
a belted Earl,"
I found, shared that wish,
all,
son, cook's son, son of
and
looked forward to the time when there would be no

possibility of a misunderstanding
nations.
But
majority of the brave

in
such close contact,
tween the
liest
between the two
I should not be doing justice to the
men
if
with Avhom I was thrown
I did not difterentiate be-
type of those I met and the others of
Great Britain's army who proved unequal to the trust

of
upholding her prestige as
it
held throughout South Africa
would have
if
l)een up-
the inefficient officer
THE MEN WHO FIGHT ENGLAND'S BATTLES.
had fewer (Opportunities
liad
mar the work
to
8!)
of his
comrades.
Bismarck
credited with having- said once that
is
the British army was a h)t of lions led by jackasses.
Like most generalizations, this definition was too
broad to be
strictly true
l)ut it
suggests the true
explanation of the startling successes gained by the
Boers early
and of the
come now and again
in the present war,
repulses that have
humiliatingto interrupt
the victorious progress of the British arms.
has been pointed out in preceding-
It
the Boers are lacking- in
many
cliai)ters that
of the soldierly quali-
necessary to enable them to accomplish what
ties
they have accomplished
most
if
of his opportunities
and elsewhere.
If the
enemy had made the
their
on the battlefields of Natal
Boer had been brave
in the
true sense of the word, Ladysmith, Kiml)erley, and
not impossibly even splendidly-defended Mafekiug,
would have
which
in
fallen before the greatly superior forces
each case were the besiegers
and Cape
Colony would have l)eeu harried much further south

than
it
has been.
troops, there
the
name
And had
would have
the Boers been disciplined
something worthy
l)eeu
of resistance offered to
of
Lord Boberts be-
tween Paardeburg and Pretoria.
But
t]i(M-(^ is
Boers.
them
They
no
sucli tiling as discipline
elect their
until they
change
among
the
own commanders, and obey

tlicir ininds,
wIumi they at
"
190
ouce reduce them to the rauks agaui, or expel them
from the commando, as they did Piet

response to the
was
De Wet, when,
he told
tliein
that further resistance was useless and advised
them
in
And they
to surrender.
mood
is
lig-ht tliat
on them
only
tislit
if
trooi)S could hardly
when
and when the
never in recoo'uition of such simple
obedience to one's commanding
dut\- as
lioht
in liim,
Such
officer.
be expected to put up much of a
the odds were not in their favor; and
events have i)lainly shown that they do not do
The British private
soldier,
disciplined even to a fault.
on the other hand,
He
proved himself
l^rave
fanatic, to
knows
just
est
and
what
whom
lets
nor that
death in battle
is
the door
man
Avho
risks he is facing, not only of death
in
seen half a dozen of his clos-
agony
who goes up
of
unmentionable wounds
against the hissing rain of bul-
with his fellows falling
lump
whom resistof the Moham-
It is the valor of a
who has
comrades die
jêt
and he
with the courag-e of his race.
to highest hap})iness.
but of disease
courage of a bull-dog, to
ance and pain act as a tonic
medan
is
learned in a few
months' practice to shoot better than his foe
It is not the
so.
all
around him, with a
and a clutch
at his heart, but

yearning only to " get into them with the bayonet
in
his throat
or stands Ijehind a wall and keeps a host at bay, as
seven
men
And, as
if
at
Lindley held back a hundred Boers.
unable to conceal that such courage
is

part of liimself, there o-oes with
Tommy
nothing- can daunt.
action with a face
it
a cheerfulness that
Atkins does not
drawn down
ness of the sacrifice that he
is
191
g'o
into
with the conscious-
making- for his Queen
and country, or with any egotistical prayer that his

friends at liome
is.
may
realize
He went marching on
what a brave fellow he

over parched veldt and
past death-lined kopje with a never-faltering cheerfulness.
If
it
was
cold,
and, huddling around

voice,
he
it,
l)uilt
himself a bigger
told horrid tales in a
tire,
merry
and pretended to be warm when he wasn't.
If
was wet, with the water ankle-dee]i around him,

and fires were imjiossible, and only cold rations or
it
none
at all
ant-hill,
were procurable, he sat him down on an
gathered his legs up under him, and lustily
sang his part
Wave."
in the
And on
chorus to
"A
Life on the Ocean
the eve of battle he passed jests
with his comrades about "bloody business" and "a

bullet in the belly " on the
morrow. In
brief,
Tommy
Atkins and his officers in this Boer war have faced
death not with the jests of those who never
felt
wound, but as men who know both pain and fear and
scorn to yield
t(^
either.
And Europe, crouching
for
a spring-, after Avatchiug him for a while thought better of earlier purposes,
and Czar and Kaiser prudently
closed their doors in the faces of the Boer envoys, im-
pressed as was one of the Russian military attaches,
who
frankly said that neither his country nor any
THE
192
f'HASE OF
DE WET.
*
otlipr in
Europe had any troops
to niatcli tho British
soldier.
Sucli testimony, and the facts broui^-ht out by the
war, force one to seek in the character of
some
of
the British officers for the explanation of Eno-laud's
hands
earlier reverses at the
And
foe as the Boer.
hard to
tem
The
find.
mitted to such
it
there the explanation
is
not
and are
Ijeina',
discussed by
is well comLord Roberts and Lord Kitchwill be dulj' made plain Ij}' whose
and their correction
men
By them
ener.
faillt
such a contemptible
faults of the British military sys-
projierly will be,
military experts
of
as
preference was g-iven to infantry oA-er cavalry in
an open country like the South African veldt, and
what teaching-
it
was that led General
after
General
to hurl his forces in a frontal attack ag-aiust an en-
emy
that never
threatened.
would stand when
It is sufficient to
tem has been such as

worthy to
hold.
were
to enable officers utterly un-
rise to positions that
It is
his flanks
say here that the sys-
they were unfitted to
undoubtedly true of the British army, as
was
of that of the X'nited States at the l)eg"iuniug-
of the
Spanish war, and would be of any other, that
it
years of peace had enabled
many
officers to attain in
the natural course of promotion to high
who
could never have stood the test of
army
remained
in the
to have
i)roved that they
it
commands
war. They
simjily for lack of opportunity*
had not retained or never
THE MEN WHO FIGHT EXGLAXD's BATTLES.

possessed
a
tlie
But
necessary military qualifications.
more serious fact is that

and the system of
officers
that only those

ents
108
who
method of
training them
tlie
obtaining-
are such
orig-inally possess military tal-
those who, in other words, are
born solciers
seem enabled to develop into the highest t^pe of

commander. The others not only fail to progress;
they become more and more hampered by routine
and red tape, and

dead weight
finally
to be nothing but a
in the service.
The regular army,

recruits
grow
many
as has often been pointed out,
of its private
soldiers from s nne of
the worst classes in the towns and cities

the ne'er-do-well,
any other
calling,
it
often
who has failed to make his- way in

who takes the Queen's sliilj' ng, im-
pelled thereto by the martial strains of a re -ruitiug

sergeant's band,
But
it
by the sight
or
of ga}' u dforms.
has proved possible to lick him into shape
to
fashion him after a few jêars of training into as fine

a soldier as the Old AVorld can show.
cer gets no such training.
Too
The young
often he obtains his
commission solely through social influence.

of noble houses and
to look
they
may
who would
Scions
s])rigs of the aristocracy are
upon the army as the

exploit themselves
offi-
bred
which
special field in
and young sapheads
speedily be crowded out of any other field
of usefulness find in
some crack regiment
a congenial stamping ground.
of
guards
Esprit dc corps, which
194
one of the best things about
is
themselves as
they seldom
officers
to
fail
ways found
actual
it
they mean to demean
and g-entlemen should
is
sought for
often only
it
is
when the
war comes that the proofs which
g-ot rid of
al-
test of
justify dis-
old officer will have early foreseen that Major
be
But
not
Some shrewd
missal or retirement are forthcoming-.
This, or Captain the
and
and garrison routine.
ability is not
and
master the not over-abstrnse
details of barrack drill
where military
British army, g-en-
below a certain not too
erally prevents their falling-
high standard of behavior
tlie
Lord
Honorable Mayfair That cannot
too soon for the g-ood of the service
but the social influence that hedges him in proves a

barrier too strong- to be surmounted,
some stupid blunder
his place until
sults in the loss of half his
men, and
and he holds
in the field rejustifies his col-
onel or his brigadier in sending- him to the rear or
somewhere
in courage
He
else out of harm's way.

;
He
you seldom meet a coward
has not failed

in
any army.
has simply proved himself the densest kind of
fool,
capable as only such an order of blockhead
is
capable of iuvariabh' doing- the wrong thing at the

critical
They
moment.
are l)y no
British officer,
self to his
if
means
all
sometimes
that way.
The
less quick to
averag-e
adapt him-
surroundings, and to adopt instinctively
the coui'se of action which will prove most efficacious

against the particular foe with which he
is dealing-,
than the quick-witted, resourceful type found
American army, who

world over,
is
at his l)est is
in the
without a peer the
man
nevertheless a
195
possessed of the
best fighting- qualities, and possessed, alcove
all,
of
that fibre which forces him to take the very last
chance to prove that he
is
not yet beaten
to display
who
And even when he
that never-say-die spirit which those
conquer must never

to see, he
is
lose.
are to
is
slow
also slow to give in.
But scattered among them all, and holding every

rank, you will find the inefficient officer. Neither all,
as Bismarck put it, nor most of them are jackasses
but
in
South Africa you would meet
at least
one
in
The general title l)y which they

Tommy's picturesque if inelegant par-
almost every mess.
were known
in
Heroic
lance was "bloody fool."
made by Lord Kitchener and

patience with inefficiency to
could do
tlie least
harm
efforts
others
had
l)een
who had
nf)
post them where they
and towards the end of the
war you would meet them
in
any numbers only
in
unimportant or comparatively safe depots along the

lines of communications, or at
where
far
Cape Town or
else-
from the front; but almost every wliere
there were some of them lying about, and the records

of the various operations in South Africa are teem-
ing with illustrations of their capacity for getting
themselves and
tlieir
men
into trouble.
The worst
IOC)
of
was
it
tensive,
tliat
wliero the theatre of
war
avus so ex-
and so many troops were needed,
])OSsil)le for
was im-
it
the able g-euerals to dispense with
all
their incapable subordinates.
That corps
Duke
of Imperial
of Cambrido-e's
Yeomanry known
Own, and,
Millionaires," were gathered
as the
unofficially, as
"The
by De AVet outside
in
of
Lindley because their Colonel didn't know how to

select a tenable position nor
secure,
and because,
lacking-
how
to
make
it
more
good military judgment,
he sent word to Lord Methuen, advancing to his relief after
General Colville had declined to turn back,
that he could easily hold out for three days longer.
Lord Methuen timed his arrival accordingly but De

Wet brought up a couple of guns two days earlier,
;
and the Colonel surrendered
just that
time.
Lord Methuen arrived
lieve
and no captors to attack.
It
much ahead
of
to tind nf)b()dy to re-
was the knowledge that the General under
whom
he was serving had not the qualities to win victories

that dashed the hopes of further distinction of
an
officer
who had proved
tions, only to
the
command
table failures
be assigned after the

of
some
many
his worth, in earlier opera-
inefficient
crisis
was over to
General whose inevi-
were certain to rob his subordinates of
any further opportunities for distinction. Such a

case was that of Colonel Kekewitch, who so ably
conducted the defence of Kimberlev.
His task was
THE
who fight England's
:mex
Besides overseeiiio- the defences
not sim] )ly military.

of the toAvn
keep
197
p.attles.
and keeping'
Boers
tlie
at bay,
in order l)y tlie display of infinite tact
he had to
and cheer-
fulness a heterog-eneoiis population of which })ortions
were only too willing to find fault and to make harder
was
But
the task of the defenders.
still
relieved,
and his
after that
town
were crowned with the
efforts
success they deserved, he and his regiment, the Loyal

to
Lord Methuen's
and one sul)sequent chance
after another of
North Lancashires, were assigned

division,
further disting-uishing themselves was denied them.
Personalh^, Lord
Methuen
Cf)urteous gentlemen
ing- of
is
:
one of the most charm-
one's ideal of Avhat a
and breeding- oug-ht to
of blood
be.
But he
man
is
the
victim of a lately-developed constitutional weakness
which
in the
excitement of battle clouds clear fore-
sight and judgment and wêakens that grasp of the

situation
which a commander, to be successful, ought
always to have.
He
is
as careful and methodical a
transport officer as there
is in
the British army.
He
lost fewer animals, and, while keeping- his force at
the
to]!
notch of efficiency, got more out of them
any other commander of his rank.
tlian
But the
successful conduct of serious operations in the face

of the
enemy was beyond him,
as Magersfonteiu,
Modder
Piiver, and, later, the o])erations ag-ainst
Wet,
mention no others, proved.
to
have been
told,
on what
is
De
undoubtr'dly the best
198
Lord Metliueu personally was not
of Hutliority, that
to
blame
for the disaster at Magersfontein,
which
re-
sulted from the failure of one of his subordinates to
But many
carry out his orders.
me enough
to
make
Modder should not have been

was
that
and
it
yet remains to
Lord Methueu
of his officers told
plain that the battle of the
it
the disaster that
it
how it was
prevent De Wet from
l)e exi:)lained
failed to
successfully l)reakiug- across the Yaal on the 7th of
August, when he had a whole division to head
The
the Boer force of 3,000.
Wet accomplished
this
story
by sending
told that
is
six
off
De
empty wagons
upon which
with a corps of riflemen to one
drift,
Lord Methuen, taking the
hurled nearly his
whole
body
force,
of
thus leaving the way clear for the main
Boers to cross
The
to the east.
to be
proved
bait,
b\"
another
drift a
few miles
truth of this explanation remains
but
De Wet's
success must have been
due to some such ruse which

possible to circumvent.
it
ought to have been
But Lord Methuen was not
command, apparently because the Queen, Lord Wolseley, and his other influential friends at home knew him only for the knightly
recalled nor relieved of his
soldier that he
unaware
is,
.'<a?}speur et
.mns
7'ep/'oc/ie,
and were
of the existence of the infirmity that has
Lord Roberts
but went no further
of the countrv where
clouded his earlier-displaxêd talents.
noted his failures in the
field,
than to isolate him in a section
199
the cliauce of doing- brilliant work was almost less
than that of making- new blunders
which was so kind as
a course of action
to be cruel to the other officers
Lord Methueu's force. Among- other consequences

it gave De Wet the chance to say that while BadenPowell mig'lit catch him in one month and French in
two, Methuen never could, and to make good his
words by marching- all his guns and convoy around
of
Lord Methuen's front that night he broke away from

Kitchener and Broadwood and Ridley on the Yaal,
displaying- that same knowledge of the weakness in
his enemy's armor which had enabled him to elude
Paget and Clements south of Bethlehem three weeks
before.
Another General, lower

l)ut
in
rank than Lord Methuen
with opportunities for endless mischief which he
was never slow to improve, was Hart, who began

service under Buller in Natal, where he gained the
name
of being one of the
of that campaign.
most conspicuous
Of Hart
it
is
failures
related that after
which his forces
one particularly disastrous day,
in
had suffered heavily, a private
whom
the General
passed after the action was over, called out to him in

the bitterness of his heart that he had murdered his
regiment.
The court-martial
that tried the
man
sen-
tenced him to one day's confinement in the guardtent,
sufficiently clear
reflection
of the general
opinion as to wliat that particular l)rigadier's capaci-
200
ties were.
It
was
sucli qualities wliicli broiiofht
the abaudoumeut of
themselves had deserted the

iu the faihire to
Kop
Spion
make
after
about
the Boers
aud which resulted

more attack at Storm-
field,
that one
berg which the Boers were expectiu"-, which, as

themselves suljsequently ackuowledg-ed,
thej'
tlie}^
had de-
cided not to withstand, and which would have chaug-ed

the rout into a victory.
Another "regrettable incident" which ought not

to have occurred
men
of the
Kopjes Station,
disaster
was the capture
of 500 officers
iu the
Orange Eiver Colony.
was due entirely to ignorance and
on the part
for their
and
Derbyshire Militia on the railwaj' near
of the officers responsible.
camp
This
inefficiency
They selected
a spot in an open, level plain, at the
foot of a high kopje, on
which they posted a single
picket, leaving other kopjes within range
un watched
aud, without entrenching or taking any other precautions, the
command, which was just out from

to sleep. With daylight next morn-
home, lay down
ing they were fired on.
There
is
a tale to the effect
that the Sergeant of the picket came tAvice early that
morning
to his
commanding
officer to report suspi-
cious signs in the neighborhood of the camp, only to
be told on the
first
occasion that he was dreaming
and on the second that

fool reports he
may
would be
be, the picket
if
he made any more such
disciplined.
However
that
was shortly afterwards driven
in

and
altliougli the militiamen, called to
their couches,
made a splendid stand
thousand Boers and
tlu*ee
201
arms from
ag-aiust three
guns, losing- 35 killed and
102 wounded, they were hopelessly penned in and in

the end had no recourse but to yield.
Similarly regrettable wâs the cutting
up outside
of
Lindley of a four-gun section of the 38th Field Battery,

fifty
which
men
lost all its officers
killed or
wounded.
and seventeen out of
It is an
axiom
in battle
that guns shall not go into action without an escort.
In this case the escort was furnished by 150

the Imperial Yeomanry.
officer
commanding
this escort discharge
that a large force of Boers
unseen through a mealie

of the guns.
were
of
was permitted
field to
duty
his
to creep
within fifteen yards
Tavo of the three officers of the battery
killed, the
and one
men
Yet so carelessly did the
of the
other being twice severely wounded,
guns was captured, to be recovered
only by brilliant work by a force of Australian bush-
men, who charged down from the rear and drove
off
the Boers with severe loss.
In the same neighborhood a few days before oc-
curred an incident which shows
how Tommy, given
the chance, can redeem almost any folly of his officers.
A picket
of twenty-five
men
of the Yorkshire
Light
Infantry outside of Lindley was surprised by one
hundred Boers who, dressed

tlius
found the chance to
in British uniform,
sret
had
within a few hundred
202
Wlieii they
yards.
tance,
tlie
men
opened
that deadly dis-
fire at
saw they were
of tlie picket
lost unless
The only way

commuuicatiuo- with the town was by means of a
reinforcements were
of
heliog-raph,
Boer
to the
at
once obtained.
which stood
lire,
in the open, fully
exposed
and twenty yards away from the wall
behind which the picket had taken cover.
Ward
volunteered to go out and
Private
sig-nal for aid,
obtained the necessary permission.
and
Dashing out into
lire, he reached the instrument, stood bj"

long enough to flash the signal, " If help is not
the zone of
it
we
sent at once
shall
ran back for cover.
have to surrender," and then
He was
before he reached the wall
hit l)y a
:
it
Boer bullet
just
would have been a
But he had accomplished

The 38th
Battery galloped the two miles out from town to find
miracle
his
if
he hadn't been.
purpose and won the Victoria Cross.
seven survivors of the twenty-five
Boers
It is
still
indomitable spirit such as this which makes
the rank and
file
of the British
army what
which has saved many a situation that by

of
holding the
at l)ay.
war was
lost.
It is a spirit
which
all
it is,
and
the laws
Tommy
Atkins
learns from most of his officers, and which very few
even of the
is
"
bloody fools " do not possess.
And it
much
the spirit that Americans should glory in as
as Englishmen, for
it is
born in the blood and bred
"

ill
the boue of the race to which
is
the spirit of
we both
203
Ijelou"-.
men
"All bound to sing
o'
the
little
All bound to fight for the
With the weight
things
little
of a six-fold
The End.
we
things
care about,
we
blow
care about
!
It
PLEASE
CARDS OR
SLIPS
UNIVERSITY
DT
932
H68
DO NOT REMOVE
FROM
THIS
POCKET
OF TORONTO LIBRARY
Rowland, Frederick Hoppin

The chase of De Wet and
other later phases of the
Boer war as seen by an
American correspondent
LLj;
\o\
en

Chaseofdewetothe 00 Howl

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FREDERICK HOPPIN HOWLAND

THE CHASE OE DE WET.

Digitized by the Internet Archive

2010 with funding from

THE CHA8E OF DE WET

OTHER LATER PHASES OF THE BOER WAR

FREDERICK HOPPIN ROWLAND

AND THE PROVIDENCE JOLRXAL

PRESTON AND ROUNDS COMPANY

Fredeuick Hoppin Howlanu.

the Solent to Table

The Censor at Jiloemfontein,

Seeking the Elusive Front,

>ut for the Front,

The Relief of Yryburg,

Invading the Transvaal

Incidents of the Marcli,

Peace-Making with Lord

Lessons of the Chase,

Seeking Lord ]\Iethuen,

The Men Who Fight England's

The good ship " Scot," still, I believe, holder of the

outward voyage from England, on the nnjrning of

seventeen days out from

one who loves the sea can re-

gret an hour spent in those jileasant waters that

between Cape Finisterre and the Cape

garden spot, sunning

smilingly in the lovely

summer sea, and had spent a few boisterous hours

palanquins drawn by diminutive bullocks and rest-

ing on primitive runners, in deference to the local

Portuguese prejudice against wheels.

awe next day

the afternoon did

sheer out of the sea

to its majestic height of 12,000 feet.

shaped due south to round

AVe caught our

the dawn, and not until late in

flash its last greeting to us

as the ship cleaved her

placid Avay through the tropics and across the line,

THE CHASE OF DE WET.

our faces caressed

the soft aud constant trade

winds, we leaned for hours

the dolphins lazily tumhlino- over the

and the tiny

them the most

monsters of the deep that they spend their

skimming- away from the

sides of the great ship, to

company were such

voyaging out to South Africa

The British army,

that year of grace.

to retrieve the disasters suffered

under Methuen and

Gatacre and Buller, was represented on board by

Avay from India via

to join his regiment at