The Loss Of The Boers Is Exceedingly
Difficult To Gauge, As They Throughout The War Took The Utmost
Pains To Conceal It.
The number of desperate and long-drawn actions
which have ended, according to the official Pretorian account, in a
Loss of one wounded burgher may in some way be better policy, but
does not imply a higher standard of public virtue, than those long
lists which have saddened our hearts in the halls of the War
Office. What is certain is that the loss at Modder River could not
have been far inferior to our own, and that it arose almost
entirely from artillery fire, since at no time of the action were
any large number of their riflemen visible. So it ended, this long
pelting match, Cronje sullenly withdrawing under the cover of
darkness with his resolute heart filled with fierce determination
for the future, while the British soldiers threw themselves down on
the ground which they occupied and slept the sleep of exhaustion.
CHAPTER 9.
BATTLE OF MAGERSFONTEIN.
Lord Methuen's force had now fought three actions in the space of a
single week, losing in killed and wounded about a thousand men, or
rather more than one-tenth of its total numbers. Had there been
evidence that the enemy were seriously demoralised, the General
would no doubt have pushed on at once to Kimberley, which was some
twenty miles distant. The information which reached him was,
however, that the Boers had fallen back upon the very strong
position of Spytfontein, that they were full of fight, and that
they had been strongly reinforced by a commando from Mafeking.
Under these circumstances Lord Methuen had no choice but to give
his men a well-earned rest, and to await reinforcements.
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