It Is Said
That 700 Yards Separated The Four Pickets.
With that fine eye for
detail which the Boer leaders possess, they had started a veld fire
upon the west of the camp and then attacked from the east, so that
they were themselves invisible while their enemies were silhouetted
against the light.
Creeping up between the pickets, the Boers were
not seen until they opened fire at point-blank range upon the
sleeping men. The rifles were stacked - another noxious military
tradition - and many of the troopers were shot down while they
rushed for their weapons. Surprised out of their sleep and unable
to distinguish their antagonists, the brave Australians did as well
as any troops could have done who were placed in so impossible a
position. Captain Watson, the officer in charge of the pom-poms,
was shot down, and it proved to be impossible to bring the guns
into action. Within five minutes the Victorians had lost twenty
killed and forty wounded, when the survivors surrendered. It is
pleasant to add that they were very well treated by the victors,
but the high-spirited colonials felt their reverse most bitterly.
'It is the worst thing that ever happened to Australia!' says one
in the letter in which he describes it. The actual number of Boers
who rushed the camp was only 180, but 400 more had formed a cordon
round it. To Viljoen and his lieutenant Muller great credit must be
given for this well-managed affair, which gave them a fresh supply
of stores and clothing at a time when they were hard pressed for
both. These same Boer officers had led the attack upon Helvetia
where the 4.7 gun was taken. The victors succeeded in getting away
with all their trophies, and having temporarily taken one of the
blockhouses on the railway near Brugspruit, they crossed the line
in safety and returned, as already said, to their old quarters in
the north, which had been harried but not denuded by the operations
of General Blood.
It would take a volume to catalogue, and a library to entirely
describe the movements and doings of the very large number of
British columns which operated over the Transvaal and the Orange
River Colony during this cold-weather campaign. If the same columns
and the same leaders were consistently working in the same
districts, some system of narrative might enable the reader to
follow their fortunes, but they were, as a matter of fact, rapidly
transferred from one side of the field of action to another in
accordance with the concentrations of the enemy. The total number
of columns amounted to at least sixty, which varied in number from
two hundred to two thousand, and seldom hunted alone. Could their
movements be marked in red upon a chart, the whole of that huge
district would be criss-crossed, from Taungs to Komati and from
Touws River to Pietersburg, with the track of our weary but
indomitable soldiers.
Without attempting to enter into details which would be unbecoming
to the modesty of a single volume, one may indicate what the other
more important groupings were during the course of these months,
and which were the columns that took part in them. Of French's
drive in the south-east, and of Blood's incursion into the
Roos-Senekal district some account has been given, and of his
subsequent sweeping of the south. At the same period Babington,
Dixon, and Rawlinson were co-operating in the Klerksdorp district,
though the former officer transferred his services suddenly to
Blood's combination, and afterwards to Elliot's column in the north
of Orange River Colony. Williams and Fetherstonhaugh came later to
strengthen this Klerksdorp district, in which, after the clearing
of the Magaliesberg, De la Rey had united his forces to those of
Smuts. This very important work of getting a firm hold upon the
Magaliesberg was accomplished in July by Barton, Allenby, Kekewich,
and Lord Basing, who penetrated into the wild country and
established blockhouses and small forts in very much the same way
as Cumberland and Wade in 1746 held down the Highlands. The British
position was much strengthened by the firm grip obtained of this
formidable stronghold of the enemy, which was dangerous not only on
account of its extreme strength, but also of its proximity to the
centres of population and of wealth.
De la Rey, as already stated, had gone down to the Klerksdorp
district, whence, for a time at least, he seems to have passed over
into the north of the Orange River Colony. The British pressure at
Klerksdorp had become severe, and thither in May came the
indefatigable Methuen, whom we last traced to Warrenton. From this
point on May 1st he railed his troops to Mafeking, whence he
trekked to Lichtenburg, and south as far as his old fighting ground
of Haartebeestefontein, having one skirmish upon the way and
capturing a Boer gun. Thence he returned to Mafeking, where he had
to bid adieu to those veteran Yeomanry who had been his comrades on
so many a weary march. It was not their fortune to be present at
any of the larger battles of the war, but few bodies of troops have
returned to England with a finer record of hard and useful service.
No sooner, however, had Methuen laid down one weapon than he
snatched up another. Having refitted his men and collected some of
the more efficient of the new Yeomanry, he was off once more for a
three weeks' circular tour in the direction of Zeerust. It is
difficult to believe that the oldest inhabitant could have known
more of the western side of the Transvaal, for there was hardly a
track which he had not traversed or a kopje from which he had not
been sniped. Early in August he had made a fresh start from
Mafeking, dividing his force into two columns, the command of the
second being given to Von Donop.
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