At this point are the waterworks, erected
recently with modern machinery, to take the place of the insanitary
wells on which the town had been dependent. The force met with no
resistance, and the small town of Thabanchu was occupied.
Colonel Pilcher, the leader of the Douglas raid, was inclined to
explore a little further, and with three squadrons of mounted men
he rode on to the eastward. Two commandos, supposed to be Grobler's
and Olivier's, were seen by them, moving on a line which suggested
that they were going to join Steyn, who was known to be rallying
his forces at Kroonstad, his new seat of government in the north of
the Free State. Pilcher, with great daring, pushed onwards until
with his little band on their tired horses he found himself in
Ladybrand, thirty miles from his nearest supports. Entering the
town he seized the landdrost and the field-cornet, but found that
strong bodies of the enemy were moving upon him and that it was
impossible for him to hold the place. He retired, therefore,
holding grimly on to his prisoners, and got back with small loss to
the place from which he started. It was a dashing piece of bluff,
and, when taken with the Douglas exploit, leads one to hope that
Pilcher may have a chance of showing what he can do with larger
means at his disposal. Finding that the enemy was following him in
force, he pushed on the same night for Thabanchu. His horsemen must
have covered between fifty and sixty miles in the twenty-four
hours.
Apparently the effect of Pilcher's exploit was to halt the march of
those commandos which had been seen trekking to the north-west, and
to cause them to swing round upon Thabanchu. Broadwood, a young
cavalry commander who had won a name in Egypt, considered that his
position was unnecessarily exposed and fell back upon Bloemfontein.
He halted on the first night near the waterworks, halfway upon his
journey.
The Boers are great masters in the ambuscade. Never has any race
shown such aptitude for this form of warfare - a legacy from a long
succession of contests with cunning savages. But never also have
they done anything so clever and so audacious as De Wet's
dispositions in this action. One cannot go over the ground without
being amazed at the ingenuity of their attack, and also at the luck
which favoured them, for the trap which they had laid for others
might easily have proved an absolutely fatal one for themselves.
The position beside the Modder at which the British camped had
numerous broken hills to the north and east of it. A force of
Boers, supposed to number about two thousand men, came down in the
night, bringing with them several heavy guns, and with the early
morning opened a brisk fire upon the camp.
