A Few Burghers Slipped Away In Twos And Threes, But The Main
Body Found That They Had Rushed Into A Prison From Which The Only
Egress Was Swept With Rifle Fire.
At seven o'clock in the evening
they recognised that their position was hopeless, and Eloff with
117 men laid down their arms.
Their losses had been ten killed and
nineteen wounded. For some reason, either of lethargy, cowardice,
or treachery, Snyman had not brought up the supports which might
conceivably have altered the result. It was a gallant attack
gallantly met, and for once the greater wiliness in fight was shown
by the British. The end was characteristic. 'Good evening,
Commandant,' said Powell to Eloff; 'won't you come in and have some
dinner?' The prisoners - burghers, Hollanders, Germans, and
Frenchmen - were treated to as good a supper as the destitute
larders of the town could furnish.
So in a small blaze of glory ended the historic siege of Mafeking,
for Eloff's attack was the last, though by no means the worst of
the trials which the garrison had to face. Six killed and ten
wounded were the British losses in this admirably managed affair.
On May 17th, five days after the fight, the relieving force
arrived, the besiegers were scattered, and the long-imprisoned
garrison were free men once more. Many who had looked at their maps
and saw this post isolated in the very heart of Africa had
despaired of ever reaching their heroic fellow-countrymen, and now
one universal outbreak of joybells and bonfires from Toronto to
Melbourne proclaimed that there is no spot so inaccessible that the
long arm of the empire cannot reach it when her children are in
peril.
Colonel Mahon, a young Irish officer who had made his reputation as
a cavalry leader in Egypt, had started early in May from Kimberley
with a small but mobile force consisting of the Imperial Light
Horse (brought round from Natal for the purpose), the Kimberley
Mounted Corps, the Diamond Fields Horse, some Imperial Yeomanry, a
detachment of the Cape Police, and 100 volunteers from the Fusilier
brigade, with M battery R.H.A. and pom-poms, twelve hundred men in
all. Whilst Hunter was fighting his action at Rooidam on May 4th,
Mahon with his men struck round the western flank of the Boers and
moved rapidly to the northwards. On May 11th they had left Vryburg,
the halfway house, behind them, having done one hundred and twenty
miles in five days. They pushed on, encountering no opposition save
that of nature, though they knew that they were being closely
watched by the enemy. At Koodoosrand it was found that a Boer force
was in position in front, but Mahon avoided them by turning
somewhat to the westward. His detour took him, however, into a
bushy country, and here the enemy headed him off, opening fire at
short range upon the ubiquitous Imperial Light Horse, who led the
column. A short engagement ensued, in which the casualties amounted
to thirty killed and wounded, but which ended in the defeat and
dispersal of the Boers, whose force was certainly very much weaker
than the British.
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