During the course of the war some sixteen Editions of this work
have appeared, each of which was, I hope, a little more full and
accurate than that which preceded it.
I may fairly claim, however,
that the absolute mistakes made have been few in number, and that I
have never had occasion to reverse, and seldom to modify, the
judgments which I have formed. In this final edition the early text
has been carefully revised and all fresh available knowledge has
been added within the limits of a single volume narrative. Of the
various episodes in the latter half of the war it is impossible to
say that the material is available for a complete and final
chronicle. By the aid, however, of the official dispatches, of the
newspapers, and of many private letters, I have done my best to
give an intelligible and accurate account of the matter. The
treatment may occasionally seem too brief but some proportion must
be observed between the battles of 1899-1900 and the skirmishes of
1901-1902.
My private informants are so numerous that it would be hardly
possible, even if it were desirable, that I should quote their
names. Of the correspondents upon whose work I have drawn for my
materials, I would acknowledge my obligations to Messrs. Burleigh,
Nevinson, Battersby, Stuart, Amery, Atkins, Baillie, Kinneir,
Churchill, James, Ralph, Barnes, Maxwell, Pearce, Hamilton, and
others. Especially I would mention the gentleman who represented
the 'Standard' in the last year of the war, whose accounts of
Vlakfontein, Von Donop's Convoy, and Tweebosch were the only
reliable ones which reached the public.
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