Already Wild
Figures, Stained And Tattered After Nearly A Year Of Warfare, Were
Walking The Streets Of Lourenco Marques, Gazed At With Wonder And
Some Distrust By The Portuguese Inhabitants.
The exiled burghers
moodily pacing the streets saw their exiled President seated in his
corner of the Governor's verandah, the well-known curved pipe still
dangling from his mouth, the Bible by his chair.
Day by day the
number of these refugees increased. On September 17th special
trains were arriving crammed with the homeless burghers, and with
the mercenaries of many nations - French, German, Irish-American,
and Russian - all anxious to make their way home. By the 19th no
fewer than seven hundred had passed over.
At dawn on September 22nd a half-hearted attempt was made by the
commando of Erasmus to attack Elands River Station, but it was
beaten back by the garrison. While it was going on Paget fell upon
the camp which Erasmus had left behind him, and captured his
stores. From all over the country, from Plumer's Bushmen, from
Barton at Krugersdorp, from the Colonials at Heilbron, from
Clements on the west, came the same reports of dwindling resistance
and of the abandoning of cattle, arms, and ammunition.
On September 24th came the last chapter in this phase of the
campaign in the Eastern Transvaal, when at eight in the morning
Pole-Carew and his Guardsmen occupied Komatipoort. They had made
desperate marches, one of them through thick bush, where they went
for nineteen miles without water, but nothing could shake the
cheery gallantry of the men. To them fell the honour, an honour
well deserved by their splendid work throughout the whole campaign,
of entering and occupying the ultimate eastern point which the
Boers could hold. Resistance had been threatened and prepared for,
but the grim silent advance of that veteran infantry took the heart
out of the defence. With hardly a shot fired the town was occupied.
The bridge which would enable the troops to receive their supplies
from Lourenco Marques was still intact. General Pienaar and the
greater part of his force, amounting to over two thousand men, had
crossed the frontier and had been taken down to Delagoa Bay, where
they met the respect and attention which brave men in misfortune
deserve. Small bands had slipped away to the north and the south,
but they were insignificant in numbers and depressed in spirit. For
the time it seemed that the campaign was over, but the result
showed that there was greater vitality in the resistance of the
burghers and less validity in their oaths than any one had
imagined.
One find of the utmost importance was made at Komatipoort, and at
Hector Spruit on the Crocodile River. That excellent artillery
which had fought so gallant a fight against our own more numerous
guns, was found destroyed and abandoned. Pole-Carew at Komatipoort
got one Long Tom (96-pound) Creusot, and one smaller gun. Ian
Hamilton at Hector Spruit found the remains of many guns, which
included two of our horse artillery twelve-pounders, two large
Creusot guns, two Krupps, one Vickers-Maxim quick firer, two
pompoms and four mountain guns.
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