The Boer Force Was Now So Scattered That, In Spite Of The Advent Of
Hertzog, De Wet Had Fewer Men With Him Than When He Entered The
Colony.
Several hundreds had been taken prisoners, many had
deserted, and a few had been killed.
It was hoped now that the
whole force might be captured, and Thorneycroft's, Crabbe's,
Henniker's, and other columns were closing swiftly in upon him,
while the swollen river still barred his retreat. There was a
sudden drop in the flood, however; one ford became passable, and
over it, upon the last day of February, De Wet and his bedraggled,
dispirited commando escaped to their own country. There was still a
sting in his tail, however; for upon that very day a portion of his
force succeeded in capturing sixty and killing or wounding twenty
of Colenbrander's new regiment, Kitchener's Fighting Scouts. On the
other hand, De Wet was finally relieved upon the same day of all
care upon the score of his guns, as the last of them was most
gallantly captured by Captain Dallimore and fifteen Victorians, who
at the same time brought in thirty-three Boer prisoners. The net
result of De Wet's invasion was that he gained nothing, and that he
lost about four thousand horses, all his guns, all his convoy, and
some three hundred of his men.
Once safely in his own country again, the guerilla chief pursued
his way northwards with his usual celerity and success. The moment
that it was certain that De Wet had escaped, the indefatigable
Plumer, wiry, tenacious man, had been sent off by train to
Springfontein, while Bethune's column followed direct. This latter
force crossed the Orange River bridge and marched upon Luckhoff and
Fauresmith. At the latter town they overtook Plumer, who was again
hard upon the heels of De Wet. Together they ran him across the
Riet River and north to Petrusburg, until they gave it up as
hopeless upon finding that, with only fifty followers, he had
crossed the Modder River at Abram's Kraal. There they abandoned the
chase and fell back upon Bloemfontein to refit and prepare for a
fresh effort to run down their elusive enemy.
While Plumer and Bethune were following upon the track of De Wet
until he left them behind at the Modder, Lyttelton was using the
numerous columns which were ready to his hand in effecting a drive
up the south-eastern section of the Orange River Colony. It was
disheartening to remember that all this large stretch of country
had from April to November been as peaceful and almost as
prosperous as Kent or Yorkshire. Now the intrusion of the guerilla
bands, and the pressure put by them upon the farmers, had raised
the whole country once again, and the work of pacification had to
be set about once more, with harsher measures than before. A
continuous barrier of barbed-wire fencing had been erected from
Bloemfontein to the Basuto border, a distance of eighty miles, and
this was now strongly held by British posts.
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