A Fund Was Started In London
To Give Additional Comforts To These People, Though There Is Reason
To Believe That Their General Condition Was Superior To That Of The
Uitlander Refugees, Who Still Waited Permission To Return To Their
Homes.
By the end of July there were no fewer than sixty thousand
inmates of the camps in the Transvaal alone, and half as many in
the Orange River Colony.
So great was the difficulty in providing
the supplies for so large a number that it became more and more
evident that some at least of the camps must be moved down to the
sea coast.
Passing to the Orange River Colony we find that during this winter
period the same British tactics had been met by the same constant
evasions on the part of the dwindling commandos. The Colony had
been divided into four military districts: that of Bloemfontein,
which was given to Charles Knox, that of Lyttelton at
Springfontein, that of Rundle at Harrismith, and that of Elliot in
the north. The latter was infinitely the most important, and
Elliot, the warden of the northern marches, had under him during
the greater part of the winter a mobile force of about 6000 men,
commanded by such experienced officers as Broadwood, De Lisle, and
Bethune. Later in the year Spens, Bullock, Plumer, and Rimington
were all sent into the Orange River Colony to help to stamp out the
resistance. Numerous skirmishes and snipings were reported from all
parts of the country, but a constant stream of prisoners and of
surrenders assured the soldiers that, in spite of the difficulty of
the country and the obstinacy of the enemy, the term of their
labours was rapidly approaching.
In all the petty and yet necessary operations of these columns, two
incidents demand more than a mere mention. The first was a
hard-fought skirmish in which some of Elliot's horsemen were
engaged upon June 6th. His column had trekked during the month of
May from Kroonstad to Harrismith, and then turning north found
itself upon that date near the hamlet of Reitz. Major Sladen with
200 Mounted Infantry, when detached from the main body, came upon
the track of a Boer convoy and ran it down. Over a hundred vehicles
with forty-five prisoners were the fruits of their enterprise. Well
satisfied with his morning's work, the British leader despatched a
party of his men to convey the news to De Lisle, who was behind,
while he established himself with his loot and his prisoners in a
convenient kraal. Thence they had an excellent view of a large body
of horsemen approaching them with scouts, flankers, and all
military precautions. One warm-hearted officer seems actually to
have sallied out to meet his comrades, and it was not till his
greeting of them took the extreme form of handing over his rifle
that the suspicion of danger entered the heads of his companions.
But if there was some lack of wit there was none of heart in Sladen
and his men.
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