A Force Of
Boers Was Met And Defeated, While The Defenders Of The Hill Were
Driven Off With Considerable Loss.
In this well-managed affair the
enemy lost at least a hundred, of whom fifty were prisoners.
On
Friday, February 23rd, another attempt at rescue was made from the
south, but again it ended disastrously for the Boers. A party
attacked a kopje held by the Yorkshire regiment and were blown back
by a volley, upon which they made for a second kopje, where the
Buffs gave them an even rougher reception. Eighty prisoners were
marched in. Meantime hardly a night passed that some of the Boers
did not escape from their laager and give themselves up to our
pickets. At the end of the week we had taken six hundred in all.
In the meantime the cordon was being drawn ever tighter, and the
fire became heavier and more deadly, while the conditions of life
in that fearful place were such that the stench alone might have
compelled surrender. Amid the crash of tropical thunderstorms, the
glare of lightning, and the furious thrashing of rain there was no
relaxation of British vigilance. A balloon floating overhead
directed the fire, which from day to day became more furious,
culminating on the 26th with the arrival of four 5-inch howitzers.
But still there came no sign from the fierce Boer and his gallant
followers. Buried deep within burrows in the river bank the greater
part of them lay safe from the shells, but the rattle of their
musketry when the outposts moved showed that the trenches were as
alert as ever.
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