On This Occasion A Working Party
Of Them Was Suddenly Attacked, And Most Of Them Taken Prisoners.
Major Fisher, Who Commanded The Pioneers, Was Killed, And Three
Other Officers With Several Men Were Wounded.
Colonel Rimington's
column appeared upon the scene, however, and drove off the Boers,
who left their leader, Buys, a wounded prisoner in our hands.
The second action was a sharp attack delivered by Muller's Boers
upon Colonel Park's column on the night of December 19th, at
Elandspruit. The fight was sharp while it lasted, but it ended in
the repulse of the assailants. The British casualties were six
killed and twenty-four wounded. The Boers, who left eight dead
behind them, suffered probably to about the same extent.
Already the most striking and pleasing feature in the Transvaal was
the tranquillity of its central provinces, and the way in which the
population was settling down to its old avocations. Pretoria had
resumed its normal quiet life, while its larger and more energetic
neighbour was rapidly recovering from its two years of paralysis.
Every week more stamps were dropped in the mines, and from month to
month a steady increase in the output showed that the great staple
industry of the place would soon be as vigorous as ever. Most
pleasing of all was the restoration of safety upon the railway
lines, which, save for some precautions at night, had resumed their
normal traffic. When the observer took his eyes from the dark
clouds which shadowed every horizon, he could not but rejoice at
the ever-widening central stretch of peaceful blue which told that
the storm was nearing its end.
Having now dealt with the campaign in the Transvaal down to the end
of 1901, it only remains to bring the chronicle of the events in
the Orange River Colony down to the same date. Reference has
already been made to two small British reverses which occurred in
September, the loss of two guns to the south of the Waterworks near
Bloemfontein, and the surprise of the camp of Lord Lovat's Scouts.
There were some indications at this time that a movement had been
planned through the passes of the Drakensberg by a small Free State
force which should aid Louis Botha's invasion of Natal. The main
movement was checked, however, and the demonstration in aid of it
came to nothing.
The blockhouse system had been developed to a very complete extent
in the Orange River Colony, and the small bands of Boers found it
increasingly difficult to escape from the British columns who were
for ever at their heels. The southern portion of the country had
been cut off from the northern by a line which extended through
Bloemfontein on the east to the Basuto frontier, and on the west to
Jacobsdal. To the south of this line the Boer resistance had
practically ceased, although several columns moved continually
through it, and gleaned up the broken fragments of the commandos.
The north-west had also settled down to a large extent, and during
the last three months of 1901 no action of importance occurred in
that region.
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