Under Compulsion From Their Irreconcilable Countrymen, A
Large Number Of The Farmers Broke Their Parole, Mounted The Horses
Which British Leniency Had Left With Them, And Threw Themselves
Once More Into The Struggle, Adding Their Honour To The Other
Sacrifices Which They Had Made For Their Country.
In any account of
the continual brushes between these scattered bands and the British
forces, there must be such a similarity in procedure and result,
that it would be hard for the writer and intolerable for the reader
if they were set forth in detail.
As a general statement it may be
said that during the months to come there was no British garrison
in any one of the numerous posts in the Transvaal, and in that
portion of the Orange River Colony which lies east of the railway,
which was not surrounded by prowling riflemen, there was no convoy
sent to supply those garrisons which was not liable to be attacked
upon the road, and there was no train upon any one of the three
lines which might not find a rail up and a hundred raiders covering
it with their Mausers. With some two thousand miles of railroad to
guard, so many garrisons to provide, and an escort to be furnished
to every convoy, there remained out of the large body of British
troops in the country only a moderate force who were available for
actual operations. This force was distributed in different
districts scattered over a wide extent of country, and it was
evident that while each was strong enough to suppress local
resistance, still at any moment a concentration of the Boer
scattered forces upon a single British column might place the
latter in a serious position.
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