On December
13th, this, the second great chase after De Wet, may be said to
have closed.
CHAPTER 31.
THE GUERILLA WARFARE IN THE TRANSVAAL: NOOITGEDACHT.
Leaving De Wet in the Ficksburg mountains, where he lurked until
after the opening of the New Year, the story of the scattered
operations in the Transvaal may now be carried down to the same
point - a story comprising many skirmishes and one considerable
engagement, but so devoid of any central thread that it is
difficult to know how to approach it. From Lichtenburg to Komati, a
distance of four hundred miles, there was sporadic warfare
everywhere, attacks upon scattered posts, usually beaten off but
occasionally successful, attacks upon convoys, attacks upon railway
trains, attacks upon anything and everything which could harass the
invaders. Each General in his own district had his own work of
repression to perform, and so we had best trace the doings of each
up to the end of the year 1900.
Lord Methuen after his pursuit of De Wet in August had gone to
Mafeking to refit. From that point, with a force which contained a
large proportion of yeomanry and of Australian bushmen, he
conducted a long series of operations in the difficult and
important district which lies between Rustenburg, Lichtenburg, and
Zeerust.
