Moving In A Very Loose Formation Over A Wide
Front, The Boers Swept Southwards.
On or about January 4th they
took possession of the small town of Calvinia, which remained their
headquarters for more than a month.
From this point their roving
bands made their way as far as the seacoast in the Clanwilliam
direction, for they expected at Lambert's Bay to meet with a vessel
with mercenaries and guns from Europe. They pushed their outposts
also as far as Sutherland and Beaufort West in the south. On
January 15th strange horsemen were seen hovering about the line at
Touws River, and the citizens of Cape Town learned with amazement
that the war had been carried to within a hundred miles of their
own doors.
Whilst the Boers were making this daring raid a force consisting of
several mobile columns was being organised by General Settle to
arrest and finally to repel the western invasion. The larger body
was under the command of Colonel De Lisle, an officer who brought
to the operations of war the same energy and thoroughness with
which he had made the polo team of an infantry regiment the
champions of the whole British Army. His troops consisted of the
6th Mounted Infantry, the New South Wales Mounted Infantry, the
Irish Yeomanry, a section of R battery R.H.A., and a pom-pom. With
this small but mobile and hardy force he threw himself in front of
Hertzog's line of advance. On January 13th he occupied Piquetburg,
eighty miles south of the Boer headquarters.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 651 of 842
Words from 174179 to 174437
of 225456
