Here
He Was Joined By Hertzog's Commando With A Number Of Invaluable
Spare Horses.
It is said also that he had been able to get remounts
in the Hopetown district, which had not
Been cleared - an omission
for which, it is to be hoped, someone has been held responsible.
The Boer ponies, used to the succulent grasses of the veld, could
make nothing of the rank Karoo, and had so fallen away that an
enormous advantage should have rested with the pursuers had ill
luck and bad management not combined to enable the invaders to
renew their mobility at the very moment when Plumer's horses were
dropping dead under their riders.
The Boer force was now so scattered that, in spite of the advent of
Hertzog, De Wet had fewer men with him than when he entered the
Colony. Several hundreds had been taken prisoners, many had
deserted, and a few had been killed. It was hoped now that the
whole force might be captured, and Thorneycroft's, Crabbe's,
Henniker's, and other columns were closing swiftly in upon him,
while the swollen river still barred his retreat. There was a
sudden drop in the flood, however; one ford became passable, and
over it, upon the last day of February, De Wet and his bedraggled,
dispirited commando escaped to their own country. There was still a
sting in his tail, however; for upon that very day a portion of his
force succeeded in capturing sixty and killing or wounding twenty
of Colenbrander's new regiment, Kitchener's Fighting Scouts.
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