The Chase During Two Years Of The Man With Two Horses
By The Man With One Horse, Has Been A Sight Painful To Ourselves
And Ludicrous To Others.
In connection with this account of operations within the Colony,
there is one episode which occurred in the extreme north-west which
will not fit in with this connected narrative, but which will
justify the distraction of the reader's intelligence, for few finer
deeds of arms are recorded in the war.
This was the heroic defence
of a convoy by the 14th Company of Irish Imperial Yeomanry. The
convoy was taking food to Griquatown, on the Kimberley side of the
seat of war. The town had been long invested by Conroy, and the
inhabitants were in such straits that it was highly necessary to
relieve them. To this end a convoy, two miles long, was despatched
under Major Humby of the Irish Yeomanry. The escort consisted of
seventy-five Northumberland Fusiliers, twenty-four local troops,
and 100 of the 74th Irish Yeomanry. Fifteen miles from Griquatown,
at a place called Rooikopjes, the convoy was attacked by the enemy
several hundred in number. Two companies of the Irishmen seized the
ridge, however, which commanded the wagons, and held it until they
were almost exterminated. The position was covered with bush, and
the two parties came to the closest of quarters, the Yeomen
refusing to take a backward step, though it was clear that they
were vastly outnumbered. Encouraged by the example of Madan and
Ford, their gallant young leaders, they deliberately sacrificed
their lives in order to give time for the guns to come up and for
the convoy to pass.
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