The Spines Of This Great System Were Always The Railway Lines,
Which Were Guarded On Either Side, And Down Which, As Down A Road,
Went Flocks, Herds, Pedestrians, And Everything Which Wished To
Travel In Safety.
From these long central cords the lines branched
out to right and left, cutting up the great country into manageable
districts.
A category of them would but weary the reader, but
suffice it that by the beginning of the year the south-east of the
Transvaal and the north-east of the Orange River Colony, the haunts
of Botha and De Wet, had been so intersected that it was obvious
that the situation must soon be impossible for both of them. Only
on the west of the Transvaal was there a clear run for De la Rey
and Kemp. Hence it was expected, as actually occurred, that in this
quarter the most stirring events of the close of the campaign would
happen.
General Bruce Hamilton in the Eastern Transvaal had continued the
energetic tactics which had given such good results in the past.
With the new year his number of prisoners fell, but he had taken so
many, and had hustled the remainder to such an extent, that the
fight seemed to have gone out of the Boers in this district. On
January 1st be presented the first-fruits of the year in the shape
of twenty-two of Grobler's burghers. On the 3rd he captured
forty-nine, while Wing, co-operating with him, took twenty more.
Among these was General Erasmus, who had helped, or failed to help,
General Lucas Meyer at Talana Hill.
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