On a ridge, or galloping toward us
through the dew to order us, with a wave of the hand, to greater
speed. One hour after sunrise the train drew up at Colenso, and from
only a mile away we heard the heavy thud of the naval guns, the
hammering of the Boer "pom-poms," and the Maxims and Colt automatics
spanking the air. We smiled at each other guiltily. We were on
time. It was most evident that Ladysmith had not been relieved.
This was the twelfth day of a battle that Buller's column was waging
against the Boers and their mountain ranges, or "disarranges," as
some one described them, without having gained more than three miles
of hostile territory. He had tried to force his way through them six
times, and had been repulsed six times. And now he was to try it
again.
No map, nor photograph, nor written description can give an idea of
the country which lay between Buller and his goal. It was an
eruption of high hills, linked together at every point without order
or sequence. In most countries mountains and hills follow some
natural law. The Cordilleras can be traced from the Amazon River to
Guatemala City; they make the water-shed of two continents; the Great
Divide forms the backbone of the States, but these Natal hills have
no lineal descent.
