The Siege of Mafeking (1900)
by A. Hamilton · English · Gutenberg #39348 · 560,756 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Siege of Mafeking (1900)
Author: A. Hamilton
Release date: April 2, 2012 [eBook #39348]
Language: English
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[Illustration: The Colonel at Work.]
THE SIEGE OF MAFEKING
BY
J. ANGUS HAMILTON
WITH FIFTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS AND TWO PLANS
METHUEN & CO.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON
1900
PREFATORY NOTE
I have to acknowledge gratefully permission to publish in this book
certain articles contributed before and during the siege of Mafeking
to _The Times_ and _Black and White_. To the editor of the latter
paper I am indebted also for leave to reproduce photographs taken by
myself and published, from time to time, in that journal.
I would acknowledge, too, in anticipation, any kindly toleration my
readers may extend to me for the many shortcomings, of which I am
dismally conscious, arising from the hasty preparation of this volume.
When I explain that between the date of my return to England and this
date--when I start for China--barely a fortnight has elapsed, I shall
make good, perhaps, some small claim upon the indulgence of the
critics and the public.
J. A. H.
_July 21, 1900_
CONTENTS
CHAPTER Page
I. AT SEA 1
II. A GLANCE AHEAD 11
III. ON THE ORANGE FREE STATE BORDER 22
IV. BRICKS OF STRAW 34
V. DIAMONDS AND WHITE FEATHERS 41
VI. TWO DAYS BEFORE WAR 49
VII. THE SKIRMISH AT FIVE MILE BANK 57
VIII. THE FIRST DAY OF BOMBARDMENT 67
IX. THE ADVENT OF "BIG BEN" 78
X. A MIDNIGHT SORTIE 88
XI. CANNON KOPJE 97
XII. A RECONNAISSANCE 108
XIII. THE TOWN GUARD 120
XIV. WASTED ENERGIES 130
XV. SHELLS AND SLAUGHTER 140
XVI. A SOFT-WATER BATH 147
XVII. THE ECONOMY OF THE SITUATION 152
XVIII. A VISIT TO THE HOSPITAL 158
XIX. A LITTLE GUN PRACTICE 165
XX. THE ATTACK UPON GAME TREE 175
XXI. THE ADVENT OF THE NEW YEAR 188
XXII. NATIVE LIFE 196
XXIII. BOMBAST AND BOMB-PROOFS 202
XXIV. SOME SNIPING AND AN EXECUTION 212
XXV. LIFE IN THE BRICKFIELDS 220
XXVI. FROM BAD TO WORSE 225
XXVII. THE FIRST ATTACK UPON THE BRICKFIELDS 232
XXVIII. THE SECOND ATTACK UPON THE BRICKFIELDS 240
XXIX. THE NATIVE QUESTION 247
XXX. POLITICAL ECONOMY 253
XXXI. "A HISTORY OF THE BARALONGS" 261
XXXII. 'TIS WEARY WAITING 271
XXXIII. TWO HUNDRED DAYS OF SIEGE 278
XXXIV. THE EPICUREAN'S DELIGHT 283
XXXV. THE LAST FIGHT 290
XXXVI. RELIEVED AT LAST 311
XXXVII. THE END 319
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND PLANS
Page
THE COLONEL AT WORK. _Frontispiece_
MAJOR LORD EDWARD CECIL, C.S.O. 45
OUTPOSTS AND ENTRENCHMENTS, SOUTHERN FRONT. 55
HEADQUARTERS 68
CANNON KOPJE 98
MAJOR GODLEY ON THE LOOK-OUT 112
EFFECTS OF SHELL FIRE. I. BEFORE 144
EFFECTS OF SHELL FIRE. II. AFTER 146
BOERS INSPECTING BRITISH KILLED 184
THE COLONEL ON THE LOOK-OUT 192
WAR CORRESPONDENTS AND THEIR BOMB-PROOF SHELTERS 212
PLAN OF THE BRICKFIELDS 222
CAPE BOYS HURLING STONES AT THE BOERS 224
KILLING HORSES FOR THE GARRISON 292
THE BRITISH SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE FORT 298
"MAFEKING," THE AUTHOR'S DOG 324
PLAN OF MAFEKING 338
CHAPTER I
AT SEA
R.M.S. _DUNVEGAN CASTLE_,
_September 16th, 1899_.
A breeze was freshening, tufting the heaving billows with white crests
and driving showers of spray and clots of foam upon the decks of the
_Dunvegan_. Passengers stood in strained attitudes about the ship,
fidgeting with the desire to be ill and the wish to appear
comfortable--even dignified. In the end, however, circumstances were
too strong for the passengers, transforming them, from a state of calm
despair, into a condition of sickness and temporary dejection. Every
one was perturbed, and those delicate attentions which the sea-sick
demand were being offered by a much-worried deck steward. Here and
there groups of more hardy voyagers were spending their feeble wit in
unseasonable jokes; here and there bedraggled people, wet with spray
and racked by the anguish of an aching void, were clutching at the
possibility of gaining the privacy of their cabins before their
feelings quite overpowered them. In this mad rush, not unlike the
scramble of a shuttlecock to escape the buffetings of the battledore,
I also joined, fetching my berth with much unfortunate sensation.
Alas! I am a wretched sailor, and travelling far and near these many
years, crossing strange seas to distant lands at oft-recurring
periods, has not even tutored me to stand the stress of the ocean
wave. I cannot endure the sea.
The _Dunvegan Castle_ was steaming to the Cape, carrying the mails,
together with a number of tedious and most tiresome people, whose
hours aboard were passed in periods of distracting energy--in deck
quoits, in impossible cricket matches, in angry squabbles upon the
value of the monies which, day by day, were collected by the crafty
from the foolish and pooled in prizes upon the daily run of the
steamer. It was said that these were pleasant gambles, but the
Gentiles paid and the Hebrews, returning to their diamonds, their
stocks and shares, scooped the stakes. It is a way that the people of
Israel and Threadneedle Street have made peculiarly their own; and,
indeed, the multitude and variety of Jews upon this evil-smelling
steamer suggested that she might have held within her walls the
nucleus of an over-sea Israelitish colony, such another as the
Rothschilds founded.
Time was idle, dreary, and so empty! There was nothing to do, since
nothing could be done. The monotony was appalling, and if this were
the condition in the saloon, how distressful must have been the lot of
the third class, who constituted in themselves, as good a class of
people as that contained in the saloon. Surely in these days of
systematic philanthropy something more might be done to brighten the
lot and welfare of third-class passengers. Is it, for example, quite
impossible to supply them with that not uninteresting development of
the musical-box--the megaphone? Of course it should be quite
possible; but antiquated, even antediluvian, in its arrangements, the
Castle Company cannot initiate anything which has not yet been adopted
by the other lines of ocean shipping. And yet I have been told by
numerous merchant captains that it is the steerage which provides the
profits, making lucrative the business of carrying cargoes of goods
and human freight from our shores to more distant lands. But that also
is the way of the world; yet when a rude prosperity enables the
emigrant Jew and Gentile to throng the saloons, making them altogether
impossible for the gentler classes, we shall find the economy of the
third class appealing to an ever-increasing and ever-superior body of
people until these "superior" people will not endure the dirt,
unwholesome surroundings, and fetid atmosphere of the steerage
accommodation of ocean-going steamers, but will cry to Heaven upon the
niggard's policy which controls the vessels.
As the days wore away, and Madeira came and went, even the flying
fishes ceased to attract, and the noises of the ship grew more
distant, the people less obtrusive. Moreover, I became at rest within
myself, and the gaping, aching void which has filled my vitals these
many days, became assuaged. It was then we began to inspect the
passengers; to consider almost kindly the African Jew millionaire who
ate peas with his fingers and mixed honey with his salad, thought not
disdainfully of the poor lady his wife, who, suffering the tortures of
the damned when at sea, shone at each meal valiantly and heroically
until the menu was pierced by her in its entirety, and she made still
further happy by the administration of an original preventative
against _mal de mer_ of sweet wine biscuits bathed in plentiful and
sticky treacle. It was her way of pouring oil on troubled waters. Oh,
those were dreadful people, never ill, always eating, ever complaining
of a curious dizziness which, nevertheless, occasioned them no loss of
appetite. Surely they, of all others, were indeed of the specially
select! Then there was Mr. Clarke, a friend of the two Presidents,
who, undaunted by the most violent motions of the steamer, kept to the
deck in a constant promenade, discoursing amicably the while, and
punctuating his utterances, of a somewhat patriarchal order, with
brief pauses, in which he stroked, with much dignity, a long white
beard. He was a dear old man, and, unlike other Boers, he did not
quote from the Scriptures, a concession which, to be properly
appreciated, demands the lassitude and extreme prostration of violent
nausea. There is something inordinately irritating about the man who
proposes to soothe the irruptions attendant upon sea voyages by the
assurance that such discomfiture is to be endured, since in Chapter
i., verse 1, of a pious writer, the Lord hath there written that the
ungodly shall be everlastingly punished. Personally I objected only to
the form of punishment.
The friend of the President, a fine specimen of sturdy masculinity,
touching eighty-two years of age, was quite the most impressive figure
aboard this particular Castle packet. He had been a sojourner in the
Orange Free State for forty years, coming to it from Australia shortly
after the riots at Ballarat goldfields. The old fellow had fought
against the Boers, championed their arms against the Basutos, raided
the blacks in Queensland, and tumbled through a variety of enterprises
ranging from mining in Australia to successful sheep farming near the
Fickersburg. I liked him, taking an intense anxiety in his future
movements, and wondering whether this fine old specimen of life would
also become our enemy. Who could tell! So much depended upon the
situation, so much upon the action of the President and the will of
Providence. He stood, as he himself was apt to remark, upon the border
of the next world--looking back upon a span of four score years,
possessing a knowledge of the affairs of these African Republics which
had obtained for him the friendship of President Steyn and President
Kruger; indeed, they had been comrades-in-arms, Oom Paul and himself,
while he had seen Steyn spring into manhood from a stripling, and when
his thoughts dwelt upon those days the voice of the old man became
flooded with emotion. These tears of memory were a sidelight to his
real character, and I was convinced that if he shouldered arms at all
these earlier friendships were held by such ties as were too sacred to
be violated. In his heart he hated fighting, yearning merely for the
attentions of his children, the cool delights of his mountain home. In
his domestic environment he was a happy man, since prosperity had
brought him certain cares of office, much as the dignity of his age
had brought him the respect of his fellow-burghers. And yet he figured
as an illustration of countless hundreds, each one of whom was in
close relationship with the crisis in the politics of the country.
Morning, noon and night he strolled, the one figure of interest in
the ill-assorted company of passengers which the good ship--to my
nostrils an evil-smelling tub--was carrying to the Cape. There were
few others of importance upon this journey. There was a colonel of
the Royal Engineers, who had a snug billet in the War Office, and
who was leaving Pall Mall to inspect the barracks at Cape Town, St.
Helena, Ascension, and all those other places to which certain
preposterous War Office officials devoted that attention which
should so much more properly have been paid to the defenceless
condition of the frontiers in South Africa. But then, after all,
what is the destiny of the War Office unless to meddle and make
muddle? If Colonel Watson might be said to have represented the
Imperial Government among the passengers, Mynheer Van der Merure,
Commissioner of Mines in Johannesburg, might be considered as
representing the Pretorian Government. It seemed to me that these
two worthies were quite harmless, representing, each in his own way,
the acme of good nature, the gallant--all colonels imagine that they
be gallant--colonel by reason of his advanced age; the worthy--all
commissioners imagine that they be worthy--commissioner because he
lived off the spoil of the mines. But even the spectacle of these
three--the grand old man, the War Office _attache_, the wealthy
Randsman--did not suffice to break the hideous monotony of a most
depressing voyage.
With the peace of nature enveloping us in a feeling of security, it
was difficult to realise that each day we drew a little nearer to a
possible seat of war. There was much rumour aboard; the stewards
hinted that the hold was filled with a cargo of munitions of war. The
captain flatly denied it, even the War Office pensioner thought it
improbable. "You must understand, sir," said he one morning, across the
breakfast table, "that it is contrary to the custom of her Majesty's
Government, and, if I may say so, sir, especially contrary to the
custom of her Majesty's War Office, to squander the finances of our
great Empire upon unnecessary munitions of war because the _Times_ and
other papers choose to send half a dozen irresponsible individuals to
South Africa. Now, sir--pooh!" When Colonel Watson broke out like this
the friend of the President would intervene, suggesting in his kindly,
paternal fashion that "the War Office--given half a dozen colonels,
gallant or otherwise--might well afford to follow the lead of the
_Times_ newspaper." "It has been my experience," the Colonel
retaliated on one occasion, "that when people begin to interfere they
cease to understand." It was always quite delightful to watch these
two cross swords; the elder invariably took refuge in his age when the
sallies of the War Office could not be directly countered.
"Experience! You are only old enough to be my son." The Colonel
spluttered--colonels do. By these means the elder man usually carried
off the honours, replying, as it were, by a flank movement to the
frontal attack of his superior adversary.
The farmer from the Orange Free State talked much to me, giving me,
towards the end of the voyage, an invitation to his home. It was a
visit in which I should have found much pleasure, since the splendour
of his years, his gentleness and nobility of character were
attractive. It seemed to me that among all sorts and conditions of men
this one was indeed, a man, and I do most sincerely hope that the end
of the war may find him still living and enjoying his farm in his
usual prosperity. He was so set against the war, and dreaded the
consequences of hostile invasion into the Orange Free State, insomuch
that he realised, if some immunity were not guaranteed, the ruin and
desolation which would spread over the land. In August as we left
England there was nothing known about the future action of the Orange
Free State. The question was one of debate, altogether confused,
almost intangible, and this man, knowing Steyn as he knew Kruger, was
convinced that the Orange Free State would alienate itself from the
Transvaal difficulty. But who can tell? We look to the sea for our
answer, and it throws back to us only the echoes of the sighing waves,
the pulsing throbs of the screws pounding the green masses of water in
an effort to reach the Cape. Nevertheless, I am inclined to believe
that there will be war. I hope that there may be, since it is to be my
field of labour.
The journey nears its end, and the weather breaks, for a few hours
into grey cold; while the sea, where it laps the bay at Cape Town,
darkening into thin ridges of foam, tumbling and tossing amid the
eddies of the bleak water, looks menacing. A fog lies off the land,
dense and weighty, impeding the navigation and impressing no little
conception of the perils of the deep upon the minds of timorous
passengers, and folding the surface of the ocean in its expanse. The
weather threatens to be wild. All day the sea fog broke and mingled,
merging, as the day wore on, into one conglomerate mass of cloud,
impenetrable to the mariner and screening the signs of the sea from
those who were upon land. Here and there, low down upon the horizon,
the storm fiend from the shore had broken into the garland of mist
which hung so drearily upon sea as upon moor, detaching parcels of
cloud from the main and toying with them with the coy and heartless
grace of Zephyr! But as yet the wind only came in minor lapses, and
was followed by intervals in which there was no movement in the fog.
From the waste of sea came a ceaseless, muffled roar which seemed
loudest and most full of mystery when carried upon the wings of the
wind. Then these echoes of mighty waters, tumbling upon the rocks off
the land, seemed ominous and charged with deadly peril, and, as the
fog belts lifted or dispersed before the gusts of the wind, the sea
would look as though swept with growing anger, heaving in tremulous
passion, until the great reach of quivering waves was flecked with
white. Closer and closer lapped the tiny waves, until, under the
pressure of the freshening wind they mingled their crests, rising and
falling in foam-capped billows of growing volume and increasing
majesty. Thus developed the storm; the wind beating on the face of the
waters and breaking against the clouds until rain fell, in the end
assuaging, by its raging downpour, the tempest of the ocean. Down came
the storm in one panting burst of tempestuous deluge. The heaving
waves threw sheets of foam from their rain-pierced summits, and the
wind whistled and screamed as it swept through the rigging. Flashes of
lightning and thunder claps parried one another in quick succession.
The rain fell in torrents, the decks, shining in the lightning
flashes, roared with rushing water. So that night we rode at anchor,
rocking idly at our cables within the shadow of the mountain, and upon
the morrow, beneath the light of coming dawn, we drew nearer through
the cool greyness of the bounding ocean. At first the figures, the
walls of the fort, the cranes, the shipping, and the scarred and
crinkled facing of the mountain were silhouetted in black against the
grey of early morning, but as the day broke more firmly across its
slopes, the finer and more subtle light gave to everything its actual
proportion. All kept growing clearer and yet clearer, and more and
more thoroughly outlined, until the sun, shooting over the horizon,
bestowed upon the coming day its first wink of glory.
And so we landed, passing from a sluggish state of peace into a world
where everything was lighted with martial glamour.
CHAPTER II
A GLANCE AHEAD
CAPE TOWN, _September 20th, 1899_.
To be in Cape Town in September would seem to be visiting the capital
of Cape Colony in its least enjoyable month; since, more especially
than at any other time in the year, the place be thronged with
bustling people, who plough their way through streets which, by the
stress of recent bad weather, are choked with mud and broken by pools
of slush and rain-scourings. The rain is falling with a determination
and force of penetration which soaks the pedestrian in a few minutes
and makes life altogether miserable. Moreover, there are signs of
further foul weather. There is a white mist upon the mountain and a
sea fog enshrouds the shipping in the harbour: everywhere it is cold,
colourless and damp. Everywhere the people are depressed. It is as
though the wet has drenched the population of the town to the bone and
drowned their spirits in the cheerless prospect which the rainy
season in Cape Town provides. If the sun were to shine the aspect
might be brighter, a little warmth might be infused in the character
and disposition of the constantly shifting streams of mud-splashed,
bedraggled pedestrians who, despite the rain and mud and an air of
general despondency, impart some little animation to the dirty
thoroughfares.
Other than this air of depression there is but little external
evidence of the momentous crisis which impends. It may be that the
Cape Town colonist has forgotten the responsibilities of his colony in
the cares of his own office, and is become that mechanical development
of commerce, a money-making man. Who can tell? Is it even fair to
hazard an estimation of the man in his present environment? But it
would assuredly seem that the troubles of the Government, the menace
which is imposed upon the colony by the Bond Ministry, do not touch
him, do not even stir his loyalty to the ebullition of a little
doubtful enthusiasm. Just now, although there may be war upon his
borders, although the spirit of disturbed patriotism be in the air,
and although his neighbours may be thinking of joining some one of the
Irregular Corps who are advertising for recruits, the ordinary
inhabitant of Cape Town is unmoved. He is too lethargic, or is it that
his loyalty is not of that degree which regards with concern the
arming of the border republics, the near outbreak of bloody war? It
would seem that each, after his own caste, be happy if he be left
alone; the money grubber to gain more shekels, the idler and the
casual to bore each other with their stupendous, even studied
indifference to the propinquity of the latest national crisis. Within
a few days, it may even be within a few hours, our questions with the
Pretorian Government will have reached their final adjustment or their
perpetual confusion, and it may be that we shall be at war. It may be
also, although it be difficult to believe, that a peaceful solution
will be derived. At this moment the services of such pacific measures
as can be adopted should be utilised, since if war should come within
a brief measure the position of the people of this country will indeed
be grave--the utter absence of adequate defensive measures, the entire
lack of efficient military preparations being factors which are
calculated to incite to rebellion those who incline to the Dutch
cause, and indeed, most positively, their name is Legion. There is, I
think, the essence of revolt beneath this heavy and depressed
condition of the people: it were not possible otherwise, to exist
within such intimate proximity to a state of war and be unmoved; it is
not possible either to find other explanation. It may be that in their
hearts, as in their heads, they are weighing the consequences of
revolt, succouring one another in their distress of mind and body with
seditious sympathies, maintaining a spirit of antagonism to the
Imperial fusion under pretence of the mere expression of a lip
loyalty. And in their immediate prospect there is everything which may
be calculated to disturb their equanimity, and to force upon them the
consciousness of their impotency. It is perhaps this knowledge of
their actual weakness which subdues them since they cannot afford to
openly avow feelings which are inimical to us and which would betoken
their own hostility. Nevertheless, Great Britain can do nothing which
could encourage these people in their loyalty; nor can they
themselves, in reality, assist to remove their unfortunate
predicament, since they must needs sacrifice their possessions to
substantiate their views, and to do this implies complete
disintegration of their fortunes. This they will not do; since they
cannot suffer it. They will remain discontented partisans, however;
slaves of commerce, restrained by the possibilities of further
aggrandisement from declaring their mutual connection, and manacled by
the bonds of free trade and crooked dealings. They will be neutral, as
indeed the greater proportion of the inhabitants of the towns along
the coast and within the littoral zone will be, since with every
feeling of unctuous rectitude in relation to the values of their
trade, they will leave to the provincial areas, which lie between the
borders of the Orange Free State and the metropolitan circuits, the
onus of the situation, the work of supplying active and more potential
supporters of the Republican arms.
This is the middle of September, and I am assured that the crisis
should not be expected before the middle of October, inclining to the
first two weeks of the coming month. If this be possible, and the
information is difficult to discount, our sin of indifference is the
greater, our apathy the more criminal. Indeed, everywhere there is
nothing doing--God forbid that the steady warlike preparations of the
Transvaal Government should intimidate us, but let us at least be
heedful and not over sleepy. If we can gauge the situation by the
public press of the Empire it is most critical, and the time is rather
overripe in which we also should indulge in a few military exercises.
There is a situation to be faced which will tax all the resources of
the Castle, and strain even the vaunted excellence of the home
administration--that army for which Lord Wolseley has claimed such
splendid mobilisation, such insensate volition. If these fifty
thousand men were here now the turns of the political wheel would not
be regarded with such intense apprehension, while in their absence
there lies perhaps the answer to the rain-drenched dulness of the
population. The land is naked; from Basutoland to Buluwayo and back to
Beira, mile upon mile of smiling frontier rests without protection of
any sort. We are inviting invasion, and it is impossible that such a
movement will not be attempted. To invade our territory--it will sound
so well round the camp fires of the Boer laagers--a mere scamper
across the frontier, a pell-mell, hell-for-leather retreat to their
own lines, and the manoeuvres would be executed felicitously and with
every sign of success. But such a contingency is submerged under an
accumulation of theories and official explanations each of which deny
the possibility of the Boer taking upon himself the responsibility of
rushing the situation. Moreover, it does not seem that the Boers
require much instigation to attempt such an act. We have laid open our
borders to such an enterprise, even taking the trouble to leave
unguarded many towns whose adjacency to the border is singularly
perilous. In many cases a Boer force need only make a short march to
arrive in the very heart of some one of these border towns, when,
should they appear, the turn of affairs could be said to be complex;
and some emotions might be felt by those worthy and effete military
noodles who so persistently shout down the "pessimists" who, knowing
the country, the ambition and resourcefulness of the Boers, persist in
declaiming upon the hideous neglect which characterises our frontier
defences, and strenuously assert the probability of Boer invasion into
those districts which superimpose themselves upon the borders of the
Transvaal and Orange Free State Republics, and which, possessing
values of their own, can be held as hostages against the slings and
arrows of an outrageous fortune elsewhere.
It is the duty of the Crown at the present juncture to bear this
contingency in mind, to confront it with the determined resolution to
repair the negligence of the past at once and at all costs, and to
allow neither the opinion of the Bond Ministry, nor the ignorance of
the existing military advisers to the Governor, to persuade the
Executive from adopting the only course which remains to us, which is
to push men and materials of war to the border with the least possible
delay. If we do not take these steps now it will be too late in a
little time, and the course of the war must necessarily be the more
protracted. There are many who would have us delay lest our premature
acts should expedite the despatch of the ultimatum, and we should lose
the opportunity, which the next few days will give to us, of receiving
delivery of the troops who are already upon the water. But the
presence of these men means little and forebodes, in reality, a slight
accentuation of the gravity of the actual situation. It is with the
forces that we can control at this moment that we must count, and it
is with them that we must deal. It does not suffice to have
parade-ground drills in Cape Town as a preliminary flourish; we should
at least show ourselves as ready as the Boers be willing. This of
course we cannot do, since, with a handful of exceptions, we have not
a modern piece of artillery in the country. Moreover we do not quite
know what armaments the Transvaal Government possess; it is with a
pretty display of pretence that we conceal the nakedness of our
borders and bolster up the situation. There is Kimberley,
Ramathlabama, and Buluwayo--what _is_ to happen upon the western
frontier?--and although it be doubtful if the Boers would pierce the
Rhodesian border and seize Buluwayo, it is not too much to expect that
if they should inaugurate any movement into the Colony from the Orange
Free State, even if their activity only should assume the shape of a
demonstration against Kimberley, that this southern advance would
receive sympathetic co-operation from a parallel movement in a
northerly direction by which they might temporarily secure possession
of our line of communication and menace Buluwayo by encroaching upon
Rhodesia.
Then there is the position of Natal, which must be more or less
hampered by the war in the Transvaal if it does not become actually
and potentially concerned. That Natal will play an important _role_ is
elaborately evident from the Boer patrols who, even now, are reported
to be in possession of all strategical points in the mountains, and
who are also said to be busily engaged in fortifying the rocky
fastnesses of the Drakensburg Mountains, and to dominate Laing's Nek
tunnel as well as the line of railway which curvets through the chain,
by having emplaced some heavy ordnance upon prominent and immediate
commanding slopes. It would seem as though Natal may play a part, so
distinctive and so vitally important in its own history as a colonial
dependency, that the prospect of the war there may become a campaign
in itself, and one which will be almost detached and isolated from the
movements in the Orange Free State and Transvaal, where I have reason
to believe there is some intention of formulating, what may be
regarded as a dual campaign, which will avoid all invasion of the
Transvaal territory until the Orange Free State has been completely
pacified and the lines of communication effectively and securely held.
In support of this scheme it is generally conceded that it will be
impossible to carry war into the Transvaal until every provision has
been made against the risk of local rising in the areas of the Orange
Free State, and thus endangering our lines of communication, as well
as our flanks.
These, then, are the signs of the day, and in such signs do we read
something of the terrible struggle upon which we are so soon to be
engaged, and in appreciation of which, local opinion is in such marked
contrast--I almost wrote conflict--with the opinion and views of the
special service officers from India and England. To whom, then,
belongs the honours of accurate estimation; to the man from home as it
were, or to the man who has passed his life in South Africa and
understands the Dutchman as the mere military interloper can never
hope to understand him? There is, I think, no doubt as to what point
of view be erroneous, and it is because we so persistently ignore the
worth and reliability of the men who are upon the spot, that we shall
have the falsity of our intelligence some day brought home to us by
the tidings of a terrible disaster. South Africa is already the grave
of too many fine reputations; but let us, at least, hope that we shall
not add to the disgrace of the private individual any loss of national
prestige. The wind soughs ominously just now, however, while there is
a note in it which I do not like, and which I cannot understand. At
the Castle they talk airily of being home by Christmas! If they be
sailing within twelve months they will be lucky, and at Government
House Sir Alfred Milner is beset with the difficulties of his very
onerous position. For the moment he takes--I am glad to be able to say
it, since I would have him upon the side of sound common sense--a
somewhat depressed view of the general outlook. Kimberley and
Ramathlabama were his especial concerns when I called there to-day,
insomuch that they extend an especial invitation to the mobility of a
Boer commando, while it is quite beyond his powers to save them from
their fate. It seemed to me that he despairs of these towns in
particular, but I will withhold his remarks upon them until I myself
have been there. Yet it may be taken as granted that, should Sir
Alfred Milner be concerned for their immediate and eventual safety,
the gravity of their situation is extreme, pointing even to the
closeness of the danger which would arise from a Boer invasion into
those areas.
But in this hurried letter I am dealing with the colony, and
singularly enough we have to consider how our colonists will behave,
what may be their attitude, and how near are we to rebellion? It is of
course an all-important question, and one which, in relation to a
British colony, is untoward. If I were asked to localise the possible
area of revolt I should decline, since the question be so serious and
infringes so much upon the life and existence--the central forces--of
the colony that it would be difficult, definitely and evenly, to
demarcate any zone of loyalty, as opposed to any area of disaffection,
without unduly trespassing upon the sentiments of less favoured
districts. But I do think that the possibilities of this question are
enormous, emanating as it does from the life teachings and doctrines
of the people of the country, and however much we try to draw a line
between what constitutes due loyalty and what infringes the spirit as
well as the letter of the individual's allegiance, we must
unconsciously perpetrate much injustice either upon the one or upon
the other side of the question, which, owing to the dualistic
temperament and inclinations of no small majority of the people, it is
impossible to avoid, and which will have to be endured by individuals,
loyal or disloyal, as their penalty. The spirit of the Dutch pioneers
still impregnates much of Cape Colony; its presence south of the
Orange Free State and in the actual territory of the colony receiving
direct support and sympathy by the increasing numbers of the Dutch
population in these African Republics; an increase which, being
unrestricted in its development, has spread far and wide until it has
created a partial exodus from the recognised centres of Dutch
influence and Dutch population into those areas from which the traces
of the earliest Dutch occupation were rapidly vanishing--if they have
not altogether disappeared--and which has been the medium of
resuscitating a feeling of sympathy and clanship which, augmented by
still closer ties of commerce, has promoted the functions of matrimony
and friendship and gradually released a current of feeling throughout
the district which was avowedly Dutch, and, equally avowedly, in
silent and semi-subdued opposition to the instincts and ideals of the
Anglo-Saxon colonist. And it is against the rapid spread of this
feeling which we have to contend, much as we must guard against the
conversion of these prejudices into tacit support and effective
co-operation with the armed burghers of the sister Republics should
their arms secure any initial successes. With this danger in our
midst, in itself an almost insurmountable obstacle, no precaution
which could render the safety of these districts the less precarious
should be omitted; and to effect this--and it is quite essential to
our temporal salvation--men and materials of war should be in
readiness to forestall, or, at least, to circumvent, the consummation
of the Boer operations. If we can accomplish even so little, it maybe
possible to prevent the no small proportion of the colonists
discharging their obligations to the Crown by combining with the Boer
forces. To this end our efforts will have to be seriously directed,
and the sooner this simple fact is realised by the authorities in
South Africa as in London, the more convincing will the scope and
measures of our policy become. At present it is chimerical, and we
hesitate.
CHAPTER III
ON THE ORANGE FREE STATE BORDER
THE CAMP, DE AAR,
_September 23rd, 1899_.
Africa was streaming past the dusty windows of the railway carriage,
presenting an endless spectacle of flat, depressed-looking country,
with here and there a hut, here and there a native. I am in the
earliest stages of a journey which should lead to Ramathlabama, and
the command of Colonel Baden-Powell. Slowly and with much effort the
train drags itself along; the road is steep, the carriages hot and
uncomfortable, and there is nothing to attract attention, nothing to
fill the emptiness of the mind. I slept at intervals, to awaken at
some roadside station where fussy people were struggling to eat too
much in too short a space of time. There, for a moment, was the
scamper of bustling, hurrying passengers, who pushed and menaced one
another in a thirsty rush to the refreshment room; with a cloud of
officers, orderlies, and troopers I stood apart, listless, bored, and
travel-stained, feebly interested, more feebly talking in disconnected
phrases, until, with shrill blasts of his whistle, the guard signalled
the departure of the train. Then off again, the jerking, swaying
flight of eighteen miles an hour--the rumbling monotony of express
speed which was conducive to drowsiness and nothing more. The
landscape faded in the distance, a raucous voice sang of 'Ome, while,
in a monotonous buzz of nothingness, I slept again.
The train was slowly thrusting itself forward as, with much panting
and purring and some screaming, it cut the borders of the Great Karoo.
Slowly the wheels clenched the metals as the waggons rocked in a
lullaby of motion, and the passengers were fanned with draughts of
scented air. The Great Karoo, lying in the shades of evening,
hearkening to the secret calling of mysterious voices, heeding not the
ravages of time, wearing majestically the massive dignity of its
grandeur, threw back its barriers of resistance to our intrusion and
delighting our senses with ever-changing and oft-recurring glimpses of
its beauty. But the picture faded with the passing of the train, the
golden and crimson delights of the overgrowing flowers gave place to a
soulless expanse destitute of beauty.
I stopped at De Aar, which is the junction where the Orange Free State
and Transvaal lines connect with the Cape Colony system. At De Aar I
was anxious to observe the press of traffic. From Cape Town for
Kimberley, Borderside, Fourteen Streams, and Mafeking, truck loads of
horses and mules, waggon loads of general military stores were passing
northwards to the front. In the interval, there were Imperial troops
and men of the Cape Mounted Police. Indeed, the scene upon the
platform was animated by martial spirit. If the train from the south
was loaded with war material, the trains from the two Republics were
packed with fugitives, among whom were many men who, in the hour of
necessity, will, it is to be hoped, consider flight as the least
satisfactory means of procedure. However, no goods are going through
to the two Republics from Cape Colony, unless Mr. Schreiner has passed
more ammunition over the Cape lines to the Transvaal. But things are
working more satisfactorily down in Cape Town since it became known
that the Cabinet would be discharged by the Governor, unless----and to
a discerning politician of the Bond, whose income depends upon his
salary from the House, a blank conveys many wholesome home truths.
Travelling, even with the variety of emotion which the Karoo excites,
is no great comfort in South Africa. One lives in an atmosphere of
dust and Keating's. If the trains go no faster to Cairo when the rails
be through, than they do to Buluwayo, the steamers will still retain
the monopoly of passenger traffic. It takes a "week of Sundays" to
reach railhead at Buluwayo, but there is some small consideration in
the fact that such a journey has been made. It will become a feature
in our Sabbatarian domesticity some day, and among railway journeys at
the present time it is unique. Where else do express trains arrive
several hours in advance of their scheduled time? Where else do goods
trains arrive several days late? These are but the manifold and
maddening perplexities of railway travelling in Africa. Yet if one
kicks against the uncertainties of the desert service, there is sure
to be an Eliphaz somewhere upon the train, whose philosophy being
greater than his hurry, recognises that the element of expedition,
when his train does arrive, is greater than the prospect of moving at
all where no train comes. Time passes somehow on these journeys, and
the chance prospect of obtaining a good meal, when one is dead certain
to get a bad one, is enlivening. If it were not for such trifles, the
journey would have no interest. To look forward to luncheon and an
afternoon nap, to anticipate dinner and then digest it, makes the day
run with pleasant monotony into the night. And night is worth the
inspection. The beds in the train are comfortable enough, but the
night is vested with misty beauty, and its fascination woos the
traveller from his rest. There is the roar of the engine, the rumble
of the carriages, the buzz of insects, and the faint rustle of the
night wind over the plains. Then, looking into the night, one falls
asleep, tired and stunned by the spectacle of the never-ending desert.
But, in the morning there comes a change. The stretches of the Karoo
are past, and breakfast at De Aar is in sight.
At De Aar--a sea of tents with here and there a man--there begins the
outward and visible signs of preparation against the necessities of
the coming struggle. There are men and arms at De Aar and munitions of
war, comprising the Yorkshire regiment, a wing of the King's Own Light
Infantry under Major Hunt, and a section of the Seventh Field Company
of Engineers under Lieutenant Wilson; but their numbers are
impossible, much as their supplies be limited and seriously
insufficient; and, as a consequence, I must not talk much about the
interior linings of the British camp which has sprung up at De Aar,
and which, within a few days of what must be the turning point of the
present crisis, is so little able to cope with the exigencies of the
situation. It is a protective measure, this little camp at the
junction of the divergence in the railway system of the colony, placed
in its present situation to guarantee the safety of the permanent way,
and to ensure a modicum of safety to the traffic which is crowding
north over the points at the meeting of the rails. It is a gorgeous
piece of impudence; this minute establishment of British soldiers, and
if it be impressed with the might and majesty of our Imperial Empire,
it is also beset with the innumerable difficulties and trials which
attend an isolated State.
We are guarding the lines of communication between De Aar Junction and
Norvals Pont, the bridge across the Orange River which unites the
territory of the Orange Free State with the land of the Colony,
between De Aar and the Camp at Orange River, between De Aar and many
miles to the south in the direction of Cape Town. I believe that the
practical influence of this particular unit extends so far south as
Beaufort West, where the custody and patrol of the line is handed over
to the care of the railway authorities, whose men are detailed to the
all-important duty of guarding the culverts and bridges of the system.
The greatest menace to our weakness in the present situation springs
from the vast lines of communication over which we must watch and
which, although lying well within our own borders, are endangered
through the contributary sympathy of the Dutch who, resident and
settled within our own Colony, and boasting some sort of idle
observance of the obligations entailed upon them by such residence,
have seldom by word, and not at all in spirit, forsworn their entire
and cheerful assistance to the cause of the Transvaal. In any other
campaign these fatigues would be unnecessary, and the services of the
innumerable small detachments delegated to the duty would be released
for more active work, but with this war the safe maintenance of our
lines of communication will become a problem of most vital concern,
and will be necessarily imbued with absorbing interest. Moreover,
whatever the nature of the scheme for efficiently guarding these lines
may be, due attention must be paid and every consideration given to
the superior mobility of the Boer forces to that of our own troops, an
advantage which will increase their facilities and chances of success
should they exert themselves to harass any particular section of our
inordinately long lines of communication.
With the formation of a camp at De Aar, the trend which our campaign
may assume becomes more definite. De Aar is but a little removed from
Norvals Pont, an important bridge into the Orange Free State, which it
is proposed to protect from the immediate base of the troops at De
Aar, or to hold altogether from an ultimate base in the same direction
at Colesberg. I propose to visit there before the next mail departs,
since it be rumoured here that the town of Colesberg has been left
entirely undefended by the military authorities, and that the end of
the bridge, remote from this border and within the limits of the
Orange Free State, is in the hands of an armed patrol from that
Republic. When these things happen, and De Aar becomes the centre of a
big base camp, the position will constitute another link in the chain
of towns which are to be occupied by the Imperial forces along the
western and southern borders of the Orange Free State, and whose
occupation, should the troops arrive in time thus to execute the
initiative, indicates our probable line of advance to be from a
number of points, so that General Joubert will be unable to
concentrate his troops before any one force. Upon our side, also,
those frontier detachments that may be in occupation of the towns,
will harass Transvaal and Free State borderside, suppress any rising
within our own border areas, and be entirely subsidiary to the main
columns, which will be simultaneously thrown forward from these three
or four special points on the same extreme line of progression.
Moreover, this plan of operations accentuates the detached and
especial character of the Natal Field Force, restraining them to
service in that colony, and restricting their activities to that
sphere. These troops will occupy Laing's Nek, the ten thousand men
already assembled in that Colony being reinforced before hostilities
are declared, until the Field Service footing of the Natal Field Force
will equal that of an army corps. The critical points in the present
situation are the western and eastern borders of the Transvaal, where
the young bloods from the backwoods are mostly gathered, and in their
present state eminently calculated to force the hand of Oom Paul into
an impromptu declaration of belligerency. The movements of the Natal
forces will be confined for the moment to holding Laing's Nek,
maintaining communication with the permanent base at Ladysmith and
Pietermaritzburg, and in occupying Dundee, Colenso, and all such towns
as fall within the limits of its exterior lines.
From De Aar a division will support the left flank of the advance of
the First Army Corps, divided, for purposes of more speedy
concentration upon its ultimate base, into two divisions, which will
reunite at Burghersdorp, _via_ the railways, to Middelburg and
Stormberg Junction from their immediate bases of disembarkation at
Port Elizabeth and East London. The total force will then advance in
exterior lines upon the Orange Free State, maintaining the railway
system upon their individual western flanks, so far as possible, as
their individual lines of communication.
While the Second Army Corps supports the situation in Natal, it is
hoped that our forces in the Orange Free State border will either
crush or drive the Boers back upon their ulterior lines towards
Bloemfontein, which, with the assistance of the De Aar flanking column
traversing the watershed of the Modder River in the direction of
Kimberley, and in possible co-operation with a force from that base,
they should be in a position to occupy. The capital will be held by
the De Aar and Kimberley divisions, upon whom will then fall the work
of protecting the lines of communication of the Southern Army Corps as
it advances.
After supporting De Aar, Kimberley, and the lines of communication
with defensive units, and maintaining a western column by employing
the service of the Mafeking force, the First Army Corps will begin the
move upon Pretoria, in collaboration with the Second (Natal) Army
Corps, the former once again advancing in twin columns from a mutual
base. The western border will probably be held from Kimberley to Fort
Tuli by the forces composing the western column, while a flying column
is to be in readiness lest a wider area be given to the theatre of
war, and it become necessary to cross the Limpopo River. It would
appear, too, that there is also some possibility of a column moving
from Delagoa Bay. By this advance Pretoria becomes the objective of
the campaign after the occupation of the Orange Free State, but this
depends to a great extent upon the policy pursued by General Joubert
and the nature of the Natal operations. If the Boers give way and,
acting upon interior lines, fall back upon Pretoria, as General
Jackson fell back upon Richmond in 1864-1865, the Transvaal capital
will at once become the objective of the British forces advancing upon
exterior lines, the object of the campaign, once the Transvaal has
been invaded, being to force a battle upon the combined forces of the
Boers or to beset Pretoria. It will thus be seen that the theory of
the British advance favours the concentration of troops upon the
Transvaal and Orange Free State frontiers so that the Boer forces may
be dislocated, retaining the railways and their lines of communication
and, leaving the actual protection and pacification of the frontier to
the local mounted police and to the special service corps assisted by
a few detachments of Imperial troops, while no progressive movement
will be made from any one point until the exterior line, upon which
the entire advance will be conducted, has been thoroughly established.
For the nonce extraordinary precautions are being taken to conceal the
movements of troops, and I have withheld from publication at this
moment much which could be given in support of the lines by which I
have suggested our advance will be governed. This plan of campaign
reads very prettily, but it seems to me, that we are making no
allowances for possible disasters, for possible defeats, for
unavoidable delays, which, should they occur, will hamper the mobility
of our advance and restrict the celerity of our movements to a great
and most serious extent. Despite the fact that the massing of troops
at the selected points between De Aar and Mafeking, between Cape Town,
Port Elizabeth, East London, and the ultimate and interested bases
will proceed almost immediately, the successful evolution of our
plans, the wisdom or foolishness of which are so soon to be put to the
test, demands much greater forces than are calculated to be available
during the next few weeks. At present, and until the latter days of
October, the combined strengths of the Regular and Irregular forces in
South Africa will not equal twenty thousand men, and yet we are
dabbling with and making preparations against a plan of campaign which
requisitions two Army Corps at least, and will probably require the
services of not less than one hundred thousand men. I dread to think
of what may happen if war should come within a few days, but we can do
nothing but face what is a most intolerable position, and one which
most easily might have been avoided. The outlook in the absence of
efficient men and stores is indeed disheartening.
Since I arrived upon the Orange Free State border I have omitted no
opportunity to discuss with the Boers the question of the war. A
friendly Boer, hailing from Utrecht, suggested the probable direction
which the Boer plans, so far as they concerned Natal, might assume,
and while they appear to be feasible, they reveal how curiously
predominant among them is the idea that their arms will again defeat
the British troops. The Transvaal Boers from Vryheid and Utrecht
propose to attempt raids upon Natal and Zululand as the preliminaries
to a rush upon Maritzburg and the southern district of Natal, by
Weenen and Umvoti; Orange Free State Boers from the border areas will
harass our soldiers as they move towards Laing's Nek, and, thus
drawing the attention of the British troops, the road will be clear
for those marching south on their attack upon the capital of Natal.
All approaches to Laing's Nek upon the Dutch side of the border,
already alien, have been fortified, fourteen guns being actually in
position at the more important points. The British troops soon after
leaving Ladysmith will have the Transvaal Boers on one side, the Free
State Boers upon the other, and long before the Imperial troops can
occupy the extreme border a commando of Boers from Wakkerstroom will
have concentrated upon it. In the opinion of the Boers the effective
occupation of Laing's Nek by either force will decide the war. The
Boers all seem convinced that they can sweep the British forces from
South Africa. The procedure of a campaign which finds much favour in
their eyes includes the rising of the Swazis, the Zulus and the
Basutos, who will be permitted to devastate Natal and as much of the
south as they can penetrate, and whom they claim will be easily
stirred against the Rooineks. The Boers will then feint with a small
force upon the centre of our military occupation, while their entire
army marches down upon Port Elizabeth, East London, or Cape Town, or
proceeds by railway if they can secure the lines. They will hold open
no lines of communication, because by that time Imperial arms will
have been defeated, and it will only remain for President Kruger to
dictate peace from Cape Town.
This is actually the opinion of a Boer who administers for the
Transvaal Government an important district, and who is under orders to
proceed to the Natal border without loss of time. Surely he must be
consumed with delusion and impotent fanaticism; nevertheless, educated
Boers from the border side and living in the Cape Colony, who have
come to the camp to invite the officers to a cricket match or some
buck shooting, have all expressed this view. At present I have not
met the Boer who can conceive the defeat of his own countrymen, while
both Imperial and Republican Governments count upon the assistance of
the natives. Upon the other hand, however, I am informed that there
are many Boers who do not wish to fight, since they recognise the
futility of any effort which they can direct against British troops;
but, at the same time, should they be called out upon commando, there
is no fear of their declining to obey, while, so far as my inquiries
go, they have failed to elicit anything which would show the Boers to
be moved by any view so eminently sound as this would be.
CHAPTER IV
BRICKS OF STRAW
THE CAMP, ORANGE RIVER,
_September 26th, 1899_.
Soldiers and sand--clouds of sand whirring and eddying through the
air, drifting through closed windows, piling in swift-mounting heaps
against barred doors. That is the camp here, stretching upon both
sides of the railway line in orderly rows, flanked upon either
extremity by a ragged outspan of waggons, empty to-day but soon
creating work for numerous fatigue parties when the orders come to
push forward the supplies. At present it is only a small cluster of
tents, many more tents than men--this to confuse the friendly Boers
who, visiting the railway station refreshment bar for the purposes of
espionage, stop to drink in an effort to gauge the strength of the
camp by counting the ranks of dirty white tents which flap and quiver
in the breezes. Such an impossible little camp, but so impressed with
the true spirit.
Colonel Kincaid, R.E., commands at Orange River, and his force
comprises a few companies of the Loyal Lancashire Regiment, a troop or
two of the Cape Police District II., sections of the Field Company of
Engineers, a composite field battery and a few stores--but a general
numerical insufficiency of men and munitions. Major Jackson, with
Major Coleridge, commands the companies of the Loyal Lancashires that
were detailed with him from Kimberley, where his regiment lies, for
duty at this camp. Surgeon-Major O'Shanahan takes care of the field
hospital which has been attached to the camp, and Captain Mills, R.A.,
controls the artillery. It is a happy family, this British camp in
which the necessity for hard work is understood and the members of
whose circle willingly endure the difficulties and privations of their
situation. From the ends of the earth they have come together to be
dumped down upon the Orange River flats, where for many days they will
remain an important unit in the scheme of preparation, but one which
stands alone and aside from the general hurry and scurry of our
belated movements. There is a bridge across the Orange River at this
point, and it is the duty of protecting it and guaranteeing it from
the attentions of the Boers, guarding its approaches by cunningly
contrived gun emplacements and enveloping its definite security in a
network of defensive measures, which is, for the time, the sole
objective of the various officers and detachments that compose Colonel
Kincaid's command.
The conformation of the country abutting upon Orange River presents
those composite peculiarities of construction which contribute more
generally to the setting of the high veldt. Orange River is broken by
hills and river-beds, dry courses with rock-strewn banks, patches of
sand, sparsely grassed and destitute of bushes. The land to the west
rolls smoothly to the watershed of the river, breaking into bush and
short rises about the banks of the stream. The water clatters among
stones and rocks to the north-west, leaving to the south-west and due
west the same barren open sand flats. Upon the east there is a slight
contrast to the evenness of the pastureless country which meets the
sunset; but the fall of the land due south, south-east, south-west, is
unchanging, the compass shifting due east and north-east before the
abrupt and rugged lines of the country are exposed. Then, and then
only, does the face of the country reveal its uncouth and
uncomfortable character. East, whence the waters stream beneath the
railway bridge, the watershed is herring-backed, concealing, beneath
rough folds of rising ground, stretches of bush veldt and stony
patches. High ridges debouch at right angles to the stream, with
uncertain contours and abrupt declivities; detached kopjes rise from
upon the face of the country, claiming classification with the ages
around them, but standing aloof with forbidding mien--a formidable
menace to the chance of successful storming. Parallel hills and ridges
distinguish the hinterland of this watershed so far inland as the
areas of the Orange Free State, while the broken and dangerous
character of the country east-north-east, continuing until the
watershed of the Modder River, still further prolongates these
disturbing features. The valley of the river, within a mile from the
stretch of flats which rolls away from the bases of the hills,
converges until the sides lie within a few hundred yards of each
other. There the stream rushes and roars with some force, until the
wider reaches of the plain give to the pent-up waters a greater space
of revolt. From the mouth of the valley the river wanders with easy
indifference across a broader course to the west; gathering its volume
from the seasons, and leaving in the hot weather a margin of shining
stones upon both sides of the river bed. The hills are in pleasant
contrast to the even tenour of the veldt, and the cool waters of the
river invite repose. Small game lurk within the cover of the scrub,
mountain duck haunt the mountain cataract; cattle roam across the
land, snatching mouthfuls of dry herbage, while just now the sides of
the hills throw back the echo of the military occupation, the noises
of the camp, the calls of the horses upon the picket lines, the heavy
thudding of the picks, the shrill rasping of the shovels in the places
where the men are throwing up the necessary field works.
Everywhere is the spectacle of orderly bustle. The summits of the
hills are crowned with earthworks, brown lines of trenches traverse
the valley, block houses command the entrances of the bridge. These
are the signs of the times, encompassed in an unremitting rapidity of
execution. Colonel Kincaid rides from point to point, throwing advice
here, praise there, and expressing general satisfaction over the
labours of his men, as the scheme of defences runs to its conclusion.
Out across the plain, upon Reservoir Hill, the sappers are
constructing an entrenched position under the direction of Captain
Mills, R.A., and especially designed to protect the water supply.
Roads have been cut across the rear face of the hill, a breastwork of
stones and earth encircles the Reservoir, and gun emplacements flank
either extremity. It is a pretty work, carefully conceived, skilfully
constructed, commanding the portion of the camp, and sweeping the
approaches to the bridge. From the top of Reservoir Hill, no great
eminence, the surrounding country is easily inspected, and the more
one scans and studies the peculiarities of its formation, the more
one becomes impressed with the fact that it presents the gravest
obstacles to the British principles of military operations. A
well-equipped and mobile force will hold the hills for eternity--but
God help the troops who are launched against these awful kopjes which
create the strength of such positions. The officers commanding these
detached units along this border have received instructions to prepare
extensive lines of fortifications round their bases, and at De Aar, as
at Orange River and elsewhere, these commands have been complied with,
until now the positions need only the service of some good artillery
to be made impregnable. When cables be at the disposal of a possible
enemy, it is as well to be reticent upon the cardinal weaknesses
within our lines, but already there are signs of the extreme haste
with which the troops have been despatched to the front. No unit would
appear to be complete, despite the months of warning in which there
has been ample opportunity to prepare. Everything is rushed through at
the last, and although urgent orders be issued to make ready against
attack, no artillery is available for the purpose. Everything is
obscured in idle talk or deferred by empty promise, and the
authorities appear to be continuing a policy which gives to the Boers
some justification of their hopes of success. The Imperial
authorities, in relying so much upon the moral effect of their
artillery, appear to forget that the better it is, the more important
the results it achieves; the more important the position to be
defended, the better it should be. The Boers lose nothing by
possessing modern weapons of defence. But with a wing only of the
King's Own Light Infantry to occupy De Aar, and four companies of the
Loyal Lancashires to hold Orange River, the need of strong artillery
support is manifest. It has been laid down that the proportion of guns
to men is as near as possible three guns to one thousand men, but this
proportion must depend upon the nature of the service upon which the
force is to be employed, the topography of the theatre of war and the
quality of the troops. A force intended more for the occupation of
strong positions, must have a larger proportion of guns than an army
intended for offensive operations in the field. De Aar, as one base of
operations toward the lines of least resistance to the western,
southern, and south-eastern approaches to the Orange Free State, is
even more important than our position at Orange River, which is
intended, in the event of any campaign, to protect the railway bridge
and the lines of communication with the north. But at De Aar the lines
of railway, which converge upon it, link Pretoria and Bloemfontein to
Cape Town, connect the north with the south, join Cape Town with the
south and south-east by a stretch of line almost parallel with the
southern border of the Orange Free State. Yet, so dilatory have been
the efforts of headquarters to obtain the necessary artillery, that,
having reduced South Africa to a condition of war, they split up
between De Aar, Orange River, and other defenceless, but important,
strategic positions along the western border, improvised field
batteries drawn from any garrison lumber room which came handy.
The artillery at present upon this border is, as a consequence, the
seven-pound muzzle-loader which was obsolete when the passing
generation of officers were at the "shop." The inadequacy of the
artillery is a matter of the gravest concern, since, even if the
troops at these places be sufficient to police the disaffected areas,
and to hold in check the local disposition to rebel, in face of the
weapons of precision with which the Boer forces be armed, it would be
impossible, should they move forward, for the British artillery to
maintain any position which was incumbent upon the possession of good
artillery. So well is this realised by our Intelligence Department,
that elaborate precautions are taken by that Bureau, as well as all
commanding officers, to prevent the enemy from discovering that, in
its main part, the strength of the batteries in opposition has been
drawn from derelicts in the garrison stores. These improvised field
batteries might be of service in maintaining the line of communication
if any advance of British troops be made, but as an actual factor in
any defensive or offensive movements which the forces may undertake,
their restricted utility escapes all serious consideration, and puts
our present artillery almost at once out of action. The physical
configuration of the country urgently calls for the immediate despatch
of modern weapons, similar to those which the Sirdar used in his
Soudan campaign. In addition to this an exchange, piece by piece,
between these seven-pounder muzzle-loading monstrosities and the
converted twelve-pounders, breech-loaders and high-velocity quick
firers, might be seasonably effected. Five-inch howitzers, too, should
also be sent forward. But the lack of reliable artillery is
scandalous, and the sooner that guns, of a calibre which is in a true
proportion to the importance of the positions which they will command,
arrive upon the scene, the less uncertain will be the results of any
actual contact between our forces in their present deplorable
condition and those of the African Republics with whom we are so soon
to be at war.
CHAPTER V
DIAMONDS AND WHITE FEATHERS
THE CAMP, KIMBERLEY,
_September 28th, 1899_.
This usually dull and dirty mining station has now been occupied by a
small detachment of British troops. The force arrived here from the
camp at Orange River within the week, and include the 1st Loyal North
Lancashire, with its usual complement of machine guns, No. 1 Section
of the 7th Field Company of Royal Engineers, 23rd Company of Garrison
Artillery with 2.5 seven-pound muzzle-loaders on mountain carriages
(which are almost useless and certainly obsolete weapons), an
organised Army Medical Staff, and a transport most indifferently
equipped if it be intended for immediate and prolonged field service.
Yet it is claimed that nothing has been omitted which could make this
force an imposing factor in the chance of attack to which, from its
exposed situation, the hapless Kimberley is threatened. The Loyal
Lancashire Regiment is in full strength, but the battalions have been
divided between the positions here and the camp just south of the
Orange River. It is, of course, doubtful whether much be gained by
splitting up our forces along the border into small units, but at the
present juncture, when so few troops be in the colony, this policy is
receiving its own justification. We are all urgently hoping for the
arrival of troops, since if there were a general advance of the Dutch
troops, a contingency not by any means altogether remote, upon any one
of these well-defined but indifferently manned places, the task of
maintaining the advanced lines would be a severe strain upon the
efforts of the very limited number of men that are available at each
point. It is surely only within the limits of the British Empire that
a frontier line over 1,500 miles in extent would be kept absolutely
without any defensive measures; while it is Boer activity during the
past few weeks that has induced the Colonial authorities to adopt
their present precautions. Our troops are now more or less efficiently
prepared at certain points along this Western boundary, and, if no
order has yet come for their mobilisation, the steps necessary to
effect it have all been completed. At Kimberley, in the few days which
have elapsed, wonders in the preparation of the town's defences have
been worked, and the alarm which caused so much panic there before the
arrival of the soldiers has now, in part, subsided.
For many hours before the arrival of the troops at Kimberley crowds of
interested spectators besieged the railway station and thronged the
dusty thoroughfares of the town. The Imperial men detrained very
smartly to the sound of the bugle, off-loading the guns and ammunition
to the plaudits and delights of an admiring crowd. The actual
detraining took place at the Beaconsfield siding, two miles from
Kimberley, the men not making their camp in the town until the next
morning. For the time the transport was stored in the goods sheds,
and the troops arranged to bivouac beside the railway. The traffic
manager had prepared fires and boiling water before the men came, so
that soon after their arrival they were all served with dinner. The
detailing of guards, posting of sentries, and other evolutions
incidental to open camp, permitted Kimberley to indulge its taste for
military pomp and vanities. Imperial troops have not been here since
two squadrons of the 11th Hussars passed through from Mashonaland in
November, 1890, and the presence of the troops has inspired the
townfolk with a magnificent appreciation of the gallant men who have
come up for their protection. It is hoped that special means will be
taken to interest the troops in the few hours which they have free
from work. At present all attention is being devoted to the
construction of the defences of the town, to the formation of adequate
volunteer assistance, to the arrangement of a complete system of alarm
and rallying spots. Lieut.-Colonel Kekewich, in command of the
Imperial camp here, is anxious to assist the people in rifle practice
and field-firing; while the Diamond Fields Artillery and the De Beers
Artillery are to be called out for temporary service in conjunction
with the Imperial Artillery.
The rumour that a Boer force is within the vicinity of Kimberley has
done much to assist in the speedy formation of local forces, and now
that the train mules and private bullock teams have been requisitioned
for the Imperial service, there is much solemn speculation upon the
date of hostilities. The fact is that no one here can, with any
certainty, predict an hour. A shot anywhere will set the borderside
aflame. Moreover, the Boers are daily growing more impudent. At
Borderside, where the frontiers are barely eighty yards apart, a field
cornet and his men, who are patrolling their side of the line, greet
the pickets of the Cape Police who are stationed there with exulting
menaces and much display of rifles. But if the Dutch be thirsting in
this fashion for our blood, people at home can rest confident in the
fact that there will be no holding back upon the part of our men once
the fun begins. Seldom has such a determined and ferocious spirit
animated any British force as that one which is now stimulating the
troops in South Africa. Every man is sick of the Cabinet's delay, but
they find consolation in the fact that the slow movement of the
Ministerial machine is undertaken to avoid any precipitation of the
crisis before the forces to be engaged have arrived upon the scene.
Then it is every man's ambition to take his own share in "whopping"
Kruger.
I did not hurry to leave Kimberley; but the place where the diamonds
come from, the least admirable of any town on earth, is no longer
essential to my existence. It has neither charm nor elegance, and it
is sufficiently irregular in its construction to be the most barbarous
example of architecture in South Africa. It greets the traveller
enveloped in the haze of heat, and it bids him farewell through a
cloud of sand. But if one has once imagined what the appearance of the
mining town may be, let him give it a wide berth. It is a conglomerate
jumble of tin houses with dusty streets dedicated to modern industry,
and palpitating with the mere mechanical energy of native labour.
[Illustration: Major Lord Edward Cecil, C.S.O.]
Kimberley, however, was a convenient immediate base between Orange
River and Mafeking. Around these two places rumour was spreading a
well-woven net of probabilities, intimate yet inherently
impossible. War, bloody and fierce, was alternately looming large in
the horizon just above their situations, so for the moment I tarried,
watching the approach of impending battle from afar off. It was a fine
feeling, the constant thrill caused by the mere vividness of martial
rumours. They came from Buluwayo in the North, they came from Cape
Town in the South, they were brought daily from Bloemfontein; and if
they gave infinite zest to the passing hours, it was but the
happenings of the hour that they were doomed to be misbelieved. To
listen to the gossip and rumours of Headquarters at once became the
most serious interest which our life contained just now. Spies are
seen everywhere. Within the shade of every shadow there is said to
lurk a Boer secret service agent, and, as a consequence, the attitude
of the public is one in which each figuratively lays a grimy finger to
his nose and breathes blasphemies in whispers to his confiding friend.
The spy mania which swept through France but a few weeks ago has
appeared here, endowed with magnificent vitality. At Mafeking it has
dominated both the military and the public, and, as an illustration, I
append the official notice, on page 46, in which many of these gentry
are warned from the town by Lord Edward Cecil, Chief Staff Officer to
Colonel Baden-Powell.
NOTICE.
=SPIES=
There are in town to-day nine
known spies. They are hereby
warned to leave before 12 noon to-morrow
or they will be apprehended.
By order,
E. H. CECIL, Major,
C.S.O.
Mafeking,
7th Oct., 1899.
THE NOTICE TO SPIES ISSUED BY COL. BADEN-POWELL.
Kimberley has not yet gone so far as this notice, but a similar step
is in serious consideration, and the notice will soon be promulgated.
What with spies, war scares, reports of Boer invasion, and of active
hostilities having commenced, the Western border is living in a seethe
of excitement, and appreciating the crisis with but doubtful
enjoyment, and many signs of such indisputable terror. Kimberley has
called forth its volunteers, who in name are glorious, but in
utility uncertain. The Town Guard, after fortifying itself with much
Dutch courage, has taken unto itself a weapon of precision of which it
knows nothing. Infantry and musketry drill have not existed for the
town of diamonds; they are for the Cape Police, for the Mounted
Rifles, for Imperial troops; but for those who are regular in their
mining, but irregular in their drill, there is none of it. These
heroes shake with terror in private, but they gnash their teeth with
impotent valour in public; at heart they are rank cowards, for the
most part leaving to the few decently spirited the duties of volunteer
defence, and to the soldiery and constabulary the rigours of the
coming battle.
Nothing perhaps has been so discreditable as the hurried flight of men
from these towns which are within the area of possible hostilities. It
is perhaps different where they belong to the Transvaal, but one would
expect Englishmen, who have seen their womenfolk to places of
security, to proffer such service as could be turned to account in
these hours of emergency. It is an unpleasant fact to reflect upon
that the leaders of the general panic and consequent exodus from these
towns are mostly Britishers. From sheer force of numbers the
white-feathered brigade merits solicitous contempt.
Such is Kimberley in the passing hour, and as I waited there to see
whether the rumours would crystallise into actualities, the word was
passed round that three commandos of the Boers were concentrating upon
Mafeking. Heavens! how the specials skittled! By horse and on foot, by
cab and cart, they dashed to the station. Lord! and the train had gone
some hours! But, with the instinct of true war-dogs, they fled in
special expresses to the scene where attack was threatened. They might
have crawled from Kimberley to Mafeking on hands and knees, for Boers
may camp and Boers may trek, but war is still afar off. Had we not
travelled in such haste, the journey might have proved of interest,
but impatience made the time speed quickly, and the frontier posts
upon the road went by unnoticed. Just now these frontier stations are
of public interest. At Fourteen Streams, at Borderside, at Vryburg,
Boer commandos have laagered within a few yards of the frontier fence,
and since human nature is ever prone to politeness, it has become the
daily fashion for Boer and Britisher to swear at one another across
the intervening wires. John Bosman, a Borderside notoriety, implicated
in a late rising of the natives against Imperial authority, is in
command of one hundred and fifty "cherubs," as the Boer captain dubs
his gallant band. Matutinal and nocturnal greetings have enabled the
two forces to become acquainted with one another, and it is held to be
a sporting thing for men, from either force, to invade each other's
territory, inviting blasphemies and creating some excitement, since at
Borderside the friendly relations between the two countries be
altogether gainsaid.
CHAPTER VI
TWO DAYS BEFORE WAR
THE CAMP, MAFEKING,
_October 9th, 1899_.
Mafeking lies a day's journey by the train from Vryburg, and was once
the terminus of the Cape railway system pending its extension
northwards. Just now it is the embodiment of a fine Imperialism. There
is the dignity of empire in the shape of her Majesty's Imperial
Commissioner, Major Gould Adams, C.B., C.M.G.; the majesty of might,
as suggested by Colonel Baden-Powell, of the Frontier Force; by
Colonel Hore, of the Protectorate Regiment; by Colonel Walford, of the
British South Africa Police; by Colonel Vyvyan, base commandant; and
there are, too, the various strengths attached to the respective
commands. For weeks this little place has been terrorised by Boer
threats, until the presence of the military has reassured them. Now,
however, the veldt beyond the town has been effectively occupied by
the different commands, while within the town, or beyond its outer
walls, noise and bustle everywhere embody the grim reality of war. It
has not been possible to visit the different camps, in time for this
mail, since the exigencies of war have interfered with the dispatch
of the English letters from the more remote districts, and until the
country is more settled the night train service is altogether
discontinued. This week's mail is two days in advance of its usual
fixture; but perhaps we are fortunate, since the mail coach to
Johannesburg has discontinued running, its last journey from Mafeking
being confined to taking back to the Transvaal the few things which
belonged to it in Mafeking. The supplementary coach was behind, its
harness was stored in sacks upon the top, and thus it made its
departure. It had better have remained at Mafeking, for no sooner had
the coach passed the border-line than its mules were commandeered for
transport by order of the Transvaal Government.
Mafeking has entered into warlike preparations with commendable zeal,
but in reality men are uncertain whether to face the music or to skip
with their women and children. Ostensibly they wish to bear the brunt
of an attack upon their town, but as time wears on and the numbers of
the Boer force concentrated upon the border increase, the number of
men available for actual volunteer service grows beautifully less.
Mines have been laid down, fortifications thrown up, the volunteers
and local ambulance services have been called out, and an armoured
train patrols the line. The staff officers are everywhere, a crowd of
journalists drifts about smothered beneath a variety of secret
reports. Every one wears a worried look, and still the expected does
not happen. To break the monotony of false alarms, of the sound of
armed feet marching anywhere, of bells by day and rockets by night, of
irresponsible gossips chattering upon subjects they do not understand,
of the plague of locusts thick as fleas on Margate Sands (a plague as
great as the military bore)--there is lacking but one thing--WAR. The
troops want it to prove their efficiency, the journalists demand it to
justify their existence, the countryside approves since it has sent
the price of foodstuffs and of native labour to a premium, the Boers
want it as the first step in that great scheme by which they hope to
reduce London to ashes and sweep the red-vests of Great Britain into
complete oblivion.
But if the path of glory lies in that direction for the Boer
sharpshooter, Mafeking will present him with a splendid spectacle just
so soon as the curtain rises upon the drama of mortal combat between
Boer and Britisher. It is a straggling town this Mafeking, and covers
an area wider than its dignity demands. But should Commandant Cronje,
who is hovering upon the border at Louw's Farm with 6,000 Boers, come
down, in that spirit of unctuous rectitude which epitomises the
Scripture and so distinguishes the Boers, a bill will be settled by
this little town against the man who, already the hero of many
historical iniquities, baulked Jameson of his raid.
Upon this point Colonel Baden-Powell's notice to the inhabitants is
instructive:--
NOTICE.
DEFENCE MINES.
"The inhabitants are warned that mines are being laid at
various points outside the town in connection with the
defences. Their position will be marked, in order to avoid
accidents, by small red flags.
"Cattle herds and others should be warned accordingly.
"Mafeking: Dated this 7th day of October, 1899."
If this throws a sidelight upon the situation here, the second notice
paints in the background with gloomy shadows:--
"NOTICE.--It is considered desirable to state to the
inhabitants of Mafeking what is the situation up to date.
"Forces of armed Boers are now massed upon the Natal and
Bechuanaland Borders. Their orders are not to cross the
border until the British fire a shot, and as this is not
likely to occur, at least for some time, no immediate danger
is to be apprehended. At the same time a rumour of war in
Natal or other false alarm might cause the Boers upon our
border to take action, and it is well to be prepared for
eventualities.
"It is possible they might attempt to shell the town, and
although every endeavour will be made to provide shelter for
the women and children, yet arrangements could be made with
the railway to move any of them to a place of safety if they
desire to go away from Mafeking, and it is suggested that
some place on the Transvaal border, such as Palapye Siding,
or Francistown, might be more suitable and less expensive
places than the already crowded towns of the colony. The men
would, of course, remain to defend Mafeking, which, with its
present garrison and defences, will be easy to hold. Those
desirous of leaving should inform the Stationmaster,
Mafeking, their number of adults and children, class of
accommodation required, and destination.
"COLONEL BADEN-POWELL,
"Colonel Commanding Frontier Forces.
"October 7th, Mafeking."
One turns from this to learn that streets in the town are barricaded,
that the houses are sandbagged, that the railway is patrolled by an
armour-plated train, which is imposing if incapable of much
resistance. It is fitted with Nordenfeldt and Maxim quick-firing
machine guns, and provided with a phonophone and an acetylene
searchlight which stands like a fiery dragon at one end of the car.
The train is in three parts, the engine being placed between two
trucks. Each of the vehicles is about thirty feet long, mounted on
four pairs of wheels, and is capable of holding sixty men. The entire
train is covered over with 3/4-inch steel armour-plate over double
iron rails, but at some recent trial the bullets from Lee-Metfords and
Martinis penetrated at 200 yards' range through all thicknesses of
armour.
Mafeking is situated upon a rise about three hundred yards north of
the Molopo River, and from time to time its history has been
associated with military enterprises. It is not an unimportant town,
and in that day when it has been connected by railway with the
Transvaal and its present system has been improved, its commercial
importance will receive material increase. The present railway, which
cuts through Mafeking in its journey to Buluwayo, is to the west of
the town, running north and south and crossing the Molopo River by an
iron bridge, at which point the trend of the railroad inclines to the
west. To the west of the railway again is the native stadt, extending
to both sides of the river, and commencing about half a mile from the
railway. The stadt extends to the west from the base of a rise beyond
the bed of the river which, at present, covers the exterior line of
the western outposts. Near the railway the ground slopes gradually for
a considerable distance, while the country around Mafeking is flat in
general, but across the Molopo, to the south and south-east, it
commands the town, while the ground to the west of the stadt commands
the stadt. The native village rests upon this western face, and, owing
to the rough character of the country upon which the stadt lies, this
native town has received the name of "The Place among the Rocks."
About a mile from the town, and slightly east, there is an old fort
called Cannon Kopje, a hideous collection of stones, which is held by
a detachment of the British South Africa Police. It has an interior
diameter of some thirty yards. The native location lies between Cannon
Kopje and the town, on the southern bank of the river. The native
stadt consists of Kaffir huts. Further east, and between the native
location and Cannon Kopje, on the northern bank of the river, extend
the brickfields, while a little further in the same direction is
MacMullan's Farm. Between the farm and the ground to the north-east is
the racecourse and the waterworks, which are connected by a pipe with
The Springs, a natural water-hole to the east of the town. Cannon
Kopje is due south of the town, the cemetery north, the native stadt
west, the racecourse east. Between these points there are a few
buildings which serve as local landmarks. There is the Convent to the
north-east corner, Ellis's Corner south-east, the Pound south-west,
and the British South Africa Police Barracks west.
[Illustration: Outpost and Entrenchments, Southern Front.]
The town of Mafeking has been built upon a rock, the centre of the
town being the market square. Buildings extend at all points from the
square, running into the veldt, showing an irregularity of design and
no architectural perfection. The town is principally composed of
bungalows, built of mud-bricks, with roofs of corrugated iron. The
population in time of peace includes some 2,000 whites and some 6,000
natives. Just now there are perhaps 1,500 whites, 8,000 natives, the
ordinary population of the native village being swelled by the influx
of some native refugees from the Transvaal. The perimeter of the
defences is between five and six miles. The armoured train protects
the north-west front. Between the railway on the north-west and the
Convent, there are some trenches, built with an eye to their future
use. Upon the western and eastern bases of the town there are further
trenches, manned by the Protectorate Regiment, the Town Guard, and
other local volunteer corps. The town was garrisoned by the Cape
Police under Inspector Marsh and Inspector Brown. Colonel Walford held
Cannon Kopje with the British South Africa Police. Colonel Hore
commanded the Protectorate Regiment, which was scattered about the
defences of the town under its squadron officers. The western outposts
were entrusted to Major Godley, while in this direction there were
also the Women's Laager and the Refugee Laager in Hidden Hollow. To
the south-west was Major Godley's headquarters. Below this, and
further to the west, was Captain Marsh's post, upon the other side of
which, along the eastern front of the town, there are many forts in
process of construction. There are De Koch's, Musson's, Ellitson's
Kraal, Early's Corner. These forts will be garrisoned by the Town
Guard, and it is hoped that they will be provided with adequate
protection from the enemy's artillery. The Railway Volunteers
garrisoned the cemetery and controlled an advanced trench about eight
hundred yards to the front. In the meantime, every effort is being
made to press forward the work of constructing the defences, and every
one appears to be willing to assist. The aspect of the town is
gradually changing, and in the little time that is left to us we hope
to ensconce ourselves behind something of an impregnable defence.
CHAPTER VII
THE SKIRMISH AT FIVE MILE BANK
THE CAMP, MAFEKING,
_October 14th, 1899_.
Early this morning a mounted patrol under Captain Lord Charles
Bentinck reported the Boers in strong position to the north of the
town, and engaging them at once a general fight ensued.
Colonel Baden-Powell, upon receiving this information, instructed
Captain Fitzclarence, D Squadron Protectorate Regiment, which is
commanded by Colonel Hore, to cover the right flank of the armoured
train, which had already moved out to support the patrol of A
squadron, and which, under the direction of Captain Williams, British
South Africa Police, drove the Boer artillery from two positions.
It may be said that this movement began the more serious and certainly
the more determined portion of the engagement. Captain Fitzclarence
was accompanied by seventy men. Upon the termination of the fight he
had twelve wounded, two dead, and two others wounded so seriously that
they since died. The firing-line at no time contained more than two
troops, who, in extended order, and having seized the little cover
which was available, hotly contested the position against four hundred
Boers. Upon the arrival of the squadron under Captain Fitzclarence the
Boers again began to fall back, and withdrawing their right flank from
its propinquity to the armoured train, they projected their entire
force well beyond the right flank of Captain Fitzclarence. The two
forces both in extended order, the one falling back upon the lines of
a position which had been carefully selected and which was admirably
adapted to their methods of fighting, the other pursuing, then
prepared to settle matters between themselves. Had Captain
Fitzclarence but realised it, and had this young officer not been so
intrepid, he would have recognised in this Boer movement the ruse by
which they hoped to entice the "Red necks" within range of a position
from which they could be more effectually surrounded. The motive in
their movement to the rear was to secure the ample protection which
was offered to them by the low ridge covered with timber, scrub, large
masses of rock, and cut up by many little sluits, which extended along
the line of their retreat. When once the Boers had gained this ridge
they faced about, though it must not be imagined their retirement was
in any way a mad gallop. They fell back in as good order as our
squadron advanced, but so soon as they had lined up upon the ridge it
could be seen how very greatly the Boer detachment out-numbered the
men opposed to them. Moreover, in a little their artillery again spoke
for itself, impressing the situation with still greater gravity. When
the Boer guns opened fire Captain Fitzclarence very wisely availed
himself of the shelter of three native huts, for the better protection
of the horses and any wounded that might come on. Leaving his horses
here, he advanced with his men in extended order, until he had secured
a line of front immediately adjacent to the Boers. Indeed, our
firing-line was at first only four hundred yards from the ridge; but,
after a short experience of such close quarters, it was found to be
wiser to take up a position some four hundred yards further off. The
action of Captain Fitzclarence in endeavouring to meet the Boer
commando was one of those inopportune acts of gallantry where loss,
should the fight be successful, is overlooked. Technically speaking,
of course, the strategy was all at fault, and it soon was seen how
very serious the situation of Squadron D had become. By good luck I had
joined this squadron in its move to the front, and it was very
interesting to observe how a force, whose composite qualities were
quite unknown, showed itself to be worthy of the utmost respect, and a
corps upon which every reliance could be placed. Our men did not seem
to mind the formidable odds against which they contended. The only
disconcerting thing at the outset of the action being the position of
the artillery on the Boer side, but for some reason the Boers ceased
their shell fire very shortly after the action had begun. This again
is another of those extraordinary blunders which creep into most
fighting. The Boers might have wiped Squadron D out of existence by
playing their nine-pounders upon our position. As it was, the Boer
commandant withdrew his artillery from the fight and relied solely
upon his rifles. From the little ridge, which, when our own
firing-line had fallen back, was barely five hundred yards distant,
there came a shower of Mauser and Martini bullets. The direction from
which the fire came at first suggested that the Boers were undecided
as to the area of the position which they would occupy, since shortly
after the action began the enemy's line of fire expanded until it
extended beyond our front. For the moment the firing-line developed,
continuing to expand until it became evident that the fire of their
either flank was here most effectually enveloping the rear of our
position, and endangering our line of retreat as well as those who had
been sent to the improvised hospital in the native huts. But it was
impossible to avoid such a contingency with the numbers against which
we had to contend. Indeed, there was no point from which this
enveloping movement could be escaped, since the men with Captain
Fitzclarence were already unduly extended. The rifle fire was very
heavy.
From the ridge of the Boer position our complete formation and the
situation of each unit could be seen. It merely required a little
sharpshooting, keen sight, and sufficient energy to cause a disaster.
Our men lay upon the ground seeking cover where they could find it,
but they had neither the trees, nor the low-lying shrubs, nor the
rocks, nor the sluits which had lent themselves to the Boers' shelter.
They simply lay, a determined body of men, individually keen for
distinction, and individually keen to put the Boers out of existence.
The firing became hot and so rapid that in a very short time the heavy
drain upon our ammunition was beginning to have effect. This again
establishes the position of D Squadron. There were no supplies, nor
was there any artillery support until too late. There was no
ambulance, and no effective preparation for retirement. The horses
behind the huts, the men in the front, were each in a position from
which it certainly seemed that escape was impossible. The Boers, upon
the contrary, had a train of supplies and an excellent line of cover
for retreat.
The first Boer shell killed two horses and reduced to ruins a hut from
the group which had given some protection to the wounded. The second
shell fell wide, exploding, with no effect, into a sand heap. Between
the intervals of shelling, the fire from the Boer Maxims whistled
across the open spaces between the two firing-lines with a discord
which was altogether out of harmony with the calmness and coolness of
our men who, so soon as they had settled down to the serious business
of the engagement, did not seem at all to mind the firing.
Two cousins, Corporal Walshe and Corporal Parland, Irishmen, were shot
dead very soon after the engagement opened, but the absence of
ambulance arrangements prevented those who were wounded in the
advanced position from falling back to the rear. With a quiet and
unsuspected courage they just stopped where they were shot until they
could muster sufficient strength to drag themselves to the rear. Each
wounded form became, as it crawled along, the objective of the Boer
rifle fire, and no few of those who had been hit in action were hit
again as they made their way to the field hospital. Here Major
Anderson, with whom I remained from the moment of my arrival until we
retired--who told me afterwards that it was a mere chance which caused
him to accompany the squadron to the field, since in the confusion and
din no one had thought to give him his orders--was busily dressing the
men as they came in. The total area of the improvised dressing station
was perhaps half a dozen yards; into that crowded six or seven horses,
seven or eight wounded men, the Surgeon-Major, his orderly, and all
those others who made their way through the firing-line from time to
time. There seemed to be indescribable confusion in this little spot.
The wounded men lay between horses' legs, rested upon one another,
crouched against the walls of the huts, each recognising that the
situation was one of gravity, and endeavouring to assist so far as he
was able; those who were not too severely wounded helped to undress
those who had been less fortunately hit, and to each as he fell back
from the firing-line to have his wounds dressed, there was thrown a
merry jest from his comrades. The nature of the wounds created no
little interest among the men, since it was the first time that any
one had seen the effect, upon human beings, of the Mauser bullets. One
man as he came back was advised not to sit down; another man, with
extraordinary coolness in seeing the nature of his wounds, which were
seven, exclaimed with a quaint blasphemy, that it still might be
possible for him to enjoy the functions of a married man. But if this
were the scene at the hospital base, the scene at our firing-line and
at that upon the Boer side was very different. We possibly occupied a
line of front some eighty yards in extent, and as the Boers saw that
the hospital hut was becoming the centre of our position, so they
extended their lines until a direct cross fire from the extremities of
the two flanks were added to the direct fire from the centre; each
man, therefore, was under a converging fire from three distinct
points, and had it not been that the Boers' aim was not so good as
their range our losses would have been much more serious than has
happily proved to be the case. We could see the Boers sitting in the
branches of the trees; we could see them crouching beneath bushes; we
could detect them, from the fire of their rifles, in the shelter of
the rocks and in the depths of the sluits. It soon became the first
serious consideration with our men to try to hit them as they sat in
the branches of the trees, and it was because Private Wormald caught
sight of a piece of a paper as it dropped from a tree that he was able
to shoot the Dutchman who was known to have shot the two cousins. It
was almost a unique method of warfare. Anon and again our fellows
enjoyed a little Boer potting among the foliage of the trees. Here and
there a body was seen to fall heavily from a branch, or to spring up
and fall heavily into a bush; that was as much as we could gauge of
the effect of our own handiwork. Those who were behind the stones were
possibly as safe as those who were in the sluits, but through the lack
of any effective support our shooting, good as it may have been, was
not sufficiently strong for us to maintain our position. If D Squadron
were to save itself from an unfortunate disaster it seemed that it
would have to fall back. The wounded men had come in so rapidly from
the front, and ammunition had been so heavily expended, that many of
those situated upon the extreme flanks of our position were completely
without ammunition. In one case five men had no ammunition left, and
one volunteered to go to the rear to obtain some from those who had
been wounded, and were consequently out of action. He successfully
accomplished this errand, sustaining, however, such wounds as must
prove fatal.
Captain Fitzclarence maintained his splendid isolation as long as
possible, and just as every one was wondering why, in the name of
Heaven, no artillery had been sent to support the squadron in a
position it was never intended to occupy, a gun detachment was seen
to gallop into action on the extreme right flank. Between our men and
the gun perhaps a mile stretched, and when we could see that they were
preparing to fire, each for a brief moment stopped to congratulate his
fellow upon the succour at hand. In this they didn't think of
themselves, but they hoped that with the aid of the gun they might
still be able to maintain their position and give the enemy a hiding.
Suddenly a cloud of smoke hung over the gun and a shell shrieked
through the air. We rapidly speculated upon the amount of damage it
would make, when, with noisy force, it burst among us. We thought at
first that the shell had fallen short, and we hoped the next would
reach the enemy, but when Lieutenant Murchison, who was in charge of
the gun, dismissed his second shell, and it was so well directed as to
fall upon one of the three huts behind which we were sheltering, the
luckless position of D Squadron received unmerited but instantaneous
aggravation and aggrievement, since it was turning the tables with a
vengeance upon the enemy when the guns coming to our support set,
forthwith, to shell us. The menace which our own artillery had thus
unconsciously become to one portion of our wounded men about these
huts had to be immediately removed, and I was one of two who were
permitted to carry intelligence of his mistake to the officer in
charge of the seven-pounder. In galloping across to the position of
the gun, the third shell thrown in this direction burst just past my
horse's head, the force of its wind almost lifting me from the saddle.
The moment was of interest, and I only realised my escape when, upon
returning, I found the base of the shell and my helmet lying quite
close to each other. When a new direction had been given to the guns,
and their fire brought to bear upon the position which the Boers
occupied, the rifle fire from the front of the ridge gradually
slackened, while, under cover of the very excellent work which this
gun was executing, our men fell back upon the hospital. Here an order
had just arrived instructing Fitzclarence to send back his wounded to
the armoured train, those uninjured covering the movement. While the
squadron was engaged in completing this order, no shots were fired
from the position of the Boers, and we concluded that they also were
engaged in withdrawing at discretion. Captain Fitzclarence, Lieutenant
Swinburne, and myself were the last to leave the line of action,
tailing off ourselves in the same open order that the remainder of the
squadron had been ordered to preserve. As we retired Captain
Fitzclarence put three wounded horses out of their misery, leaving
their bodies for the vultures that were already wheeling in circles in
the realms of space above us. These were the last shots fired in this
action, although through mistake, the Boers had fired upon the
ambulance train, mistaking it for a new instrument of destruction.
Subsequently we heard that the Boers buried their dead at
Ramathlabama, and we also have heard that all the houses in that place
have been seized as accommodation for the 107 Boers who were wounded
in the fight. These numbers may probably be exaggerated, but there is
no cause to doubt that their loss was much greater than ours, since
the proportion of their men to ours was greater than twelve to one.
Saturday thus initiated the Boer war along this frontier, and after
the morning's excitement the rest of the day passed without incident.
Colonel Baden-Powell, Colonel Hore, and Colonel Walford, the one as
the colonel in command, the others as the commanding officers of the
Protectorate Regiment and the British South Africa Police,
congratulated their men upon the stand which they had made in the
morning, and the courage which they had displayed. Brevet-Major Lord
Edward Cecil, C.S.O., described Captain Fitzclarence's movement as
brilliant. It is a question whether this movement was not, at least,
characterised by an equal amount of foolhardiness. However, the
officer himself showed such coolness in this his baptism of fire as to
deserve much congratulation upon his individual gallantry.
CHAPTER VIII
THE FIRST DAY OF BOMBARDMENT
THE CAMP, MAFEKING,
_October 22nd, 1899_.
There was some sign that the engagement of Saturday between the
Protectorate troops and the Boer forces investing Mafeking would have
been the precursor of a series of minor fights, which, if not of much
importance in themselves, yet would have been of interest and
encouraging to the command generally.
As it happens, however, the engagement of Saturday is the first, and,
up to the present, the only action of any importance, of any interest
whatsoever, that has been brought about between the two forces.
General Cronje is evidently a man of some humanity, though it is
perhaps possible that the motives which direct his present policy of
exceeding gentleness towards the "Rooineken" that he be besieging in
Mafeking, aims at procuring for himself, when the inevitable does
come, terms perhaps not quite so extreme as would have been the case
had the Boer commandant not conducted his operations in accordance
with the articles of war.
During the progress of the Sunday following the engagement at Five
Mile Bank, Commandant Cronje made a curiously sincere, but not
altogether unhumorous demand for our unconditional surrender. Colonel
Baden-Powell very properly felt he was unable to comply with any such
demand, and with the exchange of notes of a courteous character this
incident closed.
During Sunday the town put the finishing touches to the earthworks,
lunettes, and to the gun emplacements, which will form a more or less
complete chain of fortifications around the town. So much as possible,
and so far as it lay within the knowledge and experience of the Base
Commandant, Colonel Vyvyen, and Major Panzera, each distinct earthwork
was made shell-proof.
From the outside the town looks as if a series of gigantic mounds had
been suddenly created. At different points tiers of sandbags, several
feet high, protect the more exposed places, and to these again has
been added, as an exterior facing, banks of earth. Within such a
position as I am now describing there is a deep trench, which is of
that depth which enables a man standing upright to fire through
loopholes between sacks of sand. Behind the trench is a low shelter of
deals with an upper covering of sandbags, intending to serve the
garrison of the fort as protection against shell fire.
To those points which are exposed to the more direct attack of the
enemy, a Maxim has been detached or a seven-pounder emplaced. The Town
Guard man these positions: the work of patrolling, of forming Cossack
posts, of maintaining the outer lines of sentries, being undertaken by
the Protectorate troops and the Bechuanaland Rifles.
[Illustration: Headquarters, Bomb-proof Shelter.]
An elaborate system of signals has been arranged. A red flag will
fly from Headquarters should the Boers be coming on, and an alarm will
be rung in the centre of the town. The streets have been barricaded
with carts, and all open places protected by traverses of a useful
character. Mines have been placed within and without the town, and an
improvised field telegraph or the telephone has been connected with
every point which lies beyond the immediate precincts of the defences.
Every possible precaution that human ingenuity can devise and the
resources of the town supply for the protection of the place, is in
order.
Thus did Mafeking prepare for the Boer bombardment, and upon the
Monday following this took place; but it is perhaps no exaggeration to
say that nothing so ludicrous in the history of modern warfare has
been propagated as the gigantic joke which Commandant Snyman, who
directed the fire of the artillery, played off against us that day.
For many weeks we, along this frontier, had heard what the Boers
proposed to do once war should be declared. These forecasts had indeed
been sanguinary; the heads of the English people, had we believed in
these rumours, were to lie upon the veldt like the sand upon the sea
shore.
The bombardment as such was totally ineffective, and so curiously
amateur, so wholly experimental, as to move one to astonishment rather
than derision. It began at 9.15 a.m., and the first shell fell blind.
The second and the third also pitched short, but once the bombardment
had been initiated, the feelings of those who had dreaded such an
event, more on account of their women and children than on account of
themselves, were unperturbed. When the shells began to fall into the
town it was found that they were of such poor quality as to be
incapable of any explosive force whatever. Judging from their effect
the area of damage was not three square feet.
Shortly after the first few shells had been dropped the Boers found
the range, and from Signal Hill, their position to the east of the
town, threw several shells at the hospital and monastery. Strange as
it may seem our most grievous cause of complaint against the Boer plan
of war is that they do not respect sufficiently our Red Cross flag.
Commandant Snyman had given us no time in which to remove our women
and children, and, as a consequence, we established somewhat hurriedly
a laager, in which they were confined and which it was hoped would be
beyond the fire of the Boer, since we afforded it the protection of
the Red Cross flag. This, so far as the laager was concerned, luckily
proved to be the case, since on the occasion that Commandant Cronje
sent in to apologise for the firing upon the Red Cross by his younger
roughs during the Five Mile Bank fight, Colonel Baden-Powell took the
opportunity of pointing out to him the precise significance of this
flag, and the exact whereabouts of the buildings which enjoined its
protection. In the absence of direct evidence of the enemy's intention
upon this day, in the repugnance with which one would charge them with
wilful abuse of the Red Cross, it is good to believe that Colonel
Baden-Powell's letter was not communicated to Commandant Snyman
previous to this action, for from the moment that this officer opened
the bombardment until his artillery ceased fire for the day, each
individual missile was thrown directly across the hospital and
monastery. It was unfortunate that these buildings should have been in
the line of fire, and it was a fact greatly to be deplored that the
hospital should be filled, at such a moment, with women and wounded,
the former magnanimously devoting themselves to the work of looking
after those who had been disabled in Saturday's engagement. It was
perhaps unavoidable, with such a line of fire, that the shells should
not drop upon the hospital and monastery. Fearing this as we did, the
garrison was filled with consternation when, so abruptly that we had
scarcely realised what had been the actual object of the nameless
dread by which the camp was suddenly depressed, the inevitable
happened and we knew that a shell had burst within the hospital
itself. Had this shell been of the quality and explosive character
that we had been led to expect, one entire side of the hospital would
have been reduced to ruins; as it was, however, the area of
destruction most remote from the point of penetration was not three
feet in circumference. A little of the masonry was destroyed, a few
boards of the floor ripped up, and that was all. Dust and dirt,
however, covered everything.
Two more shells penetrated the same building in the course of the
attack--the one burst in the principal waiting-room, the other played
havoc with the children's dormitory. Fortunately no one was injured,
and it was a happy omen for future shelling that throughout the whole
of the first bombardment no human life was lost in Mafeking. There
were no casualties, and three buildings, the hospital, the monastery,
and Riesle's Hotel, alone were struck. The dead comprised one chicken.
There were many narrow escapes. My horse was fastened to the
hitching-post outside Riesle's Hotel at the very moment that a shell
burst against the steps of the verandah, but this animal would seem
to enjoy a happy immunity from shell fire, since at the Five Mile
Bank engagement there was a shell which burst within three or four
feet of him.
Our guns made no return whatever to the fire of the Boers, beyond a
chance shot which exploded by accident. After this very ineffective
and amusing bombardment had continued for some hours the enemy ceased
firing, and from their position only 2,000 yards from the town, and to
which they had moved from Signal Hill, where the attack had begun, the
usual messenger, half herald, half spy, was despatched to our lines.
It has become quite a feature of the Boer operations against Mafeking
for them to enjoy at every few hours a cessation of hostilities under
a flag of truce, and, I regret to say, that these constant messages in
the middle of an action, from the Boer Commandant to Colonel
Baden-Powell, are sent with an ulterior motive. The Boer Commandants
would appear to lack that experience of the conditions of warfare
which should enable them to perceive the folly and futility--if not
the guilt--of such procedure as they have been following since
operations against this town began. It was, perhaps, as much through
our own ignorance of the character of the enemy whom we were fighting
as anything, that they secured any profitable information by these
tactics, since we had expected that they would observe the unwritten
regulation which restricts the progress of a flag of truce to a point
half-way between the lines of the two forces. Upon no occasion at this
period in the investment did the Boers recognise this custom, but
securing cover where they could they crept down to our lines under
protection of the white flag. By these means they secured valuable
intelligence.
The Boer emissary was allowed safe conduct into our lines, and was
escorted by Captain Williams, of the British South Africa Police, who
was in command of the armoured train, and Lieutenant the Honourable
Hanbury-Tracy of Headquarters Staff, who had been sent out to meet
him. The messenger was conducted to Colonel Baden-Powell, who received
through this medium a second demand for unconditional surrender.
Commandant Snyman presented his compliments to Colonel Baden-Powell,
and desired to know if, to save further bloodshed, we would now
surrender. Colonel Baden-Powell received this message with polite
astonishment, and while not telling the deputy of Commandant Snyman
that his shell fire had only spilt the blood of a fowl, and knocked
small pieces out of three buildings, replied, that so far as we were
concerned, we had not yet begun. While the Headquarters Staff were
deliberating upon the reply to such a momentous message, the messenger
was regaled with beer and bread and cheese. He was escorted back at
4.45 p.m., and for the time being shell fire ceased.
On Monday the armoured train took up a position in advance of the
town, and in such a manner that it was completely sheltered from the
Boer position. It so happened that the Boer messenger came directly
upon this train, which was patiently waiting for the enemy's line of
fire to be advanced a few hundred yards further, before opening its
artillery. The little ruse which we had so carefully planned was thus
forestalled, and to prevent further disclosures being made the herald
was therewith blindfolded. It was a strange spectacle to see this Boer
being brought through our lines with a somewhat soiled handkerchief
across his eyes. His flag of truce comprised three handkerchiefs tied
to a bamboo, and as he came forward it waved with a motion in which
fright played as great a part as dignity.
The Boer Commandant had evidently determined to shell Mafeking from
three positions, but force of circumstances, and the undesirability of
throwing up earthworks under the telling fire which would have been
poured into him from our own trenches, prevented him bringing his
heavy artillery into position. He had stormed Mafeking from Signal
Hill with a twelve-pound Krupp, but when he advanced into a range of
2,000 yards he fell back upon a seven-pounder, and a nine-pound
high-velocity Krupp. These guns were quite unprotected by earthworks
and could be easily seen from the town. Indeed it was the possibility
of their being put out of action by our guns which instigated the
Commandant to secure a cessation of hostilities by despatching his
messenger upon some fatuous errand to Colonel Baden-Powell while he
and his entire force busied themselves in erecting breastworks about
his field pieces.
The Boer emissary arrived at 2.30 p.m., and no sooner had he been
received by us than the Boers began to work with pick and shovel,
continuing their labours throughout the conference. By the time that
their herald had returned two emplacements had been prepared and their
locality partially concealed by a quantity of small bushes and scrub
with which they had been covered.
It may be that Commandant Snyman was unaware of the breach of faith he
was committing in working upon his trenches under a flag of truce. It
is our hope that this should prove to be the case, since we would not
willingly believe that the Boers be so lost to the sense of fairness
which should underlie the provisions which prevail during any
cessation of hostilities as to promote a condition of truce for
interests of their own. But should this be, indeed, the extent of the
ignorance of the Boer Commandant upon the conditions governing war,
let us trust that he may soon furbish up his knowledge upon these
especial points.
When the messenger returned to his lines, the Boers proceeded to
advance in force upon the waterworks, and, driving in our outposts,
they have since maintained a control over our water supply. The town,
therefore, is wholly without water from this source, although we be
not in any way frightened at the loss of the springs, since many wells
have been opened out and many promising springs have been located
within the radius of the town, some of which watered the troops of the
Warren expedition. When we consider that to the majority this is their
first experience of war, and that the length of the siege is unknown
and more than likely to be protracted, it must be admitted that
Mafeking is bearing itself wonderfully well. The few women and
children who remained here show a dauntless front, while the men are
only too anxious, and indeed too willing, to indulge in some sniping
on their own account.
Nevertheless, the position of Mafeking at the present moment is one
which, if giving no cause for alarm, is at least unsatisfactory. Our
wires are still cut to north and south. Our line is up, and all around
us the Boers are supposed to be encamped, yet as the days go on it is
becoming harder and harder to realise that we are seriously engaged in
war, and we are more inclined to believe in the cheery optimism of
Colonel Baden-Powell. It is very like some gigantic picnic, although
it may doubtless be food for disquieting reflection. Occasionally we
sleep out at night, and are in the trenches all day, but upon the
whole it is quite impossible to believe that we are engaged in
repelling an enemy who already are investing us.
To get away from the hotels, to get more into contact with the spirit
of the siege, I have been camping out for some days at the most
outlying position upon the west facing of the town, but even by such
means it is infinitely difficult to find much that is instinctive with
active and actual campaigning. We perform the duties of a vedette,
watching by day and night, sleeping at oddly-snatched moments, ever
ready, and straining our vision in wild efforts to find trace of the
foe. But it amounts to but little in the end.
Since Monday we have seen small detachments of the Boers daily, we
have even exchanged outpost fire with them, while we have on three
different occasions turned our guns upon their position at the
waterworks; but these occurrences are purely incidental and not wholly
relative to the main features of the situation. It has become quite
necessary for us to justify our own existence, and since there be but
such vague signs of war around us, this desire has become infinitely
more difficult of fulfilment. As the time passes we receive messages
daily from different units in the Boer commando to friends in
Mafeking, which are sometimes amicable, sometimes impudent in
character; but to increase the irony of our situation, if we be
engaged in the press of battle at dawn, it is certain that at dusk we
shall be dining with no small degree of luxury at the hotel.
At present there has been no misery, for there has been no war, and
apart from the five lives that have been lost already, Mafeking to-day
is as it was a month ago. It would seem as though this gigantic war,
which so many people have been urging upon the Government, in relation
to the operations of the enemy along this frontier may develop into a
series of cattle raids by armed Boers. But if there be little in the
immediate situation to alarm us, there is behind the rose and silver
of the clouds a dark spot, a spot which growing bigger, ever bigger as
the days go by, implies that signs of the times are not wanting to
prove that our official optimism, forecasting the siege as but of
three weeks' duration, is based upon anything less secure than the
imaginings of a man who, knowing the hollowness of his words in his
own heart, seeks but to cheer the hearts of the garrison. There was
little sign of readiness in the Imperial troops, little to show that
they can relieve Mafeking before the year dies out in the birth of the
closing twelve months of the nineteenth century. But it were heresy to
say so now. The idle singer of an empty day dares not pronounce the
denunciation of his country in her hour of danger. Nevertheless, if
Mafeking be not relieved before the Christmas season, the hour of our
existence will be an hour of travail, impressed with the echoes of
much suffering and saddened by the memories of many who will be dead.
But for the time we will ignore the gravity in our situation, mock at
our splendid isolation, our scanty resources, since to dwell too long
upon the guilty splendour of the naked truth is to beget an
earnestness which will depress our spirits, allowing us to read out
the future of the siege in words of deadly omen.
CHAPTER IX
THE ADVENT OF "BIG BEN"
MAFEKING, _October 25th, 1899_.
To-day is the third day of the bombardment by which Commandant Cronje
is attempting to realise his threat of reducing Mafeking to ashes. Up
to the present it has been impossible to consider very seriously the
attempt of the Boers to besiege Mafeking. The earlier bombardment and
the series of events which have occurred during the interval have not
augmented the gravity of the situation. The Boer Commandant
endeavoured to carry out his word by opening the second bombardment of
Mafeking upon the day which he had notified Colonel Baden-Powell. We
had been incredulous at the threat of the Boers to send to Pretoria
for some siege guns. Monday, therefore, was a day of some anxiety for
us, and each was curious to know what result the enemy's fire would
produce. Upon this occasion, however, the townsfolk had reckoned
without taking into account the intentions of Colonel Baden-Powell,
and it was a very pleasant surprise to find that the bombardment of
Mafeking by the Boers had been converted into the bombardment of the
Boers by Mafeking. At a very early hour, two guns, which had been
placed near the reservoir, opened fire upon the enemy's artillery in
position at the water springs. The artillery duel which was thus
started continued for some hours, and if it did not do much damage to
either side it made manifest to the Boers that the defences of
Mafeking were not altogether at their mercy. About noon, however, the
Boers, who had been observed to place some guns in position upon the
south-west side of the town, threw shells at Cannon Kopje. Here again,
fortunately, no material damage was done.
Somewhat early in the afternoon, the look-outs reported tremendous
activity in the Boer camp. Across the veldt, those who cared, might
have seen the enemy engaged upon some enormous earthwork, which the
general consensus of opinion very quickly determined to be the
emplacements for the siege guns. They were about three miles away from
the town, and in a position different from that from which the guns
had shelled the kopje in the morning. The frequency with which shells
had exploded within the limits of Mafeking, had rendered the people
somewhat callous of the consequences, and despite an official warning
which was issued to the town, a large number of people stood
discussing, in excited groups, the value of this news, while no small
proportion of the population had gathered upon the west front to watch
with their glasses the completion of the enemy's earthworks. It was
three miles across the veldt, a mere black shadow upon the skyline,
distinguished by its proximity to a local landmark, the "Jackal Tree,"
where the Boers had intrenched their Creusot gun. It was not so much
that there were no other guns around us which had drawn the crowd, as
the morbid curiosity to see for themselves what perhaps in a few
hours they might never see again. At different points upon the eastern
and western heights the Boer guns had been stationed. To the
south-east there was a twelve-pounder at a very convenient range, and
so placed as to act as a flanking fire to the direct onslaught of "Big
Ben." Upon the extreme east there were two seven-pounders, one in
position at the water springs, the other covering the entire front of
the town. Upon the west and to the north the enemy had similarly
placed their guns. There was a seven-pounder emplacement, with a
Nordenfeldt support due west, 1,400 yards from the native stadt. Below
that, and between it and the north, the Boers had a Maxim. It is,
perhaps, somewhat extraordinary that an enemy who has procured the
best available artillery advice, should proceed to attack the town in
such a fashion, and much of the failure which has distinguished the
Boer bombardment is due to the fact that, instead of concentrating
their fire upon a series of given spots, they have maintained
simultaneous shelling from isolated points. As their shells fell, the
damage which they caused was scattered over a wide area, and confined
to a building here and there. Indeed, the greater portion of the
shells had merely ploughed up the streets. However, it was not to be
confirmed that afternoon. An hour after noon on the following day the
alarm rang out from the market place, the red flag was seen to fly
from headquarters, and the inhabitants were warned to take immediate
cover. Within a few minutes of the alarm, the proceedings for that day
began, and the first shell thrown from the Boer battery burst over our
camp. Presently on the distant skyline a tremendous cloud of smoke
hurled itself into the air. The very foundations upon which Mafeking
rests seemed to quiver, all curiosity was set at rest, and there was
no longer any doubt as to the nature of the new ordnance which the
Boers had with them. With a terrific impact the shell struck some
structures near the railway, and the flying fragments of steel spread
over the town, burying themselves in buildings, striking the veldt two
miles distant, creating a dust, a horrible confusion, and, an instant,
terror throughout the town. For the moment no one seemed to know what
had happened, when the sudden silence which had come upon the town was
broken by the loud explosion of the shell as it came in contact with
some building. It was a scene of unique interest, the rush of air, the
roar of its flight, the final impact, and the massive fragments of
steel and iron which scattered in all directions, gave no time for
those who had been exposed, to realise the cause of the disturbance.
Much as people throng to the spot where some appalling catastrophe has
occurred, so, a minute after the shell exploded, people appeared from
all directions to run to the scene, and although the shell had caused
no very great damage, the noise which it had made, its unusual size
and explosive force, did not tend to pacify people. Many were
convinced that Mafeking was doomed, and although no loss of life
occurred, there were few who did not think that their days were
numbered. In the course of the afternoon, after a rain of seven-and
nine-pound shells, the Boers opened with this gun again, and although
happily no loss of life occurred, the missile wrecked the rear of the
Mafeking Hotel, falling within a few feet of Mr. E. G. Parslow, the
war correspondent of the _Chronicle_. The force of the explosion
hurled this gentleman upon a pile of wood, blew the walls out of
three rooms, set fire to a gas engine, and effectually littered the
yard of the hotel. With the curious inconsequence which has marked the
Boer proceedings in their investment of Mafeking, the enemy threw no
more of these heavier shells during the afternoon, contenting
themselves with discharging at odd moments those of lesser calibre.
The two shells which had been fired during the afternoon gave the
inhabitants of Mafeking some little ground by which to judge the
nature of the bombardment on the morrow. After the cessation of
hostilities word was passed round that the two shells which had been
launched at Mafeking were a 64lb. howitzer and a 94lb. breech-loading
siege gun, and that it might be reckoned that these were but the
preliminary shots by which to measure the range. Officially it was
notified that every precaution must be taken to remain within the
bomb-proof shelters which the inhabitants of Mafeking had been advised
to construct. It is the presence of these pits which explains the
slight loss of life that has occurred during the Boer bombardment of
Mafeking. Up to to-day the effect of the terrible hail of shells which
has poured into the town has been but a few slight wounds. But there
could be no doubt that the more serious fighting was at last to take
place, and it seemed to us only natural to expect a general advance
upon Mafeking in the morning. The night passed with every man sleeping
by his arms and at his post. The women and children had been removed
to their laager, the horses were picketed in the river-bed, and once
again all preparations for defence, and all those measures which had
been taken to secure immunity from shell fire were, for the last time,
inspected. Firing began very early on Wednesday morning, a gun
detachment under Lieutenant Murchison opening with a few shells from
our position to the east of the town. When the light had become clear
the Boers brought their new siege guns once more into play. We
estimated at nightfall that the enemy must have thrown rather more
than two hundred shells into Mafeking, and if Mafeking be saved for
future bombardment its salvation lies in the fact that it is,
relatively speaking, little more than a collection of somewhat
scattered houses with tin roofs and mud walls. Any other form of
building would have been shaken to its foundations by the mere
concussion of these bursting shells. Where bricks would have fallen,
mud walls simply threw down a cloud of dust. But if Mafeking be still
more or less intact, it can congratulate itself upon having withstood
a most determined and concentrated shell fire.
It is difficult to defend the action of the Boers in laying upon
Mafeking the burden of these siege guns. We have heard no little from
Commandant Cronje upon the rules of warfare, as set out by the Geneva
Convention, by time-honoured practices, and by that sense of custom
and courtesy which at the present day still brings back some slight
echo of the chivalry which distinguished the wars in dead centuries.
Nevertheless, there is a grim and ill-savoured travesty in the Boer
bombardment of this town. We do not complain, and we must be forgiven
if we find some ironical and melancholy interest attaching itself to
our situation. Three times has Colonel Baden-Powell pointed out to
Commandant Cronje the buildings which enjoy the immunity of the Red
Cross flag, yet these buildings are still deliberately made the
objective of the Boer artillery; twice have we received flags of truce
from the Boers, ignoring altogether the fact that they were but the
clumsy subterfuge by which an unprincipled enemy secured to itself
some new and advantageous position for its guns; then, as a crowning
act of mercy, we have this Boer Commander, so blatant a gentleman that
he is by sheer force of his aggressive impudence worthy of our
attentions, training upon a defenceless town a 64lb. howitzer and a
94lb. breech-loading siege gun, pieces whose action is relegated by
these self-same observances of civilised warfare to towns who possess,
in the first place, strong fortifications; in the second, masonry and
concrete in their construction.
After the early morning hours had been whiled away Commandant Cronje
made preparations for a general advance upon the town under the
protection of his cannon fire. This was the moment which each of us
had longed for. As the Boer advance seemed to be concentrated upon the
eastern side, I proceeded to the redan at De Koch's Corner under Major
Goold-Adams, and, later on, to another a little lower down in the same
quarter of the town under Captain Musson. At this time, any one who
can, is supposed to bear arms to defend our position, and, so as to
more completely identify themselves with the movement for protection
of this place, the correspondents that are here are each carrying
their rifle and bandolier, and taking up their stand in some one of
the trenches. The correspondent of the _Chronicle_, Mr. E. G. Parslow,
the correspondent for Reuter's, Mr. Vere Stent, and myself, requested
Captain Musson, a local dairy farmer, who has been placed in charge of
one of the redans upon the east front, to allow us to assist him in
the protection of his earthwork, and it was from there, as a
consequence, that I watched the bombardment of Mafeking, taking an
active part in any rifle practice which Captain Musson permitted to
his men. At Major Goold-Adams's there had been stationed a Maxim
detachment, and it was not long before its sharp rat-a-tat-tat was
heard speaking to the enemy. The warm reception which was accorded to
the Boers from this redan soon began to draw their fire. With "Big
Ben" discharging its 94lb. shells in every quarter of the town, and a
12-pounder from the north-west dropping shrapnel with much
discrimination over that quarter, the enemy upon the east side soon
followed the example so shown them and discharged shells at the redans
along their front. The range was singularly good, and in a very few
minutes shells were dropping over and in very close proximity to our
two redans. Between the two, and but a little removed from the line of
fire, was the building of the Dutch Reformed Church, and several of
the shells intended for the Maxim in Major Goold-Adams's fort found
lodgment in its interior. The front of this church had been penetrated
in several places by the shells, when the gun was slewed suddenly
round upon the hospital and a shell fell in an outhouse attached to
the monastery with disastrous effect. When the smoke had cleared away
little was left of the building beyond a pile of smoking ruins. Above
Captain Musson's redan our untimely visitors constantly burst and
scattered, and we began to realise fully the value of the bomb-proof
shelters. In a little while, however, the Boers relaxed their shell
fire, and beyond maintaining sufficient fire to cover their advance,
the heavier guns were for the time silent. With this, the Boers began
to open out in extended order upon the east side of the town,
advancing on our west to within 900 yards of our defences. At each
point the Boer advance was protected by the guns, the heavy artillery
to the south-west seeming to be the centre of a circle of armed men,
who were advancing slowly upon this gallant little town. At no time
did the enemy, however, beyond the few upon the west side, come within
effective range of our rifles or our Maxims, contenting themselves
with taking up positions at 2,000 yards, and dealing out to us
prolonged rifle fire with some intermittent shelling. The firing was
very rapid, very general, and more or less impotent. Indeed their
expenditure of rifle ammunition and their extreme prodigality in
shells was as much playing into our hands as reaping them any
advantage.
By night we reckoned that over two hundred shells had been fired
alone, though it was very doubtful whether there be two hundred pounds
worth of damage to credit to them. We have had two men wounded, while
here and there it is believed that certain of the enemy received their
quietus. Whether we beat them off or whether they lacked the spirit to
attack us it be impossible to determine, and it is enough to say that,
whatever may have been their intention, Mafeking remains as it was
before the first shot was fired. At night, after the attack, Colonel
Baden-Powell issued a general order congratulating his forces and the
people in Mafeking upon their calmness during the heavy fire to which
they had been subjected.
As we are situated at present, it is impossible for us to leave our
trenches in order to give battle to the enemy, but we are still buoyed
up by the hope of being able before long to take in our turn the
offensive. In the meantime, most of us live with our rifles in our
hands, our bandoliers round our shoulders, existing upon food of the
roughest kind, peering over sandbags at the distant position of the
Boers, or crouching in the shell-proof trenches as their shells burst
overhead. There is much gravity in our isolated position; there is the
danger that, by good luck more than by skill, Mafeking may be reduced,
but there is no reason to fear that the determination and courage of
the town will give way. Above all else that may be calculated to
endure.
CHAPTER X
A MIDNIGHT SORTIE
MAFEKING, _October 28th, 1899_.
Last night there occurred one of those isolated instances of gallantry
by which the British sustain their high reputation. For some days, in
fact ever since the Boers secured their siege guns from Pretoria, the
enemy has been building a circlet of trenches around Mafeking. At the
least distance they are perhaps 2,500 yards, unhappily beyond the
reach of our rifle and Maxim fire. We have seen them lounging in their
breastworks, we have seen them gathered around their camp fires, and
the inability of Mafeking to shake off these unwelcome intruders has
been daily a source of irritation. We have not, of course, allowed
them to enjoy, undisturbed, the seclusion of their own earthworks,
and, as a continual goad in their side, little expeditions have been
despatched to make night fearsome to our besetting foe.
Another of these midnight sorties was undertaken last night, proving
in itself to be the most important move on our side since Captain
Fitzclarence and his men engaged the Boers two weeks ago. The same
officer, 55 men of D Squadron Protectorate Regiment, with Lieutenant
Murray and 25 men of the Cape Police, were the prime movers in an
attempt to rush the first line of earthworks of the Boer position.
Shortly after 11 o'clock Captain Fitzclarence, Lieutenant Swinburne
and their men started on the perilous undertaking. In the faint light
of the night we could see their figures from our own redans, silently
hurrying across the veldt. In the blue haze of the distance a black
blur betokened the position of the enemy, and it seemed that at any
moment the hoarse challenge of the Boer outpost would give the alarm.
The men crept on in slightly extended order, holding themselves in
readiness for the supreme moment. Nearer, and yet nearer, they drew to
the Boer entrenchments. The silence was intense. The heavy gloom, the
mysterious noises of the veldt at night, the shadowy patches in the
bush, all seemed to heighten the tension of one's nerves. In a little
while our men were within a few yards of the enemy; then furtively
each fixed his bayonet to his rifle, and as the blades rang home upon
their sockets the gallant band raised a ringing cheer. Instantly the
Boer position was galvanised into activity, figures showed everywhere,
shots rang out, men shouted, horses stampeded, and the confusion which
reigned supreme gave to our men one vital moment in which to hurl
themselves across the intervening space. Then there was a loud crash,
for, as it happened, many of our men were nearer the entrenchments
than had been anticipated, and their eager charge had precipitated
them upon some sheets of corrugated iron which the Boers had torn from
the grand stand of the racecourse for protection from the rain. With
our men upon the parapet of the trench, a few rapid volleys were fired
into the enemy, who, taken completely by surprise, were altogether
demoralised. Those in the first trenches seemed to have been petrified
by fright. Where they were, there they remained, stabbed with bayonet,
knocked senseless with the rifle's butt, or shot dead by the fire of
their own men. Captain Fitzclarence himself, with magnificent
gallantry and swordsmanship, killed four of the enemy with his sword,
his men plying their bayonets strenuously the while. This was the
first trench, and as the fight grew hotter, some little memory of
their earlier boasts, inspired the Boers to make a stand. They fought;
they fought well. Their vast superiority in numbers did not enter into
their minds, since Commandant Botha told Lieutenant Moncrieff, who had
charge of the flag party that arranged for an armistice upon the
following morning, that he thought that at least a thousand men had
been moved against his position. The long line of front held by the
enemy flashed fire from many hundred rifles. Houses in the town caught
the bullets, the low rises to the east of the position threw back the
echo of the rifle shots. Our men became the centre of a hail of
bullets. The Boers fired anywhere and everywhere, seeming content if
they could just load their rifles and release the trigger. Many
thousands of rounds of ammunition were expended in the confusion of
the moment, the enemy not even waiting to see at whom, or at what,
they were aiming.
After the first fury had been expended, our men charged at the bayonet
point right across the line of trenches. It was in this charge that
the Boers lost most heavily. So soon as the squadron reached the
extremity of the Boer position they retreated independently, their
movement covered by the flanking fire of the Cape Police, which added
still further to the perplexities of the enemy. The galling fire of
the Cape Police disturbed them for some time longer than was required
in the actual retirement of the force.
The Boers had been completely unnerved by the onslaught of the
Protectorate men, and a feature of the hours which elapsed between the
final withdrawal of our force from the scene of conflict, and the
advent of dawn, was the heavy firing of the enemy, who still continued
discharging useless volleys into space. The loss to us in this
encounter had been 6 killed, 11 wounded, and two of our men taken
prisoners, but the gravity of the loss which the enemy sustained can
be most surely measured by the fact that, until a late hour this
afternoon, they could not find the spirit to resume the bombardment.
It is said in camp here that one hundred Boers will have reason to
remember the charge of the Protectorate Regiment.
The way in which these respond to the duties asked of them is shown by
their conduct during this night attack. Nevertheless, when the
enrolment of the Protectorate Regiment began in August, 1899, any
practical opinion upon the future value of its individual units, as
upon its possible mobility, was the merest hazard. When Colonel Hore
accepted the command of the regiment, and endeavoured, by every means
in his power, to promote its development, there were many who
expressed, after witnessing the preliminary parade of the recruits at
Ramathlabama Camp, the verdict that the short space of time which was
allowed to the officers to knock the squadrons into shape would not
permit the men attaining any proficiency whatsoever. In those early
days of the war volunteers came from near and far, from Johannesburg
upon the one side, from Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and East London
upon the other, to enlist in the service of her Majesty. Time-expired
men threw up their billets when the opportunity presented itself of
rejoining the colours, and while enlistment was proceeding, the
immediate vicinity of Ramathlabama and the roads from the Transvaal
into Mafeking presented the appearance of a district which has been
made the final destination of some mining rush. Pedestrians from the
Transvaal humping their swags, passengers by train from the south,
well-to-do youngsters from different parts of the Protectorate or from
the back-lying areas of the colony, all made their roads converge upon
Mafeking. At that time, however, when the work of enlisting was in its
infancy, and the services of able-bodied men were much required, the
Colonial Government, at the instigation of Mr. Schreiner, whose
dubious policy was cheerfully endorsed by his colleagues, refused to
allow her Majesty's soldiers, who were in process of enlistment for
that special purpose, to afford Mafeking the moral value of their
presence. No sooner had word reached the ears of the Colonial Cabinet
that the work of recruiting was proceeding around Mafeking, than the
recruiting officers were ordered to withdraw immediately from the
precincts of the colony so long as they continued to act in a way
which might give some possible offence to the dear friend, guardian,
and patron saint of Cape Colony, Paul Kruger. After a very decorous
and manly remonstrance, Colonel Hore withdrew his headquarters and his
men sixteen miles across the border to Ramathlabama Camp, from which
point the enlistment of the Protectorate Regiment was continued.
The Protectorate Regiment is strictly an irregular soldiery, composed
of men drawn from every rank of African life, many of whom are gentle
by birth and education and possessed of no little means. In the ranks
of the regiment there are those who have been at the university and
public schools; there are also mechanics, miners, farm hands, and men
who have known office life. The nationalities of the men are as varied
as their occupations in peace times are diffuse. There are a few
Americans, some Germans, and Norwegians, although for the most part
the regiment is British; as a whole, perhaps, it is an ill-assorted
assembly of adventurers, animated with the same love of fighting and
the glories of war, of lust and bloodshed which characterised the
lives of the buccaneers of old. In other days, and in other lands,
they would be sailing the sea for treasure, or combining in the quest
for gold in some hidden extremity of the world's surface. The prospect
of free rations, of uniform, and allowance of pocket money, was of
course sufficient to draw a few; but, as a body, the idler upon the
farm, the bar-loafer from the town, and the thoroughly incompetent are
as distinguished by their absence, as the general tone of the regiment
is suffused with martial ardour. It is quite impossible to treat these
men with the cast-iron regulations which enthral the Imperial soldier.
He does not understand the petty exactions, the never-ending restraint
which would be imposed upon him had he accepted the conditions which
govern and regulate life in our army. He experiences and gives voice
to a very genuine aversion to fatigues of every description, and it
has required the exercise of much tact and no little personal
persuasion to induce the men to become reconciled to the labours of
their calling. They have accepted with some diffidence the fact that
it is necessary for them to fulfil, at the present moment, many
irritating, but essentially important fatigues which may not have
entered into their original forecast of the duties which would be
allotted to them. They frequently indulge in outbursts of choice
expletives, at the expense of their non-commissioned officers, while
they do not hesitate to correct, or at least to argue about what they
imagine to be wrong in the execution of some order.
The conditions under which these men were enrolled were supposed to
admit those only who could ride as well as shoot, and before the
initial tests were applied the standard of the regiment upon paper was
exceptionally high. After the first parade, however, it was seen that
by far the great majority of the regiment was incapable of managing
their horses. Upon parade, when horses and men were put through
cavalry exercises, detached and riderless steeds would be seen
galloping and bucking in all directions. However, those who were
unproficient did not propose to allow their cattle to hold the mastery
for any longer than was absolutely necessary, and many was the tough
fight fought to a bitter end between the raw recruit and his unbroken,
unmanageable mount. After many days and an inordinate amount of hard
work, the troop officers managed to lick their men into a very
presentable appearance until, with the beginning of the war, the
squadrons of the Protectorate Regiment were as capable and efficient a
body of irregular mounted infantry as any that had been enrolled by
local movement in South Africa. During the siege there has been no
chance to continue those early exercises, and it is not at all
unlikely that when they become mounted once more the former
difficulties will again assert themselves and, bearing this in mind,
it is difficult to conclude that as a fighting force they will not be
more at home upon their feet than in the saddle, since they will find
their attentions occupied as much by the management of their steeds as
with the handling of their weapons.
If they be not quite so mobile in the field as more experienced
troops, there is no doubt that they present a determined front to the
fire of the enemy. They have a keen relish for any preparation which
appears to lead to some immediate collision, while they profess an
equally profound disgust at their enforced inactivity. How these men
might act if, through the smoke-filled air, they saw an array of
sparkling bayonets, or heard the serried ranks of hostile lines
advancing to the charge, it is impossible to say; but in the few
fights which we have had the personal element has been strong, and the
individual courage high. We have lacked the spectacle of the
many-coloured, steel-edged columns impelled forward by the impulse of
some dominant power, with the dusty faces of the men, the stumbling,
sore-stricken feet, the gasping breath of the stragglers who tired,
dead beat, and thirsty, limp to the rear; but the play of human
passion in our little fighting force has not been absent. We have had
the wager of life against life, the angry, turbulent crash of
fierce-blooded men, fighting under the shadow of death, with their
emotions strained as they struggled in the very atmosphere of passion.
And it has done us good to see how reliable the force has been about
which so much doubt existed. Unlike the Imperial service, these
irregular corps act as much for the unit as they do for the mass, as
animated by terror or by valour, by a fatal despair, or by a blooded
triumph, they fight for an individual supremacy. That is the moment
of their triumph, and it is these splendid qualities of savage and
physical animalism which makes it more easy to treat them with a wider
latitude than is usual. Their magnificent hardihood, their splendid
fighting gifts, their lurid blasphemy, their admiration for officers
who are men, their appalling debauchery, gives to them the ideal
setting of the rough but very gallant soldier of fortune, who,
scorning his enemy and hating a retreat, has played so omnipotent a
part in the history of the universe.
CHAPTER XI
CANNON KOPJE
MAFEKING, _October 31st, 1899_.
Cannon Kopje is in itself a hideous cluster of stones, perched upon a
rocky ridge, which commands the town, a mile across the veldt. It is
impossible to conceive any more positive death-trap than that which
was contained in this kopje, and whatever may have been the
determining element in its original construction, it is infinitely to
be regretted that the possibilities of its being under shell fire were
never very seriously contemplated. It was thrown up during the Warren
expedition, and much as these things go, was neither removed nor
replaced until Monday's bombardment established its complete
uselessness under shell fire, and the folly of which Colonel
Baden-Powell was guilty in leaving it unprotected. It is too late to
say much now, but we have paid a heavy price for our neglect and
carelessness. We found it here when we came; we put men into it, we
are maintaining men there, and it is essential to the safety of our
town that we should still hold it. Since the action an effort has been
made to improve it; a splinter-proof shelter has been thrown across
the trench, and traverses have been thrown out, but the work of the
past few days has perhaps prepared the kopje for further shelling at
the enemy's convenience. As a _piece de resistance_ in the defence of
Mafeking, Cannon Kopje is the most strategically important position
near Mafeking, and we may reckon that, at the moment when these
wretched shepherds who are besieging us, secure this fort, to Mafeking
itself there remains but a few hours.
Colonel Walford had under his command at the fort forty-four men with
a Maxim detachment from the Protectorate Regiment. The fairest
estimate of the men against him would place the Boer forces at no less
than eight hundred with four guns. Sunday night, the look-out from
Cannon Kopje saw a body of Boers making their way to a point somewhat
nearer the town than had hitherto been their custom, and our
expectations having been aroused by this movement we were inclined to
believe that the enemy might attack upon the following morning. Our
anticipations were further grounded upon the fact that the Boers to
the south-west of the town, had by no means despised the claims of
Cannon Kopje upon their attentions, and to every three shells which
their guns had thrown into the town during the days which the siege
had lasted, one, in a proportion of one in three, had been fired at
Cannon Kopje. It has gradually come to be considered, therefore, that
Cannon Kopje was a point against which the Boers would, sooner or
later, direct an attack, since its capture was necessary to the
successful execution of any general movement against the town.
[Illustration: Cannon Kopje.]
The detachment of Police, who formed the garrison at Cannon Kopje,
upon this day performed a most brilliant service for the town by
their determined and gallant stand. Perhaps in war more than in
anything else, chance is a greater arbiter than we like to consider,
and if it had not been for the chance attack against Cannon Kopje,
which resulted in the defeat of the Boer forces, it is not improbable
that Mafeking itself would have been invaded by the enemy. The
subjugation of this point, in reality the turning point in the siege,
was, however, of vital concern to Commandant Cronje, since it had been
his intention to bombard the south-east portion of the town, and to
carry it with a large force which he had assembled during the night in
the adjacent valley of the Molopo River. When day had dawned, the
look-out from Cannon Kopje had already reported to Colonel Walford
that there was unusual activity in the Boer camp; at the moment this
was stirring news, and indeed the fatigues for the night had been
barely dismissed when an experimental shell from the Boer artillery to
test the range, opened the action. During the night, and about the
close of Sunday, the enemy's artillery had taken up their position,
and as the grey of dawn ushered in the fatal day, a large force of
Boers moved out from their laager and occupied any point by which they
might command the area of the fort. It seemed to me, as I witnessed
their disposition, that at least a third of the forces before Mafeking
had been concentrated upon Cannon Kopje, and if so great a tragedy had
not attended the action, we could have afforded to laugh at the
efforts of an enemy so hopelessly incompetent as the Boer force has
proved itself to be. Against a mere gun emplacement and forty-four
men, shell fire from four guns was directed, and the services of eight
hundred men utilised. In the extreme west there was "Big Ben" and a
seven-pounder; in the extreme east there was a twelve-pounder. Within
a circle from these two points, and within effective range, a
seven-pounder and quick-firing Maxim-Nordenfeldt had been stationed.
The big gun took no part at all in this attack upon the kopje, but at
every moment that the enemy's shell fire lapsed, the Boer marksmen
opened with their Mauser rifles. Their rifle fire stretched from the
extremities of either flank and enfiladed the interior trenches of the
kopje. Nothing perhaps in the history of their operations along this
frontier, was so calculated to prove successful as the Boer attack
upon Cannon Kopje. They had the guns, the men, and they held all
commanding points, while they themselves were snugly ensconced behind
cover almost impervious to shell fire. With these advantages it would
seem morally impossible that forty-four men could withstand the
unceasing stream of shells, the mist of bullets, which comprised the
zone of fire of which the kopje was the centre. Had these men wavered,
such a thing is easy to explain; had they fallen back upon the town,
their movement would have been in order. But by preference they
stopped at their posts, the mark for every Boer rifle, the objective
of the enemy's shell fire, until so great had been our execution upon
the enemy that the Boers themselves proclaimed an armistice under the
protection of the Red Cross flag. When this was decreed one-fourth of
the detachment in the kopje were out of action, and eight of these
were killed. But the lamentable list of fatalities had been piled up
only at great cost to the enemy, since around the circle of the fort,
and not four hundred yards away, we could see the Boer ambulances
picking up their dead and wounded. It has been stated that they lost
one hundred men, and that a further fifty were seriously wounded, but
this is preposterous; while if we err at all towards our foe it is in
the computation of the losses which we claim to have inflicted upon
them. It is almost impossible to kill a Dutchman on the field, since
they are as pertinacious and industrious as beetles in seeking cover.
We saw two waggon loads pass from their firing-line to their laager,
but I am inclined to doubt if we killed and wounded forty of the
enemy. To have scored that number in the face of the most remarkable
fusilade of bullet and shell which was directed against the fort is a
wonderful feat, since it should not be forgotten that to every shot
which we fired, there were at least four hundred barrels emptied at
our marksmen in return. Such was the unfortunate construction of
Cannon Kopje, however, and the gross neglect with which it has been
treated to prepare for the present war, that it was not possible for
our men to use their loopholes, and as it was most necessary to hold
the fort each man who fired stood to his feet, and exposed himself
above the breastwork to the full force of the Boer rifles. The enemy
had carried out their movement so well, that under cover of their
guns, and the great annoyance of their enfilading fire, they had made
it almost impossible for the defenders of the fort to pay much
attention to their advance. They compelled men to take cover, since if
anything were seen to move behind the parapet of the fort, the Boers
swept the area of the position with most cruel and deadly volleys. But
cover was sought only at intervals, and when the hail of shells became
too tempestuous, since the brave little garrison were impressed with a
courage which scorned the fire which was turned upon them. When they
manned the defences and maintained a sturdy front the Boers were
nonplussed. They had expected to carry the position whereas they were
losing men more rapidly than they were killing them. We fired by six,
we fired independently, and whenever it was possible, the Maxim swept
the front of the enemy, but, relatively speaking, nothing could
prevail against the Boer numbers. It was easy enough to hold them in
check, since the first well-directed volley made them fall back some
few yards, but the heavy shell fire would sooner or later have told
its tale. It had already claimed the majority of those who were hit,
since if the shells did not burst and strike some one of those who
were lying near, they splintered upon the stones which composed the
defences of the fort and these splintered in their turn, coming into
contact with any one who was crouching behind them for shelter. Cannon
Kopje in itself was a terrible lesson; but it was also a magnificent
example of gallant conduct in the field. Captain the Hon. D. Marsham
who was killed, and Captain Charles Alexander Kerr Pechell, who died
in the course of the morning from wounds received, were individually
setting as fine an object lesson to their men as could be conceived,
yet it must not be imagined that the standard of their bravery was
much finer or much greater than that of their comrades. Colonel
Walford and Colonel Baden-Powell have each expressed their high
appreciation of the conduct of the men who survived the attack, and
although, as befits their rank, the example of the officers was
admirable, it was no better in reality than the action of the men over
whom they were commanding. Captain Marsham was struck by a rifle
bullet in turning to render some assistance to a wounded comrade. As
he attempted to do this a second bullet passed through his chest, and
a moment later he was dead, just as a third bullet passed through his
shoulder. It was as fine a death as any soldier could perhaps have
chosen, and it had the crowning mercy of being instantaneous.
Captain Pechell was busying himself in directing the rifle fire from
the fort, and thereby directly drew the attention of the enemy. He,
with a detachment of six men, ranged up from time to time, and picked
off the enemy with well-aimed volleys. They had taken up their
position behind the eastern wing of the kopje, engaging a body of the
enemy whose flank fire enfiladed our position. The first shell which
came at these six men fell short, and the second and the third
bursting in the same place, scattered the outer covering of the
breastwork. Pechell ordered his men to retire from the direct line of
shell fire, when just as they were shifting their position a shell
struck the stone parapet, and burst among them. Private Burrows was
killed at once, just as he had been admiring the shooting of a
comrade. Sergeant-Major Upton and Captain Pechell received some
terrible injuries; poor Pechell died of injury extending from the
thigh to the shoulder. No one regrets, so much as his comrades,
Captain Pechell's gallant act, since had he not been endowed with most
magnificent courage he would have preserved discretion in the method
by which he exposed himself to the enemy, and by the death of these
two officers, Captain Marsham and Captain Pechell, her Majesty loses
two officers of exceptional promise and soldierly qualifications.
The casualties of this action alone were eight killed and three
wounded, four being killed upon the spot, four dying of their wounds
within twelve hours of the action. Captain Marsham, Sergeant-Major
Curnihan, Private Burrows, and Private Martin were killed in the fort;
Captain Pechell, Sergeant-Major Upton, Private Nicholas and Private
Lloyd died of wounds; Sergeant-Major Butler, Corporal Cooke and
Private Newton were wounded.
That night the garrison paid its farewell duties to those gallant men
who were killed at Cannon Kopje. Their interment took place at six
o'clock, and as we followed in the wake of the _cortege_ we felt the
shock which brought home to each of us the bitter fact that we should
henceforth know them no more. The attack of the Boers upon Cannon
Kopje had been so sudden, so utterly unexpected, and the manner in
which these men of the British South Africa Police had met their
death, had been so valorous that the sympathies of the entire town had
been most keenly aroused and overcome by the appalling swiftness of
the tragedy; there was no one who did not feel that in some way he was
himself a mourner even though the men who had been killed were quite
indifferent to him. Doubtless before the siege terminates we shall
become accustomed to our situation, and realise that after all it is
but the natural issue to a condition of belligerency that no one can
quite tell what sorrow the day will bring forth. But at present these
tragedies come upon us with a vivid freshness which is almost
unnerving and which stimulate disquietening fancies in the minds even
of the most callous.
The cemetery here is in close proximity to the Boer lines, and lies to
the north of the town. It is a small enclosure banked by white rough
stones, and set amid green trees, where gentle fragrance imparts a
balminess to the breeze. It is as quiet and peaceful, by force of
contrast to the dried-up veldt around, as some oasis in the desert.
There is a winding path from the hospital to the cemetery; a road
which at the present moment is flanked in two places by the forts of
the Railway Division, and kept well defined by the footsteps of those
who bear their burdens to the tomb. Since the siege began we have lost
twenty-five, and with one engagement following rapidly upon another,
nightfall usually ushers in a scene in which a small body of men may
be seen gathered round an open grave, waiting irresolutely to take
some share in the rites of the burial service. We paced slowly and
solemnly along this veldt track, depressed not so much by the fate
which had befallen them, as by the hideous realism with which the
appalling uncertainty of war had been brought home to us. In the
darkness of the evening we could see across the veldt the fires of the
enemy's position, and as the _cortege_ wound its way from the hospital
we marched to the boom of the Boer artillery, while passing bullets
sang the notes of our evening hymn above our heads, and dropped about
us in the sand. Along the eastern front of the town as it lay behind
us, an occasional blaze of light in the sky told us where the shells
of the enemy were bursting, and to many came the thought that perhaps
even of those who had remained to do their duty in the trenches, there
were some who, less fortunate than others, might have already kept
their last vigils. In time we reached the grave side, then as we
gathered round the open spaces which had been so quickly prepared,
those who felt their loss the keenest, those who had been comrades and
close friends of the killed, paid their last homage to their memory
by placing some little trinket, some slight token of personal
friendship and affection, upon the winding sheet. At this juncture,
when war is all around us, when every able-bodied man is standing to
his arms, it is not possible to provide the dead with anything better
than a simple sheet. The men who fall in these days are interred in
their blood-stained uniforms, since there be no time in which to dress
their bodies. Those upon whom the funeral service was about to be read
lay in two waggons, silent shrouded witnesses to the fleeting vanity
which attends all heroes. Around the entrance to the cemetery the
officers of the staff, the commanding officers of the outposts,
representatives of every corps and every troop had foregathered,
following closely upon the heels of those who, bearing the grim
burdens upon their shoulders epitomised in their action the horrors of
war. It seemed as we stood there waiting, listening to the solemn
words of the service, punctuated now and then as they were, by the
screams of shells, by the angry snap of the Mauser, and the droning of
the Martini bullets, that these men who were now dead had achieved the
full honour of their calling. Indeed, many were there who would have
given gladly their own lives in exchange for that of their friend,
while there was not one who did not feel that the manner in which
their end had come to them was impressed with all that was most noble.
For a moment after the service had concluded, we stood listening to
the strains of the Last Call. As its solemn notes died away, and we
retraced our steps to the various trenches and earthworks which, for
the moment, gave us shelter, we little imagined that within a few
hours, those of us who were correspondents would follow the body of
one from amongst ourselves once more upon this road. The following
night Lieutenant Murchison, who was in charge of the guns, wilfully
shot with his revolver Mr. E. G. Parslow, war correspondent of the
London _Daily Chronicle_. The horror of such a crime still hangs over
us, and is not in any way diminished by the fact that an officer who
had already distinguished himself by his career, should now be
awaiting the verdict of a Field Court Martial upon the gravest charge
in the criminal calendar. Poor Parslow had endeared himself to
everybody by the genial sympathy which he extended to those who were
themselves in trouble. He had won the admiration of many by the
calmness with which he conducted himself under the heaviest fire.
CHAPTER XII
A RECONNAISSANCE
MAFEKING, _November 7th, 1899_.
A short canter from Mafeking across the sloping expanse of the veldt
and the interior lines of its western defences lie before one. It can
be said that Cannon Kopje to the south-west and Fort Miller to the
north-west are the two most outlying extremities of the outposts on
this front. Between them there is an almost unbroken chain of
earthworks, manned by detachments from squadrons of the Protectorate
Regiment, from the British South Africa Police, from the Cape Police,
and even from the Native stadt. These men live the lives of soldiers
whose every moment is engaged in watching a foe that might at any
opportunity which is given them charge down upon our lines. Unlike the
Boers, we do not despise the native interests, and much of the
weakness of our position emanates from the fact that we have
incorporated within the mystic circle of our armed defence the most
outlying areas of the native reserve. These, indeed, can very properly
be considered the exterior lines of the western outposts. It would
have been a very simple thing for Colonel Baden-Powell to have
ordered the destruction of the Native stadt, compelling its
inhabitants to seek what protection they could from the inclemency of
the elements, from a benign Providence, and the rapacious Boer.
Mafeking, without the Native stadt, could have been much more easily
defended, since the base of the slopes, across which our advanced
trenches now extend, would have been defended from the ridges of the
acclivities which rise from them. This would have given to the
advanced outposts some commanding heights from which the western
plains could have been more easily swept. As it is, however, the
policy which Colonel Baden-Powell is adopting towards the native
tribe, whose huts were here many generations before white men ever set
their feet in this part of the country, is one which extends to them
the same Imperial protection as he has extended to the colonists in
Mafeking. Where the Native stadt had been included in any portion of
the defences, the Baralongs have been assisted to defend, and have
been instructed in the means by which they might secure immunity for
themselves and for their stadt.
The entrenchments of the Boers rise like mole-hills from the surface
of the plain, although there is a curious regard for what has been
humorously termed "three mile limit." The valley of the Molopo River
sets a background to the Boer position, the placid waters of the
stream wind through their lines, while their chief laagers have been
constructed upon the ridges of its watershed. From Cannon Kopje a
commanding view of the whole country on all sides of Mafeking may be
obtained, the Boer laagers giving to the expanses of the valley the
aspect of a mining camp. From different points of observation the
daily life of the enemy can be noted. In the early morning the smoke
of many fires swings in thin spirals to the sky, and the silence of
the plain is broken by the echoes which echo back the noises of the
camp. It would seem that they are as regular in the ordering of their
camp life as we are. When the sun has warmed the air, and evaporated
the morning dew from the grass, we can see them out-pinning their
horses, driving their cattle to fresh pastures, and endeavouring by
the establishment of sentries and Cossack posts to take the siege of
Mafeking as a very serious element in their lives. Everywhere there is
the green of early summer covering the plain with the sheen of
Nature's youth. Between the lines of the two camps graze herds of
cattle, in themselves affording tempting bait to the predatory
instincts of the Boers, who, if they did not lack the courage of their
desires, would have already attempted to raid the browsing oxen. So
far as our own outposts are concerned, along this line there are many
days in which nothing whatever happens, just as there are others in
which the dawn of day is made hideous by the scream of shells, the
singing of the Mauser, the angry rustle of the Nordenfeldt and Maxim.
The Boers have many guns along this side, and from time to time they
treat us to bombardments, lacking both purpose and any definite
result, beyond the expenditure of much ammunition. When the shells are
falling every one who can seeks cover, watching with some impatience
their passing, and could we in these moments but give existence to our
wishes, it would be that opportunity might come at once to turn the
tables upon our enemy. It is neither very honourable nor very pleasing
to have to preserve discretion as the better part of valour, but,
while we remain the objective of their fire, our pent-up energies are
developing a fine hatred against the foe. Colonel Baden-Powell has
some hope of giving indulgence to the spirit which animates his men,
and, even if the moment be somewhat uncertain, no small contentment is
derived from such belief. Morning and night we gird our loins for the
attack, but night and morning we awaken to a sense of infinite
disappointment, yet when it comes they may expect an avalanche, and,
in result, an overthrow.
Day is dreary, sun-swept, dusty, teased with insects, and infinitely
wearisome, but with the coming of night, the fragrant coolness of the
air, the soft lisping of the evening breeze bringeth contentment. Each
evening, when the peace of the camp be settled and the men resting,
there is always an outpost standing within a few hundred yards of the
Boer camp. If the night be fine, he lies behind the stones of a
neighbouring kopje; but whether it be fine or wet, the guard is
posted; the safety of the camp depending upon his vigilance. Sometimes
he is relieved hourly, sometimes his watch is of four hours' duration.
It depends upon the proximity of his post to the enemy's lines, but,
lying there within earshot of the Boers, it is just possible to
realise the full gravity of our situation. The element of danger is
greater in these nocturnal hours, and men go to rest, their spirits
buoyed up with the infinite zest which comes from anticipating a night
attack. They sleep beside their arms, their posts are doubled, and the
officers of the watch make hourly rounds. In the distance, across the
plain and enveloped with the darkness of the veldt, the difficulty of
seeing intensified by shadows, the outline of the Boer laagers can be
demarcated. Their camp fires die down one by one, and presently,
beyond the restless moving of their cattle, no sign of life animates
their position. It is in such moments that those who lead us deplore
the paucity of the numbers under their command, since, were it
possible to spare the men, there have been several occasions, when a
midnight dash, after the fashion of Captain Fitzclarence, or the
repetition of the reconnaissance at daybreak such as Major Godley so
gallantly led, could have been organised with equally satisfactory
results.
[Illustration: Major A. J. Godley of the Western Outposts on the
Look-out.]
However, within the last few days, Colonel Baden-Powell has taken
advantage of the enemy's position upon this front to order the western
outposts to spend some few hours in worrying the enemy. It was a very
pleasant little outing for us, and eminently beneficial, since the
excitement attendant upon such a manoeuvre was as wholesome as a
bumper of champagne. Word had already reached me of this contemplated
move upon the enemy, and Lieutenant Paton, of C Squadron, was good
enough to offer the hospitality of his hut for the night in question.
We dined, not with the guilty splendour of the Trocadero or amid the
sombre magnificence of Prince's, but in the rough-and-ready fashion
which falls to those who, carrying their lives in their hands, have at
most but a moment to spare for such unimportant incidents as breakfast
and dinner. As a humble offering to the board I had drawn from the
Army Service Stores a tin of canned mutton, and procured
somewhere--which may or may not have been a private garden--a luscious
marrow, and with these I hied myself to Lieutenant Paton's quarters.
Along this western front there are many delightful and very genial
officers. There is Major Godley, who is in command of the whole line;
Colonel Walford, who commands Cannon Kopje; there are Captain
Vernon and Captain Marsh, who, with Major Godley, are Imperial special
service men; Lieutenant Holden and my host. The distances between
their quarters are but slight, and perhaps the most entertaining
moment in the siege is that which enables us to foregather at Major
Godley's, chatting with eagerness and charming frankness upon the
possibilities of the war as they are suggested by our immediate
environment. By the time that I had arrived Lieutenant Paton's boy had
prepared a savoury stew, and such was the scarcity of fresh meat that
we had no hesitation in dedicating the canned mutton to some other
meal. We ate, and pleasantly indulged in lime juice and water, smoking
with contented elegance some choice cigarettes. After we had dined a
short conference was held at Major Godley's, and then to rest,
perchance to spend the night in sleeping, or perchance, to scratch;
for fleas and flies, the parasitic mosquito and the insidious ant,
make both day and night a source of irritation.
The men of C Squadron under Captain Vernon, the Bechuanaland Rifles
under Captain Cowan, and three guns under Major Panzera and Lieutenant
Daniels, of the British South Africa Police, were engaged in the
movement, and distinguished themselves in what they did as well as can
be expected. At a quarter to two we turned out. Greatcoats had been
left behind, men slinging their waterbottles and bandoliers upon their
shoulders. We were to meet at the base of a hill rising a few hundred
yards across the veldt from Major Godley's. Night hung heavily upon
us, the sky was dark, and everything seemed to point to the wisdom of
choosing such a night. We stepped out briskly, although to our
strained nerves the soft tread of the men sounded as the rumble of a
juggernaut. However, we proceeded very quietly, and the sheen of sand,
the white lustre of the road, the rustle of the thorn bushes were
presently left behind as we took our stand in the rear of Major
Godley's troop. In the valley at the base of the hill we halted.
Before us, a scarcely perceptible rise silhouetted against the sky,
the bushes lining the summit throwing themselves into prominence
against the grey, black, background, while here and there trees tossed
their arms silently and warningly in the breeze. All around us there
was the hum of insect life, that monotonous dead level buzz of
countless insects and the baying of the bull frogs. And we waited,
when out of the darkness came Major Godley, a tall, thin figure
impressed with energy and determination, inspecting the lines.
The squadron was dismounted, and had fallen in by troops, the dull
khaki of the Protectorate Regiment scarcely showing up against the
grey-blackness of the night; and at either end of the line there was a
squad of Bechuanaland Rifles and a contingent of natives. As they
stood there, there were nearly one hundred men, and, though the order
had been given to be in this position at 2.30, and the hour had come,
we were waiting for the guns. Presently, as we waited, barely a mile
from the Boer laager, there was the rumble of artillery in the
distance. As we heard it officers and men believed that at any moment
the Boer camp would sound the alarm. We could hear the guns rising
over hillocks, falling heavily upon stones, or crushing back upon some
boulder. Indeed there was noise enough to wake the dead themselves.
The rattle of the limber was only a little more acute than the tension
on our nerves. Men swore silently at the guns and showed their
restlessness as the noise grew louder. In a little the Major bustled
up all eagerness and fluff and worry, and then as the guns trailed
behind us and the little column moved on, it seemed that every step we
advanced further would have brought the Boers tumbling about our ears.
Much as one creeps about a house at night treading on every board
which creaks in preference to those which do not creak, so was the
march of the column. As the guns came on they seemed to find stones
everywhere. Wheels fell into snug hollows, jammed in ragged holes, and
bumped with such heaviness that the night was made hideous by the echo
of their rumble. Occasionally we stopped, as though to allow the peace
of night to settle. Then we moved forward once again and in a little
we halted for the final stage. The guns took up their position to the
left of the column, the hundred men lying in extended order across the
veldt. Before us there was the ridge of rising veldt and scrub, and so
we rested, fretting with curious impatience at the signs of life which
began to animate the enemy's camp. When we stood up we could see the
dull white of their waggons bent in position for their laager; we
could see the fires within, we could hear in the still silence of
early dawn the chopping of wood as the axe fell upon the logs. The
sides of the valley threw back the noise until, echoes echoing back,
the sound caught our ears, and so we watched and waited until
gradually dawn came.
The dull-black beauty of the night passed, slipping into grey and
leaving the uncertain mystery of an early morning sky. A red streak
across the east threw glimpses of light into the canopy of heaven,
when, as a signal of its birth, there came the words to fire; then
the line of creeping figures which had gained the ridge pressed their
rifles through the scrub and bush which hedged the top, and, crouching
to the ground, opened the reconnaissance. The objective of the night
attack which Major Godley was commanding had been to effect a
reconnaissance in force against the western laagers of the Boers. In
respect to the constant increase of the force that surrounds Mafeking,
almost the one means of temporarily checking their advance which
remains to us is through the medium of these attacks. Information had
been brought into headquarters that the Boers were massing upon the
east side of the town, the small laager on the west being temporarily
evacuated. The night dash would both surprise and annoy the enemy, and
anything which combined such benign ends was very welcome. The guns
were to throw a few shells, the men were to fire a few volleys; when
the squadron would fall back by troops their reconnaissance completed.
We opened by volleys poured incontinently into their camp, but so soon
as the guns had discharged the first shells into the laager, the
little signs of order which had animated the natives disappeared, and
although they maintained their line they began an independent
practice. It was the first time that native arms had been incorporated
with our men, and it is to be hoped, before the next experiment is
repeated, they will have been got more under control. Excellent as
they may be on their own account, they are almost altogether useless
when removed from the immediate spheres of utility. Our fire at first
was high, and many rounds of bullet and shell fire were absolutely
wasted. Presently Daniels secured the range for the guns, and shells,
prettily planted, ruined many waggons. The sortie, so far as we were
concerned, proceeded merrily, doing no material damage, but making a
hell of a lot of noise. The glories of the early morning were soon
enveloped in the heavy smoke from the rifles of the natives, who still
continued blazing independently and indifferently at the enemy's
position and who also generally struck the earth a few yards short of
their own front of fire. The opportunity which was thus afforded of
both surprising and annoying the enemy was very welcome, and the night
dash was entered into with infinite zest. So soon as the guns had
discharged their first shell our men began to fire by volleys, but the
sortie had not progressed very far when the activity in the Boer lines
showed that they were preparing to repel a force much larger than the
mere reconnoitering party which was actually before them. In the
uncertain light of rising morn a body of 600 Boers could be seen
riding from the main laager upon the western front to the support of
the minor camp. We have hitherto thought the Boers timid at close
quarters, but in this case there was every sign of haste and eagerness
on the part of the reinforcements to arrive upon the scene of action.
We could see them dismounting as they came up and run to the laager,
some of them firing as they ran, others of them forming into detached
parties and firing from isolated positions. After volleying for some
minutes our men fulfilled the object of their morning excursion and
were preparing to retire by troops, when, owing to the presence of the
reinforcements, firing became general. Our rifles replied to their
rifles, our two seven-pounders replied to their guns, but beyond this
nothing was permitted to interfere with the successful completion of
our work. It mattered very little to us how fiercely the enemy's
Nordenfeldts spat out defiance or what their rifles said, for we fell
back steadily, the different troops doubling fifty, one hundred, and
one hundred and fifty yards each time. The fire as the various troops
took up the retirement became very hot, the enemy cheerfully Mausering
into space. For some hours after our men had gained the security of
their own trenches the enemy maintained a heavy fire upon the several
outposts along the western front. During the retirement of C Squadron
Major Godley had ordered Captain Cowan to occupy Fort Eyre, a rifle
trench, with a detachment of Bechuanaland Mounted Rifles, so that he
might check any signs of advance which the enemy might display. In
consequence of this, Major Godley, Captain Cowan, Lieutenant Feltham,
and their men experienced as severe a fire as any which has, at
present, been received from the Boers. The enemy made a determined
rifle attack upon the work, but lacking the courage to charge, after
some few hours' rifle firing, they withdrew.
These little encounters are all that the outposts have with which to
pass their time, and the success with which they have been conducted
has been sufficient to check the enemy, and to cause him to reflect
upon the relative value of the means at our command. The defence of
the western front lies wholly in the hands of men from the
Protectorate Regiment and a few native contingents. The Town Guard is
not _en evidence_ upon the west side, the area of their exertions
being confined to the more immediate precincts of the town. And by
this it does not seem that the Town Guard will have much opportunity
to distinguish itself, since, unless its members volunteer to take
part in any sniping expedition, those manning the interior line of our
trenches, which are those occupied by the Town Guard, have received
positive orders to withhold their fire until the enemy is upon the
point of rushing the town. Several times it has been thought that this
was going to happen, and the local defensive force had hopes of
justifying its existence, but hitherto the valour which underlies the
good intentions of the Boers is not sufficient to inspire them to
convert an excellent suggestion into a practical experiment. Thus
despite the Boer telegrams to Europe there has been no battle round
Mafeking; a few slight skirmishes upon our part, much proud boasting
upon the part of the Boers is the limit of mutual operations which
have centred around Mafeking. We are waiting, and in the interval,
preparing. That is all which can be said.
CHAPTER XIII
THE TOWN GUARD
MAFEKING, _November 15th, 1899_.
The straits of a beleaguered city are only just beginning to come to
Mafeking. A retrospect of the history of the Franco-Prussian war
reveals how very great were the sufferings of those unfortunate people
who were unlucky enough to be besieged by the Prussian armies. Their
difficulties, the dangers to which they were constantly subjected,
their constant struggle against the extortionate demands of the few
who had been able to "corner" the provisions can perhaps be taken as
conveying a general impression of the hardships of a siege. Yet,
however, when we come to consider the siege of Mafeking in its more
elemental details, the picture is not unlike those presented by the
farcical melodrama. It is now nearly six weeks since Mafeking was
proclaimed as being in a state of siege, and, although there has been
no single opportunity of any commercial reciprocity between ourselves
and the outside world, the ruling prices are at present but very
little above normal, distress is wholly absent, danger is purely
incidental, and, indeed, it would seem, as Colonel Baden-Powell said
in a recent order, that "everything in the garden was lovely." This
somewhat happy state of things is, of course, to be attributed to the
extraordinary foresight and sagacity which characterises the
arrangements that the well-known firm of contractors in South Africa,
Julius Weil, concluded for provisioning the town. Immense stocks of
foodstuffs had been stored in the town before the war, and it is the
knowledge of the valuable stores which are lying here which has
inspired the Boers to court us so assiduously. The tale might have
been different had the Colonial Government been permitted to arrange
for any such emergency as a siege. In this respect, so completely
opposed to any preparation were Mr. Schreiner and his Cabinet, that it
was not even possible to procure through such an agency any adequate
means of defence, much less to obtain the essential food supplies.
When Kimberley appealed to Mr. Schreiner for permission to send up
from Port Elizabeth some Maxims which had been ordered by the De Beers
Company, the licence was refused on the ground that there was no cause
to strengthen the defences of that town, nor any reason to believe
that the situation demanded such precautions. The Colonial Government
repeated their policy in relation to Mafeking, and when urgent appeals
were sent to Mr. Schreiner, to the Castle authorities, and to Sir
Alfred Milner, the influence of the Cabinet was such that no notice
was taken of their request.
Nothing perhaps can excuse such an obstructive policy as that which
was followed by the Colonial Government upon the very eve of
hostilities. It is only when we come to deal with the situation which
their neglect has created that we can adequately measure the full
extent of their culpability. The claim of so important a centre as
Mafeking upon their attention was wilfully ignored with a persistence
which is positively criminal, and when taken into consideration with
the repeated warnings which were sent to them by leading members of
the community of Mafeking it is difficult to believe that the Colonial
Cabinet, by so flatly contravening the spirit of their loyalty to the
Imperial Crown, were not directly conniving with a hostile oligarchy
for the downfall of this colonial town. Had Mafeking been anything but
Anglo-Saxon at heart, had it possessed that proportion of debased
Dutch and renegade British colonists which is to be found in Vryburg
and those other hostile areas in our own colony, the story of Mafeking
would have been a story of treachery and deceit, of broken allegiance,
and of palsied faith. As it was, when the petition for extra armaments
was ignored, the town, disdaining the danger which confronted them,
proceeded to stand their ground, and to show, at any rate, a firm
front to any enemy that might assail them. While Colonel Baden-Powell
organised the defences of the Western Border, the men of Mafeking,
under the supervision of Colonel Vyvyen, base commandant, strongly
entrenched the position of their town, which hitherto had been open to
every corner of the earth. In times of peace Mafeking is a collection
of buildings placed upon the veldt, lacking both natural and
artificial protection, the centre into which all roads come and from
which all classes of people go. It is a thriving mid-African township
which, more by good management than by good luck, has become at the
present time an important outpost of our Empire. In these days, when
the boom of cannon destroys the silences of our splendid isolation,
and the scream of shell disturbs the harmony of night, Mafeking rests
with patient steadfastness behind its hastily improvised earthworks,
seeking shelter when the shells of the enemy press too hotly upon one
another, yet always ready for work at the outposts, prepared for the
fitful turbulence of our invading foe. Possibly from the Boer trenche
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