SPRINKHAANS NEK, 14TH DECEMBER 1900
We rode all through the night with our weary and hungry horses. It was a
cold night for this time of the year. The wind that blew from the south
seemed to cut right through us. We progressed very slowly, as is always
the case by night; and this night we seemed to go more slowly than ever,
for besides the usual delay caused by the waggons and tired horses,
there were many burghers on foot.
How slowly we went! Zwartlapberg, which we knew we had to pass, loomed a
dark and undefined mass on the distant horizon, and seemed to come no
nearer. And we began to fear that we should not be able to pass through
Sprinkhaans Nek before daylight. And so it proved. For after we had
ridden for hours, all too soon the morning star arose and a long low arc
of light suffused all the eastern sky with crimson. Rapidly--more
rapidly than we wished--the darkness had vanished, and plains at the
foot of the mountain we were making for lay all revealed in the growing
light of day. We crossed through a rivulet, and when the sun rose we
were marching over the slopes below Zwartlapberg. Though we had hoped to
reach that spot before it became light, our fears had somehow calmed
down as we were riding along there. Was it the daylight that vanquished
the apprehensions and uncertainties of night?
But there was a cause for being at ease. The Bethlehem Commando had
gone on ahead, and had passed through. We should no doubt manage the
passage. So, without perturbation, the laager went forward, slow but
determined, when--Boom!
We hear the thunder of a cannon fired from Zwartlapberg, and a shell
bursts on the ground near the front waggons. A second shell soon
follows, and then a third and a fourth; and the mounted men and those on
foot, the waggons and the carts, immediately wheel from the mountain and
race away, scattered and in confusion, all over the plain to the west,
to get out of range of the cannon.
About three or four miles from the road on which we had been travelling
we came to a standstill. We can now collect our scattered senses. We
discuss the situation. The state of affairs is not encouraging. Let us
see how they stand.
We are certain now to meet with resistance from the forts in front of
us. From the rear the English are advancing in great numbers. To the
right and left it is just the same, for there too we shall come in
contact with the enemy.
What is to be done now? Some say we must remain where we are, others
that we must get through the nek at all costs. President Steyn declares
we must go through, and General Fourie has already expressed the same
opinion, and as neither General de Wet nor General Philip Botha are
present at the moment, this officer puts himself at the head of the
commando and bravely rides on.
The whole commando, waggons and carts, mounted men and those on foot,
follow him. Like a great stream they advance, as far as possible from
the cannon on Zwartlapberg and as near as possible to the mountains to
the west of the nek.
There were three English forts on the left (of which two could fire on
us), and two on the lowest ridges of Zwartlapberg. We must now pass in
between these. We proceed, not knowing what there is in store for us. We
think we are going to our death, or at least that we shall be wounded.
Onward, onward flows the great stream of men on horseback and on foot,
of waggons and carts. Some burghers put their spurs into their horses
and gallop ahead. They take possession of a Kaffir kraal and open a
heavy fire on the right-hand forts.
In the meanwhile the great laager treks on and approaches to the nek,
nearer and nearer. General de Wet, accompanied by General Botha, now
appears on the scene and takes on himself the further conduct of the
passage. There is a deafening rattle of Mausers, to which the British
Lee-Metfords reply. We reach the nek, over which we pass, and find
ourselves in reaped wheat-fields, which makes it difficult for the
waggons and carts to proceed; but the worn-out animals are relentlessly
driven onward.
Some of the burghers take position behind the wheat-stacks here, and
direct a heavy fire on the forts to the right, while the Bethlehem men,
who passed through the nek at daybreak, occupy themselves with the forts
to the left, and with a force coming from Thaba 'Nchu.
The bullets whistle over our heads and strike the ground all along the
route we have to go. The clatter of our rifle fire fills the air. This,
and the general confusion, affects the men in different ways, which can
clearly be read on their countenances. Here one sees indifference, there
calm resolve, yonder fear and alarm, which so paralyse the fearful that
they abandon all their food, blankets, coats. But all press on! After
two hours the great stream of waggons and carts and men has passed
through Sprinkhaans Nek.
We ask ourselves, whence the courage which inspired us to face so
determinedly what was before us? whence the strength which upheld our
worn-out horses? The enemy thought they had hemmed us in, which indeed
was the case. They were in front of us and in our rear, to our right and
to our left. But God was not willing that we should fall into their
hands.
We had just emerged from the wheat-fields when the English hurled shells
at us, but it was marvellous to see how these shells exploded in the
open spaces between the burghers, without doing any harm.
At length, at about eleven o'clock, we halted, so that our poor brutes,
after having been in harness and under saddle for sixteen hours, could
now enjoy a long drink.
Here the Bethlehem burghers joined us. They related to us how they had
come through the nek early in the morning, before dawn, and had been
fired upon, as they were passing close to the forts, with the loss of
two of their number. This was a matter of regret to us all; but a
feeling of gratitude prevailed, for, excepting these two killed, and two
more wounded in making the passage, and a few horses killed and wounded,
we had come--it was a marvel to us--unharmed through Sprinkhaans Nek.