HOW WE FED AND CLOTHED COMMANDOS.
As early as March, 1901, we experienced the difficulty of adequately
providing our commandos with the necessities of life. So far back as
September, 1900, we had said good-bye at Hector's Spruit to our
commissariat, and thence, no organized supplies existing, it may very
well be imagined that the task of feeding the Boers was one of the
most serious, and I may say disquieting, questions with which we had
to deal. We were cut off from the world, and there was no means of
importing stores. Of course the men who had been previously engaged on
commissariat duty were enlisted in the fighting ranks so soon as they
became available. From this date we had to feed ourselves on quite a
different system. Each commandant looked after his own men and
appointed two or three Boers whose special duty it was to ride round
for provisions. It must not be supposed that we commandeered stores
without signing receipts, and the storekeeper who supplied us was
provided with an acknowledgment, countersigned by field-cornet,
commandant, and general. On producing this document to our Government
the holder received probably one-third of the amount in cash and the
balance in Government notes, better known as "blue-backs." By this
time a large portion of the Republic had been occupied by the British,
all food-stuffs had been removed or destroyed, and most of the cattle
had been captured. In consequence, everything in the shape of food
became very scarce. Flour, coffee, sugar, &c., were now regarded as
delicacies remembered from the far-away past. The salt supplies were
especially low, and we feared that without salt we would not be able
to live, or if we did manage to exist, that we might bring upon
ourselves an epidemic of disease. Our fears in this respect were
increased by the opinions expressed by our doctors, and we viewed our
situation with considerable disquietude. Happily, as experience
proved, our apprehensions were not in the least justified, for during
the ten months that preceded my capture my burghers lived entirely
without salt, and were at the time that I fell into the hands of the
British as healthy as could be desired.
Existing as we did solely on mealies and meat, potatoes and other
vegetables which we might chance upon were regarded as luxuries
indeed. Though it may appear strange it is nevertheless a fact that we
were always fortunate enough to obtain adequate supplies of mealies
and meat. We ground our mealies in coffee mills if no other mills were
available. Mealie pap is cooked in a simple fashion, and occasionally
boiling hot pots of it have fallen into the hands of the British. The
British soldiers were not much better off than we were, for they were
limited to bully-beef and "clinkers," though they frequently
supplemented their larder by stores from Boer farms, such as fowls,
pigs, &c., and had salt, sugar, and coffee in abundance. Their
culinary utensils were not nearly so primitive as circumstances had
reduced ours to.
Many Boers did nothing but roam round with their cattle, and I confess
that on many occasions they excited my admiration by the "slim" manner
in which they evaded capture. Boers of this description were dubbed
"bush-lancers," because they always sought the thickest bushes for
sanctuary. These "bush-lancers" were of three kinds: There were some
who sought by running away with their cattle to escape commando duty,
others who hoped by retaining their cattle to obtain a large profit on
them after the War was over, while others were so attached to their
cattle that they would as lief have lost their own lives as have
suffered their cattle to be taken. All three classes of "bush-lancers"
contrived to supply us with adequate stores of food. Often, however,
it was a difficult task to get the supplies out of them. When we asked
them to sell us cattle we were frequently met by the reply that we had
already taken their best cattle, that the British had taken some, and
that the little they had left they could not do without. Of course
we were not hindered in our purpose of obtaining food by such a reply,
and we had sometimes to resort to force. We frequently gave these
"bush-lancers" notice when danger threatened, but in most instances
they were the first to discover danger, and gave us information as to
the movements of the British.
Everybody knows that it is a sore trial for the Boer to live without
coffee, but this national beverage disappeared entirely from our menu,
and its loss was only partly replaced by the "mealie coffee" which we
set about preparing. The process was a very simple one. As soon as we
off-saddled a hundred coffee mills were set to work. The mealie was
roasted over a fire and afterwards treated in a similar manner to that
by which the coffee bean is prepared. This "mealie coffee" made a very
palatable drink, especially as we were frequently able to obtain milk
to mix with it.
We generally roasted our meat on the coals, as we found that without
salt meat was most palatable when treated in this way. This is
explained by the fact that the ashes of the fire contain a certain
saline quality. We obtained mealies in all sorts of extraordinary
ways. Sometimes we harvested it ourselves, but more often we found
quantities hidden in caves or kraals. Mealies were also purchased from
the natives. Every general did all that was possible to sow in the
district in which he was operating, for the soil is very fruitful. We
very seldom lacked mealies, although the British frequently destroyed
the crops we had been growing. There can be no doubt that when an
Afrikander feels hungry he will find something to eat.
I have already mentioned that sometimes when the British swooped down
upon us they carried away our culinary utensils, and a question may
arise in the minds of my readers as to how we obtained others to
replace them. Well, we were not particular in this connection. We
found empty tea cans and empty bully-beef tins, and by manipulating
barbed wire we speedily converted these crude materials into
serviceable culinary implements. We preferred the tar cans because
the beef tins often came to pieces after the solder with which they
are fastened had been subjected to the heat of the fire. I remember
that one day our parson gave as much as five shillings for an empty
tar can.
Several British convoys fell into our hands, but the food we found on
them consisted usually of bully-beef and "clinkers," things which only
dire necessity drove us Boers to eat. Sometimes to our great chagrin
we discovered that all our fighting to capture a convoy was only
rewarded by the sight of empty trucks or ones loaded with hay and
fodder. If perchance we were fortunate enough to capture a camp or a
fort we contented ourselves with removing such coffee and sugar as we
could carry away on our pack mules.
The clothing question was very perplexing. Whenever we were able to
obtain it we bought canvas and converted it into trousers. Sheep skins
we tanned and employed either for the purpose of making clothes or for
patching. The hides of cattle and of horses that had died of disease
were also tanned and employed for the making of boots. I may point out
that no horse was specially slaughtered for this purpose or for the
purpose of food. It was only General Baden-Powell and General White
who slaughtered their horses to make sausages. Our best clothing
supply, however, came from the British Army. Forgive me for saying so;
I do not intend to be sarcastic. When we captured a convoy or a fort
we always obtained a supply of clothes. At the beginning of the War we
Boers had a strong prejudice against any garment which even faintly
resembled khaki, but afterwards we grew indifferent and accepted khaki
quite as readily as any other material. We generally compelled our
prisoners to exchange clothes with us, and often derived much
amusement from the disgusted look of the sensitive Briton as he walked
away in the clothes of a ragged Boer. Imagine the spectacle! A dandy
English soldier, clean shaven, with a monocle adorning one eye, his
head covered with an old war-worn slouch hat of broad brim, and his
body with ragged jacket and trousers patched with sheep-skin or yarn.
I may say that none of this systematic plundering occurred in my
presence. But such things were certainly done, and, after all, who can
blame a ragged burgher for resorting to this means, however much to be
deprecated, of clothing himself. Remember that the poor Boers were
prepared to pay double the value of a suit of clothes, and were, so to
speak, cut off from the world, while the British soldier had simply to
go back to camp to obtain a new outfit. "Necessity knows no law."
In concluding this chapter I must mention that the lack of matches was
very sensibly felt. And when our stock of matches was exhausted we had
to resort to the old-fashioned tinder-box and flint and steel. We
found this expedient a very poor substitute for the lucifer match, but
it was certainly better than nothing at all. Personally I experienced
the greatest difficulty in getting fire from a flint and steel, and to
do it generally took me quite twice as long as it took anybody else,
and I bruised my hands considerably. This latter, however, is an
experience to which every amateur is liable, and I was never much more
than an amateur at anything.