At last we meet General Olivier's troops, marching to the north-west.
They appear to know nothing of the battle. Scarcely have we gone 100
metres with them before we are stopped by a battery, which opens fire
upon us. The English form a semicircle round us. The situation is
serious. We make off across the Veldt, towards the east, till far on in
the night. We sleep on the ground, keeping a sharp look-out.
On the next day, Tuesday, at dawn, we set out again, describing a wide
circle, first to the east, then to the north, and finally to the west.
It proved lucky for us that we had done so, for we were behind the
English columns marching on Brandfort and Winburg.
Finally, always making our way across the Veldt, we arrived at Brandfort
on the 4th about eight o'clock in the morning.
Oh, how thankful we were to be in our camp and in our tents again! What
a tub we had! what a breakfast! and what a sleep we look forward to when
night comes!
While waiting for the preparation of a serious meal, we set to work to
grill a few chops. They have scarcely been on the embers more than two
minutes, when we hear Pom! pom! pom!
There is no time for breakfast. To horse! We swallow our raw cutlets,
and gallop off.
Four men stay behind to strike the camp, and we take up a position to
the south-east of Brandfort, on the kopjes that command the plain.
In the distance, about eight kilometres off, we see the English convoys
already making for Brandfort. They are pretty confident.
To the right, a battery, of which we can distinguish the escort,
silences the cannon nearest us by killing the gunners. Then a second
battery advances at a trot on the left in the plain, and crosses the
fire of the first.
The Boers watch this manoeuvre with great interest, discussing it and
giving their opinions on it. Then, as the battery halts and takes up a
position, slowly but surely, they all make for their horses.
Scarcely are the first shells fired before they are in their saddles,
decamping at full speed.
Our two 75-millimetre guns come up, and throw a few shells from a
distance, with no result.
It is always the same. They watch the enemy's operations without
interfering, and when they want to act, it is too late.
It is two o'clock. Our waggons went off long ago, but the road is
encumbered with a long string of vehicles.
The roads to Smaldeel and Winburg are cut off. There is an
indescribable throng on the Veldt; each person is going in his own
direction. The confusion is complete.
C---- and I go off to try and find our baggage, for since the 1st we
have had no news of the trolley, which is with Michel and a few
comrades. The rest of the carts may very well have been captured, like
so many others, either near Winburg or near Smaldeel.
My friend, always full of foresight, had taken the precaution of putting
a pot of peach jam in his pocket when we started in the morning. On this
we dined without a scrap of biscuit.
Late in the evening we arrived at a farm, from whence we were shown the
English outposts on a kopje opposite. During the night the owners of
the farm went off in a cart. Kaffirs kept watch to warn us should any
attempt be made on our refuge. We slipped away at daybreak, and arrived
at Smaldeel towards noon on the 5th.
The retreat continued. Each day was marked by a skirmish, though no
serious engagement took place except at Zand River on the 9th. There the
fighting was pretty hot. The Boers of our right wing were driven back,
while the Germans, who were in front, held the bed of the river, which
makes an angle at this point. The English column advanced, greatly
outnumbering the Germans, who were very nearly taken. They ordered the
Boers to stand firm to allow them to disengage themselves, but the
panic-stricken Burghers would not stop. Then, without receiving any
orders, the Germans, moved by a feeling of deep and legitimate anger,
once more summoned the fugitives to fight, and on their refusal, poured
a volley into them at a distance of about 200 metres. Several fell; the
rest, cowed by this prompt action, returned to their positions, held the
English column in check for a few moments, and gave the Germans time to
disengage themselves.
On the 12th French had arrived first at Kroonstad by one of his usual
outflanking movements. The surprise had been complete. Fortunately our
carts had left the day before.
Since the 8th Heilbron had become the seat of government of the Free
State.
The Irish Brigade,[#] nearly all of whom were drunk after the sacking of
the stores, had been made prisoners for the most part.
[#] A certain number of Irish, commanded by Colonel Blake, had taken
service with the Boers under the name of the Irish Brigade.
The railway-station, which served as a commissariat store, had been
burnt to the ground with all the provisions, which there had been no
time to save.
Everyone was worn out. Lorentz had been shot in two places at Zand
River; Wrangel too was wounded. Everywhere where resistance had been
necessary the Boers had not stood against a dozen shells.
The retreat continued to Vereeniging; we arrived there on the 14th. The
most contradictory rumours were freely circulated. On the 12th,
Mafeking was said to have been taken by the Boers; on the 13th the news
was confirmed; on the 14th it was denied.
The town, it appeared, had very nearly been taken by a hundred
foreigners; but getting no support from the Boers, they had failed in
their attempt, and seventy-two of them had been killed.
On the morning of the 17th we were said to have captured eighteen guns
at Mafeking. The following telegram, signed by General Snyman, had even
been published:
'This morning I had the good fortune to take prisoner Baden-Powell and
his 900 men.'
In the evening it was reported that we had suffered a check, and had
lost ten guns.
The last report was, unhappily, the only true one.
Baden-Powell, whom Lord Roberts had asked in April to hold on till May
18, had been relieved on the 17th, after a siege of 118 days.
The last few days, it seems, had been very hard ones, for on April 22
the ration had been reduced to 120 grammes of meat and 240 grammes of
bread a day.
The little garrison had been greatly tried, losing more than half of its
numbers during this siege, the longest in modern times after those of
Khartoum (341 days) and Sebastopol (327 days), though a trifling affair
as compared with the ten years of Troy, or the twenty-nine years of
Azoth recorded by Herodotus.
We found our waggons awaiting us at Vereeniging on the 15th; we were
thoroughly disgusted, as may be supposed. We had been retreating and
retreating continuously, without a struggle, without an effort, offering
no resistance.
However, we found that a _Long Tom_ had been brought up, mounted on a
truck. It was protected by a steel shield and a rampart of sandbags. A
second truck, also casemated with logs and sandbags, served as a
magazine for powder and shell. But the kind of armoured train thus
formed remained idle in the railway-station.
I inquired whether we were to attempt an attack and push forward. The
answer was that we could not venture to cross the Vaal with the gun,
because it was feared that the Free State Boers, who were displeased at
the war, might blow up the railway bridge while the 'armoured train' was
in the Orange territory, and thus deliver it into the hands of the
English. Such was the spirit of confidence that reigned!
In spite of all this, we wished to try once more to organize an
effective foreign legion. De Malzan, a former officer in the German
army, was appointed Adjutant of the Uitlanders' Corps under Blignault,
by the Government of Pretoria; his commission was signed by Reitz and
Souza. He went, his jaw still bandaged for a wound received at
Platrand, to confer with General Botha. He was very badly received.
'I do not recognise anyone's right to make appointments. Blignault is
not a General, and you are nothing at all. The Europeans can all go
back to their own countries. I don't want them. My Burghers are quite
enough for me'--a remark he might have spared the European legion,
which, out of about 280, had in the last two months lost fifteen killed,
nineteen prisoners and eighty-seven wounded on the battlefields of
Boshof, Taba N'chu, Brandfort and Zand River.
Anxious to clear up the question definitively, I left my camp on the
other side of the Vaal, and made for Pretoria on the evening of the 18th
in a coal-truck.
On the 19th I found Lorentz there. He had been made a Colonel. We held
a council of war--Lorentz, still lame from his two wounds; Wrangel, with
his arm in a sling; Rittmeister Illich, the Austro-Hungarian, and
myself. It was decided that we should lay before the President a scheme
of organization, from which I will quote a passage, as it shows the
state of mind in which we all were:
'We earnestly hope that on the lines we have laid down, and with the
active support of the Government--which no one has yet obtained--a good
result may be achieved.
'This plan, taking into account the rapidity with which events are
following one upon another, depends for its success on the swiftness
with which it is carried out. But we much fear that a fresh rebuff from
the Government, after so many others, would irrevocably discourage its
well-wishers.'
* * * * *
We obtained an interview with De Korte, who had influence. He approved
the plan, but feared to see it fail, like so many others. Our
representations became more and more pressing.
On the 24th I went to Johannesburg to see Dr. Krause, who is also
influential. He was very amiable, but irresolute, and did not know what
to say.
* * * * *
The English continued to advance. A despatch-rider came to tell me that
my convoy had arrived. It joined me, indeed, at Johannesburg on the
26th, without any 'boys,' all of them having deserted; the waggons
battered and broken by fording the rivers, the beasts dead or exhausted
by a journey without rest or food, the men worn out by continual
vigilance, and by their double duties as 'boys' and combatants,
disgusted at the retreat and the disorder.
Many of them laid down their arms, and found work at the
cartridge-factory and in the mines at from twenty-five to thirty
shillings a day. One, more desperate than the rest, left his arms with
us, and went off to the English lines to surrender. Only a very few
remained, waiting for the President's decision as a last resource.
The Landdrost allots a piece of waste ground to the twenty mules,
twenty-one oxen, thirty-two horses and two 'boys,' which constitute the
debris of our convoy. The men find lodging where they can.
On Sunday, the 27th, one of my men arrived from Pretoria with a letter
from Lorentz, dated Saturday morning. The scheme had been signed and
approved. Afterwards he handed me a proclamation by Lorentz, dated the
evening of the same day. At two o'clock everything was retracted and
refused. Furious and despairing, Colonel Lorentz adjured all the
foreigners to lay down their arms:
'As the honourable Government of the Z.A.R. cannot accede to our modest
but just demands, we, the foreigners of various nationalities, being
without means of livelihood, are no longer in a position to sacrifice
our lives for the maintenance of the Federated Republics.
'I, the under-signed, hitherto commandant of the international corps,
hereby invite all persons who voluntarily joined me to lay down their
arms on Tuesday, May 29, 1900, at ten o'clock in the morning, at the Old
Union Club at Pretoria, or at any other place where they may happen to
be.
'(Signed) C. LORENTZ.
'HAUPTMANN v. L.'
I hesitated to show the proclamation to my companions, they were already
so depressed.
On the morning of Monday, the 28th, a policeman, furnished with an order
from the Landdrost, requisitioned our beasts at the grazing-ground
without even giving us notice. I believe he sold them. I had almost
certain proof of this later on. We never found them again.
In the night three of our waggons out of the five were pillaged in spite
of the man on guard. Such behaviour to Europeans who were being cut up
into mincemeat for them! ... It was too much! The cup was full. I
handed Lorentz's proclamation to the men. It did not raise a regret;
they were all sick of the business.
Those in authority had refused them a few shillings, scarcely the pay of
a Kaffir, of which they were sorely in need, for they were utterly
destitute, and had not the means to escape from the English and return
to their countries.
And now the authorities were taking advantage of our exhaustion to steal
our horses--under a pretext of legality--to give, or, rather, to sell
them to Boers who were going back quietly to their farms. For if a few
thousand still stood their ground, the majority had lost heart, and had
returned to their homes, only leaving them when their wives, more
patriotic than themselves, drove them back to the front.
It was generally the old men, those who had taken part in the 'Great
Treks,' who set the example of resistance. These men have inherited the
virtues of their ignorant and rustic ancestors. If they can read at
all, the Bible is their only book; and even if they cannot read it, they
know its grand pages, and try to live up to its precepts.
Many Burghers of the younger generation, on the other hand, have
inhabited towns; they have become greedy of gain, very English in their
habits and customs, and have lost the principal virtues of their race,
substituting for them the faults, often much aggravated, of those who
have given them the shady civilization of South African cities.
In the army of Natal, round about Amajuba, there were seven guns and
about 200 men. Of these just _six were Burghers_, the rest were
Afrikanders and foreigners. And while former officers and
non-commissioned officers of the European artillery were begging for
cannon, two of these seven guns were idle for want of men to serve them.
They prefer to leave them thus rather than to give them over to
foreigners. I was told this by a Burgher, an artilleryman of twenty,
who was going to his post. I travelled with him from Pretoria to
Elandsfontein on the morning of May 24. He himself did not conceal his
indignation at this method of proceeding.
At Pretoria the Government had given up all pretence of action. A
general panic seemed to reign. Rumour reported that influential persons
were mainly occupied in dividing the public money among themselves.
It is a fact that none of the tradespeople, whether they were
hotel-keepers who had lodged and fed troops on presentation of
requisition warrants, or dealers in clothes and provisions, had been
paid. They all now declined to lodge persons or provide goods for the
State.
A woman, Mrs. S. D., who had had a contract for saddles, was obliged,
after many fruitless appeals, to enter the Government offices horsewhip
in hand, like Louis XIV. when he intimidated his Parliament.
Thanks to this vigorous proceeding, she received a credit-note, on which
a certain number of bars of gold were given her, for the national
bank-notes had fallen to about two-thirds of their nominal value. But
this was an exceptional case, and most of the trades-people were less
fortunate.
What became of the gold that for eight months was taken out of seven
mines working for the State? No one knows!
It is true that, from the highest functionary to the humblest Burgher,
all were intent on the most shameless pillage. I saw army contractors,
on whom no sort of check existed, charged with the provision of every
kind of necessary, food, clothing, horses, oxen, etc., and making fine
fortunes in no time; while the honest and worthy Boer received from the
State horses and harness which he afterwards sold to it again with the
utmost coolness.
I know, too, that very large sums were devoted to a press propaganda in
favour of the South African Republics. And how many skilful middlemen,
by means of round sums judiciously distributed, secured orders for the
most expensive and useless commodities!
In all countries and in all ages it is notorious that out of ten army
contractors nine are thieves and one is a rogue, especially in war-time.
Their depredations date back to the institution of armies, and the Boer
contractors had only to follow on a path already clearly marked out for
them by their European confreres. But few of these have displayed such
a degree of proficiency in their calling.
I might quote the case of a famous Parisian firm of balloonists, to
which nearly 10,000 francs were paid in ready money for waterproof silk,
cord, and various utensils for the construction of a balloon. An
aeronaut was also engaged at a salary of 2,000 francs a month, all
expenses paid, and when he arrived at Machadodorp, where the President
was at the time, he was greeted with:
'A balloon? What for?'
After awaiting a solution for three weeks, the aeronaut returned to
France, noting on his return journey a number of stray packages on the
quay at Lourenco Marques. They contained the silk and the rest of the
apparatus.
It was by a scientific application of these Boer principles that Mrs. S.
D. came by the very pretty sum we have seen her collecting with her
horsewhip!
She had engaged to deliver 500 saddles a week at L10 each; but a good
many of the Burghers to whom the saddles were distributed sold them back
to the worthy lady's agents for L4 or L5, and she then sold them again
to the State, after changing the more conspicuous of them a little. So
that these wretched saddles were always reappearing on the scene, as in
a review at the Chatelet; but each of their migrations brought in a
solid sum to Mrs. D----.
It is not difficult to see why there was no money for the combatants.
X
After forty-eight hours of fighting from Elandsfontein to Florida, on
May 29 and 30, we were cut off from the road to Pretoria by General
French and his cavalry.
Without horses it was impossible for us to follow the retreat, and we
found ourselves shut up in Johannesburg. We succeeded in enrolling
ourselves among the police of the mines, which gave us a temporary
shelter, and perhaps saved us a sojourn at St. Helena; for we were
determined not to take the oath of neutrality, but to begin fighting
again as soon as possible.
On May 31 the English entered Johannesburg. The English flag was hoisted
with great pomp at noon in the great square, in the presence of Lord
Roberts. Dr. Krause had been empowered to surrender the town.
Johannesburg is a very English town. Its behaviour at the time of
Jameson's raid sufficiently proved this, and many of the more
irreconcilable Burghers who had been brought into hospital there wounded
ran away before they were cured rather than remain in the hostile town.
The Union Jack was accordingly greeted with loud shouts of 'Hip! hip!
hip! hurrah!'
Nevertheless, we often met Burghers in the crowd who, like ourselves,
were only biding their time to return to the front. I saw one old man
weeping silently. I am not sentimental, but I have rarely felt a more
poignant emotion than this mute and dignified despair excited in me. I
hurried away. I think I should have wept myself.
The entry of the troops began at about 10.30, and lasted four hours.
About 12,000 men marched through the town, and in the environs, as far
off as Elandsfontein, some 50,000 passed, it was said.
But what a procession it was! There was no order; the men barely
marched in ranks. No uniforms, officers and soldiers huddled together,
dirty, and many of them in rags. They had eaten nothing since the day
before, when the ration had been two biscuits.
On they came, or rather dragged themselves, with drooping heads, one
with his rifle on his shoulder, another with his slung across his back,
one with the butt-end uppermost, some without bayonets, others with
bayonets fixed. Some officers had our Mauser rifles, others
Lee-Enfields, others sporting rifles. Nearly all, both officers and
soldiers, walked with the help of sticks.
From Bloemfontein to Johannesburg they had covered 250 miles, fighting
every day, and sometimes marching 45 kilometres without a halt across
country.
A few days earlier, at Kroonstad, their convoys had not come up. Lord
Roberts, anxious to continue his forward movement by forced marches,
asked the commissariat-officer:
'Can you serve the ration?'
'No, sir.'
'Half ration, then?'
'No, sir.'
'Quarter ration?'
'Yes, perhaps.'
On receiving this problematic reply, the Marshal explained the situation
to his men. They immediately replied with acclamations: 'For Lord
Roberts we would march without any ration at all!'
The Black Watch, out of a thousand men, their strength on landing,
mustered about sixty behind their pipers. The others lie in the
trenches of Magersfontein and at the foot of Dorn Kop.
Save for a few battalions that have arrived recently, the regiments are
skeleton corps.
As we watched these haggard, exhausted troops dragging themselves along,
involuntarily we called to mind him who once marched our fathers through
all the capitals of Europe. In spite of fatigue, privation, and hard
fighting, it was in a very different guise that the Grand Army entered
Vienna and Berlin behind the Emperor and his glittering staff.
The artillery was in better form. Some fifteen batteries were drawn by
magnificent horses, and I saw men on cobs that looked well worth from
two to three hundred louis.
There were also some siege-guns, and some 15 centimetre naval guns--one
from the _Monarch_--drawn by thirty-two oxen. It was behind this
powerful artillery, devastating the whole region with it on principle,
whether occupied or not, that the English army had advanced from
Bloemfontein.
If we had had a body of cavalry, I believe that rapid and energetic
action would have resulted in a considerable loss of _materiel_ to the
English army; for, relying on the absolute lack of offensive measures on
our side, they often left their batteries defenceless.
Next came a strong train--telegraph apparatus, balloonists, engineering
implements for digging wells, pumps, etc.
The troops merely passed through the town, leaving in it a garrison
under the command of Colonel Mackenzie (Seaforth Highlanders), who was
appointed Governor of Johannesburg.
The next day a proclamation by Frederick Sleigh, Baron Roberts of
Kandahar and Waterford, K.P., G.C.B., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., V.C.,
Field-Marshal, commanding Her Majesty's Forces in South Africa:
'Assures the non-combatant population of his protection.
'All Burghers who have committed no act of violence contrary to the laws
of civilization against any of Her Majesty's subjects are authorized to
return to their homes, after giving up their arms and pledging
themselves to take no further part in hostilities. Passports will be
given them.
'Her Majesty's Government will respect the private property of the
inhabitants of the South African Republic, as far as is compatible with
the exigencies of war.
'All individual attempts upon property will be severely punished.
'GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!
'Given under my hand and seal at Johannesburg, May 31, 1900.'
At the same time, regulations fixing the prices of provisions for the
troops were issued: 30s. for a sack of 168 lb. of oats;
champagne-tisane, 160s. a case; tobacco, from 3s. to 7s. a pound, etc.
Let us take advantage of our ephemeral functions as policemen to explore
the town a little. Johannesburg was not the first mining centre in the
Transvaal. The first workers established themselves at Barberton in
1886. A few years later the Brothers Strubens, whilom prospectors,
discovered an auriferous vein in the Witwatersrand near the farm of
Landlaagte. Johannesburg then consisted of a few scattered huts. It
now numbers over 100,000 inhabitants (I mean, of course, before the
war).
It is a town given over to business. The centre is occupied by the
post-office, a huge building, in front of which is a vast marketplace.
Here in normal times trains of carts bring in all the necessaries of
life--fruit, vegetables, mealies, etc. The principal streets,
Commissioner Street, Market Street, Pritchard Street and President
Street, are wide, clean, and bordered by handsome shops. The whole town
is lighted by electricity.
The blocks of houses, three and four stories high, are called
'buildings'; often several of them belong to the same owner or to the
same society, and bear their names: AEgis Building, Commissioner Street;
S.A. Mutual Building; Standard Building; Heritier Building.
The houses are not numbered, but this does not inconvenience the
postmen, for they do not exist. Each inhabitant pays a small sum for
his own box at the post-office, and goes to fetch his correspondence
when he likes.
Johannesburg has a very well organized fire-brigade, with engines,
ladders and fire-escapes of the latest pattern. The captain, who is, I
believe, an Englishman, served for a time in Paris, London, and New
York, and wears the honorary medal of our Paris brigade. The men wear
the same uniform as English firemen.
The hosiers, tailors, French milliners, dressmakers, saddlers, and
music-sellers of the town are on a par with the best European
specialists. Life is very expensive, and all luxuries command tremendous
prices. Cabs, dirty and ill-harnessed, drawn by two miserable horses
and very badly driven, cost 7s. an hour. Little light cabriolets drawn
by negroes are therefore generally used for locomotion. These are much
cheaper and fairly rapid, for the negroes--Kaffirs or Zulus--are in
excellent training, and can go extraordinary distances at the double.
The currency was for a long time English, but in 1892 the Transvaal
struck her first coins (pounds and shillings) with the effigy of
President Kruger.
The Free State has no coinage of her own, and uses English or
Transvaalian money.
Bronze money, of which the President only allowed a few specimens to be
struck, is not current; the monetary unit is the 'ticket,' a small
silver coin worth 3d.[#]
[#] Some English officers, it seems, saw for the first time at
Elandsfontein a Kruger's penny, and bought it for L2. The current price
of a Kruger's penny is from two to three shillings.
The Johannesburg journals, the _Standard and Diggers' News_ and the
_Wolkstrem_, the official organ, therefore cost 3d.
At Johannesburg much more than at Pretoria, because the town is more
English, the houses in the centre of the town are mainly offices, for
all the inhabitants who are comfortably off live in the suburbs, either
on the height beyond the fort, or at the end of Main Street, in the
great park of Belgravia.
Most of these suburban dwellings are very expensive, and are comfortably
and luxuriously arranged. A garden more or less large is considered an
absolute necessity.
The majority of the population speculate and gamble, and it is not rare
in times of peace to recognise in some barman or miner a gentleman who
had dazzled the town by the magnificence of his carriages and horses a
few months back. No surprise is felt by anyone, for the next 'boom' will
perhaps make him a wealthy man of fashion once more.
I could quote the case of a young man I knew well who was twice a
millionaire, and who, after having been ruined for the second time, was
gradually building up a third fortune. He is very little more than
thirty.
Johannesburg, however, is merely a city of passage. Men stay here just
long enough to make money, and directly this is done, they return to
their own countries. The end and aim of everything here is to make
money, and to make it quickly.
Based on this principle, and composed of a number of adventurers, the
cosmopolitan society one finds here hardly offers a guarantee of
irreproachable morality.
Antecedents are of little account, indeed. A merchant who has been
convicted of fraud in France, here enjoys the consideration due to the
L500,000 he has gained with the money he stole in his fraudulent
bankruptcy.
I have even heard that some years ago the extradition of a rogue was the
signal for disorderly scenes and an expostulatory address, because he
had not been convicted of theft since his arrival at Johannesburg. He
had made a considerable sum of money there, and was accompanied to the
station by a number of friends.
* * * * *
No sketch of Johannesburg would be complete without a few words about
the gold-mines.
I am no authority on the subject, but I will describe what was told me
and what I saw; and as the engineer who was good enough to give me some
information knew me to be ignorant, my precis will be a little 'Manual
on Mining' for the use of novices.
In the first place, there is an essential difference between the manner
in which gold is found in Witwatersrand and in other districts, such as
Klondyke, Senegal, or the Soudan. In the latter, the gold is in grains,
either embedded between the frozen stones, or rolling in the beds of
rivers. The auriferous mud is taken up and washed, and the gold is
retained. Nothing could be simpler.
In the Rand, however, the working of the mines is purely scientific.
The mineral is found in blocks of quartz and silicious clay containing
pyrites of auriferous copper and gold.
After calculating the direction of the reef, one must dig down to a
greater or less depth to find it. Dynamite is then used to detach the
gold-bearing quartz, which is brought to the surface. It has the
appearance of very hard white stone, slightly veined with blue. It is
carried off to the batteries in Decauville trucks, and there a
crushing-mill, which looks like a gigantic coffee-mill, and
sledge-hammers combined into groups of five, reduce it to a very fine
powder. A current of air spreads this powder over copper-plates covered
with mercury.
A large proportion of the gold, about 60 per cent., amalgamates with the
mercury, and once a fortnight the amalgam is scraped off. After fusion
the mercury in the amalgam volatilizes, leaving a deposit of almost pure
gold.
The residuum of the first process is afterwards poured into huge vats of
from 10 to 12 metres in diameter, in which cyanide of potassium has been
placed. A solution of cyanide of gold is thus obtained, and this is put
into cases lined with strips of zinc, on which the gold is precipitated.
The 40 per cent. lost in the first process is thus recovered.
The gold thus collected is melted down into ingots, the transport and
verification of which are the objects of interminable regulations.
So much for the scientific part. The rest is simpler.
The heavy labour is mainly done by Kaffirs or Zulus under the
supervision of white miners who earn about twenty-five pounds a month,
and live in the boarding-house connected with the mine.
The natives live in a compound where no alcohol is allowed. Their
rations are given them, and they live on very little. Their ambition is
to earn enough money to return to their native place, buy two wives, and
do no more work; the wives work for them thenceforth. It takes them
about two years to realize this dream. When the time is up, it is
impossible to keep them in the mines.
The first year of working (1888) yielded about L1,000,000. In 1895
about L8,000,000 was extracted. Finally, from January 1 to August 31,
1899, the harvest was nearly L13,000,000. The net profits of
exploitation are considerably diminished by the enormous expenses
resulting from the dearness of European labour, and the heavy taxes
imposed by the Transvaal Government on mining rights and on the
importation of explosives.
At the time of my sojourn all the works were closed. In the town, as
every hospital and ambulance was full to overflowing, the hotels were
requisitioned for the sick. In front of the Victoria Hotel there were
often strings of ten and twelve waggons bringing in the wounded.
Often at dusk a dray would pass, into which long, heavy cases of deal
were furtively slipped.... The _avowed_ losses were terrible enough.
What were they in reality?
About the middle of December the War Office confessed to 7,350 men. At
the beginning of February this number was doubled, and Buller's three
attempts on the Tugela cost 1,046 killed, 3,785 wounded, and over 1,500
missing.
In March the numbers had swelled to 14,000. It was the unhealthy season,
and sickness--enteric fever especially--made wider gaps in the English
ranks than bullets. On May 10 over 18,000 men were missing, 5,000 of
whom were dead.
On the Boer side the statistics are much more difficult to check,
especially when one is confronted with such discrepancies as these:
Rumours and reports stated the Boer losses at the Battle of Colenso, on
December 15, to have been 8 killed and 14 wounded. But I find a report
drawn up by the Red Cross Society in which the numbers are given as 77
killed and 210 wounded.
What is one to believe? In all ages belligerents have tried to conceal
their losses, and this kind of juggling is, of course, much easier among
incoherent groups like the commandos than in regular battalions.
* * * * *
One day--it was June 10, I think--all the police of the mines were
requisitioned to transport the wounded from the station to the
hospitals. There were a great many, and they had been forbidden to say
whence they came; the police were also forbidden to speak to them on any
pretext whatever. Had something very serious happened? We never knew
exactly what it was.
Pretoria had been occupied on June 5. The news that reached us came at
long intervals, after manipulation by the censor, and was often of the
most fantastic order.
The police regulations were most stringent. Everyone was ordered to be
indoors, at first by seven o'clock, later by 8.30. The streets and
squares were guarded by troops. Jewellers' and wine-merchants' shops
and bars were closed by order. No one was allowed to draw money without
a permit from the military authorities, and a limit--of L20 a week, I
think--was enforced as to the amount, unless a special permission had
been granted.
Finally, residents in the town were required to get a pass and to take
an oath of allegiance. Those who, like ourselves, had resolved not to do
this, were obliged to hide like outlaws, to avoid being marched off to
the fort, and thence to Ceylon. We give a reproduction of this police
regulation[#] which was posted on the walls of the town.
[#] See pp. 216, 217.
A few days back a German had gone into Government Place at noon and
hauled down the English flag. The sentry looked on aghast at first, and
then began to question him.
'It has no business here,' replied the German, going on with his work.
He was arrested at last, and condemned to nine months' hard labour.
The life of inaction had become unbearable to me. At the end of June,
still on the lookout for a means of returning to the front, I at last
'found' the papers of an English police-officer. And now for liberty!
* * * * * * * *
V. R.
POLICE NOTICE,
1. All Civilians are required to remain in their houses between the
hours of 7 p.m. and 6.30 a.m. unless provided with a pass signed by the
Military Commissioner of Police.
2. No Natives are allowed in the town except such as are permanently
employed within its limits.
3. All Liquor Stores, Bars, and Kaffir Eating Houses are closed until
further orders. No liquor will be sold except on the written order of
an Officer of Her Majesty's Forces. 4. All Jewellers' Shops are closed.
5. No Civilian is allowed to ride or drive, or ride a bicycle within
the town unless provided with a pass signed by the Military Commissioner
of Police.
6. Any person disobeying these regulations is liable to arrest, and
will be dealt with under Martial Law.
By Order,
FRANCIS DAVIES, MAJOR GRENADIER GUARDS,
_Military Commissioner of Police._
JOHANNESBURG, 1ST JUNE, 1900.