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.