(DECEMBER 1900 TO APRIL 1901.)
During the whole war the task of the British had been made very much
more difficult by the openly expressed sympathy with the Boers from
the political association known as the Afrikander Bond, which either
inspired or represented the views which prevailed among the great
majority of the Dutch inhabitants of Cape Colony. How strong was this
rebel impulse may be gauged by the fact that in some of the border
districts no less than ninety per cent of the voters joined the Boer
invaders upon the occasion of their first entrance into the Colony. It
is not pretended that these men suffered from any political grievances
whatever, and their action is to be ascribed partly to a natural
sympathy with their northern kinsmen, and partly to racial ambition and
to personal dislike to their British neighbours. The liberal British
policy towards the natives had especially alienated the Dutch, and had
made as well-marked a line of cleavage in South Africa as the slave
question had done in the States of the Union.
With the turn of the war the discontent in Cape Colony became less
obtrusive, if not less acute, but in the later months of the year
1900 it increased to a degree which became dangerous. The fact of the
farm-burning in the conquered countries, and the fiction of outrages by
the British troops, raised a storm of indignation. The annexation of the
Republics, meaning the final disappearance of any Dutch flag from South
Africa, was a racial humiliation which was bitterly resented. The Dutch
papers became very violent, and the farmers much excited. The agitation
culminated in a conference at Worcester upon December 6th, at which some
thousands of delegates were present. It is suggestive of the Imperial
nature of the struggle that the assembly of Dutch Afrikanders was
carried out under the muzzles of Canadian artillery, and closely watched
by Australian cavalry. Had violent words transformed themselves into
deeds, all was ready for the crisis.
Fortunately the good sense of the assembly prevailed, and the agitation,
though bitter, remained within those wide limits which a British
constitution permits. Three resolutions were passed, one asking that
the war be ended, a second that the independence of the Republics be
restored, and a third protesting against the actions of Sir Alfred
Milner. A deputation which carried these to the Governor received a
courteous but an uncompromising reply. Sir Alfred Milner pointed out
that the Home Government, all the great Colonies, and half the Cape
were unanimous in their policy, and that it was folly to imagine that
it could be reversed on account of a local agitation. All were agreed in
the desire to end the war, but the last way of bringing this about was
by encouraging desperate men to go on fighting in a hopeless cause. Such
was the general nature of the Governor's reply, which was, as might be
expected, entirely endorsed by the British Government and people.
Had De Wet, in the operations which have already been described, evaded
Charles Knox and crossed the Orange River, his entrance into the Colony
would have been synchronous with the congress at Worcester, and the
situation would have become more acute. This peril was fortunately
averted. The agitation in the Colony suggested to the Boer leaders,
however, that here was an untouched recruiting ground, and that small
mobile invading parties might gather strength and become formidable.
It was obvious, also, that by enlarging the field of operations the
difficulties of the British Commander-in-chief would be very much
increased, and the pressure upon the Boer guerillas in the Republics
relaxed. Therefore, in spite of De Wet's failure to penetrate the
Colony, several smaller bands under less-known leaders were despatched
over the Orange River. With the help of the information and the supplies
furnished by the local farmers, these bands wandered for many months
over the great expanse of the Colony, taking refuge, when hard pressed,
among the mountain ranges. They moved swiftly about, obtaining remounts
from their friends, and avoiding everything in the nature of an action,
save when the odds were overwhelmingly in their favour. Numerous small
posts or patrols cut off, many skirmishes, and one or two railway
smashes were the fruits of this invasion, which lasted till the end of
the war, and kept the Colony in an extreme state of unrest during that
period. A short account must be given here of the movement and exploits
of these hostile bands, avoiding, as far as possible, that catalogue of
obscure 'fonteins' and 'kops' which mark their progress.
The invasion was conducted by two main bodies, which shed off numerous
small raiding parties. Of these two, one operated on the western side
of the Colony, reaching the sea-coast in the Clanwilliam district, and
attaining a point which is less than a hundred miles from Cape Town.
The other penetrated even more deeply down the centre of the Colony,
reaching almost to the sea in the Mossel Bay direction. Yet the
incursion, although so far-reaching, had small effect, since the
invaders held nothing save the ground on which they stood, and won their
way, not by victory, but by the avoidance of danger. Some recruits were
won to their cause, but they do not seem at that time to have been more
than a few hundreds in number, and to have been drawn for the most part
from the classes of the community which had least to lose and least to
offer.
The Western Boers were commanded by Judge Hertzog of the Free State,
having with him Brand, the son of the former president, and about twelve
hundred well-mounted men. Crossing the Orange River at Sand Drift, north
of Colesberg, upon December 16th, they paused at Kameelfontein to
gather up a small post of thirty yeomen and guardsmen under Lieutenant
Fletcher, the wellknown oar. Meeting with a stout resistance, and
learning that British forces were already converging upon them, they
abandoned the attack, and turning away from Colesberg they headed west,
cutting the railway line twenty miles to the north of De Aar. On the
22nd they occupied Britstown, which is eighty miles inside the border,
and on the same day they captured a small body of yeomanry who had been
following them. These prisoners were released again some days later.
Taking a sweep round towards Prieska and Strydenburg, they pushed south
again. At the end of the year Hertzog's column was 150 miles deep in the
Colony, sweeping through the barren and thinly-inhabited western lands,
heading apparently for Fraserburg and Beaufort West.
The second column was commanded by Kritzinger, a burgher of Zastron, in
the Orange River Colony. His force was about 800 strong. Crossing
the border at Rhenoster Hoek upon December 16th, they pushed for
Burghersdorp, but were headed off by a British column. Passing through
Venterstad, they made for Steynsberg, fighting two indecisive skirmishes
with small British forces. The end of the year saw them crossing the
rail road at Sherburne, north of Rosmead Junction, where they captured a
train as they passed, containing some Colonial troops. At this time they
were a hundred miles inside the Colony, and nearly three hundred from
Hertzog's western column.
In the meantime Lord Kitchener, who had descended for a few days to De
Aar, had shown great energy in organising small mobile columns which
should follow and, if possible, destroy the invaders. Martial law was
proclaimed in the parts of the Colony affected, and as the invaders
came further south the utmost enthusiasm was shown by the loyalists,
who formed themselves everywhere into town guards. The existing Colonial
regiments, such as Brabant's, the Imperial and South African Light
Horse--Thorneycroft's, Rimington's, and the others--had already been
brought up to strength again, and now two new regiments were added,
Kitchener's Bodyguard and Kitchener's Fighting Scouts, the latter being
raised by Johann Colenbrander, who had made a name for himself in the
Rhodesian wars. At this period of the war between twenty and thirty
thousand Cape colonists were under arms. Many of these were untrained
levies, but they possessed the martial spirit of the race, and they set
free more seasoned troops for other duties.
It will be most convenient and least obscure to follow the movements of
the western force (Hertzog's), and afterwards to consider those of the
eastern (Kritzinger's). The opening of the year saw the mobile column of
Free Staters 150 miles over the border, pushing swiftly south over the
barren surface of the Karoo. It is a country of scattered farms and
scanty population; desolate plains curving upwards until they rise into
still more desolate mountain ranges. Moving in a very loose formation
over a wide front, the Boers swept southwards. On or about January 4th
they took possession of the small town of Calvinia, which remained their
headquarters for more than a month. From this point their roving bands
made their way as far as the seacoast in the Clanwilliam direction, for
they expected at Lambert's Bay to meet with a vessel with mercenaries
and guns from Europe. They pushed their outposts also as far as
Sutherland and Beaufort West in the south. On January 15th strange
horsemen were seen hovering about the line at Touws River, and the
citizens of Cape Town learned with amazement that the war had been
carried to within a hundred miles of their own doors.
Whilst the Boers were making this daring raid a force consisting of
several mobile columns was being organised by General Settle to arrest
and finally to repel the western invasion. The larger body was under the
command of Colonel De Lisle, an officer who brought to the operations
of war the same energy and thoroughness with which he had made the polo
team of an infantry regiment the champions of the whole British Army.
His troops consisted of the 6th Mounted Infantry, the New South Wales
Mounted Infantry, the Irish Yeomanry, a section of R battery R.H.A., and
a pom-pom. With this small but mobile and hardy force he threw himself
in front of Hertzog's line of advance. On January 13th he occupied
Piquetburg, eighty miles south of the Boer headquarters. On the 23rd he
was at Clanwilliam, fifty miles south-west of them. To his right were
three other small British columns under Bethune, Thorneycroft, and
Henniker, the latter resting upon the railway at Matjesfontein, and the
whole line extending over 120 miles--barring the southern path to the
invaders.
Though Hertzog at Calvinia and De Lisle at Clanwilliam were only fifty
miles apart, the intervening country is among the most broken and
mountainous in South Africa. Between the two points, and nearer to De
Lisle than to Hertzog, flows the Doorn River. The Boers advancing from
Calvinia came into touch with the British scouts at this point, and
drove them in upon January 21st. On the 28th De Lisle, having been
reinforced by Bethune's column, was able at last to take the initiative.
Bethune's force consisted mainly of Colonials, and included Kitchener's
Fighting Scouts, the Cape Mounted Police, Cape Mounted Rifles, Brabant's
Horse, and the Diamond Field Horse. At the end of January the
united forces of Bethune and of De Lisle advanced upon Calvinia. The
difficulties lay rather in the impassable country than in the resistance
of an enemy who was determined to refuse battle. On February 6th, after
a fine march, De Lisle and his men took possession of Calvinia, which
had been abandoned by the Boers. It is painful to add that during the
month that they had held the town they appear to have behaved with great
harshness, especially to the kaffirs. The flogging and shooting of a
coloured man named Esan forms one more incident in the dark story of the
Boer and his relations to the native.
The British were now sweeping north on a very extended front.
Colenbrander had occupied Van Rhyns Dorp, to the east of Calvinia, while
Bethune's force was operating to the west of it. De Lisle hardly halted
at Calvinia, but pushed onwards to Williston, covering seventy-two
miles of broken country in forty-eight hours, one of the most amazing
performances of the war. Quick as he was, the Boers were quicker still,
and during his northward march he does not appear to have actually come
into contact with them. Their line of retreat lay through Carnarvon, and
upon February 22nd they crossed the railway line to the north of De Aar,
and joined upon February 26th the new invading force under De Wet, who
had now crossed the Orange River. De Lisle, who had passed over five
hundred miles of barren country since he advanced from Piquetburg, made
for the railway at Victoria West, and was despatched from that place on
February 22nd to the scene of action in the north. From all parts Boer
and Briton were concentrating in their effort to aid or to repel the
inroad of the famous guerilla.
Before describing this attempt it would be well to trace the progress
of the eastern invasion (Kritzinger's), a movement which may be treated
rapidly, since it led to no particular military result at that time,
though it lasted long after Hertzog's force had been finally dissipated.
Several small columns, those of Williams, Byng, Grenfell, and Lowe,
all under the direction of Haig, were organised to drive back these
commandos; but so nimble were the invaders, so vast the distances and
so broken the country, that it was seldom that the forces came into
contact. The operations were conducted over a portion of the Colony
which is strongly Dutch in sympathy, and the enemy, though they do
not appear to have obtained any large number of recruits, were able to
gather stores, horses, and information wherever they went.
When last mentioned Kritzinger's men had crossed the railway north of
Rosmead on December 30th, and held up a train containing some Colonial
troops. From then onwards a part of them remained in the Middelburg and
Graaf-Reinet districts, while part moved towards the south. On January
11th there was a sharp skirmish near Murraysburg, in which Byng's column
was engaged, at the cost of twenty casualties, all of Brabant's or the
South African Light Horse. On the 16th a very rapid movement towards the
south began. On that date Boers appeared at Aberdeen, and on the 18th at
Willowmore, having covered seventy miles in two days. Their long, thin
line was shredded out over 150 miles, and from Maraisburg, in the north,
to Uniondale, which is only thirty miles from the coast, there
was rumour of their presence. In this wild district and in that of
Oudtshoorn the Boer vanguard flitted in and out of the hills, Haig's
column striving hard to bring them to an action. So well-informed
were the invaders that they were always able to avoid the British
concentrations, while if a British outpost or patrol was left exposed
it was fortunate if it escaped disaster. On February 6th a small body
of twenty-five of the 7th King's Dragoon Guards and of the West
Australians, under Captain Oliver, were overwhelmed at Klipplaat, after
a very fine defence, in which they held their own against 200 Boers for
eight hours, and lost nearly fifty per cent of their number. On the 12th
a patrol of yeomanry was surprised and taken near Willowmore.
The coming of De Wet had evidently been the signal for all the Boer
raiders to concentrate, for in the second week of February Kritzinger
also began to fall back, as Hertzog had done in the west, followed
closely by the British columns. He did not, however, actually join De
Wet, and his evacuation of the country was never complete, as was the
case with Hertzog's force. On the 19th Kritzinger was at Bethesda, with
Gorringe and Lowe at his heels. On the 23rd an important railway bridge
at Fish River, north of Cradock, was attacked, but the attempt was
foiled by the resistance of a handful of Cape Police and Lancasters. On
March 6th a party of Boers occupied the village of Pearston, capturing
a few rifles and some ammunition. On the same date there was a skirmish
between Colonel Parsons's column and a party of the enemy to the north
of Aberdeen. The main body of the invading force appears to have been
lurking in this neighbourhood, as they were able upon April 7th to
cut off a strong British patrol, consisting of a hundred Lancers and
Yeomanry, seventy-five of whom remained as temporary prisoners in
the hands of the enemy. With this success we may for the time leave
Kritzinger and his lieutenant, Scheepers, who commanded that portion of
his force which had penetrated to the south of the Colony.
The two invasions which have been here described, that of Hertzog in the
west and of Kritzinger in the midlands, would appear in themselves to
be unimportant military operations, since they were carried out by
small bodies of men whose policy was rather to avoid than to overcome
resistance. Their importance, however, is due to the fact that they were
really the forerunners of a more important incursion upon the part of De
Wet. The object of these two bands of raiders was to spy out the land,
so that on the arrival of the main body all might be ready for that
general rising of their kinsmen in the Colony which was the last chance,
not of winning, but of prolonging the war. It must be confessed that,
however much their reason might approve of the Government under which
they lived, the sentiment of the Cape Dutch had been cruelly, though
unavoidably, hurt in the course of the war. The appearance of so popular
a leader as De Wet with a few thousand veterans in the very heart of
their country might have stretched their patience to the breaking-point.
Inflamed, as they were, by that racial hatred which had always
smouldered, and had now been fanned into a blaze by the speeches of
their leaders and by the fictions of their newspapers, they were ripe
for mischief, while they had before their eyes an object-lesson of the
impotence of our military system in those small bands who had kept the
country in a ferment for so long. All was propitious, therefore, for the
attempt which Steyn and De Wet were about to make to carry the war into
the enemy's country.
We last saw De Wet when, after a long chase, he had been headed back
from the Orange River, and, winning clear from Knox's pursuit, had
in the third week of December passed successfully through the British
cordon between Thabanchu and Ladybrand. Thence he made his way to
Senekal, and proceeded, in spite of the shaking which he had had, to
recruit and recuperate in the amazing way which a Boer army has. There
is no force so easy to drive and so difficult to destroy. The British
columns still kept in touch with De Wet, but found it impossible
to bring him to an action in the difficult district to which he had
withdrawn. His force had split up into numerous smaller bodies, capable
of reuniting at a signal from their leader. These scattered bodies,
mobile as ever, vanished if seriously attacked, while keenly on the
alert to pounce upon any British force which might be overpowered before
assistance could arrive. Such an opportunity came to the commando led
by Philip Botha, and the result was another petty reverse to the British
arms.
Upon January 3rd Colonel White's small column was pushing north, in
co-operation with those of Knox, Pilcher, and the others. Upon that date
it had reached a point just north of Lindley, a district which has never
been a fortunate one for the invaders. A patrol of Kitchener' s newly
raised bodyguard, under Colonel Laing, 120 strong, was sent forward to
reconnoitre upon the road from Lindley to Reitz.
The scouting appears to have been negligently done, there being only
two men out upon each flank. The little force walked into one of those
horse-shoe positions which the Boers love, and learned by a sudden
volley from a kraal upon their right that the enemy was present in
strength. On attempting to withdraw it was instantly evident that the
Boers were on all sides and in the rear with a force which numbered at
least five to one. The camp of the main column was only four miles away,
however, and the bodyguard, having sent messages of their precarious
position, did all they could to make a defence until help could reach
them. Colonel Laing had fallen, shot through the heart, but found a
gallant successor in young Nairne, the adjutant. Part of the force had
thrown themselves, under Nairne and Milne, into a donga, which gave some
shelter from the sleet of bullets. The others, under Captain Butters,
held on to a ruined kraal. The Boers pushed the attack very rapidly,
however, and were soon able with their superior numbers to send a raking
fire down the donga, which made it a perfect death-trap. Still hoping
that the laggard reinforcements would come up, the survivors held
desperately on; but both in the kraal and in the donga their numbers
were from minute to minute diminishing. There was no formal surrender
and no white flag, for, when fifty per cent of the British were down,
the Boers closed in swiftly and rushed the position. Philip Botha, the
brother of the commandant, who led the Boers, behaved with courtesy and
humanity to the survivors; but many of the wounds were inflicted with
those horrible explosive and expansive missiles, the use of which among
civilised combatants should now and always be a capital offence. To
disable one's adversary is a painful necessity of warfare, but nothing
can excuse the wilful mutilation and torture which is inflicted by these
brutal devices.
'How many of you are there?' asked Botha. 'A hundred,' said an officer.
'It is not true. There are one hundred and twenty. I counted you as you
came along.' The answer of the Boer leader shows how carefully the small
force had been nursed until it was in an impossible position. The margin
was a narrow one, however, for within fifteen minutes of the disaster
White's guns were at work. There may be some question as to whether the
rescuing force could have come sooner, but there can be none as to
the resistance of the bodyguard. They held out to the last cartridge.
Colonel Laing and three officers with sixteen men were killed, four
officers and twenty-two men were wounded. The high proportion of fatal
casualties can only be explained by the deadly character of the Boer
bullets. Hardly a single horse of the bodyguard was left unwounded, and
the profit to the victors, since they were unable to carry away their
prisoners, lay entirely in the captured rifles. It is worthy of record
that the British wounded were despatched to Heilbron without guard
through the Boer forces. That they arrived there unmolested is due
to the forbearance of the enemy and to the tact and energy of
Surgeon-Captain Porter, who commanded the convoy.
Encouraged by this small success, and stimulated by the news that
Hertzog and Kritzinger had succeeded in penetrating the Colony without
disaster, De Wet now prepared to follow them. British scouts to the
north of Kroonstad reported horsemen riding south and east, sometimes
alone, sometimes in small parties. They were recruits going to swell
the forces of De Wet. On January 23rd five hundred men crossed the line,
journeying in the same direction. Before the end of the month, having
gathered together about 2500 men with fresh horses at the Doornberg,
twenty miles north of Winburg, the Boer leader was ready for one of his
lightning treks once more. On January 28th he broke south through the
British net, which appears to have had more meshes than cord. Passing
the Bloemfontein-Ladybrand line at Israel Poort he swept southwards,
with British columns still wearily trailing behind him, like honest
bulldogs panting after a greyhound.
Before following him upon this new venture it is necessary to say a
few words about that peace movement in the Boer States to which some
allusion has already been made. On December 20th Lord Kitchener had
issued a proclamation which was intended to have the effect of affording
protection to those burghers who desired to cease fighting, but who were
unable to do so without incurring the enmity of their irreconcilable
brethren. 'It is hereby notified,' said the document, 'to all burghers
that if after this date they voluntarily surrender they will be allowed
to live with their families in Government laagers until such time as
the guerilla warfare now being carried on will admit of their returning
safely to their homes. All stock and property brought in at the time
of the surrender of such burghers will be respected and paid for if
requisitioned.' This wise and liberal offer was sedulously concealed
from their men by the leaders of the fighting commandos, but was largely
taken advantage of by those Boers to whom it was conveyed. Boer refugee
camps were formed at Pretoria, Johannesburg, Kroonstad, Bloemfontein,
Warrenton; and other points, to which by degrees the whole civil
population came to be transferred. It was the reconcentrado system of
Cuba over again, with the essential difference that the guests of
the British Government were well fed and well treated during their
detention. Within a few months the camps had 50,000 inmates.
It was natural that some of these people, having experienced the
amenity of British rule, and being convinced of the hopelessness of the
struggle, should desire to convey their feelings to their friends and
relations in the field. Both in the Transvaal and in the Orange River
Colony Peace Committees were formed, which endeavoured to persuade their
countrymen to bow to the inevitable. A remarkable letter was published
from Piet de Wet, a man who had fought bravely for the Boer cause, to
his brother, the famous general. 'Which is better for the Republics,'
he asked, 'to continue the struggle and run the risk of total ruin as
a nation, or to submit? Could we for a moment think of taking back
the country if it were offered to us, with thousands of people to be
supported by a Government which has not a farthing?... Put passionate
feeling aside for a moment and use common-sense, and you will then agree
with me that the best thing for the people and the country is to
give in, to be loyal to the new government, and to get responsible
government...Should the war continue a few months longer the nation will
become so poor that they will be the working class in the country, and
disappear as a nation in the future... The British are convinced that
they have conquered the land and its people, and consider the matter
ended, and they only try to treat magnanimously those who are continuing
the struggle in order to prevent unnecessary bloodshed.'
Such were the sentiments of those of the burghers who were in favour of
peace. Their eyes had been opened and their bitterness was transferred
from the British Government to those individual Britons who, partly from
idealism and partly from party passion, had encouraged them to their
undoing. But their attempt to convey their feelings to their countrymen
in the field ended in tragedy. Two of their number, Morgendaal and
Wessels, who had journeyed to De Wet's camp, were condemned to death by
order of that leader. In the case of Morgendaal the execution actually
took place, and seems to have been attended by brutal circumstances, the
man having been thrashed with a sjambok before being put to death.
The circumstances are still surrounded by such obscurity that it is
impossible to say whether the message of the peace envoys was to the
General himself or to the men under his command. In the former case the
man was murdered. In the latter the Boer leader was within his rights,
though the rights may have been harshly construed and brutally enforced.
On January 29th, in the act of breaking south, De Wet's force, or a
portion of it, had a sharp brush with a small British column (Crewe's)
at Tabaksberg, which lies about forty miles north-east of Bloemfontein;
This small force, seven hundred strong, found itself suddenly in the
presence of a very superior body of the enemy, and had some difficulty
in extricating itself. A pom-pom was lost in this affair. Crewe fell
back upon Knox, and the combined columns made for Bloemfontein, whence
they could use the rails for their transport. De Wet meanwhile moved
south as far as Smithfield, and then, detaching several small bodies to
divert the attention of the British, he struck due west, and crossed the
track between Springfontein and Jagersfontein road, capturing the usual
supply train as he passed. On February 9th he had reached Phillipolis,
well ahead of the British pursuit, and spent a day or two in making his
final arrangements before carrying the war over the border. His force
consisted at this time of nearly 8000 men, with two 15-pounders, one
pom-pom, and one maxim. The garrisons of all the towns in the south-west
of the Orange River Colony had been removed in accordance with the
policy of concentration, so De Wet found himself for the moment in a
friendly country.
The British, realising how serious a situation might arise should De Wet
succeed in penetrating the Colony and in joining Hertzog and Kritzinger,
made every effort both to head him off and to bar his return. General
Lyttelton at Naauwpoort directed the operations, and the possession of
the railway line enabled him to concentrate his columns rapidly at the
point of danger. On February 11th De Wet forded the Orange River at Zand
Drift, and found himself once more upon British territory. Lyttelton's
plan of campaign appears to have been to allow De Wet to come some
distance south, and then to hold him in front by De Lisle's force,
while a number of small mobile columns under Plumer, Crabbe, Henniker,
Bethune, Haig, and Thorneycroft should shepherd him behind. On crossing,
De Wet at once moved westwards, where, upon February 12th, Plumer's
column, consisting of the Queensland Mounted Infantry, the Imperial
Bushmen, and part of the King's Dragoon Guards, came into touch with his
rearguard. All day upon the 13th and 14th, amid terrific rain, Plumer's
hardy troopers followed close upon the enemy, gleaning a few ammunition
wagons, a maxim, and some prisoners. The invaders crossed the railway
line near Houtnek, to the north of De Aar, in the early hours of the
15th, moving upon a front of six or eight miles. Two armoured trains
from the north and the south closed in upon him as he passed, Plumer
still thundered in his rear, and a small column under Crabbe came
pressing from the south. This sturdy Colonel of Grenadiers had already
been wounded four times in the war, so that he might be excused if he
felt some personal as well as patriotic reasons for pushing a relentless
pursuit. On crossing the railroad De Wet turned furiously upon his
pursuers, and, taking an excellent position upon a line of kopjes rising
out of the huge expanse of the Karoo, he fought a stubborn rearguard
action in order to give time for his convoy to get ahead. He was hustled
off the hills, however, the Australian Bushmen with great dash carrying
the central kopje, and the guns driving the invaders to the westward.
Leaving all his wagons and his reserve ammunition behind him, the
guerilla chief struck north-west, moving with great swiftness, but
never succeeding in shaking off Plumer's pursuit. The weather continued,
however, to be atrocious, rain and hail falling with such violence
that the horses could hardly be induced to face it. For a week the two
sodden, sleepless, mud-splashed little armies swept onwards over the
Karoo. De Wet passed northwards through Strydenburg, past Hopetown, and
so to the Orange River, which was found to be too swollen with the
rains to permit of his crossing. Here upon the 23rd, after a march of
forty-five miles on end, Plumer ran into him once more, and captured
with very little fighting a fifteen-pounder, a pom-pom, and close on
to a hundred prisoners. Slipping away to the east, De Wet upon February
24th crossed the railroad again between Krankuil and Orange River
Station, with Thorneycroft's column hard upon his heels. The Boer leader
was now more anxious to escape from the Colony than ever he had been to
enter it, and he rushed distractedly from point to point, endeavouring
to find a ford over the great turbid river which cut him off from his
own country. Here he was joined by Hertzog's commando with a number of
invaluable spare horses. It is said also that he had been able to
get remounts in the Hopetown district, which had not been cleared--an
omission for which, it is to be hoped, someone has been held
responsible. The Boer ponies, used to the succulent grasses of the veld,
could make nothing of the rank Karoo, and had so fallen away that an
enormous advantage should have rested with the pursuers had ill luck
and bad management not combined to enable the invaders to renew their
mobility at the very moment when Plumer's horses were dropping dead
under their riders.
The Boer force was now so scattered that, in spite of the advent of
Hertzog, De Wet had fewer men with him than when he entered the Colony.
Several hundreds had been taken prisoners, many had deserted, and a
few had been killed. It was hoped now that the whole force might be
captured, and Thorneycroft's, Crabbe's, Henniker's, and other columns
were closing swiftly in upon him, while the swollen river still barred
his retreat. There was a sudden drop in the flood, however; one ford
became passable, and over it, upon the last day of February, De Wet and
his bedraggled, dispirited commando escaped to their own country. There
was still a sting in his tail, however; for upon that very day a portion
of his force succeeded in capturing sixty and killing or wounding twenty
of Colenbrander's new regiment, Kitchener's Fighting Scouts. On the
other hand, De Wet was finally relieved upon the same day of all care
upon the score of his guns, as the last of them was most gallantly
captured by Captain Dallimore and fifteen Victorians, who at the same
time brought in thirty-three Boer prisoners. The net result of De
Wet's invasion was that he gained nothing, and that he lost about four
thousand horses, all his guns, all his convoy, and some three hundred of
his men.
Once safely in his own country again, the guerilla chief pursued his way
northwards with his usual celerity and success. The moment that it
was certain that De Wet had escaped, the indefatigable Plumer, wiry,
tenacious man, had been sent off by train to Springfontein, while
Bethune's column followed direct. This latter force crossed the Orange
River bridge and marched upon Luckhoff and Fauresmith. At the latter
town they overtook Plumer, who was again hard upon the heels of De Wet.
Together they ran him across the Riet River and north to Petrusburg,
until they gave it up as hopeless upon finding that, with only fifty
followers, he had crossed the Modder River at Abram's Kraal. There they
abandoned the chase and fell back upon Bloemfontein to refit and prepare
for a fresh effort to run down their elusive enemy.
While Plumer and Bethune were following upon the track of De Wet until
he left them behind at the Modder, Lyttelton was using the numerous
columns which were ready to his hand in effecting a drive up the
south-eastern section of the Orange River Colony. It was disheartening
to remember that all this large stretch of country had from April to
November been as peaceful and almost as prosperous as Kent or Yorkshire.
Now the intrusion of the guerilla bands, and the pressure put by them
upon the farmers, had raised the whole country once again, and the work
of pacification had to be set about once more, with harsher measures
than before. A continuous barrier of barbed-wire fencing had been
erected from Bloemfontein to the Basuto border, a distance of eighty
miles, and this was now strongly held by British posts. From the south
Bruce Hamilton, Hickman, Thorneycroft, and Haig swept upwards, stripping
the country as they went in the same way that French had done in the
Eastern Transvaal, while Pilcher's column waited to the north of the
barbed-wire barrier. It was known that Fourie, with a considerable
commando, was lurking in this district, but he and his men slipped at
night between the British columns and escaped. Pilcher, Bethune, and
Byng were able, however, to send in 200 prisoners and very great
numbers of cattle. On April 10th Monro, with Bethune's Mounted Infantry,
captured eighty fighting Boers near Dewetsdorp, and sixty more were
taken by a night attack at Boschberg. There is no striking victory to
record in these operations, but they were an important part of that
process of attrition which was wearing the Boers out and helping to
bring the war to an end. Terrible it is to see that barren countryside,
and to think of the depths of misery to which the once flourishing and
happy Orange Free State had fallen, through joining in a quarrel with a
nation which bore it nothing but sincere friendship and goodwill. With
nothing to gain and everything to lose, the part played by the Orange
Free State in this South African drama is one of the most inconceivable
things in history. Never has a nation so deliberately and so causelessly
committed suicide.