der
these circumstances I was allotted comparatively safe quarters at the
house of Mr. Benjamin Weil, of the firm of the well-known South African
merchants. His residence stood in the centre of the little town,
adjacent to the railway-station. At that time bomb-proof underground
shelters, with which Mafeking afterwards abounded, had not been thought
of, or time had not sufficed for their construction. On all sides one
heard reproaches levelled at the Cape Government, and especially at
General Sir William Butler, until lately commanding the troops in Cape
Colony, for having so long withheld the modest reinforcements which had
been persistently asked for, and, above all, the very necessary
artillery.

At that date the Mafeking garrison consisted of about seven or eight
hundred trained troops. The artillery, under Major Panzera, comprised
four old muzzle-loading seven-pounder guns with a short range, a
one-pound Hotchkiss, one Nordenfeldt, and about seven ^{.}303 Maxims--in
fact, no large modern pieces whatever. The town guard, hastily
enrolled, amounted to 441 defenders, among whom nationalities were
curiously mixed, as the following table shows:

British 378
Germans 4
Americans 4
Russians 6
Dutch 27
Norwegians 5
Swedes 2
Arabs and Indians 15
____

Total 441[23]

This force did not appear sufficiently strong to resist the three or
four thousand Boers, with field-guns, who were advancing to its attack
under one of their best Generals--namely Cronje--but everyone remained
wonderfully calm, and the townspeople rose to the occasion in a most
creditable manner.

Very late that same evening, just as I was going to bed, I received a
message from Colonel Baden-Powell, through one of his Staff, to say he
had just been informed, on trustworthy authority, that no less than
8,000 burghers composed the force likely to arrive on the morrow, that
it was probable they would rush the town, and that the garrison would be
obliged to fight its way out. He concluded by begging me to leave at
once by road for the nearest point of safety. Naturally I had to obey. I
shall never forget that night: it was cold and gusty after a hot day,
with frequent clouds obscuring the moon, as we walked round to Major
Gould Adams's house to secure a Cape cart and some Government mules,