divided into short sentences, with a long pause between each, to
enable the black interpreter at his side to translate what he said to
his listeners, who simply hung on his words.

All the natives objected most strongly to partaking of horse soup,
supplied by the kitchens, started by the C.O., as they declared it gave
them the same sickness from which the horses in Africa suffered, and
also that it caused their heads to swell. The authorities were therefore
compelled to devise some new food, and the resourceful genius of a
Scotchman introduced a porridge called "sowens" to the Colonel's notice.
This nutriment, said to be well known in the North of Scotland, was
composed of the meal which still remained in the oat-husks after they
had been ground for bread and discarded as useless. It was slightly
sour, but very wholesome, and enormously popular with the white and the
black population, especially with the latter, who preferred it to any
other food.

I must now mention the important item of supplies and how they were eked
out. The provisions sent to Mafeking by the Cape Government before the
war were only sufficient to feed 400 men for a little over a fortnight.
At that time a statement was made, to reassure the inhabitants, that the
Cape Ministry held themselves personally responsible for the security of
the railway in the colony. Providentially, the firm of Weil and Company
had sent vast stores to their depot in the town on their own initiative.
This firm certainly did not lose financially by their foresight, but it
is a fact that Mafeking without this supply could have made no
resistance whatever. There were 9,000 human beings to feed, of which
7,000 were natives and 2,000 white people. It can therefore be imagined
that the task of the D.A.A.G. was not a light one. Up to April the town
consumed 4,099 tons of food-stuffs; 12,256 tons of oats, fodder, meal,
and flour; and 930 tons of fuel; making a total of 17,285 tons. Of
matches, the supply of which was soon exhausted, 35,400 boxes were
used, and to take their place tiny paraffin lamps were supplied to all,
which burnt night and day. Fortunately, the supply of liquid fuel was
very large, and it would have taken the place of coal if the siege had
been indefinitely prolonged. Among miscellaneous articles which were
luckily to be obtained at Weil's stores were 2 tons of gunpowder and
other ammunition, 132 rifles, insulated fuses, and electric dynamos for
discharging mine