st. The camp was on a
small boulder-strewn kopje, in the centre of an amphitheatre about five
acres in extent, and half a mile east of the river. Most of the men were
on this central kopje, but two small hills on the bank of the river were
held by detachments under Captain Butters and Lieutenant Zouch. Luckily,
an attack had been expected, and stone sangars and shelters of ox-wagons
had been made and further protected by biscuit boxes and bags of flour
and sugar from the stores the men were guarding. Nevertheless the Boer
attack seemed to have every chance in its favour; their guns were in
safe positions 2,400 yards from the camp, and along the river banks they
could creep close up to the defenders. Hore's old seven-pounder, though
it succeeded in silencing a Boer gun, and killed a German gunner, was
very capricious in its working, and was obviously no match for the Boer
guns. The thousands of horses and oxen which were in the camp under no
sort of cover were nearly all killed on the first day by the Boer
shells; and the stench arising from these dead animals in the narrow
camp makes it almost marvellous that the men who escaped the Boer shells
were not killed by pestilence. Moreover, the only chance of getting
water was to take the water carts down to the river at night, and then
the drivers and escort were not always safe. To make matters worse, on
the second day of the siege Carrington's advance scouts, after appearing
on the rise to the west, were soon seen retiring again, so that rescue
from this side seemed now out of the question. When starting, Carrington
did not know that Hore was invested, so he carried very few rations. He
no doubt had a small force with him and was badly off for supplies; but
he had gained a ridge from which he commanded the way to Elands River,
and under the circumstances of Hore's pressing danger he was too quickly
discouraged from a more determined effort to bring out the garrison.
From the east another attempt was made to relieve Hore which proved
equally abortive.

On August 5 firing had been heard in the direction of Elands River, so
next day Baden-Powell marched with his own and Mahon's mounted troops
about half-way to Brakfontein. Here he heard guns firing in a westerly
direction, but as the sound seemed to grow fainter and fainter, he
assumed, without, however, waiting for the reports of his scouts, that
Carrington had succeeded in withdrawing Hore towards Mafeking.

After Carringt