ll get to the same spot perhaps
quite unperceived. This is why I say that our loss does not give an
adequate idea of the work done by the corps. The defence of the conical
hill here at Relief's Nek is a good example. Our men hold the hill for
several hours before the regulars come up, and lose one man. As soon as
the regulars arrive (though by this time the exposed places are known
and the enemy located), they begin to lose men, and by the conclusion of
the action have lost, I am told, over forty. I think, and have often
spoken so highly of our soldiers' courage, that I don't hesitate to
point out their weakness. They are lacking in personal intelligence.
For all their pluck, they don't know how to look after themselves. There
have been, as you will have heard, many cases in which detached parties
of our cavalry, mounted infantry, and yeomanry have been cut off and
captured. How often has this happened to the Colonials?

LETTER XXI

PRINSLOO'S SURRENDER--II

_August 4th_.

We have been up the valley and back again, and I write this once more
from Fouriesberg. We passed through here, joining Rundle, as I told you
a week ago, and pushed on eastward in the direction of Naawpoort Nek and
the Golden Gate. Six miles out from here, passing through a very rugged
country, we came on their outposts. These we shelled and drove back.
They then retired to some hills not very high, but with perpendicular
sides of low white cliffs commanding the approach across the plain.
These they held till nightfall. We shelled them a good deal and knocked
out the only gun they had, and the infantry pushed forward in front and
we took a hill on the right, but the attack was not pressed home, as it
would have cost too many lives. The infantry took the hill during the
night, but found it evacuated, the Boers having retired as soon as it
got dark.

We did not know all this time how things had gone with Macdonald and
Bruce-Hamilton, and whether or not they had been able to block the
eastern exits. On this everything depended. So it was with a feeling of
the most gleeful satisfaction that we heard next morning, having
followed the Boers up some two or three miles without seeing anything
of them, the deep, heavy baying of a big gun in the distance, which we
all recognised as the voice of one of the 5-inch cow-guns that had gone
with Bruce-Hamilton. It fired a few shots and then ceased. With infinite
toil, forty oxen to each gun, we then dra