ndscape and at the positions of
our enemy. That day not one of us was wounded. Only the artillery
suffered. If our few cannon ventured to make themselves heard, eight or
more bombs followed in quick succession to silence them. Next to me lay
a man whose servant, a restless, impatient Bushman, most amicably
addressed him as Johnny. The Bushman went to and fro continually to a
'chum' of his who lay hidden behind a rock close to us. Once, on one of
his visits to his 'chum,' a bullet struck the ground close to his
heels; he stood still, looked slowly and defiantly from his heels to
the enemy, and said in a most emphatic tone, 'You confounded
Englishman!' and calmly proceeded on his way to his chum.

To the right of this position was an open space, almost level with the
immediate surroundings, but ending in a steep decline some 900 paces
further on. There we went towards evening with a reinforcement of the
Pretoria town commando that had followed us. The Field-Cornet made us
stand in rows, and told off forty men to dig a trench that night. The
rest of the men would relieve us the following night. My brother and I
were in the first shift. Towards morning, while we were still digging at
the trenches, fire was opened across the whole line of battle. We
imagined that we were being attacked, and jammed ourselves in the narrow
trench. But as the attack did not come off, and the bullets flew high
over our heads, we went on digging until daybreak. Then we noticed that
the enemy were lying in a trench about 800 paces ahead of us. We fired a
few shots at them, but saved our ammunition for an eventual storming.

The whole of that day and the two succeeding days there was a constant
salvo over our heads. The bullets flew over our heads like finches, and
did us no harm, but we had to be on our guard against the sharpshooters,
who occasionally fired close to us. That day (January 24), the heroic
Battle of Spion Kop took place, where our burghers, after having been
surprised in the night by the enemy and driven off the kop, obliged
them, after a stubborn fight, to abandon it again. The Pretoria men, who
were to have relieved us in the trench, took a great part in that
battle. Reineke, Yeppe, Malherbe, De Villiers, and Olivier were killed.
Ihrige was severely wounded.

All day long we lay listening to the fighting, for we could not sleep.
We had to stay in the trench three days and four nights before we were
relieved. Water and food were