aptain Kirsten's scouts,
to whom we offered our services. In those days it was very pleasant to
belong to the reconnoitring corps. When we went to reconnoitre our
horses got plenty of forage on the farms, and as we were few in number
and always ahead of the lager, there were always eggs, bread, and milk
to be had. We had enough to do, also, as we had to keep a sharp
look-out, and we were in constant danger, but not at all afraid of the
patrols of khakies, which, being small in number and without their
guns, were pretty harmless. We advanced almost parallel to the Magalies
Mountains, that stretch from Pretoria to Rustenburg, until we came to
the neighbourhood of Selikatsnek. Unless one was well acquainted with
the highways and byways of that part of the country, one was in constant
danger of losing the way; it is a long stretch of bush, consisting of
the well-known thorn-bushes of the Hoogeveld, for a distance of about
ten miles deep. The principal passes of the Magalies Mountains were
occupied by the enemy--Wonderboompoort, Hornsnek, Selikatsnek,
Commandonek, Olifantsnek. General de la Rey had made up his mind to take
Selikatsnek, and on July 11 he succeeded, by his strong will and
military talent.

While we were reconnoitring with Captain Kirsten's party we got the news
that De la Rey had attacked Selikatsnek--about an hour's ride from where
we were--and that the battle was still going on. We all rode to the
scene of action, but my brother and I, with a few other men, remained
behind to wait for Captain Kirsten, who was absent at the time. As soon
as he arrived we rode off, and arrived at Selikatsnek at about nine
o'clock. Our burghers had already taken two of the enemy's guns.

Selikatsnek (or Moselikatsnek) is a narrow opening in the Magalies
Mountains, with high shoulders on either side, that slope gradually to a
white kopje in the centre. If an attacking party once occupies the
shoulders, it can easily keep the enemy on the kopje or on the two
slopes. When we arrived our burghers already occupied the principal
positions--both shoulders and the smaller positions to the front of the
kopje. The enemy had been obliged to draw in their clipped wings, and to
concentrate on and in the neighbourhood of the white kopje.

But as the shoulders of the pass were very steep on the other side, our
men could not surround the enemy or attack them in the rear; and as
there was not sufficient cover for them to go down the slope wit