nder Commandant
Van der Merwe in Bechuanaland. The total numbers of these two divisions
amounted to about seven hundred men.

Passing on to the question whether help was to be expected from Cape
Colony, General Smuts declared that there would be no general rising.
The reports which represented such a rising as possible had exaggerated
matters. There were great difficulties in the way of a general rising.
First, there was the question of horses--and in Cape Colony the want of
horses was as great, if not greater, than in the Republics. Secondly, it
was exceedingly difficult for Colonials to rise, for they knew that not
only would they have to be _voetgangers_,[111] but also that if they
were captured they would be very severely punished by the English. The
scarcity of grass was also greatly against any such attempt. The horses
had to be fed, and, as the enemy had forbidden any sowing, it was almost
impossible to find food for them. A counter proclamation had indeed been
issued by the Republics, but it had been of no avail.

He was of opinion that the small commandos which had already been in
Cape Colony had done the best they could. The question that now arose
was whether the whole of their forces ought to be sent from the
Republics into Cape Colony. He himself thought that there was an opening
for them, but the difficulty was to find a method of getting them there.
The existence of this difficulty, and the facts which he had brought
before the delegates, had forced him to the conclusion that a general
rising in Cape Colony was an impossibility.

As to the continuation of the war and matters of that nature, they must
naturally be settled by the Republics, and not by Cape Colony.

The meeting was then adjourned until eight o'clock in the evening.

* * * * *

Upon its reassembling, Commandant Nijs (Pretoria, North) said that in
that part of the district of Pretoria which lay to the north of the
Delagoa Bay Railway there were still cattle enough to last for a
considerable time, but that the store of grain would be exhausted within
a fortnight. The number of horses also was insufficient. The district
could muster one hundred and fifty-three mounted men and one hundred and
twenty-eight _voetgangers_. In the division of Onderwijk, Middelburg,
there were twenty-six mounted men and thirty-eight _voetgangers_.

Commandant Grobler (Bethal) stated that in his district they had not
been left undi