arrived and found us still waiting; then the
Bodyguard got twenty minutes' notice and entrained, horses, kits and
everything for Rustenburg. We arrived there at five o'clock the
following morning, and started at once in pursuit of rebel commandos
which were led by Kemp and Beyers. Before starting, General Botha over
a cup of coffee had an anxious consultation with his loyal commandants
who had arrived to meet him. Throughout the day we trekked, with one
brief halt only, and "outspanned" that night near Oliphant's Nek.
During the day the loyal commandos located the rebels without much
difficulty; they were routed in all directions, and some eighty were
captured. At two o'clock in the morning we continued the trek, stopped
in the forenoon on the railway line at Derby (close to Drakfontein, the
scene of the British disaster to Benson's Horse during the South
African War), and pushing on in the evening to Koster, learnt from
incoming scouts that Kemp had escaped capture by minutes only. The
direction of his flight was questionable at the time.

Returning to Pretoria, we remained there for a few days. The whole town
was in a state of remarkable tension. The police were armed. Armed
volunteers were called for. Loyalists were training after working hours
in batches on various open spaces. It was freely whispered that the
German South-West Campaign would be given up, so formidable was the
threatened opposition to it.... I am writing this much less than a year
later: and Windhuk has fallen, the Germans have surrendered their
territory, and thousands of burghers and volunteers are returning to
their homes.

On the 2nd of November we left Pretoria again. More trouble was brewing
at Brits, close to Pretoria. We trekked straightway to Zoutpan's Drift,
the commandos again pursuing a body of rebels who, cutting through the
railway line, had caused damage at De Wilts or Greyling's Post, twenty
miles or so outside the Union capital. Quite unwilling to make a stand,
the insurgents were again put to flight, and General Botha returned to
Pretoria the following day. In the meantime other loyalist columns in
the Transvaal had taken to the field, and the rebellion seemed well in
hand.

SECTION II

DE WET

Compared with the Free State insurrection, the Transvaal affair
appeared in many ways to be a small business from our point of view. In
actuality it was nothing of the kind. It was, if anything, much more
ugly in spirit. The gen