. The Boers now took up a position
600 yards from the camp, and kept up a heavy fire. Skirmishes occurred
daily, and the enemy harassing the garrison from a height called
Standerton Kop, Major Montague caused a dummy-gun, mounted on two
waggon-wheels, to be placed in the intrenchments; the sight of this
frightened the Boers off Standerton Kop.

On the 7th of January a Swazi, named Infofa, who had greatly
distinguished himself by his bravery in the Secoceni War, but was now
undergoing a term of penal servitude for culpable homicide, performed an
act of singular bravery. The Boers had during the night erected a small
earthwork on the outside of the Vaal River; 400 yards nearer the town
stood a house, and fearing that this might be occupied by the Putch, it
was determined to destroy it. Infofa with a party of Kaffirs
volunteered for the duty; he crossed the river with his party, and the
Kaffirs began to pull down the house. Infofa, however, took his gun,
and marched boldly away to the Boer earthwork, 400 yards distant, to the
astonishment of the lookers-on. It happened that at the moment no Boers
were present in the works, and the man reached it without a shot being
fired at him; inside he found some tools, and with these he deliberately
set to work and levelled the breastwork; this accomplished, he returned
to the party.

Until the end of the war the Boers were unable to make any impression
upon Standerton, and whenever they approached too closely the garrison
sallied out and drove them off.

At Leydenberg fifty men of the 94th, under Lieutenant Long, had been
left, when the four companies under Colonel Anstruther had marched away.
The people of the town, when the news of the rising arrived, offered to
defend themselves with the troops against attacks; but Lieutenant Long
declined to accept the offer. There were in the town 220 women and
children, and only thirty-four white men who could be relied on; there
were no defences and no water-supply, and as Lieutenant Long knew that
three or four months must elapse before a relieving force could arrive,
he decided that it would only cost the townspeople their lives and
property were they to attempt to defend the place. He therefore advised
them to remain neutral, while he with his fifty soldiers defended the
fort. This they did, and the commandant of the Boer force, Piet Steyn,
caused their property to be respected when he entered the town with his
troops.

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