ck. But you have seen so much fighting
in this country, during the last two years, that your opinion is
certainly worth something. However, there is one satisfaction, there
are a number of troops now landing at Durban and on the march up; so
that if this little force does get a check, it will soon be retrieved.
Now, good-bye, lad; mind, if there is an attack on the waggons, take as
little part in it as you can, and stick to the position of
non-combatants. If they would have had us as volunteers, we would have
done our best; but as they have declined to accept the offer of the
colonists, let them fight it out their own way. If they get beaten and
the Boers swarm into Natal, as in that case they certainly will do, the
colonists will take the matter in hand by themselves, and if we don't
send the Dutchmen packing back faster than they come, I am a Dutchman
myself."

Had Sir George Colley pushed on rapidly with his column, he would have
passed all the points at which the Boers could have taken up strong
defensive positions, before they could gather in force to oppose him, as
he had the choice of three or four different lines of advance, and until
the one by which he would travel was known, the Boer army was forced to
remain inactive, awaiting his disposition. As soon, however, as he had
left Newcastle, and it was known by them that he had started along the
line of road to the west of Newcastle, they moved their whole force to
oppose him, and took post on a position known as Laing's Neck, at a spot
where the road had to cross over a steep and difficult ridge. Here they
set to work to throw up intrenchments, and the leisurely, and indeed
dilatory, advance of the British gave them ample time for this.
Although the distance from Newcastle to Laing's Neck was but twenty-five
miles, and the column, unimpeded by baggage, could by a forced march
have seized the position on the very day of their leaving Newcastle, and
long before the Boers could have moved their army to reinforce the
little body who occupied the position as corps of observation, no less
than six days elapsed before Sir George Colley's force arrived before
Laing's Neck.

This time was spent in frequent halts, in improving the roads, bridging
the streams, and other similar operations, all useful enough in their
way, but fatal to the success of a flying column, whose object was to
strike a sudden blow at the enemy, and to secure the road and passes as
far as th