the marvellous celerity of the Boer, many
of the men would have been captured at that farm.

This was the 16th of December, 1901. The day I never shall forget in my
life's history, and in the history of the Anglo-Boer War. The sun rose
in splendour that morning, casting his rays upon me--a man in the prime
of life, full of energy and martial ambition. At eventide the scene was
changed! Weary, wounded and bleeding on a lonely plain, shrouded in
darkness, I lay, no more the man of the day, or of bygone days, but weak
and helpless as a babe.

Though I had taken part in many hot engagements, both as burgher and
commander, and had been in many tight corners, yet I do not recollect a
day in which we were so brought to bay, when we were so hard pressed as
that day. Early in the morning it was evident that the enemy had but one
design that day, and that was to force me to surrender. My commando was
about eighty strong. On my flanks were continually two British columns,
whilst a third one was following up at my rear. With such a small number
of men at my disposal, and three columns to oppose, it was next to
impossible to offer successful resistance. We had hardly taken up a
position when the flanking columns would come round, and we had either
to abandon the position or allow ourselves to be shut in. Thus we were
compelled to retreat from one to another position, under the rays of a
December sun, which seemed to set everything on fire, through a country
so parched and dry that one hardly found a drop of water to quench one's
thirst, and that from early morn till sunset without a morsel of food!
That was enough to break down the strongest man.

A little before sunset the ominous Cape Railway line stared us in the
face. We were again precisely in the same plight as on the 15th of
August, when we had to cut the wire near Springfontein Junction, only
with this difference--that the danger was much more imminent, the enemy
forming a semi-circle at my back, and before me was a line more strongly
fenced and better guarded than the first. But happily the armoured train
was not on the scene. As we were so successful in our first undertaking,
we determined to pass the enemy's line again in daylight. In fine, we
had to cut the wire or surrender. The latter was more repulsive than the
former.

As my commando was now very near the line, there was not a moment to
lose. The enemy was advancing swiftly, and the armoured train might
appear a