The next letter, dated October 31, said:--

"Here we are in peace and quiet, such as it is possible to
enjoy with the roar of artillery booming over the few miles of
echoing hills which divide us from the scene of battle and
bloodshed, torn limbs and ceaseless pain. I am weary of the
contemplation of all this frightful suffering and brutality....
I do not know what opportunities you have of obtaining correct
information, for the trash the papers publish after the real
facts have been distorted by the censor is as good as useless.
I hardly like to say too much, as one never knows into whose
hands one's letters may fall, and our own noble defenders are
as severe in suppressing the knowledge of the true facts of the
battles and movements of the forces as any enemy could possibly
be. However, the game is with the English still.... If only
Ladysmith is held, the Colony is safe. This shocking flight of
women and children from town after town is too awful to
witness. Shame on the British Government to make our Colony the
scene of this bloody struggle, and leave the handful of
soldiers sent out all unsupported, unprepared--unprepared as
usual--all smug and self-confident in the little overcrowded,
over-comfortable island, and forgetful of the horrors to which
unfortunate colonists are exposed across the sea."

The Governor of the British prison at Misina, Pomeroy, Natal, wrote in a
similar heart-breaking strain:--

"I have only time for a few lines. I am tired out, having been
turned out of house and home by the cursed Boers. I have ridden
the ninety-one miles to Pietermaritzburg. I and four other
Government officials had to remain at our posts till the last.
We had to ride for our lives. I never shall forget these times.
We waited almost too long--long enough for the five of us to
have a shot at the advanced guard, of whom we captured two, and
rode with them to the Volunteer camp, eighteen miles from
Pomeroy, at Tugela. I never felt like shooting any one before a
commando of about 400 came down for myself and the magistrate."

In regard to the readiness of Natal to support British supremacy, a
visitor who participated in the raising of the volunteer regiments there
stated that there were 4500 volunteers in the field, three-fourths of
whom were drilled men. They were en