en laid down one weapon than he snatched
up another. Having refitted his men and collected some of the more
efficient of the new Yeomanry, he was off once more for a three weeks'
circular tour in the direction of Zeerust. It is difficult to believe
that the oldest inhabitant could have known more of the western side of
the Transvaal, for there was hardly a track which he had not traversed
or a kopje from which he had not been sniped. Early in August he had
made a fresh start from Mafeking, dividing his force into two columns,
the command of the second being given to Von Donop. Having joined hands
with Fetherstonhaugh, he moved through the south-west and finally
halted at Klerksdorp. The harried Boers moved a hundred miles north to
Rustenburg, followed by Methuen, Fetherstonhaugh, Hamilton, Kekewich,
and Allenby, who found the commandos of De la Rey and Kemp to be
scattering in front of them and hiding in the kloofs and dongas, whence
in the early days of September no less than two hundred were extracted.
On September 6th and 8th Methuen engaged the main body of De la Rey in
the valley of the Great Marico River which lies to the north-west of
Rustenburg. In these two actions he pushed the Boers in front of him
with a loss of eighteen killed and forty-one prisoners, but the fighting
was severe, and fifteen of his men were killed and thirty wounded before
the position had been carried. The losses were almost entirely among the
newly raised Yeomanry, who had already shown on several occasions that,
having shed their weaker members and had some experience of the field,
they were now worthy to take their place beside their veteran comrades.

The only other important operation undertaken by the British columns in
the Transvaal during this period was in the north, where Beyers and
his men were still harried by Grenfell, Colenbrander, and Wilson. A
considerable proportion of the prisoners which figured in the weekly
lists came from this quarter. On May 30th there was a notable action,
the truth of which was much debated but finally established, in which
Kitchener's Scouts under Wilson surprised and defeated a Boer force
under Pretorius, killing and wounding several, and taking forty
prisoners. On July 1st Grenfell took nearly a hundred of Beyers' men
with a considerable convoy. North, south, east, and west the tale
was ever the same, but so long as Botha, De la Rey, Steyn, and De Wet
remained uncaptured, the embers might still at