of the war
there were several thousand burghers under such well-known officers
as Celliers, Villonel, and young Cronje, fighting against their
own guerilla countrymen. Who, in 1899, could have prophesied such a
phenomenon as that!

Lord Kitchener's proclamation issued upon August 9th marked one more
turn in the screw upon the part of the British authorities. By it the
burghers were warned that those who had not laid down their arms by
September 15th would in the case of the leaders be banished, and in
the case of the burghers be compelled to support their families in
the refugee camps. As many of the fighting burghers were men of no
substance, the latter threat did not affect them much, but the other,
though it had little result at the time, may be useful for the exclusion
of firebrands during the period of reconstruction. Some increase was
noticeable in the number of surrenders after the proclamation, but on
the whole it had not the result which was expected, and its expediency
is very open to question. This date may be said to mark the conclusion
of the winter campaign and the opening of a new phase in the struggle.

CHAPTER 35. THE GUERILLA OPERATIONS IN CAPE COLONY.

In the account which has been given in a preceding chapter of the
invasion of Cape Colony by the Boer forces, it was shown that the
Western bands were almost entirely expelled, or at least that they
withdrew, at the time when De Wet was driven across the Orange River.
This was at the beginning of March 1901. It was also mentioned that
though the Boers evacuated the barren and unprofitable desert of the
Karoo, the Eastern bands which had come with Kritzinger did not follow
the same course, but continued to infest the mountainous districts of
the Central Colony, whence they struck again and again at the railway
lines, the small towns, British patrols, or any other quarry which
was within their reach and strength. From the surrounding country they
gathered a fair number of recruits, and they were able through the
sympathy and help of the Dutch farmers to keep themselves well mounted
and supplied. In small wandering bands they spread themselves over a
vast extent of country, and there were few isolated farmhouses from
the Orange River to the Oudtshoorn Mountains, and from the Cape Town
railroad in the west to the Fish River in the east, which were not
visited by their active and enterprising scouts. The object of the whole
movement was, no doubt, to