n begun, and at 5.30 it was finally abandoned,
and De la Rey was in full retreat. That he was in no sense routed is
shown by the fact that Cookson did not attempt to follow him up or to
capture his guns; but at least he had failed in his purpose, and had
lost more heavily than in any engagement which he had yet fought. The
moral effect of his previous victories had also been weakened, and his
burghers had learned, if they had illusions upon the subject, that the
men who fled at Tweebosch were not typical troopers of the British Army.
Altogether, it was a well-fought and useful action, though it cost the
British force some two hundred casualties, of which thirty-five were
fatal. Cookson's force stood to arms all night until the arrival of
Walter Kitchener's men in the morning.

General Ian Hamilton, who had acted for some time as Chief of the
Staff to Lord Kitchener, had arrived on April 8th at Klerksdorp to take
supreme command of the whole operations against De la Rey. Early in
April the three main British columns had made a rapid cast round without
success. To the very end the better intelligence and the higher mobility
seem to have remained upon the side of the Boers, who could always force
a fight when they wished and escape when they wished. Occasionally,
however, they forced one at the wrong time, as in the instance which I
am about to describe.

Hamilton had planned a drive to cover the southern portion of De la
Rey's country, and for this purpose, with Hartebeestefontein for his
centre, he was manoeuvring his columns so as to swing them into line
and then sweep back towards Klerksdorp. Kekewich, Rawlinson, and Walter
Kitchener were all manoeuvring for this purpose. The Boers, however,
game to the last, although they were aware that their leaders had
gone in to treat, and that peace was probably due within a few days,
determined to have one last gallant fall with a British column. The
forces of Kekewich were the farthest to the westward, and also, as the
burghers thought, the most isolated, and it was upon them, accordingly,
that the attack was made. In the morning of April 11th, at a place
called Rooiwal, the enemy, who had moved up from Wolmaranstad, nineteen
hundred strong, under Kemp and Vermaas, fell with the utmost impetuosity
upon the British column. There was no preliminary skirmishing, and
a single gallant charge by 1500 Boers both opened and ended the
engagement. 'I was just saying to the staff officer