and so to throw himself upon the right flank of the Colenso
Boers. Once over the river there is one formidable line of hills to
cross, but if this were passed there would be comparatively easy ground
until the Ladysmith hills were reached. With high hopes Buller and his
men sallied out upon their adventure.

Dundonald's cavalry force pushed rapidly forwards, crossed the Little
Tugela, a tributary of the main river, at Springfield, and established
themselves upon the hills which command the drift. Dundonald largely
exceeded his instructions in going so far, and while we applaud his
courage and judgment in doing so, we must remember and be charitable
to those less fortunate officers whose private enterprise has ended in
disaster and reproof. There can be no doubt that the enemy intended to
hold all this tract, and that it was only the quickness of our initial
movements which forestalled them. Early in the morning a small party of
the South African Horse, under Lieutenant Carlisle, swam the broad river
under fire and brought back the ferry boat, an enterprise which was
fortunately bloodless, but which was most coolly planned and gallantly
carried out. The way was now open to our advance, and could it have been
carried out as rapidly as it had begun the Boers might conceivably have
been scattered before they could concentrate. It was not the fault of
the infantry that it was not so. They were trudging, mud-spattered and
jovial, at the very heels of the horses, after a forced march which was
one of the most trying of the whole campaign. But an army of 20,000
men cannot be conveyed over a river twenty miles from any base without
elaborate preparations being made to feed them. The roads were in such a
state that the wagons could hardly move, heavy rain had just fallen,
and every stream was swollen into a river; bullocks might strain, and
traction engines pant, and horses die, but by no human means could the
stores be kept up if the advance guard were allowed to go at their own
pace. And so, having ensured an ultimate crossing of the river by the
seizure of Mount Alice, the high hill which commands the drift, the
forces waited day after day, watching in the distance the swarms of
strenuous dark figures who dug and hauled and worked upon the hillsides
opposite, barring the road which they would have to take. Far away on
the horizon a little shining point twinkled amid the purple haze, coming
and going from morning to night. It wa