amounted to
thirty killed and wounded, but which ended in the defeat and dispersal
of the Boers, whose force was certainly very much weaker than the
British. On May 15th the relieving column arrived without further
opposition at Masibi Stadt, twenty miles to the west of Mafeking.

In the meantime Plumer's force upon the north had been strengthened
by the addition of C battery of four 12-pounder guns of the Canadian
Artillery under Major Eudon and a body of Queenslanders. These forces
had been part of the small army which had come with General Carrington
through Beira, and after a detour of thousands of miles, through their
own wonderful energy they had arrived in time to form portion of the
relieving column. Foreign military critics, whose experience of warfare
is to move troops across a frontier, should think of what the Empire
has to do before her men go into battle. These contingents had been
assembled by long railway journeys, conveyed across thousands of miles
of ocean to Cape Town, brought round another two thousand or so to
Beira, transferred by a narrow-gauge railway to Bamboo Creek, changed to
a broader gauge to Marandellas, sent on in coaches for hundreds of miles
to Bulawayo, transferred to trains for another four or five hundred
miles to Ootsi, and had finally a forced march of a hundred miles, which
brought them up a few hours before their presence was urgently needed
upon the field. Their advance, which averaged twenty-five miles a day
on foot for four consecutive days over deplorable roads, was one of the
finest performances of the war. With these high-spirited reinforcements
and with his own hardy Rhodesians Plumer pushed on, and the two columns
reached the hamlet of Masibi Stadt within an hour of each other. Their
united strength was far superior to anything which Snyman's force could
place against them.

But the gallant and tenacious Boers would not abandon their prey without
a last effort. As the little army advanced upon Mafeking they found the
enemy waiting in a strong position. For some hours the Boers gallantly
held their ground, and their artillery fire was, as usual, most
accurate. But our own guns were more numerous and equally well served,
and the position was soon made untenable. The Boers retired past
Mafeking and took refuge in the trenches upon the eastern side, but
Baden-Powell with his war-hardened garrison sallied out, and, supported
by the artillery fire of the relieving column, drove