make must be made at once, for already both the
cavalry and the mounted infantry were rapidly coming back to their full
strength once more. This consideration must have urged Botha to deliver
an attack on July 16th, which had some success at first, but was
afterwards beaten off with heavy loss to the enemy. The fighting fell
principally upon Pole-Carew and Hutton, the corps chiefly engaged being
the Royal Irish Fusiliers, the New Zealanders, the Shropshires, and the
Canadian Mounted Infantry. The enemy tried repeatedly to assault the
position, but were beaten back each time with a loss of nearly a hundred
killed and wounded. The British loss was about sixty, and included two
gallant young Canadian officers, Borden and Birch, the former being the
only son of the minister of militia. So ended the last attempt made by
Botha upon the British positions round Pretoria. The end of the war
was not yet, but already its futility was abundantly evident. This had
become more apparent since the junction of Hamilton and of Buller had
cut off the Transvaal army from that of the Free State. Unable to send
their prisoners away, and also unable to feed them, the Freestaters were
compelled to deliver up in Natal the prisoners whom they had taken
at Lindley and Roodeval. These men, a ragged and starving battalion,
emerged at Ladysmith, having made their way through Van Reenen's Pass.
It is a singular fact that no parole appears on these and similar
occasions to have been exacted by the Boers.

Lord Roberts, having remounted a large part of his cavalry, was ready
now to advance eastward and give Botha battle. The first town of any
consequence along the Delagoa Railway is Middelburg, some seventy miles
from the capital. This became the British objective, and the forces of
Mahon and Hamilton on the north, of Pole-Carew in the centre, and of
French and Hutton to the south, all converged upon it. There was no
serious resistance, though the weather was abominable, and on July 27th
the town was in the hands of the invaders. From that date until the
final advance to the eastward French held this advanced post, while
Pole-Carew guarded the railway line. Rumours of trouble in the west had
convinced Roberts that it was not yet time to push his advantage to the
east, and he recalled Ian Hamilton's force to act for a time upon
the other side of the seat of the war. This excellent little army,
consisting of Mahon's and Pilcher's mounted infantry, M batte