familiarly known as Settle's Imperial Circus. Much hard and
disagreeable work, far more repugnant to the soldier than the actual
dangers of war, fell to the lot of Bruce Hamilton and his men. With
Kroonstad as their centre they were continually working through the
dangerous Lindley and Heilbron districts, returning to the railway line
only to start again immediately upon a fresh quest. It was work for
mounted police, not for infantry soldiers, but what they were given to
do they did to the best of their ability. Settle's men had a similar
thankless task. From the neighbourhood of Kimberley he marched in
November with his small column down the border of the Orange River
Colony, capturing supplies and bringing in refugees. He fought one brisk
action with Hertzog's commando at Kloof, and then, making his way across
the colony, struck the railway line again at Edenburg on December 7th,
with a train of prisoners and cattle.

Rundle also had put in much hard work in his efforts to control the
difficult district in the north-east of the Colony which had been
committed to his care. He traversed in November from north to south the
same country which he had already so painfully traversed from south to
north. With occasional small actions he moved about from Vrede to Reitz,
and so to Bethlehem and Harrismith. On him, as on all other commanders,
the vicious system of placing small garrisons in the various towns
imposed a constant responsibility lest they should be starved or
overwhelmed.

The year and the century ended by a small reverse to the British arms
in the Transvaal. This consisted in the capture of a post at Helvetia
defended by a detachment of the Liverpool Regiment and by a 4.7 gun.
Lydenburg, being seventy miles off the railway line, had a chain of
posts connecting it with the junction at Machadodorp. These posts were
seven in number, ten miles apart, each defended by 250 men. Of these
Helvetia was the second. The key of the position was a strongly
fortified hill about three-quarters of a mile from the headquarter
camp, and commanding it. This post was held by Captain Kirke with forty
garrison artillery to work the big gun, and seventy Liverpool infantry.
In spite of the barbed-wire entanglements, the Boers most gallantly
rushed this position, and their advance was so rapid, or the garrison so
slow, that the place was carried with hardly a shot fired. Major Cotton,
who commanded the main lines, found himself deprived