taking five days' rations, to make a circuit eastward by way
of Jacobsdaal, crossing the Modder higher up, and coming in upon
Spytfontein from that direction. The railroad, protected by
earthworks, was to be left under guard of one or two thousand men. On
the very eve of starting, intelligence came in that Modder River
Station was strongly occupied, and the general, fearing under that
condition to risk the railroad, decided to advance direct upon the
river. He was still ignorant, and even unsuspicious, that the enemy
had massed to the number of 8,000 to oppose the passage of the 7,000
to which casualties and the care of lengthening communications had
reduced his own division.

The {p.154} position taken by the Boers was on the south bank of the
Modder, at the point where it is joined by the Riet. The two streams,
flowing respectively from east and south-east, inclose an angle of
forty-five degrees, the ground between them being called an island,
though not so properly. The railroad crosses by a bridge--by this time
destroyed--just below the junction; Modder River Station, a small,
pleasant village, being on the north bank. In the approach from the
south, by which the British were advancing, the land--or veldt--slopes
evenly and regularly downward to the river, rising again beyond in
such wise that the island is higher than the southern bank, but is in
turn commanded by the northern.

Cronje had intrenched his riflemen along a line of three miles of the
river bed, by which they were entirely concealed. On the island, which
is covered with trees and brush, he had placed sharpshooters and
quick-firing guns. On the extreme Boer right their position was
further strengthened by broken, rocky ground and small kopjes,
considerably in advance of their line. This forward {p.155} cover
they held by a strong detachment, as they did also another slight
eminence, six hundred yards further east, upon which was a farm-house
and kraal. From these a cross-fire upon the enemy served to protect
their right flank, which by position otherwise was the weaker.

Although unconscious that he was about to encounter numbers equal to,
if not greater than his own, Methuen, who expected them to retire
after a show of opposition, considered it still his best course to
advance with his two brigades on an extended front, the Guards on the
right, the 9th Brigade on the left, the two carefully keeping touch
from end to end and crossing in that order. T