d so long.
The mobility of the Boers was again well demonstrated by the retreat of
the burghers from the environs of Ladysmith. After the Krijgsraad decided
to withdraw the forces into the Biggarsberg, it required only a few hours
for all the many commandos to leave the positions they had held so long;
to load their impedimenta and to be well on the way to the northward. The
departure was so rapid that it surprised even those who were in
Ladysmith. One day the Boers were shelling the town as usual and all the
commandos were observed in the same positions which they had occupied for
several months; the following day not a single Boer was to be seen
anywhere. They had quietly mounted their horses by night and before the
sun rose in the morning they were trekking north beyond Modderspruit and
Elandslaagte, on the way to Glencoe. General Cronje's flight from
Magersfontein was also accomplished with great haste and in good order,
but what probably was the finest example of the Boers' mobility was the
magnificent retreat along the Basuto border of Generals Grobler, Olivier,
and Lemmer, with their six thousand men, when the enemy was known to be in
great strength within several days' march of them. After the capture of
Cronje at Paardeberg the three generals, who had been conducting the
campaign in the eastern provinces of Cape Colony, were in a most dangerous
position, having the enemy in the rear, the left and left front, the
neutral Basuto land on the right front, and only a small strip of
territory along the western border of the Basuto country apparently free
of the enemy. The British were in Bloemfontein and in the surrounding
country, and it seemed almost impossible that the six thousand men could
ever extricate themselves from such a position to join the Boer forces in
the north. It would have been a comparatively easy matter for six thousand
mounted men to make the journey if they had not been loaded down with
impedimenta, but the three generals were obliged to carry with them all
their huge transport waggons and heavy camping paraphernalia. The trek
northward was begun near Colesburg on March 12th, and when all the
different commandos had joined the main column the six thousand horsemen,
the seven hundred and fifty transport-waggons, the two thousand natives,
and twelve thousand cattle formed a line extending more than twenty-four
miles. The scouts, who were despatched westward from the column to
ascertain the whereabo