yman jumped from one cannon to
another, returning the fire whenever there was a lull in the enemy's
attack and seeking safety behind the schanze when shells were falling too
rapidly. It was an uneven contest, but the bravery of the one man inspired
the others, and the end of the day saw the Boers nearer victory than they
were in the morning. At Tafelkop, on March 30th, three burghers were
caught napping by three British soldiers, who suddenly appeared before
them and shouted, "Hands up!" While the soldiers were advancing toward
them the three burghers succeeded in getting their rifles at their
captors' heads, and turned the tables by making prisoners of them. There
were many such instances of bravery, but one that is almost incredible
occurred at the place called Railway Hill, near the Tugela, on February
24th. On that day the Boers did not appear to know anything concerning the
position of the enemy, and James Marks, a Rustenburg farmer, determined to
go out of the laager and reconnoitre on his own responsibility. Marks was
more than sixty-two years old, and was somewhat decrepit, a circumstance
which did not prevent him from taking part in almost every one of the
Natal battles, however. The old farmer had been absent from his laager
less than an hour when he saw a small body of British soldiers at the foot
of a kopje. He crept cautiously around the kopje, and, when he was within
a hundred yards of the men, he shouted, "Hands up!" The soldiers
immediately lifted their arms, and, in obedience to the orders of Marks,
stacked their guns on a rock and advanced toward him. Marks placed the men
in a line, saw that there were twenty-three big, able-bodied soldiers, and
then marched them back into camp, to the great astonishment of his
generals and fellow burghers.

[Illustration: PLAN OF BATTLEFIELD OF SANNASPOST]

CHAPTER VI

THE BOERS IN BATTLE

The battle of Sannaspost on March 31st was one of the few engagements in
the campaign in which the forces of the Boers and the British were almost
numerically equal. There were two or three small battles in which the
Boers had more men engaged than the British, but in the majority of
instances the Boers were vastly outnumbered both in men and guns. At
Elandslaagte the Boers had exactly seven hundred and fifty burghers pitted
against the five or six thousand British; Spion Kop was won from three
thousand British by three hundred and fifty Boers; at the Tugela Botha
with n