have gone on as they did, obeying
orders without a murmur or a whimper. They were savage at times over the
food they got, and small blame to them, but they never blamed their
general. They knew that he gave them plenty of the class of food that he
could lay hands upon. Had the general's supplies been in this part of the
country, instead of being tied up in red-tape packages on the railway line,
General Rundle would have kept his Division fully supplied. The only food
which he could command, beef and mutton, he gave without stint. Had the War
Office authorities attended to their end of the work with the same
commendable zeal, half the hardships of the campaign would have been
averted.

If ever war was reduced to an absolute science, it was upon this occasion.
On the one hand, some six thousand Boers on the defensive, armed with the
handiest quick-firing rifle known to modern times, with from eight to ten
guns, well supplied with food and ammunition, and backed by some of the
most awful country the eye of man ever rested upon--a country which they
knew as a child knows its mother's face. On the other hand, an attacking
force of 30,000 men and guns. To read the number of the opposing forces one
would think the Boer task the effort of madmen, bent upon national
extinction; but one glance at the country would upset those calculations
entirely. Every kopje was a natural fortress, every sluit a perfect line of
trenches, and every donga a nursery for death.

To attempt to go into every move made by our troops during the months of
May, June, and the early parts of July would only prove wearisome to the
average reader; suffice it to say that finally we got the burgher forces
into the Caledon Valley. This valley is about twenty-eight miles in length,
and from fourteen to fifteen miles across its widest part. Properly
speaking, it was not a valley at all, but a series of valleys interspersed
by great kopjes, nearly all of which presented an almost impregnable
appearance. The valley had a number of outlets, which the Boers fondly
believed our people to be unacquainted with. These outlets were known as
"neks," and were, without exception, terribly rough places for a hostile
force to attack. Commando Nek was upon the south-east, facing towards
Basutoland. This was merely a narrow pass, running up over a jagged kopje,
with two greater kopjes on each side of it. The hills all round it were so
placed that a number of good marksmen, hidd