d my gun positions, then
brought the guns, each with an ammunition wagon, up the ridge, a steep
pull up, and placed them one commanding the Utrecht Road and one
Wakkerstroom Road--unluckily one mile apart, which could not be
helped. I put my chief petty officer, Munro, in command of the left
gun and took the right one myself, riding between the two to give
general directions when necessary. At night as no Boers appeared we
withdrew the guns and wagons behind the ridge.

_Wednesday, 30th May._--Drew the guns out of laager at sunrise and
again got into position and arranged details of defence with Major
Lousada so far as my own work was concerned. All was quiet however
to-day, and we saw no Boers nearer than Pougwana. And so it went on
for the next few days, during which the Landrost of Utrecht, after
twenty-four hours' armistice, delivered up the town to General
Hildyard, saying that he had done the same in 1881 to a British force
which had never occupied it after all. So history repeats itself.

_Saturday, 2nd June._--Marched along the right bank of Buffalo River
towards Ingogo, while Lyttelton's Brigade moved on our right on the
other side of the river towards Laing's Nek. After a pleasant trek
across the open veldt, and therefore no dust, we reached De Wet's farm
near Ingogo in the evening and bivouacked; a grand day marching right
under Majuba and Prospect and yet no sign of the enemy. Had a short
talk with General Hildyard and Prince Christian on the march, as they
rode by my battery, reminding the latter that I had first seen him
when I was in the Royal yacht in 1894 and took his father and himself
about in her steam launch at Cowes--a very different scene to this.
The Prince said he knew all along he had seen me before somewhere.

_Tuesday, 5th June._--Rode to Ingogo and saw the spot where the fight
took place in 1881, the huge rocks from which our fellows were
eventually cut up by Boer rifle fire, the monument set up to the 3rd
Bn. Royal Rifles, and some graves higher up of which one was to a
Captain of the R.E. Poor, unlucky, but gallant Sir George Colley; he
went from Ingogo to Majuba and there met his untimely death. The view
from here of Laing's Nek was glorious at sunset, Majuba frowning on
one side with Mount Prospect and Pougwana on the other, and the bed of
the Ingogo River below in a green and fertile valley. The Boer
position is very strong although our heavy Artillery ought to be able
to force it.