_Wednesday, 6th June._--All on the move, as the armistice which
General Buller was trying to arrange with Chris Botha is up, the
latter replying: "Our heavy guns and Mausers are our own and will be
moved at our convenience; the armistice is over." We hear that Lord
Roberts is in Pretoria and that Kruger has fled; but how
unsatisfactory that this does not end the war. In fact, marching to
Pretoria was the feature and romance of the war, and now must commence
anxious and weary guerilla tactics which may last a long time. About
dark in came orders to the Naval guns to move on and occupy Van Wyk
to-night: and off we went through large grass fires and along awful
roads, getting to the foot of the hill at about 1 a.m. with no worse
mishap than the upset of one of my guns twice on huge rocks hidden in
the long grass.

Captain Jones ordered me to go on up the hill during the night,
leaving the 4.7 guns at the bottom; so we commenced a weary climb up
Van Wyk (6,000 feet) on a pitch-dark night lighted only by the lurid
gleams of grass fires which the enemy had set going on the slopes of
the mountain. With thirty-two oxen on each gun it was only just
possible to ascend the lower slopes, and thus we made very slow
progress. But as Colonel Sim R.E. kindly showed me a sort of track up,
on we toiled for six hours, my men not having had a scrap of food or a
rest since starting while the night was deadly cold and dark. In the
gray dawn, just as we were attempting the last slope which was almost
precipitous, the wheels of one of the guns gave out and there we had
to leave it till daylight, pressing on with the sound one and getting
it up to the top exactly at daylight (7th June) in accordance with our
orders, taking the gun and limber up separately, with all my oxen and
100 men pulling. We found the position was held by the 10th Brigade,
and very heavy sniping going on down the N.W. slopes--a regular
crackle of musketry.

I soon got my gun along the crest into an emplacement prepared by the
Royal Engineers, and opened fire at once at 7,000 yards at a Boer camp
on the slopes of an opposite kop; but finding the camp practically
deserted we did not waste much fire on it. My men were now half dead
with fatigue and cold, so we all got a short rest in a freezing wind.

Sir Redvers Buller, quite blue with cold, rode up about 9 a.m. with
his Colonial guide, and carefully surveyed the position through my
long telescope. Prince Christian also