Elandslaagte by Boer agents at
Capetown had been thus suppressed. When we saw Colonel Gatcliffe he
was busily engaged passing telegrams, which had to be read and signed
by him at the Telegraph Office before they were allowed to be
despatched.

All went well at Simon's Bay until November 24th, when we heard of
Lord Methuen's fight and heavy casualties at Belmont, followed soon by
news of the heavy loss (105 killed and wounded) incurred by the Naval
Brigade at Graspan chiefly among the marines. I think that the general
idea in the fleet was admiration for our comrades and gratitude to
Lord Methuen for giving the Navy a chance of distinction; but I am
told these views were not shared by our Chief. A force of forty seamen
and fifty marines were now ordered off to the front at once to fill up
these casualties. Naturally we all wanted to go, but the Admiral could
not send us and drafted us off to various ships, my own destination
being H.M.S. _Philomel_, then at Durban, which I reached in the
transport _Idaho_, a Wilson Liner. We had on board a Field Battery and
other details with six guns and 250 horses. I was much interested in
the horses, who had a fine deck to themselves and were very fit; they
were in fact _'Bus_ horses, and very good ones.

There were some Highland officers and others on board who had been
wounded and were now going back to Natal after recovery; they told us
how cunning the Boers were in selecting positions; one saw nothing of
them, they said, on a hill but the muzzle of their rifles; they are
only killed in retreat; they pick out any dark object as a man, such
as a great-coat, training their rifles on it so as to fire directly he
rises and advances. One of the officers told us how he saw at
Elandslaagte a Scotchman who had been put by the Boers in their firing
line with his hands tied behind his back because he had refused to
fight for them; apparently the man escaped uninjured and was taken
prisoner with the rest after the fight by our Lancers, swearing when
liberated many oaths of vengeance on the Boers. Colonel Sheil told one
of our officers, Commander Dundas, who was in charge of him and other
prisoners on board the _Penelope_ at Simon's Bay, that the only fault
of our men was their rashness, and our Cavalry did not, he said, throw
out sufficient scouting parties, missing himself and others on one
occasion by not doing so; the Boers had not reckoned, he said, on
Naval guns being landed, and place