known by this time.

Sickness continues. There are 900 cases of enteric in Intombi. A sister
from the camp came and besought Colonel Stoneman with tears to stop the
shameful robbery of the sick which goes on in the camp. The blame, of
course, does not lie with him or the authorities here. The supplies are
sent out regularly day by day. It is in the careless or corrupt
distribution that the sick are robbed and murdered by a mob of cowardly
Colonials of the rougher class, who had not enough courage to stay in
the town, and now turn their native talent for swindling to the plunder
of brave men who are suffering on their behalf.

A deputation of mayor and town councillors waited on Colonel Ward
to-day. The petitioners humbly prayed that the bathing parties of
soldiers below the town on Sundays might be stopped, because they
shocked the feelings of the women. For a mixture of hypocrisy and
heartlessness I take that deputation to be unequalled. The soldiers are
exposed all the week long, day and night, to sun and cold and dirt, on
rocks and hill-tops where it is impossible even to dip their hands in
water. On Sunday the Boers seldom fire. The men are marched down in
companies under the officers to bathe, and to any decent man or woman
the sight of their pleasure is one of the few joys of the campaign. But
those who think nothing of charging a soldier 6d. for a penny bottle of
soda-water, or 2s. for twopenn'orth of cake, tremble for the feelings of
their wives and daughters. Why do the women go to look? as Colonel Ward
asked, in his indignant refusal even to listen to the petition. Sunday
is the one day when they can stay at home with safety, and leave their
husbands to skulk in the river holes if they please.

_December 21, 1899._

"Puffing Billy," of Bulwan, distinguished himself this morning by
sending one shot into Colonel Ward's house and the next into the
general's just beyond. In Colonel Ward's was a live Christmas turkey,
over which a sentry is posted day and night. At first the rumour spread
that the bird was mortally wounded; its thigh fractured, its liver
penetrated. But about midday public alarm was allayed by the news that
the invaluable creature could be seen strutting about and stiffening its
feathers as usual. It had not even suffered from shock. The second shot
went through Sir Henry Rawlinson's office, which he had just left, and
shattered the Headquarters' larder, depriving the Staff of butter for