nded the
prisoners, hustling them, striking them, and hurling abuse at them
incessantly. The mounted burghers acting as an escort forced their
horses at the unfortunate men on foot, jostling them and threatening
to ride them down. One of the prisoners, a man close on sixty years
of age, was thrown by an excited patriot and kicked and trampled on
before he was rescued by some of his comrades.

Once within the gaol, the men were searched and locked up in the
cells, and treated exactly as black or white felons of the lowest
description. In many cases four or five men were incarcerated in
single cells 9 feet long by 5 feet 6 inches wide, with one small
grating for ventilation. At night they were obliged to lie on the mud
floor, or in some cases on filthy straw mattresses left in the cells
by former occupants. No provision was made by which they could obtain
blankets or other covering--indeed at first it was not necessary, as
the overcrowding and lack of ventilation very nearly resulted in
asphyxiation. With an inhumanity almost incredible, in one instance
one of the prisoners, suffering from fever and dysentery, was locked
up for twelve hours with four others in such a cell without any
sanitary provisions whatever. Friends in Pretoria induced the
authorities, by means not unpopular in that place, to admit a better
class of food than that allowed to the ordinary prisoners; and it is
stated that the first meal enjoyed by the Reformers cost close upon
L100 for introduction. Day by day fresh concessions were obtained in
a similar manner, with the result that before long the prisoners were
allowed to have their own clothing and beds and such food as they
chose to order. Nothing however could alter the indescribable
sanitary conditions, nor compensate for the fact that the cells
occupied by these men were in many cases swarming with vermin.

The climate in Pretoria in January is almost tropical, and the
sufferings of many of the older and less robust men under such
circumstances were very considerable. On the eleventh day of
incarceration the majority of the prisoners were let out on bail of
L2,000 each; in the cases of two or three bail of L4,000 each was
required; but bail was refused to Colonel Rhodes, Messrs. Phillips,
Farrar, Hammond (the signatories to the letter), and J.P.
FitzPatrick, the secretary of the Reform Committee. These five
continued to occupy the undesirable premises for four weeks more, at
the end of which