e
river were not very high, thus enabling us to make a drift without
much trouble. The bed was rocky, and the water pretty shallow, and
towards the afternoon the whole commando had crossed. Here again we
were obliged to rest our cattle for a few days, during which we had to
fulfil the melancholy duty of burying two of our burghers who had died
of fever. It was a very sad loss and we were very much affected,
especially as one left a young wife and two little children, living at
Barberton. The other one was a young colonial Afrikander who had left
his parents in the Cradock district (Cape Colony) to fight for our
cause. We could not help thinking how intensely sad it was to lose
one's life on the banks of this river, far from one's home, from
relatives and friends, without a last grasp of the hand of those who
were nearest and dearest.

The Transvaaler's last words were:--

"Be sure to tell my wife I am dying cheerfully, with a
clear conscience; that I have given my life for the welfare
of my Fatherland."

We had now to leave some draught cattle and horses behind every day,
and the number of those who were obliged to walk was continually
increasing, till there were several hundred.

Near Sabini, the first river we came to after leaving Leydsdorp we
secured twenty-four mules which were of very great use to us under the
circumstances. But the difficulty was how to distribute them amongst
the field-cornets. The men all said they wanted them very urgently,
and at once found the cattle belonging to each cart to be too thin and
too weak to move. Yet the twenty-four could only be put into two
carts, and I had to solve the difficulty by asserting my authority.

It was no easy task to get over the Agatha Mountains and we had to
rest for the day near the big Letaba, especially as we had to give the
whole file of carts, guns, etc., a chance of forming up again. Here we
succeeded in buying some loads of mealies, which were a real God-send
to our half-starved horses. I also managed to hire some teams of oxen
from Boers who had taken up a position with their cattle along the
Letaba, which enabled us to get our carts out of the Hartbosch
Mountains as far as practicable. The task would have been too
fatiguing for our cattle. It took us two days before we were out of
these mountains, when we camped out on the splendid "plateau" of the
Koutboschbergen, where the climate was wholesome and pleasant.

Here, after having