st of
December, 1899, we had had to give up our time-honoured custom, there
being no chance of joining in the friendly gathering at home, most of
us having been at the front since the beginning of October, 1899,
while our commandos were still in the very centre of Natal or in the
northern part of Cape Colony; Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking were
still besieged, and on the 15th of December the great victory of
Colenso over the English Army had been won.

It is true that even then we were far from our beloved friends, but
those who had not been made prisoners were still in direct
communication with those who were near and dear to them. And although
we were unable to pass the great day in the family circle, yet we
could send our best wishes by letter or by wire. We had then hoped it
would be the last time we should have to spend the last day of the
year under such distressing circumstances, trusting the war would soon
be over.

Now 365 days had gone by--long, dreary, weary days of incessant
struggle; and again our expectations had not been realised, and our
hopes were deferred. We were not to have the privilege of celebrating
"the Old and the New" with our people as we had so fervently wished
the previous year on the Tugela.

The day would pass under far more depressing circumstances. In many
homes the members of the family we left behind would be prevented from
being in a festive mood, thinking as they were of the country's
position, while mourning the dead, and pre-occupied with the fate of the
wounded, of those who were missing, or known to be prisoners-of-war.

It was night-time, and everybody was under the depression of the
present serious situation. Is it necessary to say that we were all
absorbed in our thoughts, reviewing the incidents of the past year?
Need we say that everyone of us was thinking with sadness of our many
defeats, of the misery suffered on the battlefields, of our dead and
wounded and imprisoned comrades; how we had been compelled to give up
Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking, and how the principal towns of our
Republics, Bloemfontein and Pretoria, where our beloved flag had been
flying for so many long years, over an independent people, were now in
the hands of the enemy? Need we say we were thinking that night more
than ever of our many relatives who had sacrificed their blood and
treasure in this melancholy War for the good Cause; of our wives and
children, who did not know what had beco