arties.

It should not be necessary to assure my readers that we acted entirely
within our rights in derailing and destroying trains. This was the
only means we had of breaking the British lines of communication and
of interrupting the conveyance of British troops and food.

Moreover, we were more than justified in any act of train-derailment
that we committed, by the instructions of Lord Wolseley as expressed
in his handbook. In that well-known publication this distinguished
soldier actually prescribes the use of dynamite, and even suggests the
manner in which it may be employed to the best advantage. But although
this train-wrecking was in every degree justifiable, I can assure the
reader that we regarded it as a very unpalatable duty. I remember that
when Lord Kitchener complained to me about the destruction of a
certain train, I sent him a reply to the following effect:--

"That the blowing up and destroying of trains was as
distasteful to me as I hoped the burning of our houses was
to his Excellency; and that when we derailed trains we
entered upon the task with hearts quite as heavy as those
which I presumed weighed down his troops when they deported
our women and children from their homes to the Concentration
Camps."

I shall now describe how we went to work in the matter of capturing
trains. That this is not so easy a task as appears to be supposed I
shall endeavour to show. Perhaps the best way to exemplify our method
of procedure would be to describe a particular instance which occurred
in March, 1901, between Belfast and Wonderfontein on the Delagoa Bay
Railway. The two stations are approximately 12 miles apart. At either
station a garrison had been established, and these were provided with
two or three cannons and two armoured trains, which latter were held
in readiness to proceed to any place within their immediate sphere of
action when anything irregular occurred on the line. They were used
besides to carry reinforcements and stores when needed. The armoured
train was indeed a very important factor in the British military
tactics, and one we had to take fully into account. The railway
between these two stations was also guarded by blockhouses. Every
morning the British soldiers carefully inspected their particular
section of the railway before trains were despatched in any direction.
The peril of running trains at night was speedily recognised, and of
those that atte