illings for an empty
tar can.

Several British convoys fell into our hands, but the food we found on
them consisted usually of bully-beef and "clinkers," things which only
dire necessity drove us Boers to eat. Sometimes to our great chagrin
we discovered that all our fighting to capture a convoy was only
rewarded by the sight of empty trucks or ones loaded with hay and
fodder. If perchance we were fortunate enough to capture a camp or a
fort we contented ourselves with removing such coffee and sugar as we
could carry away on our pack mules.

The clothing question was very perplexing. Whenever we were able to
obtain it we bought canvas and converted it into trousers. Sheep skins
we tanned and employed either for the purpose of making clothes or for
patching. The hides of cattle and of horses that had died of disease
were also tanned and employed for the making of boots. I may point out
that no horse was specially slaughtered for this purpose or for the
purpose of food. It was only General Baden-Powell and General White
who slaughtered their horses to make sausages. Our best clothing
supply, however, came from the British Army. Forgive me for saying so;
I do not intend to be sarcastic. When we captured a convoy or a fort
we always obtained a supply of clothes. At the beginning of the War we
Boers had a strong prejudice against any garment which even faintly
resembled khaki, but afterwards we grew indifferent and accepted khaki
quite as readily as any other material. We generally compelled our
prisoners to exchange clothes with us, and often derived much
amusement from the disgusted look of the sensitive Briton as he walked
away in the clothes of a ragged Boer. Imagine the spectacle! A dandy
English soldier, clean shaven, with a monocle adorning one eye, his
head covered with an old war-worn slouch hat of broad brim, and his
body with ragged jacket and trousers patched with sheep-skin or yarn.

I may say that none of this systematic plundering occurred in my
presence. But such things were certainly done, and, after all, who can
blame a ragged burgher for resorting to this means, however much to be
deprecated, of clothing himself. Remember that the poor Boers were
prepared to pay double the value of a suit of clothes, and were, so to
speak, cut off from the world, while the British soldier had simply to
go back to camp to obtain a new outfit. "Necessity knows no law."

In concluding this chapter I must mention that the