t adopted by the Boers, against whom
it was retained for service. In my capacity as an officer of the corps I
was sent out with a small body of picked men, all good riders and light
weights, to keep up a constant communication between the Boer camp and
the Administrator, and found the work both interesting and exciting. My
head-quarters were at an inn about twenty-five miles from Pretoria, to
which our agents in the meeting used to come every evening and report
how matters were proceeding, whereupon, if the road was clear,
I despatched a letter to head-quarters; or, if I feared that the
messengers would be caught _en route_ by Boer patrols and searched, I
substituted different coloured ribbons according to what I wished to
convey. There was a relief hidden in the trees or rocks every six
miles, all day and most of the night, whose business it was to take the
despatch or ribbon and gallop on with it to the next station, in which
way we used to get the despatches into town in about an hour and a
quarter.

[*] It is customary in South African volunteer forces to
allow the members to elect their own officers, provided the
men elected are such as the Government approves. This is
done, so that the corps may not afterwards be able to
declare that they have no confidence in their officers in
action, or to grumble at their treatment by them.

On one or two occasions the Boers came to the inn and threatened to
shoot us, but as our orders were to do nothing unless our lives were
actually in danger, we took no notice. The officer who came out to
relieve me had not, however, been there more than a day or two before he
and all his troopers, were hunted back into Pretoria by a large mob of
armed Boers whom they only escaped by very hard riding.

Meanwhile the Boers were by degrees drawing nearer and nearer to the
town, till at last they pitched their laagers within six miles, and
practically besieged it. All business was stopped, the houses were
loopholed and fortified, and advantageous positions were occupied by the
military and the various volunteer corps. The building, normally in
the occupation of the Government mules, fell to the lot of the Pretoria
Horse, and, though it was undoubtedly a post of honour, I honestly
declare that I have no wish to sleep for another month in a mule stable
that has not been cleaned out for several years. However, by sinking
a well, and erecting bastions and a staging