d men till
the declaration of peace, when he brought them down to Maritzburg,
having experienced great difficulty in obtaining food for them during so
many weeks.

This is a short account of what I must, with reluctance, call a most
cruel and carefully planned massacre. I may mention that a Zulu driver,
who was with the rear-guard, and escaped into Natal, stated that the
Boers shot all the wounded men who formed that body. His statement was
to a certain extent borne out by the evidence of one of the survivors,
who stated that all the bodies found in that part of the field (nearly
three-quarters of a mile away from the head of the column), had a bullet
hole through the head or breast in addition to their other wounds.

The Administrator in the Transvaal in council thus comments on the
occurrence in an official minute:--"The surrounding and gradual hemming
in under a flag of truce of a force, and the selection of spots from
which to direct their fire, as in the case of the unprovoked attack by
the rebels upon Colonel Anstruther's force, is a proceeding of which
very few like incidents can be mentioned in the annals of civilised
warfare."

The Boer leaders, however, were highly elated at their success,
and celebrated it in a proclamation of which the following is an
extract:--"Inexpressible is the gratitude of the burghers for this
blessing conferred on them. Thankful to the brave General F. Joubert and
his men who have upheld the honour of the Republic on the battlefield.
Bowed down in the dust before Almighty God, who had thus stood by them,
and, with a loss of over a hundred of the enemy, only allowed two of
ours to be killed."

In view of the circumstances of the treacherous hemming in and
destruction of this small body of unprepared men, most people would
think this language rather high-flown, not to say blasphemous.

On the news of this disaster reaching Pretoria, Sir Owen Lanyon issued
a proclamation placing the country under martial law. As the town
was large, straggling, and incapable of defence, all the inhabitants,
amounting to over four thousand souls, were ordered up to camp, where
the best arrangements possible were made for their convenience. In these
quarters they remained for three months, driven from their comfortable
homes, and cheerfully enduring all the hardships, want, and discomforts
consequence on their position, whilst they waited in patience for the
appearance of that relieving column that n