reinforcements which would form the field army were not due for some
weeks. Meanwhile, in the eastern theatre of operations, the Boers
would have made their supreme effort with all the advantages of
superior numbers, greater mobility, and a _terrain_ admirably suited
to their methods of fighting. A considerable portion of the British
troops under Sir G. White were, moreover, mere units, lacking war
organisation except on paper, unknown to their leaders and staff,
unacquainted with the country, and with both horses and men out of
condition after their sea voyage. In the western theatre, the safety
of Kimberley and Mafeking mainly depended on the untried fighting
qualities of recently enlisted colonial corps, volunteers, and hastily
organised town-guards; detachments of regular troops dotted along the
northern frontier of Cape Colony were without hope of support either
from the coast or each other, and would be cut off and crushed in
detail in the case of serious attack or of a rising in their rear.
Thus, the initiative lay absolutely with the enemy, and, so far as
could be foreseen, must remain in his hands until the British army
corps and cavalry division should be ready to take the field about the
middle of December.

[Sidenote: Actual movement of Boers begins.]

According to the terms of the ultimatum of October 9th, a state of war
ensued at 5 p.m. on the 11th. The advance of the Boer forces destined
for the attack of Mafeking and Kimberley began on the following day,
and by the 14th both places were cut off from Cape Colony. On the 17th
the enemy occupied Belmont railway station. To meet these movements
the 9th Lancers, the squadrons of which disembarked at Cape Town from
India on the 14th, 15th, and 18th, were sent up to Orange River
station immediately on their arrival. The 1st battalion Northumberland
Fusiliers were also moved by train on the 15th from De Aar to Orange
River, being replaced at the former station by a half-battalion of the
2nd battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, which reached Cape
Town on the 14th, having been brought with extraordinary swiftness
from Mauritius by H.M.S. _Powerful_. The Orange River bridge garrison
was further strengthened by two 12-pr. B.L. guns manned by Prince
Alfred's Own Cape artillery. The first field artillery to land in Cape
Colony, the 62nd and half 75th batteries, were, on the evening of
their disembarkation, the 25th, entrained at once for Orange River.
The