rt's men crossed the Tugela
and off-saddled on the Colenso plain, pushing patrols forward to Frere
and finding there only an observation post of eight of the Natal
Mounted Police. These patrols, as well as the large number of horses
grazing near Colenso, were observed and reported by the armoured
train, which, according to the daily practice of the Estcourt
garrison, was sent up the line to reconnoitre in the direction of the
Tugela. No mounted troops accompanied these train reconnaissances, but
doubtful ground was, as a rule, made good by flankers on foot,
detailed when required from the infantry in the train.

[Sidenote: Nov. 15th. Disaster to the armoured train.]

Early on the following morning, 15th November, the armoured train,
carrying a 7-pounder M.L. gun, manned by five bluejackets, one company
Royal Dublin Fusiliers, and one company Durban Light Infantry, was
again despatched to reconnoitre northward from Estcourt. Captain J. A.
L. Haldane, Gordon Highlanders, was placed in command. The train,
after a brief halt at Frere to communicate with the police post,
pushed on to Chieveley station. No flanking patrols appear to have
been sent out; but as Chieveley station was reached a party of 50
Boers was seen cantering southward about a mile to the west of the
railway. An order was now received by telephone from Estcourt: "Remain
at Frere, watching your safe retreat." The train accordingly commenced
to move back on Frere, but on rounding a spur of a hill which commands
the line, was suddenly fired at by two field guns and a pom-pom. The
driver put on full steam, and the train, running at high speed down a
steep gradient, dashed into an obstruction which had been placed on a
sharp curve of the rails. A detachment of about 300 men of the
Krugersdorp commando had concealed themselves and their guns behind
the hill during the train's outward journey, and blocked the line in
its rear by filling the space between the doubled rails at the curve
with earth and small stones, thus forcing the wheels off the metals.

[Sidenote: The reconnoitring party with train suffers severely.]

An open truck and two armoured trucks were derailed, one of the trucks
being left standing partly over the track. An engagement ensued, in
which the British troops fought under great disadvantages. Mr. Winston
Churchill, a retired cavalry officer, who had been allowed to
accompany the train as a war correspondent, having offered his
services, Capt