Steve thanked his friend for the information, and resumed his investigations elsewhere.
Steve was detailed to assist in guarding the prisoners, and as he spoke English well, he questioned them and got much information from them.
One of them told him that he had been lying in a slight depression of the ground during the fight. He said,—
‘I thought that, if I lay flat, the Boers could never hit me, as a slight hollow seemed to afford me all the protection I needed. But the bullets kept striking right in front of my eyes, and the ground seemed to be wearing down more and more in front of me, so that the bullets, instead of passing over me, threatened to soon pass through me. I had a hatchet, which I used to deepen my little hollow as fast as my protection was being shot away. Thus, by hugging the ground closely, I managed to escape safe and sound to the end.’
Many of them told tales of marvellous escapes from the unerring aim of the Burghers, as well as unheard-of hiding-places used by them during the battle.
They told of how they had to leave dead and wounded, the day before; Jameson seeming to think that the dead might bury its own dead!—he only cared for the living.
I may here state that the Government sent parties on the route travelled to bury the dead and succour the deserted wounded. Some of these last had undergone terrible sufferings—wounded, unprotected, unsheltered, deserted by their friends, they lay on the veld; but Jameson has enough to answer for already—over this we shall draw a veil and say no more.
Another told how he was one of several who had been sent from Johannesburg to join Jameson beyond the border. They had been engaged to fight Kaffirs. When they were told that they were going to march to Johannesburg, many deserted. These latter were Afrikanders of the right sort, and declined to fight their own countrymen.
‘Even I would have deserted if I had had the chance, but I was too closely watched,’ remarked his informant.
‘But could these Afrikanders, who meant the Transvaal well, not send a telegram to warn the Government of their danger and of Jameson’s intentions?’