ARRIVAL OF LORDS ROBERTS AND KITCHENER AT CAPE TOWN, January 4, 1900.
Dec. 23, 1899.] The New Generals hasten out.
Embarkation for South Africa.
On Saturday, December 23, Lord Roberts left London to embark upon the Dunottar Castle. A great popular demonstration marked his departure. An immense crowd, in which were merged and lost members of the Royal Family, Cabinet Ministers, guardsmen, soldiers who had in the already far-off past marched with him to victory, and the great unwashed, were impartially assembled upon the platform of Waterloo. It was noticed that nearly all were in black—a sombre hue typical at once of the nation's sorrow under its defeats and of its sympathy with the general in his personal bereavement. Amidst a thunder of cheering the new Commander-in-Chief stepped into the train, already in motion. The cheers continued till he was lost to view. Thus, with the knowledge that he bore with him the regard and devotion of his race, he went forth to his work.
At Southampton the demonstration was repeated. Meantime Lord Kitchener embarked in the cruiser Isis at Alexandria on the 22nd. The Isis steamed her fastest—eighteen knots—to Malta, where she met the Dido, and that good warship covered the rest of the distance to Gibraltar, where the Dunottar Castle was to be met. The extreme haste gave evidence of the seriousness of the emergency. From Gibraltar the liner headed for the Cape by the usual route, and the time of the voyage was used by the Field-Marshal and his Chief-of-the-Staff to work out their strategic plans for the new campaign that was to change disaster into triumph.
A. C. Ball.]
When the Gordon Highlanders were beaten back on the disastrous day of Majuba, Lieutenant Macdonald, still unwounded, rallied his men for a last stand. He was disarmed, but met the onslaught of a group of Boers with his fists, knocking down three of the enemy in succession. His pluck was appreciated; a Boer who had felt the weight of his blows called to one of his fellows, who was in the act of covering Macdonald with his rifle, to "spare that brave man." He was spared, and of course taken prisoner; but General Joubert treated him with consideration, even returning to him his sword—the sword which had but recently been presented to him by his fellow officers at Kandahar.
General Hector Macdonald.