Even this list is not complete and exhaustive, though it is fuller than many which have appeared. Of these troops some were employed in guarding Capetown itself, where a supposed plot on the part of Boer sympathisers to seize the town on the first day of the new year, had caused great uneasiness; others were placed on the lines of communication; and about 3,000 were slowly concentrated in the east of Cape Colony, where, under General Brabant—a man almost as loved and trusted as Lord Roberts himself, and proved by after events to be a bold and skilful General, never beaten in the field—they were to take part in the new campaign as soon as Lord Roberts gave the signal for the great forward move. Had the Colonials only been listened to at the outset, many defeats and much dishonour would have been avoided. For, from the first, they had preached the necessity of fighting the Boers with mounted men. They now, under the wise Lord Roberts, were given a full share of hard work and glory, and became a source of real terror to the Boers, who never were comfortable when they were about.
DR. BURNS ATTENDING A WOUNDED NEW ZEALANDER.
NEW ZEALANDERS BURYING THEIR DEAD COMRADES.
Reorganisation of transports.
[Jan.-Feb. 1900.
While Lord Roberts was organising troops and rearranging the distribution of the forces in South Africa, while day by day battalions, and batteries, and squadrons poured in from England, the rough material with which to build the edifice of the new campaign, Lord Kitchener on his part was busy with the transport and discipline of the army. Rumour has it that he impounded some score of gay young officers whom he found at Capetown with leave from the front, and set them to drive quills in his quartermaster's department. This did not make him beloved, but it proved he was determined that all should do their duty. He ruthlessly cut down the allowance of transport, took away from the regiments their regimental waggons, and organised a separate and distinct transport service. He found that the train of waggons had been much scattered, and one of his first acts was to recall about 400 teams and vehicles from Queenstown in the east of the Colony. The work of organisation and preparation to which he devoted his time was neither glorious nor particularly interesting, but it was necessary if the army was to be able to move away from the railways, and he accomplished it with success, even if after events did not prove all his innovations to have been judicious.
PREPARING FOR THE GREAT CAMPAIGN.