[Feb. 15, 1900.
Entry into Kimberley.
The onward movement was speedily resumed. Two squadrons were ordered to push on with all possible speed into Kimberley itself, and before them the enemy were seen to be galloping off to the east as fast as Boers could go. To cut off their retreat, if possible, General French swerved to the right, when suddenly a Boer gun to the east of Kimberley opened a sharp fire. General Porter at once brought up his horse guns and replied, but the enemy had no stomach for a fight. They hastily fell back, taking with them their gun, and unfortunately the British horses were too exhausted to pursue. Far away from the north at Kamfers Dam was heard the heavy note of the great Boer 6-in. Creusot, still showering its deadly bolts upon the town, in ignorance that its prey had already as good as escaped. Then, as night fell, and the array of troopers and guns entered into the town, weary, thirsty, sweating, but conscious of a deed done that would ring through the world and fill with exultant joy the British race, the sullen boom of this weapon ceased also, and peace returned to Kimberley.
COLONEL RHODES HELIOGRAPHING TO HIS BROTHER, Mr. CECIL RHODES, BESIEGED IN KIMBERLEY.
THE NAVAL SEARCHLIGHT WHICH TALKED WITH KIMBERLEY DURING THE SIEGE, AND ONE OF THE 12-POUNDER NAVAL GUNS.
Thousands were already pouring into the streets to greet the British cavalry and their gallant leader. Perhaps some were disappointed in the silent, small, undemonstrative man who trotted awkwardly in—for, like Napoleon, General French was not a showy horseman—seemingly unconscious that he had achieved something which would be for ever remembered in military history. Yet with this man rested the honour of the march. "It should never be forgotten," writes a soldier who rode with him, "that what decided the fate of the day was the General's masterly decision in the early morning to cut his way through what then seemed to be an almost surrounding of us by the enemy, and, instead of losing time by waiting to fight them, to leave them and risk their being on our flank and rear for the rest of the day." An even greater result than the relief of Kimberley was the demonstration which this march afforded of the fact that the Boers were helpless against flank attack by a mobile cavalry. The Boer tactics suddenly collapsed now the day of frontal assaults was over, and in that hour the danger to the British Empire passed away.
Bivouac in a Boer camp.
Feb. 15, 1900.] Seizure of Jacobsdal.