WAR BALLOON IN USE AT LADYSMITH.
The Battle of Farquhar's Farm.
The enemy's field artillery opened from Pepworth Hill and Farquhar's Farm upon the British infantry; the British artillery kept under cover and did not reply till the hostile guns, which fired smokeless powder and which were therefore most difficult to find, had been located. Then at last our batteries got to work, and a fierce duel began. The ridge and the plain below were both one sheet of flame. The main Boer artillery position was soon a mass of small clouds of smoke from our bursting shrapnel. About 6·50 the enemy's guns seemed to be silenced, or fired only spasmodically, whereupon our guns shelled the gullies of the heights in which the Boer marksmen lay for shelter, driving them back. Gradually our artillery fire also abated, and the battle paused.
GENERAL JOUBERT, COMMANDING THE FORCES OF THE TRANSVAAL.
General Pietrus Jacobus Joubert, born at Cango, Cape Colony, 1833; State Attorney of Transvaal, 1867; acted as President during Kruger's absence in Europe, 1883-84. Has twice been an unsuccessful candidate for the Presidency.
A BOER COMMANDO.
When occasion arises for a Boer commando to be called out, the Field Cornet or local magistrate rides round to the neighbouring farms and commandeers, i.e. orders out, the farmers into the field. They go out just as they are, with rifle, bandolier, their horse, and a piece of biltong, or dried meat, in their pocket. A collection of some two or three hundred farmers from one particular district is termed a commando.
