Through Shot and Flame / The Adventures and Experiences of J. D. Kestell Chaplain to President Steyn and General Christian De Wet

by J. D. Kestell

THROUGH SHOT
AND FLAME

THE ADVENTURES AND EXPERIENCES OF
J. D. KESTELL
CHAPLAIN TO PRESIDENT STEYN
AND
GENERAL CHRISTIAN DE WET

METHUEN & CO.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON
1903

Colonial Library

TO
MY WIFE
WHO WAS ONE OF THE THOUSANDS
WHO ENDURED IN THE GREAT STRUGGLE
FOR FREEDOM, I DEDICATE THIS BOOK
AND
WITH HER I COMMEMORATE HERE THE
FIDELITY AND PATRIOTISM OF HIM WHO
WAS MY COMRADE IN THE FIELD, AND
WHO DIED IN THE SPRINGTIDE OF HIS
LIFE, A PRISONER OF WAR, AT LADYSMITH,
NATAL
Our Son, CHARLES KESTELL

THROUGH SHOT AND FLAME

PART I
HOPE

CHAPTER I
I JOIN THE HARRISMITH COMMANDO

I purpose to chronicle in the following pages my experiences of the war between the Boers and the English. It is my object to record what I went through on commando, and to give the reader an idea, according to my own observation, of the struggles and sufferings of a small nation against the overwhelming odds of an Empire—nay, against the world itself.

For was it not against the world that the little nation fought?