Baden-Powell of Mafeking

by J. S. Fletcher

A Cape Boy Sentry.

"He spends the rest of the day doing a thousand and one things, receiving reports, adjusting differences, learning from his staff all they know, powwowing with Lord Edward Cecil, his chief staff officer, discovering how much food we have from the D.A.A.G., and suggesting how it may be conserved, and how much per head shall be served out to each soul under his care—all the time with an eye fixed upon Snyman and his horde, reading their thoughts, knowing what they are about to do, and planning a checkmate. In the evening he goes up to the hospital to inquire after his wounded—he never misses this visit—and if a victim of the siege is to be buried it is ten to one that we see him at the graveside. The Colonel trusts his command, but like the good general that he is, leaves nothing to chance, and always has the concentrated knowledge of every officer in his head. Many stories are told by our sentries of one who silently steals out of the blackness of the night and is on them before they have time to challenge. He asks a question or gives a suggestion and a cheery word, and then departs as silently as he came. They even tell of a bearded stranger dressed in grey tweed who has the stature of B.-P., and strolls around the works and makes such remarks as 'Keep a keen eye in that direction; you never know what may be stirring or where they are.' He goes away and they know that he is the commander. Napoleon himself never kept keener vigil than B.-P., or had a greater grasp of what was going on around him. Added to this night-and-day round, our Colonel even directs the other force away up north that he never sees, yet every movement of which he is acquainted with. Nevertheless, the strain, the anxiety that must be there, despite the external show of light-heartedness, the constant watchfulness, and the worries connected with the interior economy of the town, would have soured and broken down and turned grey-headed many another man. But B.-P.'s temperament preserves him, and to-day (April) he is as fresh, as keen, and as full of vigour as when he started in October."

Perhaps an even more remarkable testimony than this was that which came from General Pretorius, who, while in hospital, recovering from the wound he received at Elands Laagte, discussed the sieges of Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking with an English friend.

"The Ladysmith men," he said, "were good, but there were 10,000 of them, and all fighting men. Kimberley was remarkable because of the large number of its civilian population and natives; but the siege of Mafeking, however it may end, will always live in South African history, because a flat and absolutely unprotected country village (for that is what Mafeking is) has by the genius of one man been defended, and defended against the most strenuous efforts not only of our leading general, Cronje, but of his successors. I should like to take you outside Mafeking where I have been, and look at the place. You would have thought that the 8000 with which we once surrounded it could have got in on any night they chose. We had the best of Cronje's burghers there, but it is no confession of cowardice on our part to say that we knew that Baden-Powell was not only prepared for every surprise of ours, but that he was quite ready to spring surprises upon us at any moment. And though I think that we shall eventually take Mafeking, it will be by starvation and not by attack. Our burghers have not exhibited fear on any occasion, but I do not think they will tackle Colonel Baden-Powell."

It was scarcely probable that the man, then feared by one of the most capable of the Boer generals, should be outwitted by a comparatively young officer like Eloff, who must necessarily have been somewhat discouraged by the failure of Cronje, Snyman, and Botha. Eloff, however, was not wanting in courage or ability, and he seems to have been more daring than any of the Boer leaders who had preceded him. He arrived before Mafeking during the last week in April, and on the 24th the garrison received information from natives that a determined assault was to be made upon the town. Something in the nature of a feeble fusillade was begun by the Boers next day, but it was extremely futile, and the garrison thought it scarcely worth their while to reply to it. Indeed, there was so little doing on the part of the Boers at this stage of the long-drawn-out proceedings that the besieged were able to devote some of their energies—the energies of starving men!—to getting up a military tournament, which was successfully held on Sunday, April 29th.

Now occurred another of the little episodes which, when reported to the folk who were looking on at the game from such a tremendous distance, made everybody wonder what sort of man this wonderful Baden-Powell could be that he could crack jokes while he and his men were half starved to death. It came to the knowledge of Commandant Eloff that the garrison of Mafeking amused itself on Sundays in various pleasant ways, whereupon he wrote a letter to Colonel Baden-Powell saying that he heard there was cricket and singing, and dancing and tournaments in Mafeking on Sundays, and might he and his men come in and join in the festivities, for it was dull outside. One would like to know if that message was intended to be serious, or if it was "writ sarcastic." Anyway, Baden-Powell replied to it in fitting terms. Referring to Eloff's remarks about the Sunday cricket match, he said that it would be better to postpone the return match until the one then in progress was finished, and then suggested that as the garrison were already 200 not out, and as Cronje, Snyman, and others had not been successful, a further change of bowling might be advisable.

Rough map of BRICKFIELDS

Eloff's answer to this characteristic Baden-Powellism was another attack on May 1st. "It was the usual sort of performance," said Major Baillie in his despatch to the Morning Post, "the Boers blazed away for two or three hours, but did not hit anybody. They are doing themselves no good, and not attaining any object whatever." Then on Sunday, May 6th, the enemy committed another of the discreditable breaches of good faith which have been such an unfortunate feature of their conduct throughout the whole war. Sunday, by their own request, had invariably been observed as a day of truce, but on this particular Sunday a party of Boers made their way to the east of Cannon Kopje, shot one of the British South African Police, who was guarding cattle, and stole the horses and mules under his care.