A West Pointer with the Boers /

by John Y. Fillmore Blake

GENERAL SMUTZ
State Attorney General of the Transvaal.

Here were the two Governments with no more than 200 men, in the very midst of thousands of English, holding a confab on the open prairie within six miles of a large English camp, and not one present in the least concerned, except Schalk Burger, who, I think, was pretty nervous. The English are wonderful soldiers, for they knew that the two Governments were near them and they never made the slightest effort to take them in.

All business having been finished and matters corrected and put right, President Steyn, General De Wet and General de la Rey started back to run the gauntlet and join their respective commands. Major Pretorius and I, on learning that General Smuts and Commandant Ben Bouwers were going with a good commando into Cape Colony, tried for permission to go with them, but were not allowed, much to our disappointment.

I will now return to my story of the April events in all parts. I have made quite a long side trip which may not prove to be of interest to the reader, but I assure him that had he been with us at the end of April he would have been equally interested with ourselves. As it was at the very end of April that the fifteen English columns suddenly invaded the high veldt, I will leave them till the first of May and go into the Free State. But little was done of any account, a little skirmishing here and a little there and not much more, for the English were making preparations for cornering and taking in the slippery De Wet once more.

In the Colony things were more than lively. General George Brand had captured a column and frightened two or three others half to death. General Kritsinger by his dash had made the English believe that there must be no less than 50,000 Boers in Cape Colony. Commandants Fouche, Scheepers, Malan and others were daily fighting in the different districts and captured several convoys. In fact, Cape Colony was truly in a state of war, and the Boers were in possession of the country. Lord Roberts was in possession of his $500,000 and his earldom, so he was not worrying, but General French was walking the floor day and night, for he realized that affairs in Cape Colony were very dark, and the position of the English in great jeopardy. Not a day passed without fighting during the month, and it was certain that fighting would continue for many months to come, for the Boer officers were superior to the English commanders and could lead them a song-and-dance wherever they pleased. In the Western Transvaal the English had made several attempts to corner General de la Rey, but he was not to be cornered. Near Klerksdorp there was some fighting when a large force of English pounced on General Smuts and deprived him of one cannon.

The English reported this as a great victory, and I will tell you why. They think far more of losing one cannon than they do of losing 10,000 Tommies, for they consider Tommies as cheaply made in England as the Germans could manufacture them, while cannon are expensive in all countries.

Throughout the month troops were constantly shifting about in the Western Transvaal, but nothing really occurred worthy of note, as no change had taken place at Zeerust, where the English were still penned in. Far away in the north General Plumer at Pietersburg, and the English force in the East at Komati Poort by a combined action tried to clear the whole country between them of Boers. Their task was easy, because there were no Boers in those parts, except some women and children. Their homes and their possessions were burnt and destroyed and they themselves were sent to concentration camps.

The English spent considerable time in arming the Kaffirs and giving them the necessary instructions for their murderous work. Chief Secockuni and his strong force, the worst Kaffirs in the country, had already been armed by the English and were near Lydenburg on the one side and Rosenekal on the other. These very Kaffirs murdered many men, women, and children with those English guns and ammunition, but further on I will go into the details of this dirtiest and most barbarous work of the English army.

Now we come to the month of May, and a very lively one, too. General Ben Viljoen and General Muller crossed the railway line near Balmoral Station, and left the six pursuing columns all to themselves north of the railway line. They had simply left one large army to run up against another stronger still, for there were fifteen columns on the high veldt bent on capturing the Government, General Botha and all the high veldt burghers. All these columns practically distinguished themselves by their puerile tactics. Not only did all the burghers easily evade them, but two or three trek wagons with women and children escaped being captured. Of course all the old men and women who remained in the few farm houses still standing were captured nd take away. Then off to London would go a flaming report of many burghers, horses and cattle being captured.