In the Free State everything was very quiet, so I will pass into the Colony. October is a particularly conspicuous month, because it witnessed the only naval battle of the war. This took place at Saldanha Bay, a few miles above Cape Town, on the east coast. The Boers had passed through Cape Colony and landed at this beautiful bay, where they took seven English officers prisoners. Not far out in the bay an English boat was anchored, and the Boers thought they would seize it. They collected all the row-boats about the place, took their rifles and in one long line advanced to make the capture. When near enough, they demanded its surrender. The captain refused, and the Boers opened fire. The captain became frightened, and put up the white flag. Just as the victorious Boer sailors were about to take possession, they discovered an English gun-boat coming to the rescue, so they had to paddle for all they were worth to reach the shore again before this gun-boat could get within range. They succeeded and were safe, but the gun-boat stopped short of rifle range, so the battle was over. The Boers remained here for a day, then released the seven officers, and went prowling about the Colony as they pleased. The inhabitants supplied them with food, horses, clothing and everything they could possibly wish.
Acting Treasurer with the Boer Forces
When the news of the naval battle reached Cape Town, of course the English went crazy with excitement, for they fully expected to see the Boers in their midst every moment. Lord Kitchener became alarmed, too, and proclaimed all Cape Colony under martial law. That naval battle caused much trouble, for now martial law was supreme throughout the Colony, and young men and women were everywhere arrested and imprisoned from one to six months for assisting the Boers, while the inhabitants of the Colony had to submit to having their horses forcibly taken from them, or to witness their being shot by the English troops. All their food stuffs, sheep, cattle, etc., were taken from them, and they were all left high and dry with seven days' food in the house. All their forage and grain was carried away or burnt, and had it been possible, their crops would have been destroyed, too.
Yes, that naval battle put things in an awful mess in Cape Colony, and had Generals Botha, De Wet and de la Rey been there with their forces, 75,000 rebels would have joined them and their two little Republics, and Cape Colony would to-day be free and independent. Generals Smuts and Kritsinger and all their commandants were daily fighting in some of the districts, and the very fact that martial law was now made to cover the entire Colony, showed conclusively that Lord Kitchener and the British Government were both much alarmed, and looked upon the situation as so critical as to demand every attention.
In the Western Transvaal, General de la Rey found Colonel Van Donlop and his column in his way, so he attacked them, put them to rout, took fifteen of their wagons heavily loaded, and went on his way to the Magielesberg, where several columns had lately tried to corner the cute General Kemp. This Colonel Van Donlop was not out to fight men, but to maltreat women and children. He was burning their homes, and all their possessions, and leaving them to starve to death on the veldt because they would not make their men come in and surrender.
GEN. BOTHA'S BRILLIANT CHARGE—OUR FRENCH GUN CAPTURED—MAJOR PRETORIUS CAPTURED—A CLOSE CALL BUT ALL ENDS WELL—GEN. DE WET'S DARING WORK.
In the month of November, although on the high veldt there was daily skirmishing with the English, there was but one really good fight, and that was one of the most brilliant and dashing of the war. In the eastern part of the high veldt, many of the English columns were at their same old game, trying to corner General Louis Botha. For the tenth time, he had outwitted them and escaped from their clutches. He at once left those parts, and came to our section in the west. At Brakenlaagte, not far from the little town of Bethel, he discovered an English column. He collected some of the small commandos near and found he had 470 men. This he considered sufficient for his work.