"I entirely concur with the above statement.
(Signed)
John Hays Hammond.
AFTER DOORNKOP
The account given by Sir John Willoughby serves to explain the doings of the Jameson troops. We all know how the raiders were surrounded by the Boers, who had ample time to lay an excellent trap for them, and how, after a plucky charge, they were forced to surrender. Before surrendering, however, Dr. Jameson obtained from Commandant Cronjé, of Potchefstroom notoriety, a guarantee that the lives of the force would be spared.
During this exciting period, when the failure of Jameson became known, the consternation that prevailed in Johannesburg was terrible. Panic-stricken women and children fled to the railway stations, and the Cornish miners scrambled with them for places in the departing trains. In the heat of January the poor refugees started off provisionless, leaving all their worldly goods behind them, their one care to be far away from the horrors that might take place in a besieged town. In the train they were packed like herrings in carriages or in cattle trucks, that would barely accommodate them.
In addition to these miseries an awful accident took place on the Natal line, when a train loaded with refugees ran off the rails. Thirty-eight women and children were killed.
In Johannesburg the Reformers had a harassing time. Their offices were besieged by people clamouring for arms. They had no rest night nor day, and their anxiety for the safety of Jameson and his party was intense. For themselves they were unconcerned, believing that their share in the matter was unknown, and that the Government was without a particle of evidence against them. And here we find that another blunder was made. Major Robert White, one of the raiders, had brought with him a despatch-box containing the key to a cypher, which had been used during the whole of the negotiations, and with it the names of the principal persons engaged in the conspiracy. Of course, this fell into the hands of the enemy, who were not slow to take advantage of their good luck.