It may here be mentioned that Messrs. Fischer, Wessels, and Wolmarans had been sent in May as delegates to Holland and to America in the effort to enlist the sympathy of outsiders in the great quarrel. They went first to The Hague, where they hoped to secure the application of the resolution adopted by the Acts of the Peace Conference to the Transvaal question. Messrs. Fischer, Wessels, and Wolmarans were cordially welcomed, and expressed their satisfaction with the kindly reception accorded them by a people united to them by bonds of race and religion. (As an aside, it may be stated that not very long since, the Hollanders were wont to dub the Boers “White Hottentots,” and disdain any connection with them. This on the word of a Dutchman.) The delegates then proceeded to America with the avowed object of securing the aid of the Americans. “We are going,” said Mr. Fischer, “to a sister Republic, the people of which a century ago fought the same fight as our people are now fighting. We are going to a great free people, pre-eminent for their sentiments of liberty and justice. We go to rectify erroneous opinions and to make known the truth. Our enemies have said much that they cannot prove, and have thus misled many. We are certain that, once the truth is known, no civilised nation will refuse us support. The chief charge against us is that we desired or sought war. We shall try to dispel this error. We only desire peace and tranquil possession of what is as dear to us as it is to the American people—namely, our independence, without impairing the rights of other peoples. We do not appeal to one or the other political party, but to the American people, hoping that all parties will unite on a common platform, since the greatness of a great nation like the United States will be still more enhanced if it aid a small nation in a struggle for its rights and freedom. Our aim is to put an end to this cruel bloodshed on both sides, but especially the destruction of our own fellow-citizens, who are indispensable to our continued existence as a people. We hope this appeal to the Government and people of America will not be in vain, and that our manner of conducting the war will have shown that we have the right to demand the independent existence of our people as an independent State in South Africa.” Their errand was fruitless, as the conclusion of the Secretary of State’s reply serves to show.
“The President sympathises heartily with the sincere desire of all the people of the United States that the war which is now afflicting South Africa may, for the sake of both parties engaged, come to a speedy close, but having done his full duty in preserving a strictly neutral position between them, and in seizing the first opportunity that presented itself for tendering his good offices in the interest of peace, he feels that in the present circumstances no course is open to him except to persist in his policy of impartial neutrality. To deviate from this would be contrary to all our traditions, and all our national interests, and would lead to consequences which neither the people nor the President of the United States could regard with favour.” The same attitude was taken up by other Powers who were appealed to by the still optimistic Dutchmen.
General Buller by this time had located himself on Spitz Kop, which stands some 7100 feet high and commands an enormous expanse of country. Here fifty-eight burghers surrendered, and he captured trophies—300,000 bales of supplies, and 300 boxes of ammunition. But the Boers were luckier elsewhere. An engineer convoy under Lieutenant Meyrick, Royal Engineers, with an escort of nineteen Hussars, in act of repairing telegraph line, was attacked near where the road crosses the Crocodile River. The young officer was wounded and the escort was missing.
Generals Pole-Carew and Hamilton meanwhile pushed on, the Boers retreating as they saw themselves in danger. General French surprised the enemy and occupied Barberton on the 13th. He came on sufficient supplies to last three weeks, and made a splendid haul of prisoners, ammunition, and waggons, together with forty-five locomotives, which latter came in handy at a moment when engines were much needed. On the 17th fifty more locomotives were captured by French’s Cavalry at Avoca Station, while six more on the arrival of the 18th Brigade (Stephenson’s) were found at Nel Spruit. At the same time Generals Pole-Carew and Hamilton were moving towards Kaap Muiden Station.
A word about General Hildyard. While the fighting had been going on round Lydenburg the General had been keeping his eye on Natal, chasing bands of Boers, fighting, dispersing them, and establishing fortified posts and restoring telegraphic communication at different points. On the 9th at Groen Vlei Lieutenant Watson, 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers, and Captain Cracroft, 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers, were wounded. On the 10th the Boers were driven from Langwacht Pass, and the hills scoured in the direction of Utrecht. This quaint little Dutch town, containing a very big church, and some very small houses rendered picturesque by gardens full of blossoming fruit-trees, was soon reoccupied. The Royal Dragoons and 13th Hussars arrived there in advance of General Hildyard, and spread consternation among the Boers. Colonel Blagrove deposed the Llandrost, seized his effects, and let loose some British prisoners who had been in Boer clutches.
The Dutchmen a few days later revenged themselves by committing an act of treachery. Some women in a farm floating a white flag invited a party of the 13th Hussars, who were patrolling some ten miles to the west, to enter and partake of refreshment. This they did. As they were riding from the house, they were fired on from within. These barbarities were far from infrequent, and the only method of dealing with the assassins was to destroy the homesteads which had harboured them. Vryheid was occupied on the 19th, the Boer position being turned by the Mounted Infantry, the Dutchmen in the neighbourhood causing a comparatively small amount of trouble. Most of the Boers had foreseen the trend of the British operations, and commenced to trek on the taking of Utrecht. Here we must leave the Natal defence force and return to the Chief.
The 19th found Lord Roberts at Nel Spruit, all events having progressed, notwithstanding the mountainous nature of the country, with the rapidity and success which usually characterised the Field-Marshal’s movements. Upwards of 3000 Boers had retreated towards Komati Poort, and of these many had dispersed into broken gangs, while more than 700 had crossed the Portuguese border. Thus the field operations were coming to an end, for, as the Commander-in-Chief put it, there were now left of the Boer army “only marauding bands.”
General Pole-Carew, with Henry’s Mounted Infantry and the Guards Brigade, hewing the roads as they went through a jungle forked with ravines, arrived dust-choked at Kaap Muiden, capturing at the station 114 truck-loads of goods more or less valuable. One march behind the Guards, came General Ian Hamilton’s column.
On the 22nd the “marauding bands” made themselves obnoxious in three places on the line. At dawn, a commando under Erasmus, with a 15-pounder and two pom-poms, attacked Elands River Station. (It must be noted that Elands River runs both east and west of Pretoria.) B Company, under Captain Cass, with about 120 Infantry and Cavalry details, succeeded admirably in defending their position, and after three hours’ smart fighting drove off the enemy with eleven men disabled. The British party had only one casualty.
This was a curious military rendering of the popular rhyme, “Taffy was a Welshman,” which runs:—