Certain other complaints and statements were not attended to by the commissioners, who explained their silence as indicating that they regarded them as not well founded.
And now comes the most painful duty of the chronicler. In writing of the end of the war and the triumph of British arms in the cause of civilisation, it is a grievous necessity to speak of the close of a great and glorious life. Queen Victoria, to the inexpressible grief of her large family and her devoted subjects, passed away at 6.30 P.M. on the 22nd January. On Friday, the 18th, the British public was shocked to hear that their hitherto hale, though venerable, Sovereign was stricken in health. On the following day her condition was found to be grave. On Sunday the Empire lived in suspense. The members of the Royal Family were called together, the German Emperor—as the Queen’s grandson, not as a reigning monarch—hurried to these shores. Monday was a day of tribulation, for all knew there was no hope, and the world figurately watched with bated breath around that august bedside where the glorious Queen, a good and gracious lady, was slowly throwing aside the weight of years and sovereignty which she had so nobly borne. On Tuesday the end came, and the Empire was plunged in gloom. Victoria, the greatest queen the world has ever known, the purest ideal of womanhood, strong of brain and gentle of heart, had breathed her last. But she left behind her an undying fame, an influence which will be felt not for one but for many generations—a light to lighten the feet of men and women of the future whether in State or home.
To return to the Cape. About the middle of the month the situation stood thus. Colonel de Lisle’s column, consisting of the 6th Mounted Infantry, the New South Wales Mounted Infantry, the Irish Yeomanry, a section of R Battery Royal Horse Artillery, and a “pom-pom,” arrived at Piquetsberg, to assist in routing the guerillas, who, in clusters varying from 120 to 2000 strong, were reported to be marching towards Clanwilliam, Calvinia, Worcester, Piquetsberg, and the Beaufort West district.
A concerted movement against the invaders was being rapidly organised, and quantities of separate columns under General Settle, each in touch with the other and moving simultaneously, were to sweep clear the country and wipe off the Boers from the neighbourhood of Matjesfontein and Calvinia, whither Hertzog’s commando had penetrated. At Matjesfontein Colonel Henniker’s troops formed the centre of a semicircle, travelling left in the direction where Thorneycroft’s and Bethune’s forces operated, and bending coastwards were De Lisle and his nimble men who kept guard over the loopholes to the sea whence supplies might be drawn. The passes in the hills, of this the most difficult and mountainous country, were held by the Cape Town Cyclist Corps, together with the Western Province, Scottish and Welsh Horse, while the Australians patrolled around Lamberts and Bast, Clanwilliam and the coast, and took care the enemy found no means of squeezing to the left. There was little chance of a complete cessation of hostilities for a good time to come, for the Dutchmen were cunning, and having discovered that their wives and children were so humanely provided for, considered themselves free to keep the field with increased persistence. That they were not unsuccessful in their machinations was due to the fact that they carefully eluded the British troops, and were fed and cared for at the expense of the country people who kept them well informed as to the manœuvres of their pursuers. Meanwhile Hertzog was beating up recruits and scouring districts known to be disaffected for hale and hearty bachelors who would share the life of the marauders. But martial law having been proclaimed there was no great rush to his banner, though from the attitude, laudatory and almost reverential, of the farmers towards De Wet and his exploits, it was plain that, should he succeed in eluding Knox and breaking south, he might end by fizzing comet-wise through the Colony with a trail of rebels at his heels.
In the Transvaal Botha’s followers, to the strength of 3000, were concentrated near Carolina, while others of the gang hovered round Johannesburg and Standerton. On the 17th, from this latter place, they were driven off with loss by Colonel Colville’s mobile column, and their discomfiture was completed by the seizure by the Johannesburg Mounted Rifles of a Boer outpost near Springs. They scored, however, by capturing a train with mine materials near Balmoral, and also by damaging, on the 22nd, the electric light work near Johannesburg. Lord Methuen, meanwhile, was clearing the Boers out of Kuruman and Griqualand.
On the 25th a goods train, with cattle and provisions for the far north of Kimberley, was captured at Slipklip by the marauders, who had previously captured an outpost of twenty Dublin Fusiliers. The Dutchman would have succeeded in seizing a second train which was following, but for the presence of mind of the driver of the first train, who directly he found himself pelted by bullets rolled off the engine, made a detour of several miles, and reached the line near Kimberley in time to arrest the progress of the second train.
General Smith-Dorrien, marching from Wonderfontein to Carolina, came on a mass of the enemy who had been tampering with the line, and were now strongly ensconced round the river. He gave battle to them—five hours the engagement lasted—and eventually succeeded in dispersing them, but with the loss of one officer and four men killed and three officers and thirteen men wounded. He afterwards returned to Pretoria. The scattered horde, after sniping at him to the best of their ability, gathered round a train with a view to creating damage, but the driver, a smart fellow, shot down the ringleader, one Commandant Liebrant (who was tampering with the vacuum brake), with the result that his comrades fled, leaving his body behind.
On the 29th the ubiquitous Knox engaged De Wet’s force about forty miles north of Thabanchu. De Wet had been “loafing about” in the region between Ladybrand and Winburg, waiting, it was believed, for more of his followers (who were enjoying furlough), prior to making the grand invasion of Cape Colony. Fighting was fierce and sustained, but at last the Dutchmen made off, leaving behind them five dead Boers and three others who were taken prisoners. Our losses included Lieutenant Way, Durham Light Infantry, and one man, while among the wounded was Major Copeman, Essex Regiment.
De Wet himself, with a gang of some 2500 guerillas, came into contact with Major Crewe’s composite column on the 31st of January near Tabaksberg, a rectangular slab of mountain, which was held by a force five times superior to the British in number, who poured a terribly severe rifle fire on the British party. A brilliant retirement was effected in the dusk and the convoy saved, though a pom-pom, after desperate efforts to remove it, had to be abandoned. Meanwhile, disaster had overtaken us in the eastern Transvaal.
On the 30th, during a storm of rain, a post at Moddersfontein was “rushed” by night by some 1400 Dutchmen with a gun and a pom-pom. A relief column sent out from Krugersdorp failed to avert the fall of the post, who had had their water supply cut off, and had no resource but to surrender. They however disabled their Maxim before so doing.