To pit against the Boer score came a signal success on the part of Captain Lukin, who, with the brilliant Cape Mounted Rifles, had been indefatigable in the work of pursuit, surprise, and skirmish, that filled day and night during Colonel Scobell’s operations.
On the evening of the 5th, Colonel Scobell’s force (9th Lancers and C.M.R. with three guns) moved out from Roodenek for the purpose of hunting out a laager which was known to be somewhere in the vicinity. With numbed fingers and quaking frames—the thermometer stood below freezing-point—these gallant troopers marched and clambered. Over rugged roads and precipitous paths they went for miles and miles—on foot mainly, in order to keep themselves warm—hunting and exploring around the north-west of Barkly East, and ascending at last a mountain so high that it seemed impossible to get the guns up. Then, near the summit came the split and spurt of rifles, and the advance party knew that the object was attained, the lair of the marauders was discovered. The shots came from the picket, who, having made their protest, fled. Now came the search for the laager itself, but whether it was in the valley some 400 feet below, or whether close at hand, it was impossible to say. A squadron of Cape Mounted Rifles, under Captain Lukin, wheeled to the right, one under Captain Purcell moved to the left. In the light of the moon, brilliant, but casting deep shadows, it was impossible to detect any movement. But the shuffle of hoofs could be heard in the valley. On went the C.M.R., Captain Lukin ahead of them, when suddenly this officer found himself in the thick of a volley. The enemy, alarmed by the picket, had upsaddled and were alert. But the heroes of Wepener were “all there,” as the saying is. A shout from their commanding officer was enough, and with a rush as of the wind, the C.M.R. (Captain Goldsworthy’s squadron) had galloped on the foe. The Boers were off. Blankets, baggage, rifles, clothing (much of the spoil captured from Jamestown), horses, ammunition, all were left. Three wounded rebels fell into our hands, and fourteen other Dutchmen. The enemy, from a distant hill, again endeavoured to show fight, but their fire was eventually silenced by a few shells, and the Boers in full retreat were pursued as far as was feasible by the Lancers.
A few days later, in the neighbourhood of Ladygrey, this smart column came in for further triumphs. A detachment of the C.M.R., which had been persistently sniped at by the enemy during their moonlight march, showed that two could play at the game of annoyance. They charged the hiding-place of the miscreants, and surprised them by the shouts of “Hands up!” before they were aware of their proximity. The result was that the dashing Colonials returned to camp, after a quarter of an hour’s gallop, plus twenty prisoners and 13,000 rounds of ammunition.
On the 9th of June, French, the magnificent, the indefatigable, came once more to the scene of his first triumphs in the days before the great coup made by the relief of Kimberley. He took but a few weeks’ holiday after his wholesale dispersal of Botha’s hordes on the Swaziland border, and was again to the fore. Now, as Lieutenant-General Sir John French, K.C.B., he directed the operations of all the mobile columns extended over the face of Cape Colony. Widened movements were necessitated owing to the scattered state of the commandos which were now here, there, and everywhere picking up rebels, and needing each to be separately hunted by a detached column.
On the 17th, Kruitzinger and Lotter were caught in the first instance by Colonel Munro, with Lovat’s Scouts and Bethune’s Mounted Infantry, and later by Crabbe, some twenty-five miles south-east of Maraisburg. Four Boers fell, twelve were wounded, twenty-five horses were left on the field, and fifty captured alive. Other captures included eight prisoners and a quantity of ammunition and saddles. It was reported that Kruitzinger’s mongrel force at the time consisted of 276 whites, 10 armed natives, and 18 armed Hottentots, many of whom rode barebacked colts in the last stage of emaciation. Four days later sixty of the Midland Mounted Rifles, a Colonial corps which had done good work in the district, were surrounded by Kruitzinger’s band and captured, after the loss of two officers and nine men killed, and ten men wounded.
GENERAL BRUCE HAMILTON.
Photo Russell & Sons, London.
Colonel Munro spent the remainder of June harassing raiders under Myburg, north of Jamestown, and others under Erasmus, east of Rayner Station. Colonel Scobell still chased Kruitzinger, and strove to drive him into the arms of Colonel Crabbe, who was engaged in hunting Van Reenan among the Bamboes Mountains. Colonels Crewe, Doran, and Wyndham combined in operations against Scheepers and Hugo, who were still dodging among the Camdeboo Mountains, while Captain Lund flew after errant gangs which had endeavoured to take Richmond and been repulsed by the gallantry of the North Stafford Militia, under Captain Hawkshaw, and by the Town Guard. More troops were also engaged in blocking the passes of the Drakensberg, through which Fouché had gone east towards Maclear in the fond hope of gathering recruits and fresh horses, and returning reinforced; but Colonel Dalgety, with Cape Mounted Rifles and East Griqualand Rifles, frustrated him. In the Calvinia district two gangs under Maritz and Conroy had made themselves troublesome for some weeks, but eventually Conroy, after being too warmly handled, particularly in an engagement which lasted five hours, when Captain Ramsbotham and Lieutenant Beresford of the Border Scouts tackled him near Kenhardt, fled north across the Orange.