This morning the Boers took up a position at Vlakfontein, eight miles on the Johannesburg side of Krugersdorp, on a circuitous road to the south by which Dr. Jameson was marching. The Boers in the night had been reinforced by men and with artillery and Maxims. Their position was an exceedingly strong one on an open slope, but along a ridge of rocks cropping out of it. It was a right-angled position and Dr. Jameson attacked them in the re-entering angle, thus having fire on his front and flank.
To attack this position his men had to advance over a perfectly open gently-sloping grassy down, while the Boers lay hid behind rocks and fired with rifles, Maxims, and artillery upon their assailants. The Boers numbered from 1,200 to 1,500, Dr. Jameson's force about 500, and the position was practically unassailable.
Dr. Jameson, after making a desperate effort to get through, surrendered, and as we stood we saw his brave little band riding dejectedly back again to Krugersdorp without their arms and surrounded by a Boer escort.
We were allowed to ride close up, but were refused permission to see Dr. Jameson. It is therefore impossible to state his full reasons, but it is known that he was made aware that it was impossible to send assistance from here, and this may have influenced him in giving up the contest when he found the enemy's position so strong that in any case it would have been no disgrace to have been beaten by superior numbers of such a brave foe as that Boer force which I saw in the very position they had fought in. It was evident that probably no one had ever started on a more desperate venture than had this daring little force, and they gained by their gallantry the adoration, not only of the Boer burghers who spoke to me, but of the whole town of Johannesburg.
These Boers—rough, simple men, dressed in ordinary civilian clothes, with merely a rifle slung over the shoulder to show they were soldiers—spoke in feeling terms of the splendid bravery shown by their assailants. They were perfectly calm and spoke without any boastfulness in a self-reliant way. They said, pointing to the ground, that the thing was impossible, and hence the present result.
The total loss of Dr. Jameson's force is about twenty. Major Grey was, they said, the principal military officer, and they thought that no officer was killed, and that the report that Sir John Willoughby had been killed was unfounded. He and Dr. Jameson have been taken to Pretoria.
At 9.15 o'clock the white flag was put up. Sir J. Willoughby, the officer in command of the force, then sent the following note addressed to the Commandant of the Transvaal Forces:
We surrender, provided that you guarantee us safe conduct out of the country for every member of the force.
JOHN C. WILLOUGHBY.
A reply was sent within fifteen minutes, of which the following is a literal translation: