The report that most of the Boers had stolen away turned out to be correct, as after a few hours’ shelling to clear the way for our Infantry the latter advanced practically unopposed, the casualties on either side being very few, and we got through the Nek about 11 A.M. We saw some very pretty artillery practice, two 5-inch guns coming into action at a range of three or four miles quite close to where we stood.

As De Wet was said to have gone off in the direction of Rustenburg we pressed forward, got outside that town in the afternoon, and camped there for the night once more.

Evidently fresh news of the ‘wily’ one was received, as next day (August 18) we started back the way we had come and halted in the afternoon, as if for a long rest, at Sterkstroom, some miles west of Commando Nek. We had hardly been in camp an hour when the order came for Mahon’s brigade to saddle up and march at once, the object being to intercept De Wet, who was reported to have taken up a position near the Crocodile River. We did a long weary march, the weariness being accentuated by the fact that we were not allowed to smoke or speak above a whisper. We halted about 10.30 and camped at a place called Bokfontein, about five miles west of the Crocodile. I presume it was not thought advisable to advance any closer for fear of blundering into the enemy unawares, and thus giving them the chance of getting away under cover of darkness. With all these precautions and preparations we naturally thought we were really there or thereabouts this time. Once again, however, we were baffled of our prey, which we heard next evening had got away in a north-easterly direction.

We arrived at Commando Nek at 6 A.M. on the 19th, and it was then decided that Mahon’s brigade should reconnoitre the kopjes north of and directly opposite to the Nek, and this we proceeded to do. General Ian Hamilton had not come up then. On approaching the position we found that there were two ranges of kopjes lying east and west (each range being divided again into several little groups of hills), and through these there was a passage leading to the open country beyond.

A squadron of the Imperial Light Horse was sent out to scout, and they presently put up some Boers, but a few shells sent among these soon drove them back again. Lumsden’s Horse were then ordered to gallop forward and occupy the first group of kopjes on the western ranges. We had hardly got into position when we saw a large convoy of Boer waggons making its way, as fast as the oxen could be goaded to travel, from the kopje on the east to the plains beyond, and towards another range of kopjes further north. We immediately sent back word to General Mahon, and he at once ordered the guns to be brought up, and a few shells were sent after the convoy. Unfortunately, however, we only had a battery of 12-pounders with us, and by the time they got into position the convoy had a long start and our shells fell short. General Mahon reluctantly decided that it would be unsafe to follow the convoy with the small force at his disposal, as the Boers had no doubt left a sufficient number of men behind on the eastern and western ranges of kopjes to cover its retreat. These kopjes completely commanded the plains beyond, and had we gone on we should have been absolutely at their mercy and should have been very roughly handled indeed.

Besides which, I fancy General Mahon’s orders were merely to reconnoitre the position and not to run his neck into any kind of noose. Abandoning all idea of pursuit, therefore, General Mahon then proceeded to examine the eastern range of kopjes from which the convoy had started, and where he suspected there might be a Boer laager. To effect this purpose he sent out the New Zealanders as scouts. They were allowed to approach within fifty yards without molestation, when all of a sudden the klik-klok of Mausers was heard all along the ridge, and an officer and three men were seen to fall. The former died next day, poor fellow. After this the scouts returned. From our position on the kopjes on the left we saw the whole thing distinctly. A party of New Zealanders, before this happened, were examining a farmhouse, and while they were inside one of their horses got away. The farmhouse was quite close to the hill from which the Boers were firing, and when the retirement took place the unfortunate man who had lost his horse would have been left had not one of his comrades very pluckily ridden forward and caught the animal, which was grazing close by, and thus enabled its owner to get away. The plucky scout, however, stayed to take up, behind his saddle, another man, whose horse had been killed, and they also managed to get clear off, notwithstanding that they were being shot at all the while. Captain Taylor, our Adjutant, who was looking through his telescope at the time, said it was the neatest and coolest thing he had ever seen. It was now getting on in the afternoon, and, the purpose for which, as I presume, we were sent out being complete, the order to retire was given, Lumsden’s Horse being instructed to act as rearguard, and occupy the kopjes where they were posted, till the guns and the rest of the troops had got away. This we did, and we heard afterwards from the men in charge of the ambulance which was left behind to bring in the wounded that we had hardly left the kopjes we had been on all day when the Boers occupied them. We got back to our camp at Commando Nek late in the afternoon, and stayed there for the night. This was the most irritating action we have yet been in, for the Boer convoy was at our mercy, but we were not numerically strong enough to attack it. It thus slipped away under our very noses. Baden-Powell was at Commando Nek and Ian Hamilton a day’s march in rear.

It was arranged that next day General Mahon’s brigade should make an attack on the position reconnoitred that morning, supported by Ian Hamilton, who was to join us again with the rest of his division. Lumsden’s Horse were to take up the same position as they had done the day before. The brigade marched out at 6.30 A.M. and were soon on the scene of the previous action. As instructed, we posted ourselves on the kopjes occupied by us the day before, and in the meantime scouts were sent out to discover whether or not the Boers were still about. The crack of Mausers soon decided this question, and the kopjes in front and on both flanks were then shelled for several hours. We were then ordered to leave our rocky perches and advance in skirmishing order to the attack. We soon arrived on the kopjes previously held by the Boers, but found no trace of these gentry, who had evidently played their usual game of leaving a few snipers behind to hinder our advance while their main body got away in safety. This effected, the snipers themselves vanished into space. There were no casualties on our side that morning, and I do not fancy our shells did much damage, as I did not hear of any dead or wounded Boers being found. It was about here that De Wet was supposed to have broken up his commando, leaving some 1,500 dismounted men to take refuge in the bushveldt, while he went off south with only 200 men. Meantime General Ian Hamilton came up with his troops, and the whole of us then advanced north, the direction taken by the fleeing Boers into the bushveldt, expecting a fight at any time, which did not come off. The going was extremely difficult, the soil being impalpable sand with thorny bushes growing so close together that at twenty yards objects could not be discerned. Water was only encountered at one spot, a farm in a valley. The occupants of the farm were a Boer woman and two little children; she weepingly informed us that the Boers had commandeered her husband the day before, and, as he had objected, they had taken him away in handcuffs. We made Zoutpans by sundown, completely jaded and worn out. At Zoutpans are the salt-mines, now at a standstill, as the company owning them have gone into liquidation, and the only house is that in which the manager, an Englishman, lives. A pool highly impregnated with salt was the only water near at hand, and on this men and horses had to do. The salt itself from these mines is only fit for cattle, as soda predominates in it. We had marched more or less in a circle. Next day we heard that De Wet had doubled back with 200 picked men to the Free State, leaving the rest of his force to join Grobler, who was then operating north of Pretoria. We were told that General Paget was coming up with a small force along the line of rail, and Baden-Powell, who had left Commando Nek, would advance parallel with and ten miles west of Paget, and that Ian Hamilton’s Division, then about twelve miles further west, was to co-operate with these two columns and keep Grobler from breaking back if possible.

We were now in what is called the bushveldt—i.e., country covered with low scrubby bushes. These bushes form excellent screens for the enemy, and scouting, therefore, is ticklish work. ‘You dunno where you are,’ as they say. Water was a scarce article, too—in fact, it was about the driest country we had been in so far. Passing a place called Stinkwater, we reached Swartzkop late in the evening, and camped there for the night near a large settlement of the Barotse tribe. The Germans have a mission in these parts; their church is only a large mud hut, but the missionary in charge has a following of no fewer than 2,000. We were told that night that General Ian Hamilton was going with his Staff to Haaman’s Kraal, a railway station about fifteen miles east, coming back the same evening, and that Lumsden’s Horse were to act as his escort. This promised a nice break in the monotony of the everlasting march, march, march we had been having lately, so those of us who had fit horses were much elated, the unfortunate ones, who had not, being correspondingly downcast. As arranged, we started for Haaman’s Kraal at daybreak next day, and our advance scouts had got quite six miles out when we were ordered to turn back and return to camp. Trooper Philip Stanley writes of an incident that occurred at a farm near the German mission, and which may help to explain how some of the wonderful yarns we so often heard about De Wet’s capture commenced.

Photo: Bourne & Shepherd
PHILIP STANLEY