102 



CAPE COLONY AND SOUTH AFRICA. 



of President Kriiger. encountered the invading 

 force, having left Krugersdorp on hearing of 

 its approach. IK' was placed under arrest, and 

 then allowed to go without receiving the demanded 

 explanation of the hostile movement when no war 

 was declared. Sir Jacobus de Wet, diplomatic 

 agent oMin'at Britain, sent a communication from 

 Pretoria, delivered to Dr. Jameson on the morning 

 of ,lan. 1, containing a second message from Sir 

 Hercules Robinson ordering him to return. 



Dr. Jameson sent back by Daniel Bouwer, the 

 messenger, this answer: "I am in receipt of the 

 message you send from his Excellency the High 

 Commissioner, and beg to reply for his Excellency's 

 information, that I should, of course, desire to obey 

 his instructions, but as I have a very large force of 

 both men and horses to feed, and, having finished 

 all my supplies in the rear, must perforce proceed 

 to Krugersdorp or Johannesburg this morning for 

 this purpose. At the same time I must acknowl- 

 edge I am anxious to fulfill my promise, on the peti- 

 tion of the principal residents of the Rand, to come 

 to the aid of my fellow-men in their extremity. I 

 have molested no one, and have explained to all 

 Dutchmen and others whom I have met that the 

 above is my sole object, and that then I shall desire 

 to at once return to the protectorate." 



On the same day Arthur Maynard Rowland 

 brought dispatches from Johannesburg to Dr. 

 Jameson from Col. Rhodes and George Farrar, say- 

 ing that there had been no fighting there, and 

 warning him of a probable ambuscade at Queen 

 Kopje. These dispatches told Dr. Jameson that 

 the rumor of a massacre at Johannesburg that was 

 assumed to have been the cause of the expedition 

 was not true, and that all was quiet in the city, but 

 men were being armed by the Reform Committee. 

 This messenger also told Jameson that the Boers 

 were massing at the Queen mine, near Krugersdorp, 

 and that all was quiet at Johannesburg, but that 

 arms were given out. He brought a dispatch and 

 a verbal message that 2,000 men could come out 

 from Johannesburg, and Dr. Jameson said that it 

 would be well more for the show of the thing 

 than for the likelihood of their being needed. The 

 message that he sent to the Reform Committee was 

 not delivered, because Rowland was made a pris- 

 oner by the Boers. 



Jameson's Surrender. As soon as Dr. Jame- 

 son's party crossed the border the Boer Govern- 

 ment posted notices in all the towns, ordering the 

 burghers to assemble at their respective centers on 

 Jan. 1, each with his horse and rifle, to defend his 

 country. Lieut. Eloff, after being released by the 

 English, fell in with Commandant Malan, who had 

 300 men. They fell back on Krugersdorp and took 

 up a position in the deserted mine called the Queen's 

 I'.at tery. The Boer forces had thus far retreated be- 

 fore the English, and there had been no fighting, ex- 

 cept an interchange of shots in the night of Dec. 31. 

 \Vhen Jameson's column came up to the Queen's 

 Battery in the afternoon of Jan 1, a message was 

 sent to the Boer commandant, saying that Dr. 

 Jameson wanted to pass Krugersdorp', and that if he 

 met with resistance he would shell the town; there- 

 fore he requested that all the women and children 

 !>< -ent away. The British opened fire and contin- 

 ued to shell the Queen's Battery an hour and a half, 

 until dark. The Boers had n'o guns. They num- 

 bered :!00 men with rifles, who did not fire at the. 

 Englishmen, because they were too far off. But 

 when the column charged one <if the outposts they 

 fired with telling effect Each Boer rifleman took 

 deliberate aim. and everal Englishmen were killed 

 or wounded, and the charge was quickly repelled. 

 The English, despairing of carrying the position, 

 decided to make a dffour. A part of the column 



moved toward Bloemfontein that night. On Jan. 

 2 the whole column marched on toward Doornkop 

 after making another ineffectual attempt to carry the 

 Boer position. When the English drew off the Boers 

 followed them, firing upon them from the rear. 

 The English intended to make a dash for Johan- 

 nesburg by the road that passes Vlakfontein. After 

 keeping up a running fight from Krugersdorp, they 

 dislodged the Boers from one kopje, and then the 

 column was brought to a stop by another well- 

 posted body of Boers, who picked off the tired troop- 

 ers unerringly at a thousand yards. They could 

 not get round to the right, but were forced into a 

 hollow in front of a narrow ford. The guns be- 

 came so hot that they could not be worked. The 

 Boers in front were behind ridges of rock, with 

 long, open slopes in front of them. Jameson's men 

 fired briskly but ineffectually, but soon gave up the 

 fight, retiring to Dornkoop farm, where they raised 

 a white flag. They had expended in thirty-six 

 hours of almost constant fighting three quarters of 

 the ammunition that they had brought with them. 

 The British losses were 17 killed and 49 wounded. 

 Of the Boers, only 3 were killed by the English ; 2 

 others were shot accidentally. At the beginning of 

 the fight there were fewer than 400 burghers as- 

 sembled. Gradually these were joined by detach- 

 ments of 10 to 20. Jameson's movements compelled 

 the burghers to take up positions in every direc- 

 tion ; many of them could therefore take no part in 

 the actual fighting, so that fewer than 400 forced 

 Jameson to surrender, though at the conclusion of 

 the fight there were 800 in the neighborhood, and 

 others were constantly hurrying up. The state ar- 

 tillery arrived when the fighting was over. The 

 President had given strict orders to insist on un- 

 conditional surrender. Commandant Kronje, how- 

 ever, whose force had compelled the English to sur- 

 render, promised Willoughby that if the latter 

 would pay damages done to the Republic and give 

 up his flag and arms he would spare the lives of 

 the British commander and his people. Comman- 

 dant Potgieter, to whom Sir John Willoughby's offer 

 to surrender had been forwarded, replied that he 

 would call his officers together to decide ; but Wil- 

 loughby meanwhile grasped at Kronje's offer, and 

 wrote at once that he accepted those terms. The 

 Boer commandants, after consultation, rode to- 

 gether to the place where the British officers were 

 assembled, and after Kronje explained that he had 

 not proposed terms of capitulation, Commandant 

 Malan said to Jameson : " I wish you to understand 

 distinctly that no terms can be made here ; I have 

 no right to make terms here ; terms will be made 

 by the Government; 1 can only secure your lives 

 to Pretoria, until you are handed to the Comman- 

 dant General." Jameson accepted these terms, and 

 then the English surrendered their arms. 



The whole British force and the commanders 

 were marched as prisoners to Pretoria. President 

 Kriiger communicated to the British Government 

 his intention of handing over the raiders to be dealt 

 with by British justice. They were detained until 

 terms were arranged for the surrender of the Jo- 

 hannesburg insurgents and the conditions executed. 

 Then Dr. Jameson and all the members of his band 

 were delivered into the custody of the Natal author- 

 ities, and were placed on a British steamer and 

 taken under arrest to England. 



The Johannesburg Rising 1 . The National 

 Union was founded in 1894 for the purpose of se- 

 curing by peaceful and constitutional means reforms 

 in the administration for the protection and benefit 

 of the Uitlanders. Foremost among the demands 

 was the franchise, though this was put forward 

 more for political effect than because any consider- 

 able proportion of the British Uitlanders, who were 



