THE TRANSVAAL. 151 



to more than 50 per cent, of their scanty numbers, 

 compelled disaster. In the defence of the little 

 isolated camps occupied our tiny garrisons were 

 invincible, and it was in such places that they 

 managed, at the expense of an incredible amount 

 of ammunition, to inflict the greater part of the 

 loss sustained by the Boers during the war 

 which amounted in all to about fifty men. In the 

 battles fought in the open the Boers lost at 

 Bronker's Spruit one man killed (a German named 

 Keyser, whom I knew), and their losses at 

 Lang's Neck, Ingogo, and Majuba could easily 

 have been counted on the fingers of two hands 

 and leaving a digital balance to boot. Our losses 

 by shot amounted in killed and wounded to some- 

 thing like 1,200 men, if the statistics I have seen, 

 but have not now at hand, are correct The Boer 

 army consisted of perhaps 5,000 or 6,000 men 

 scattered over a vast extent of country, and every 

 man not disabled by age or sickness served in it 

 Of these numbers perhaps half were growing lads, 

 and the rest of all ages up to sixty or upwards. 

 Our troops were well armed with Martini rifles. 

 The arms of the elite of the Boer army consisted 

 chiefly of Westley Richards' breechloading car- 



