THE TRANSVAAL. 155 



ground was favourable to a safe advance, and as 

 none of the English bullets hit anybody, the 

 assailants crept on till within easy shooting 

 distance, and then, being undismayed by the 

 harmless showers of shot which passed yards over 

 everybody's head, a rush for the top was made, 

 and here at last one Boer fell. Then the English 

 position was discovered to be mainly occupied 

 by the dead and wounded who had succumbed 

 to the accurate rifle fire of the Boers and a small 

 disordered mass of men still on their legs, which 

 soon dissolved under a deadly fire, took to pre- 

 cipitate flight, or surrendered as prisoners. 



Such is a summary of a Boer account I heard of 

 this miserable action ; having conversed with many 

 of those who participated in the victory, I come 

 to the conclusion that the consensus of Boer 

 opinion is that if our troops could only have used 

 their rifles with moderate skill, the Majuba Hill 

 could not have been stormed with success. The 

 Boers, although individually brave, are traditionally 

 averse seriously to contest a battle in which a heavy 

 loss of life must be expended, and on occasions 

 when such a result seems probable they, as a rule, 

 very wisely retire and husband their scanty 



