158 SOUTH AFRICA. 



I suffered very little annoyance from the Boer 

 authorities, and as it was conceded that I had done 

 the country some service in former days, Vilgours, 

 the Commandant of the Lechtenberg district, an 

 old friend, allowed me to retain my battery of 

 sporting weapons, besides giving me a protection 

 from all requisitions of war. As a recipient of such 

 favours I was then the only Englishman in the 

 country. As a prisoner on parole I therefore 

 quietly encamped on a vacated farm near 

 Lechtenberg, where blesbuck and other game was 

 plentiful, and passed a pleasant time awaiting the 

 effects of the British triumph which I could not 

 doubt as an approximate event 



However, a few weeks of this pleasant life 

 having passed, Jan Vilgours was ordered to the 

 front, and left this district. A rich, notorious 

 miscreant named Greiffe being appointed in his 

 stead, things got speedily unpleasant. Greiffe 

 stole my horses, and threatened ominously when 

 I complained, so I determined to break through the 

 Boer outposts at any risk, and if possible reach 

 the Kaffir territory of the Chief Monsioua. Of 

 course I knew that if taken in the attempt I should 

 be shot on the spot, but after consultation with 



