TRANSVAAL. 



675 



! 



turn gives the total number of persons employed 

 by 86 companies on Dec. 31, 1898, as 88,027. The 

 value of diamonds found in the Transvaal in 1898 

 was 43,730. The quantity of coal raised was 

 1,907,808 tons, valued at 668,346. 



The total value of imports in 1898 was 10,- 

 632,893, having declined from 13,563,827 in 1897 

 and 14,088,130 in 1896. Of the imports in 1898 

 the value of 6,332,174 came direct from Europe, 

 1,203,239 from Natal, 1,158,972 from Cape Col- 

 ony, 920,289 from the Orange Free State, 536,- 

 722 from Lourengo Marques, and 481,497 from 

 other countries. A large proportion of the mining 

 machinery, timber, foodstuffs, hardware, and 

 other articles were the produce or manufacture of 

 the United States. The chief imports were ma- 

 chinery, of the value of 1,462,323; live animals, 

 1,091,038; textile fabrics and clothing, 926,661 ; 

 haberdashery, 301,266; woolen goods, 165,876; 

 hardware, 577,049; railroad materials, 266,203; 

 vehicles, 181,238; leather goods, 346,008; flour 

 and grain, 356,507; maize, 200,694; spirits, 

 262,924; sugar, 198,449; timber, o47,460; 

 furniture, 179,512; Government stores, 129,646. 

 Railroads and Telegraphs. There were 774 

 miles of completed railroads in 1898, connecting 

 Pretoria and Johannesburg with railroads running 

 from Lourengo Marques, Durban, and Cape Town 

 and Port Elizabeth, and having an extension 

 northward from Pretoria as far as Pietersburg and 

 a westward branch to Klerksdorp. There were 

 270 miles more partly built and 250 miles author- 

 ized. The length of telegraph lines within the 

 borders of the Transvaal was 2,200 miles, with 

 5,650 miles of wire. The number of messages sent 

 in 1898 was 1,674,117. 



British Advance on Bloemfontein. When 

 Field-Marshal Lord Roberts arrived to take com- 

 mand in South Africa on Jan. 10, 1900, the gar- 

 risons in Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking 

 were closely invested by the Boers, w r ho not only 

 held the relieving forces in check, but successfully 

 invaded Cape Colony. Yet 6 divisions had been 

 sent from England. A seventh was on its way, 

 exhausting the reserves, and volunteer forces had 

 been sent from the colonies and raised in South 

 Africa, which were to be supplemented by yeo- 

 manry, militia, and volunteers raised in Great 

 Britain. Lord Roberts's plan was to raise the 

 siege of Kimberley by invading the Orange Free 

 State. It not only had that effect, but it raised 

 the siege of Ladysmith also, and compelled the 

 withdrawal of the invading commandos in the 

 northern parts of Cape Colony. When the col- 

 umns of Lord Roberts struck out into the sandy 

 region of the Orange Free State between Kimber- 

 ley and Bloemfontein Gen. Piet Cronje was taken 

 by surprise, because the British had not left the 

 railroads before this. He sent a part of his force 

 round by the north, out of the possible reach of 

 the British, and with the rest he endeavored to 

 itrike across in front of the British column so as 

 :o be able to contest its advance upon Pretoria. 

 Lord Kitchener, who directed the operations, 

 stopped the movement on Kimberley and ordered 

 his whole force to wheel to the right and overtake 

 Cronje. By posting his rear guards well the Boer 

 leader managed to repel the attacks of the mounted 

 infantry, but the cavalry by a forced march from 

 Kimberley succeeded in seizing the Koodoosrand 

 drift on Feb. 17, less than an hour before his 

 rrival, obliging him to go back three miles to 

 "olveskraal to cross the Mod'der. There the di- 

 isions of Gen. Kelly-Kenny and Gen. Colvile, 

 nder Lord Kitchener's orders, made a direct at- 

 ck on the following morning, and sustained a 

 of 1,100 men. The tactics employed, which 



were much criticised, had the effect of retarding 

 Gen. Cronje's retreat so as to enable Gen. French's 

 half-exhausted cavalry to pass round and inclose 

 him on the east. The position evacuated by 

 Cronje extended from Magersfontein nearly to the 

 Klip drift. That and the position on the Tugela, 

 bestriding another of the railroads by which the 

 British would have to bring their supplies, and 

 that at Stormberg, threatening the railroad that 

 runs from Cape Town to Bloemfontein and Pre- 

 toria, were the strongest positions that the Boers 

 could have chosen to defend their country against 

 invasion. All three had to be given up when Lord 

 Roberts decided to invade the Orange Free State 

 independently of the railroads, moving up forces 

 from Cape Colony to co-operate in establishing 

 railroad communication afterward. 



The invasion of the Orange Free State by 23,000 

 infantry and 11,000 mounted men, with 98 guns 

 and a transport of 700 wagons drawn by 9,000 

 mules and oxen, began on Feb 12, 1900. At 

 Paardeberg Cronje made a heroic stand when 

 headed off by the British cavalry, and on Feb. 27 

 surrendered with 4,080 men. A large part of his 

 force during the siege of ten days had escaped by 

 evading the investing line, taking some of the guns 

 and a good part of the stores. The invasion of the 

 Orange Free State by the British produced an im- 

 mediate and complete change in the military situ- 

 ation. 



The Boers after Paardeberg abandoned the of- 

 fensive and retreated from their positions at Storm- 

 berg and Colesberg in Cape Colony, and brought 

 away their- guns from their line investing Lady- 

 smith and the works on the Tugela, against which 

 Gen. Buller had repeatedly hurled his army with 

 disaster. The Free Staters could not be kept in 

 Natal and Cape Colony when their homesteads 

 were at the mercy of the invader. When Lord 

 Roberts set out from Jacobsdal, Gen. Buller 

 moved simultaneously round the Boers' left flank, 

 captured Monte Cristo hill on Feb. 18, on the fol- 

 lowing day occupied Hlangwane, brought his 

 troops across the Tugela, advanced on Grobler's 

 Kloof, made an unsuccessful attack on Railway 

 hiil on Feb. 23, and had to retreat over the Tugela. 

 but made a fresh passage on Feb. 26, took Pieter's 

 hill on Feb. 27, the day of Cronje's surrender, and 

 on the day following relieved Ladysmith. The 

 Boer forces, which were commanded by Gen. Louis 

 Botha, while they gave the British some of the 

 severest fighting they had yet gone through, were 

 all the time melting a\vay, and they made their 

 last gallant stand only for the purpose of covering 

 the removal to the railroad of their guns and 

 ammunition and the accumulated stores of all 

 kinds. Their evacuation of Hlangwane was with- 

 out orders, and was due to the feverish anxiety 

 of the Free State Boers to return to their homes. 

 When Gen. Buller had driven a wedge into their 

 position and the departure of Free State troops 

 had left their long line on the Tugela very thinly 

 manned, retreat became inevitable. With 20,000 

 men they had held 10,000 British troops in Lady- 

 smith, and at the same time resisted the advance 

 of 30,000 men from the south. 



Two of the Boer commandos in Cape Colony 

 hastened first to the relief of Gen. Cronje when he 

 was encircled by the British at Paardeberg, leaving 

 the western district that they held to be reoccu- 

 pied by the British. Gen. Brabant with his 

 colonial troopers entered Dordrecht on Feb. 18, and 

 on Feb. 25 occupied Jamestown. The Boers in 

 front of Arundel made an attack on Feb. 20, but 

 it was only preparatory to withdrawal. On Feb. 

 25 Col. Clements chased them back to Kuilfontein. 

 on Feb. 27 he reoccupied Rensberg, from which he 



