678 



TRANSVAAL. 



Boers, was surrounded with 68 foreign volunteers 

 at Boshof by a force of British yeomanry, and was 

 killed in the action. Lord Methuen's northern 

 advance from the vicinity of Hoopstad was brought 

 to a stop with daily losses. 



The Boers had, while Lord Roberts remained 

 inactive at Bloemfontein, about 34,000 men in the 

 field, of whom 12,000 held the Biggarsberg line of 

 defense in Natal, 12,000 were in the Free State 

 north, east, and south of Pretoria, 5,000 were at 

 Fourteen Streams, 5,000 were scattered along the 

 northern and northwestern border, and 2,000 be- 

 leaguered Mafeking. There was a reserve of about 

 0,000 more, who were employed as frontier guards, 

 on commissariat service, in the Rand police, and 

 in permanent garrisons at various points. The 

 losses had been 5,000 captured at Paardeberg and 

 before, 1,000 killed, 3,000 wounded, of whom half 

 were again in active service, and 1,000 disabled 

 by illness. The English captives at Pretoria num- 

 bered 6,000. Gen. Louis Botha was on April 19 

 appointed commandant general of the Transvaal 

 army, and Schalk Burger became Vice-President 

 of the Republic. President Steyn and the other 

 Free State officials established the capital of their 

 republic at Kroonstad after they fled from Bloem- 

 fontein. 



An advance of the British from the south, joined 

 by cavalry and light artillery from Bloemfontein, 

 drew off the Boer commandos that were roaming 

 south and southeast of Bloemfontein, harassing the 

 line of railroad communications, which up to this 

 time could not be fully restored, and keeping alive 

 the spirit of resistance in the Free State and the 

 active sympathy of the Cape Dutch. The re-en- 

 forcements of yeomanry and other troops from 

 England and fresh horses and transport animals 

 reached Bloemfontein before the movement was 

 undertaken. Till then Lord Roberts was ham- 

 pered by illness among his men and his beasts and 

 by the transport difficulties for the immense food 

 supplies over the railroad to Kimberley, and from 

 there by a desert road. The Boers had a strong 

 position near Dewetsdorp, which was occupied 

 after some fighting by Gen. Chermside's division 

 from the south on April 25. The waterworks v/ere 

 retaken by Gen. Ian Hamilton. Gen. French en- 

 deavored to place himself across the line of retreat 

 crossing the Modder at Valsbank, and this com- 

 pelled the Boers to save themselves by abandoning 

 the siege of Col. Dalgety's colonials at Wepener 

 and to fall back from Dewetsdorp toward Lady- 

 brand. Gen. Brabant, who was expected to relieve 

 Wepener from the south, arrived after the Boers 

 had disappeared. Gen. French caught up with the 

 Boers' rear guard at Thaba Nchu on April 27. The 

 retreat was conducted by Gen. Louis Botha. Gen. 

 Grobelaar's commando and various scattered par- 

 ties, including 2,000 special service volunteers on 

 parade commando, well-mounted troops impeded 

 by no transport, each man carrying provisions for 

 eight days in his saddlebags, were still operating 

 southeast of Bloemfontein. The column that 

 cleared the south of the Free State from Boers 

 ci insisted of the divisions of Gen. Chermside and 

 Gen. Pole-Carew, with mounted yeomanry, colo- 

 nials, etc., the whole force numbering about 12,000 

 men under the command of Gen. Rundle. 



Boer Appeal for Intervention. On March 5 

 the presidents of the Orange Free State and of the 

 South African Republic addressed overtures of 

 peace to the Marquis of Salisbury on the condition 

 that the independence of both republics as sov- 

 ereign international states should be assured, and 

 that. British subjects who had taken part in the 

 Mar with the republicans should suffer no harm 

 in person or property. Lord Salisbury replied on 



March 11 that for having in recent years acqui- 

 esced in the existence of the two republics Great 

 Britain had paid the penalty of having the two 

 colonies in South Africa invaded and overrun, with 

 great destruction to property and life, and large 

 portions of the British dominions claimed as hav- 

 ing been annexed to one or the other of the re- 

 publics, entailing a costly war and the loss of 

 thousands of lives; and in view of the use to 

 which the two republics had put the position 

 which was given them, and the calamities which 

 their unprovoked attack had inflicted upon the 

 British dominions, the British Government was not 

 prepared to assent to the independence either of 

 the South African Republic or of the Orange Free 

 State. The two presidents at the same time ad- 

 dressed an appeal to each of the European cabinets 

 and to the Cabinet at Washington, asking for the 

 intervention of the powers to bring about a peace 

 based on the independence of the republics. Be- 

 cause the British Prime Minister had declared un- 

 officially at the beginning of the war that no pro- 

 posals for arbitration or conciliation would be con- 

 sidered and because the British Government had 

 already declined to accede to the independence of 

 the republics, none of the Continental powers were 

 willing to undertake mediation, nor were they 

 moved by the pleadings of Boer envoys or of Pres- 

 ident Kruger, who was received with honor in 

 France, but was deterred from going to Germany 

 by the refusal of the Emperor Wilhelm to receive 

 him, and went to Holland, where he had the sym- 

 pathy of both the people and the Government. 

 The American Government, receiving the appeal 

 for intervention on the day preceding Lord Salis- 

 bury's rejection of the Boer proposal, communi- 

 cated the request to the British Government, ex- 

 pressing the hope that a way to bring about peace 

 would be found, and offering the good offices cf 

 the United States to that end. The British Gov- 

 ernment replied that no intervention of a foreign 

 power would be acceptable. When the Boer dele- 

 gates who came to the United States later en- 

 deavored to move the administration to take fur- 

 ther steps to apply the principles of The Hague 

 peace convention, they were reminded that the very 

 terms of the convention indicated the inadvisabil- 

 ity of further action after conciliation had been 

 refused. 



Occupation of Pretoria. At the beginning of 

 May Lord Roberts was ready to advance north- 

 ward with an army of over 60,000 men, enough 

 to occupy a broad front extending beyond the 

 Boer line of defense. He planned to turn the 

 position on the Modder by an advance from Thaba 

 Nchu, the columns wheeling with Karee on i la- 

 railroad for their pivot. Gen. Botha, who had 

 brought away the Dutch raiding columns from the 

 south without losses, and held together the force-; 

 of the two republics, anticipated the turning move- 

 ment, and had a strong force to oppose Gen. 

 French's progress on the British right Hank from 

 Thaba Nchu to Brandfort, which was undertaken 

 on May 1, after the road bridge over the Modder 

 at Klipdrift and the hills near Karee had been 

 occupied by mounted infantry. The front there- 

 fore extended over 40 miles. The Boers adapted 

 their tactics to the open ground on which they 

 had now to fight for the first time. They had 

 strong reserves in close columns, and met the 

 liritish advance by a heavy shell fire, followed by 

 the direct onset of swarms of riflemen, which \vere 

 re-enforced when driven away, enabling them to 

 hold their ground until the weight of the l.ritish 

 infantry pressed them back. Gen. Ian Hamilton's 

 column forced a passage northward from Thalia 

 Nchu, and after several lines of kopjes were taken 



