TRANSVAAL. 



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ernor informing them that they would have to 

 bear the military burden in future rather than 

 professional soldiers. The chief reason now for not 

 letting the refugees return to Johannesburg was 

 that the volunteers, who were the most useful 

 fighters, could not then be kept in the field. A 

 land settlement commission under the chairman- 

 ship of Arnold Forster studied the question of 

 establishing military settlers on confiscated farms 

 in the Transvaal and Orange River colonies. The 

 new constabulary and other forces kept in garrison 

 could have land after a given term of service on 

 condition that they hold themselves ready as re- 

 servists to return to the ranks. Sir Alfred Milner 

 was selected to be the Governor of both the new 

 British colonies and High Commissioner of British 

 South Africa still, but no longer Governor of Cape 

 Colony. Lord Kitchener was appointed command- 

 er in chief of the forces in the field, Lord Roberts 

 being summoned to England to succeed Lord 

 Wolseley as commander in chief of the British 

 army. On Nov. 24 Commandant de Wet, who 

 was accompanied in his wanderings by President 

 Steyn, compelled the surrender of 400 troops with 

 2 guns at Dewetsdorp. From this time strong 

 bodies of Boers gathered in the southern districts 

 of the Free State and began to invade Cape Colony. 

 Gen. Knox once more took up the pursuit of De 

 Wet. Gen. Paget engaged with the joint com- 

 mando of Viljoen and Erasmus north of Kroon- 

 stad at Bronkhorst Spruit, on Nov. 29, and sus- 

 tained severe losses a regimental commander 

 killed, 10 officers wounded, and 13 men killed and 

 59 wounded. Commandant Delarey advanced with 

 a strong commando from the western Transvaal 

 through the Magaliesberg, and on Dec. 13 sur- 

 prised the garrison at Nooitgedacht, 1,200 strong, 

 and captured 18 officers and 555 men of the Nor- 

 thumberland Fusileers at Commando Nek after 11 

 officers and 54 men had been killed and wounded 

 and the ammunition was exhausted. Gen. Clem- 

 ents was compelled to evacuate his camp and 

 retreat. 



On Dec. 1G the Boers began an incursion into 

 Cape Colony. When they entered the colony be- 

 fore 80 per cent, or more of the Afrikander popu- 

 lation, led by the chief local officials, joined the 

 commandos in the northern districts of Cape Col- 

 ony, as also in Bechuanaland and Griqualand. 

 Many of the younger men remained with the com- 

 mandos when they retreated into the Orange Free 

 State, and of those who returned to their farms 

 the most active and prominent were afterward 

 tried and many of them convicted under the new 

 law of treason enacted by the Cape Legislature or 

 were still in jail awaiting trial. There was no eag- 

 erness to join the Boer ranks when the burghers 

 again crossed the Orange river in December, 1900. 

 An Afrikander congress was being held at Worces- 

 ter, but under the eyes of the military authorities, 

 who sent a guard of 1,500 soldiers and trained 10 

 guns on the town. The resolutions recorded the 

 conviction of the delegates that, in view of the de- 

 plorable condition into which the people of South 

 Africa were plunged and the grave dangers threat- 

 ening its civilization, its highest interests demand- 

 ed, first, the termination of the war that was raging 

 with iintold misery and horror, such as the burning 

 of houses, the devastation of the country, the exter- 

 mination of the white nationality, and the treat- 

 ment to which women and children were subjected, 

 which will leave a lasting heritage of bitterness 

 and hatred, while seriously endangering further 

 relations between civilization and barbarism in 

 South Africa; second, the retention by the re- 

 publics of their independence, whereby alone the 

 peace of South Africa can be maintained. Camps 



were established at Krugersdorp and Heidelberg, 

 into which the people living on farms were col- 

 lected. The farms on the Rand were cleared, as 

 it was believed the people supplied food and in- 

 formation to the enemy, and 4,000 persona were 

 assembled in one laager under a military guard 

 close to Johannesburg. Lord Kitchener issued a 

 proclamation on Dec. 20, notifying burghers that 

 if they surrendered voluntarily they would be per- 

 mitted to live with their families in Government 

 laagers until the war was over. 



Gen. de Wet's intention of crossing into Cape 

 Colony in the beginning of December was frus- 

 trated by Gen. Knox, who had four columns to 

 head him off' and surround him, and his force 

 was hard pressed and abandoned carts and horses 

 at the Karreepoort drift of the Caledon. He broke 

 through the cordon by running the gantlet of two 

 fortified posts and Thorneycroft's artillery through 

 Springhahn Nek in the Thaba Nchu district, losing 

 1 of the guns he captured at Dewetsdorp and 25 

 prisoners. Hertzog's commando of 1,000 men 

 crossed into Cape Colony at Rhenoster Hoek and 

 marched on Venterstad. Another force, 2,000 

 strong, under Phil Botha and Haasbroek, crossed 

 at Sand drift. The general position in South 

 Africa caused Lord Kitchener to ask for re-enforce- 

 ments, although he had over 210,000 men, of whom 

 143,000 were regulars, not including Baden-Pow- 

 ell's colonial police and the new Rand Rifles. The 

 total number dispatched to the seat of war from 

 the beginning was 267,311, including about 7,500 

 drafted from India, 11,000 volunteers from Austra- 

 lia and Canada, 29,000 raised in South Africa, and 

 10,000 yeomanry, 21,500 militia, and 11,000 volun- 

 teers from the United Kingdom. Since Aug. 1 

 there had been 12,500 re-enforcements arrived. 

 The number killed in battle up to Nov. 30 had 

 been 3,018; wounded, 13,886; died from disease or 

 wounds, 7,786; in hospitals at the beginning of 

 October, 11,927; invalided home, 35,548. The Aus- 

 tralasian colonies were invited to send further 

 mounted contingents, and new pecuniary induce- 

 ments were offered to volunteers in South Africa 

 and the United Kingdom. The ordering of re- 

 enforcements from Great Britain deterred the 

 Cape Dutch from beginning another rebellion 

 when . the Republicans appeared among them. 

 The Boers vho entered Cape Colony, most of them 

 detached from De Wet's force and in need of the 

 clothing and other supplies that they comman- 

 deered in the towns they entered and of the stock 

 that they took from the farms, drove back the 

 bodies of Brabant's horse and Cape mounted rifles 

 that opposed them, but found Colesberg, Burghers- 

 dorp, Stormberg, and the other military positions 

 strongly occupied. Gen. Brabant hastened from 

 Cape Town to conduct operations against them, 

 summoning whatever armed force existed in the 

 colony. There was alarm in Cape Town. New 

 volunteer bodies were formed. Martial law was 

 proclaimed throughout all the farming districts, 

 and colonists were warned that if they assisted 

 the invaders they would meet the fate of traitors. 

 The pro-British colonists were armed and assisted 

 the Cape military, while a column was organized 

 by Lord Kitchener to co-operate in the expulsion 

 of the Boers. Hertzog's column occupied Britstown 

 and cut the railroad south of De Aar Junction. 

 The other column, re-enforced by Boers from Zout- 

 pan, seized Philipstown, but retired when Thorney- 

 croft's mounted infantry arrived. Gen. Settfe, 

 Gen. Inigo Jones, and Gen. MacDonald were or- 

 dered to co-operate against the Boers in Cape Col- 

 ony, who were finally headed and driven, some 

 northward and some westward, after having pene- 

 trated farther into the colony than the invaders 



