SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 



787 



it speedily and go back to their farms to harvest 

 their crops. They found the place so strongly 

 intrenched that they could only approach it by 

 siege works. Some vigorous sallies of the garri- 

 son, supported by an armored train, made them 

 the more cautious, though the losses of the British 

 were severe, amounting to 18 in the first action 

 fought on Oct. 14 by the mounted troops under 

 Lieut. Fitz Clarence. An attempt to bring up two 

 more guns for the defense on an armored train 

 sent down to Kimberley under Lieut. Nesbitt 

 ended in the capture of the guns and the force by 

 the Boers, who threw the train off the track 

 at Kraiipan on Oct. 12. On Oct. 15 they made 

 an attack on Mafeking, and were repelled. Com- 

 mandant Cronje brought up a heavy gun from 

 Pretoria after a futile bombardment and general 

 attack on Oct. 23, and when he renewed the at- 

 tack on Oct. 30, killing 2 officers and 4 men, he 

 summoned the commander to surrender so as to 

 avoid useless bloodshed. Col. Baden-Powell sent 

 word that he would say when he had enough. 

 Commandant Cronje retired later \vith the major 

 part of his force in order to take charge of the 

 siege of Kimberley, leaving his son Piet Cronje in 

 command. The bombardment was kept up con- 

 tinuously sometimes for several days. The Boers 

 occupied Lobatsi, and destroyed the railroad both 

 north and south of the beleaguered place. Dur- 

 ing a bombardment all the people had to creep 

 into their underground shelters. Col. Baden- 

 Powell, however, kept them from losing heart, 

 and baffled the besiegers by ingenious resources. 

 He sent out a party to steal into the enemy's 

 trenches and create a panic by a bayonet charge 

 at night. In this action, which took place on 

 Oct. 24, the British had 15 casualties. A car 

 loaded with dynamite was pushed down the track, 

 and when the Boers approached and fired at it 

 some of them were killed. The natives, whose 

 town was alongside of the European settlement, 

 were not only employed on the earthworks, but 

 according to Boer statements they were armed 

 and took part in the military operations. The 

 Dutch commander, Snyman, complained of this, 

 and Col. Baden-Powell retorted that since the 

 Mocrs had raided native kraals the natives had 

 a right to defend themselves. Another contro- 

 versy took place over the buildings protected by 

 the Red Cross flag, which Baden-Powell charged 

 the Boers with deliberately shelling; this they 

 denied, but they wanted to know why the flag 

 was flying fronTthree of the largest buildings, and 

 received the reply that these buildings harbored 

 women and wounded persons, and that the Ge- 

 neva treaty set no limit to the number of build- 

 ings that could fly the Red Cross flag. 



Col. Plumer, who commanded the forces in Rho- 

 desia, could not come to the relief of Mafeking, 

 because he was confronted at Tuli by another 

 Boer commando. On Oct. 31 the Boers made a 

 determined assault on the works, in which their 

 commander and many others were killed and on 

 the British side 5 were killed and 5 disabled. 

 The Boers gradually drew their trenches more 

 closely round the town, so that their marksmen 

 could pick off any soldier who showed his head 

 over the parapet. The bombardment compelled 

 all who were not necessary to man the trenches 

 to remain most of the time underground. Sick- 

 ness was caused by the unsanitary conditions 

 long before the food supply grew short. The con- 

 si iint. strain was relieved only on Sundays, when 

 both sides rested by agreement. The Boers 

 worked their trenches up to 500 yards, and the 

 situation was. so desperate that toward the end 

 of December Col. Hore led out a force, covered 



by the guns of the armored train, with the object 

 of storming one of their works, which had been 

 previously reconnoitered. The Boers, however, 

 strengthened this weak place in time, and of 

 80 assailants 21 were killed and 33 wounded. The 

 besiegers became more aggressive after adminis- 

 tering this check, and the situation was so 

 desperate that Col. Baden-Powell sent word se- 

 cretly to the burghers that they would be well 

 treated after the war if they would disband and 

 return to their farms. This exasperated Com- 

 mandant Snyman not less than the accusation 

 that he had fired on the women's quarters. Relief 

 was looked for from Col. Plumer, who" pushed his 

 way to Gaberones, 100 miles north, but was held 

 in check at that point. The native chief Khama 

 sent his regiments to the border, but the Boer 

 commandant evaded a conflict. Col. Holdsworth 

 approached within 120 miles of Mafeking, and 

 was then compelled to retire. On Feb. 11 Col. 

 Plumer attempted to surprise the opposing force 

 at Crocodile Pools and capture a gun. The Boer 

 position was well fortified, and Major Bird, who 

 commanded the assailants, withdrew with a loss 

 of 31 officers and men. On Feb. 17 and the day 

 following the Boers made fierce assaults on the 

 works at Mafeking. In March Col. Plumer's col- 

 umn advanced as far as Lobatsi, where it was op- 

 posed by the bulk of Commandant Snyman's 

 force, only a small number of men being required 

 to man the siege works at Mafeking. 



Invasion of Cape Colony. The Boers neg- 

 lected the opportunity they had of overrunning 

 Cape Colony at the beginning of hostilities when 

 there were not 3,000 British troops to defend it. 

 The burghers of the Free State were not as enter- 

 prising and bellicose as the Transvaalers, and 

 those of both states were unwilling to serve at a 

 distance from their homes. Natal was chosen for 

 attack by the Transvaal because there was a 

 large burgher population within short reach of 

 that frontier, which had only to be supplemented 

 by commandos assembled along the railroad line 

 from Volksrust to Pretoria to make a formidable 

 force. Another reason for making Natal the bat- 

 tle ground w r as that its rough and broken sur- 

 face was favorable to Boer tactics. Yet another 

 was that they hoped to regain this territory that 

 once had belonged to them. The burghers of the 

 eastern part of the Transvaal went to defend the 

 Portuguese and Swazi border. Mafeking was be- 

 sieged by a force gathered from the neighboring 

 western districts. In the Free State the eastern 

 commandos marched into Natal to co-operate 

 with the Transvaalers, while the western ones 

 went to attack Kimberley. 



The burghers of the south were anxious about 

 the attitude of the Basutos, and for some weeks 

 a commando of about 3,000 men was kept on the 

 border of Basutoland. Their suspicions were 

 strengthened by the fact that the Basuto laborers 

 who were accustomed to reap their crops and 

 gather their fruit for them could not be induced 

 to perform these services this year. This lack of 

 labor, moreover, kept some of the Boers at home. 

 They asked the British administrator of Basuto- 

 land, Sir Godfrey Lagden, to allow the Basutos 

 to come and work for them as usual, but he re- 

 fused unconditionally. The Basuto chiefs that 

 were most loyal and obedient to their British 

 rulers were desirous of fighting the Boers; others 

 would have fought on the Boer side; but both 

 the Boers and the British, although accusing each 

 other of endeavoring to draw the Basutos into 

 the war, firmly set their faces against arming 

 these natives to take part in the white men's 

 quarrel. In the north Col. Baden-Powell was re- 



