630 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



nating their race. The national scouts extended 

 the area of occupation westward from Bloem- 

 fontein, just as the constabulary extended the 

 territory held and patrolled west of Pretoria and 

 the Rand. The British army of over 200,000 men 

 rested in the garrison towns and in the block- 

 houses, relieved of the long marches and danger- 

 ous drives that had previously exhausted the 

 troops actively employed. The Boers in the field 

 were reckoned to be not over 8,000, though in 

 reality they were twice as numerous; yet Lord 

 Kitchener could not rely on his troops, constant- 

 ly renewed by fresh drafts from England, more 

 untrustworthy than the earlier volunteers. He 

 was hampered still more seriously by lack of 

 horses. The Government was buying horses in 

 the British Islands. Hungary, the United States, 

 Canada, the Argentine Republic, Australia, and 

 India at enormous expense, requesting the re- 

 mount department in South Africa to reduce its 

 demands. During 1901 the Government sent 129,- 

 000 horses, and in 1902 continued sending them 

 at the rate of over 13,000 a month. The United 

 States alone furnished 201,000 horses and mules 

 from the beginning of the war. The horses, how- 

 ever, were used up almost as fast as fresh ship- 

 ments came owing to hard usage, sickness, and 

 lack of proper nourishment. There were scandals 

 in the contracts for horses and for fodder, cloth- 

 ing, and other army supplies. The British, Amer- 

 ican, and Canadian horses stood the work best. 

 After the Boers had lost all their artillery the 

 British discarded most of theirs and converted 

 the men with their horses into mounted infantry. 

 In January the acting President of the South 

 African Republic, Schalk Burger, with his Gov- 

 ernment, was in the mountainous district north- 

 west of Lydenburg in the vicinity of Roos Sene- 

 kal, guarded by a commando under Stephanus 

 Trichardt. To the northeast Commandant Mul- 

 ler protected the factories and the women's laager 

 at Sabie*Drift. Lydenburg, between the two, was 

 strongly held by the British. Two British col- 

 umns moved about in this region, but did not 

 accomplish as much as the national scouts. Gen. 

 Ben Viljoen, one of the best of the Boer leaders, 

 was captured while journeying to a conference 

 with Schalk Burger. In the western Transvaal 

 Lord Methuen, from the Mafeking Railroad as a 

 base, moved on the skirts of the territory com- 

 manded by Gen. Delarey, and Col. Kekevich and 

 other column leaders swept the border districts, 

 but there were large and fertile regions in the 

 interior where Boer farmers raised ample crops 

 and reared herds of cattle with scarce any con- 

 sciousness that war was going on in the coun- 

 try. The grazing country west of the Mafeking 

 Railroad was also a source from which herds of 

 cattle were driven through the thin line of posts 

 on the railroad without hindrance. West of 

 Kimberley Commandant van der Merwe was in 

 communication with the rebels operating in the 

 western part of Cape Colony. President Steyn 

 of the Orange Free State was with Commandant 

 de Wet, between the Frankfort and Bethlehem 

 lines of blockhouses, which were being strength- 

 ened with the idea of enclosing the Boers in this 

 area and breaking up this already weakened 

 force by the first forward moveme'nt. In the 

 towns permanently occupied by the British, like 

 Rustenburg, Zeerust, Lichtenburg, Wakker- 

 stroom, Utrecht, and Vryheid in the Transvaal 

 and Lindley, Heilbron, Frankfort, Bethlehem, 

 Thaba Nchu, Jakobsdal, and Kofl'yfontein in' the 

 Orange River Colony, acting resident magistrates 

 were installed and schools were established. 

 Lands in the neighborhood of Bloemfontein, Jo- 



hannesburg, and Pretoria were apportioned out 

 to surrendered Boers and loyalists for small cul- 

 tivation. Large blocks of land near Thaba Nchu 

 and Ficksburg were purchased for proposed Brit- 

 ish colonies. Railroads were extended. One was 

 built to Thaba Nchu. The Australasian colonies 

 and Canada raised fresh contingents for the war 

 early in January, and Great Britain additional 

 yeomanry regiments. Gen. Bruce Hamilton's cav- 

 alry columns were active against the commandos 

 of the Bothas and Grobelaar near Swaziland 

 frontier, while Lord Kitchener continued concen- 

 trating troops in the Orange River Colony to 

 surround De Wet, who had collected the small 

 parties into which his forces had been divided 

 and scattered throughout the country into sev- 

 eral large bodies and resumed aggressive tactics. 

 Commandants Fouche, Myburg, and Wessels 

 penetrated once more into the central part of 

 Cape Colony. Commandant Kritzinger was cap- 

 tured. Commandant Scheepers, previously cap- 

 tured, was tried by court-martial and shot on 

 Jan. 18, as Letter and other leaders of the colo- 

 nial rebels had been before. Other rebels were 

 shot on charges of killing armed blacks or native 

 spies, often on the testimony of blacks. Members 

 of the Cape Legislature and magistrates were 

 arrested for treason. The prisons of Cape Col- 

 ony were crowded. The Cape Colonists were ex- 

 asperated. There was an outcry in England 

 against the courts-martial and the placing of 

 all Cape Colony under martial law. The suspen- 

 sion of the Constitution and the failure to call a 

 session of the Cape Parliament were condemned 

 as illegal. The British ministers justified mar- 

 tial law in the coast districts where no rebellion 

 occurred as a military measure to prevent the 

 bringing of foreign recruits and arms to the 

 enemy. The foreigners had in fact left the Boer 

 army, and the only persons not of Dutch blood 

 still fighting with the Boers were South African 

 residents. The shooting of rebels by the decree 

 of courts-martial composed of young British offi- 

 cers ceased. When Kritzinger was tried he was 

 acquitted. Two Australian officers convicted of 

 murdering 12 Boer prisoners, accused also by the 

 German Government of having murdered a mis- 

 sionary to prevent his denouncing them, were exe- 

 cuted and their commanding officer was cashiered 

 for concealing their crimes. 



The voluntary surrenders were procured mostly 

 by the national scouts, of whom another corps of 

 1,500 was organized by Gen. Vilonel in addition 

 to 2,000 organized by Gen. Piet de Wet. By the 

 end of February all those who were willing to 

 surrender voluntarily had come in. Many prom- 

 inent Boers who believed the war to be hopeless 

 gave themselves up with their commands when 

 unable to escape British columns in that month. 

 The Boer forces left in the field were the best fight- 

 ing men, prepared for a long struggle to preserve 

 some remnant of independence and to save from 

 hanging the Cape Colonists Avho had fought with 

 them. Of the Boer leaders 23 had been captured 

 by the British and sent into perpetual banish- 

 ment. The blockhouse system was gradually ex- 

 tended over the country, enclosing areas that were 

 cleared in sections by mobile columns. The clear- 

 ing consisted in burning all dwellings, destroying 

 or carrying away all crops, stores, and other mov- 

 ables, driving off the cattle, and taking the peo- 

 ple found on the farms into concentration camps. 

 The native districts in the northeast part of the 

 Orange River Colony were devastated in the same 

 way, all huts and grain burnt, cattle seized, and 

 the natives removed to concentration camps, but 

 receipts were given for property commandeered or 



