HISTORY 



29 



Orange River Colony, where forty British officers 

 and men were killed or wounded. On January 

 7th. the British position along Delagoa Bay 

 Railway was unsuccessfully attacked by the 

 Boers, who were also driven back on January 

 17th near Standerton, when they attacked a 

 British column under General Colville. On 

 January isth. New Zealand troopsand Bushmen, 

 under ^Colonel Gray, routed 800 Boers near 

 Veutersburg. On January 30th, the Bloem- 

 foniein-Ladybrand line was crossed by 1 >< -\\ -i 

 near Israel's Poort, and the Boers captured the 

 British po>t at Modderfontein, in the Transvaal. 

 ruary 3d, at about which time the British 

 'tlice decided to reinforce Kitchener with 

 30,000 additional mounted troops. General 

 ^mith-Dorrien was attacked by Louis Botha 

 with 2,000 men at Orange Camp February 6th, 

 but repulsed him. On the same date the Boers 

 cut the Delagoa Bay Railroad, near Lorenzo 

 Marques; ten days later DeWet crossed the 

 railroad at Bariman's Siding and was engaged 

 by Crabbe and an armored train, and on Feb- 

 ruary l!th the Boers blew up a supply train at 

 Clip River. Four severe Boer reverses then 

 followed in quick succession. The Boers, ,5,000 

 strong, were defeated by General French at Piet 

 Relief, February 22d ; DeWet's force was scat- 

 tered bv Colonel Plummer at Disselfontein, 

 Orange River, February 23d; General French 

 captured 300 Boers, ammunition cattle, and, 

 Mil 'plies at Middleburg, February 26th; Lord 

 Kitchener drove DeWet north of the Orange 

 River, with a loss of 280 men captured, March 

 l*t. Lord Kitchener then granted General 

 Botha a seven days' armistice to make commu- 

 nication with other Boer leaders, after which 

 truce hostilities were resumed. The Boer 

 tured a British supply train near Viaklaagte 

 March L'-'d. but were defeated three days later 

 ne;ir Yryheid by General French. On* March 

 27th. Fourie's commando and Bruce Hamilton's 

 command held a running fight for twenty miles. 

 Commandants I'rin^loo ami Knglebrecht surren- 

 dered to the British March :)th, and the Brit Mi 

 reoccupied I'ieter>burg on April 9th, on which 

 -TS captured seventy-five men of the 

 Fifth Infantry and Imperial Yeomanry. Gen- 

 eral Botha, on April 10th, renewed negotiation- 

 Alfred Milner, returning home 

 i, was received by the king and 

 a peer May 21st. The Boers, again tor 

 a time, rejoiced over successes. They at t. -irked 



rtially destroyed the Convoy of (leneral 

 Phimmer'a column May 2.">th: captured a Brit- 

 1 of forty-one men near Marai-bir 

 nd attacked ( leneral Dixon\ brigade ,ii 

 ntli Yeomanry urar V laklontein, May 

 iii-ing a heavy British loss. < > n June 3d, 

 .'() Boers under Scheeper upon 

 WUlomore, Cape Colonv. was repulsed 



fight, The' Briti-h and Boors lost 



"inurement between Klliot and 



'/,. June (ill,, and on the same 



day Colonel \\iUin. \\ith L'K) men. routed IIHI 



Boers under .-Boers 



"> members of the Yictoria Mounted 



rint. June iL'th. and the 



Midland Mo-inted Hitlr- ',-d by 



ndant M.-dan ;.t Watcrkloof, Jim- 



President Schalk-Burger, of the South African 

 Republic, and President Steyn, of Orange Free 

 State, issued a proclamation for "no peace with- 

 out independence," June 20th, and on August 

 7th. Lord Kitchener issued a proclamation of 

 banishment against all Boers in South Africa 

 not surrendering by September l.">th. In the 

 meantime, General Benson repulsed the Boers 

 in a mountain pass near Dullstroem, and, though 

 the inevitable end of the warfare was becoming 

 daily more apparent, fighting was continued. 

 Fifty of General French's scouts were captured 

 in Cape Colony August 16th ; three officers and 

 sixty-five British, north of Ladybrand, were 

 captured August 21st; the Boers attacked a 

 convoy near Kooipopje and killed nine men of 

 the Seventy-fourth Yeomanry, wounding t wenty- 

 three, on August 24th; Colonel Vandeleur and 

 nine men were killed and seventeen wounded 1>\ 

 the blowing up of a train in the Transvaal. 

 August 31st; Von Tonder and Delarey engaged 

 General Methuen in the Great Maries valley. 

 September 8th. Then, on September liith 

 British troops captured Letter s entire command 

 south of Pietersburg, and on the following day 

 the Boers partially evened matters by ambu-h- 

 ing and capturing three companies of British 

 mounted infantry under Major Gough, near 

 Scheeper's Nek, and also by capturing a company 

 of mounted British infantrv and two guns at 

 Vlakfontein, September 2()tn. Two Boer com- 

 mandos were captured September L'l-t. near 

 Adenburg, and Colonel the Hon. A. Murray and 

 Captain Murray, his adjutant, were killed' in a 

 fight with Krintzsinger, who crossed the Orange 

 River. On September 29th, Commandant De- 

 larey attackea Colonel Kekewich's camp at 

 MoedwUL with loss on both side-. 



Martial law was declared throughout Cape 

 Colony on October 9th. The following day 

 General Sir Kedvers Buller admitted, in a s|* 

 that he advised the surrender of Ladysmith. 

 and was severely criticised (or his utterances. 

 Commander Scheeper was captured ( >ctol>er I'Jth. 

 and Captain Bellew and four oth- 



in a fight, October Kit h. at Twent y-four St roams. 

 On November 1st, in a heavy Boer attack on 

 Colonel Benson's column near Brakenlaagte. the 

 British lost twenty-live officers and L'll men in 

 killed and wounded. During the n. 

 .lays numerous small skirmishes were reported, 

 anil during the first three months of P.MVJ tin- 

 war was more or less of a desultorv character. 

 negotiations for peace between the Boer leaders 

 and the Brit i-h < lovernment beginning on Marrh 

 .j:M. the late-t notable Boer accomplishment 



liavinir been the cap! , -Tal Methuen 



and LMHl mm. forty-one Hriti-h being killed, on 

 Match llth. 



II, I'lnj. I...rd Kitchener announced 



that a peace treat \ had been signed between 



I'.titain and the IWrs, Commandant-Gen- 



eral Louis Botha, a- 



an.l Chief Commandant 1' Mg for the 



Bohemia. tn>m \\hom Bohemia 



derives its name, settled in the country in the 



: Century B. ('.. but wen- e\p<.||.-d by the 



lanni about the beginning of t< 



era. 1 lie N cs soon gave place to 



