Uecicu: of Uecicws, l/UHS. 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



935 



We halted at Coventry's Farm, at the 

 foot of Spion Kop, and there had morn- 

 ing tea, before beginning the ascent. 



It was hot, but the air was clear and 

 fresh, as we made our way slowly up 

 the steep incline of 2000 feet, over the 

 brown, slippery grass and the scattered 

 sandstone. Close to the bottom two 

 nameless graves are enclosed w^ithin 

 white railing. On the crosses these 

 words are painted in black : " Here rests 

 a brave burgher." Further on we saw 

 many more such graves, the word some- 

 times being altered to " Here rest brave 

 soldiers." These crosses have been 

 erected by the " Guild of Loyal 

 Women," dissolved since the union. 



We climbed and climbed, stopping 

 now and then to pick up a bit of 

 shrapnel, or a piece of iron, or some 

 little veldt flower that had forced its way 

 through the hard-baked earth — yellow 

 everlastings, mauve verbena, yellow and 

 purple orchises, and many others. 



" Spion Kop, so called !3ecause from 

 its summit the Boer Voortrekkers had 

 first, in 1835, gazed down upon the pro- 

 mised land of Natal," is a ridge of 

 broken hills, rising suddenly out of the 

 plain. 



From the top one does indeed look 

 out over a promised land ; out over 

 miles of amber country, deepening into 

 every shade of bronze, rolling golden 

 pasture-lands and mealie patches ; out 

 over the clustering kraals and scattered 

 farms, to the far horizon bounded by 

 the everlasting hills. 



To the west, the magnificent chain of 

 the Drackensberg rear their rugged crests 

 between Natal on one side and Basuto- 

 land and the Orange Free State <in the 

 other. 



But beautiful as the view is, attract i\c 

 as are the stories of the natives, our real 

 purpose in coming to Spion Kop was to 

 see the scene of that tragic, extraor- 

 dinary, humiliating, yet inspiring, battle 

 during the war, which must ever send a 

 l)ang through our hearts. 



You will recollect that under cover of 

 a dark January night we gained the 

 crest of the hill, strongly entrenched by 

 the ]3oers, commanded 1)\' General 

 Botha. 



We had no big guns of any kind. 

 Ihe plateau was very much narrower 

 than we expected. We were crowded to- 

 gether so closel)' that " a shell could 

 hardly fail to do damage." We had no 

 cover nor shelter, and no room to extend. 



" Shell, maxim and rifle fire swept 

 across the Kop in a continual driving 

 shower. . . . Hour after hour of the 

 unintermitting crash of the shells among 

 the rocks, and of the groans and screams 

 of men torn and burst by the most hor- 

 rible of all wounds, had shaken the 

 troops badly. . . . Men were wounded 

 and wounded, and wounded yet again, 

 and still went on fighting. 



" Never since Inkerman had we had 

 so grim a soldier's battle. ' No retreat ! 

 No retreat!' was yelled when some of 

 the front line was driven in. . . . The re- 

 inforcements only added their share to 

 the shambles on the top. . . . 



" And now, under the shadow of the 

 night, . . . the much-tried Thorney- 

 croft had to make up his mind whether 

 he should hold out for another such da)- 

 as he had endured or whether now, in 

 the friendly darkness, he should remove 

 his shattered force. Could he have seen 

 the discouragement of the Boers, and 

 the preparations which they had made 

 for retirement, he would have held his 

 ground. But this was hidden from him, 

 while the horror of his own losses was 

 but too apparent. Thirteen hundred 

 dead and dying are a grim sight . . . 

 heaped upon a confined space." 



Thorneycrofi did not. knozu! That 

 was part of the tragedy of that dis- 

 astrous clay. 



We had gained the victor}', but did 

 not know it. The Boers were retiring. 

 When, to their utter amazement, the\- 

 found we had also retired, the\' 

 prom pi 1\- re-occupied their former posi- 

 tion. 



Nor was this tragic mistake the only 

 one. We need never have stormed Spion 

 Kop at all, if we had only followed 

 Lord Dundonald's advice, who urged a 

 detour round the far end of Spion Kop, ♦ 

 further from Ladysmith, it is true, but 

 infinitely easier tfi accomplish. 



We thought of all these things as we 

 w;ilked o\er the hill, now so still and 



