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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of With Methuen's Column on an Ambulance Train
+by Ernest N. Bennett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: With Methuen's Column on an Ambulance Train
+
+Author: Ernest N. Bennett
+
+Release Date: April 1, 2005 [EBook #15520]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH METHUEN'S COLUMN ON AN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Louise Pryor and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Author's share of the profits arising from the sale of this book
+will be given to Lady Lansdowne's Fund for the Widows and Families of
+Officers.
+
+
+
+
+  WITH METHUEN'S COLUMN ON AN AMBULANCE TRAIN
+
+  by
+
+  ERNEST N. BENNETT
+  FELLOW OF HERTFORD COLLEGE, OXFORD
+
+
+  LONDON
+  SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LIM.
+  PATERNOSTER SQUARE
+  1900
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+When I returned from South Africa I had no intention of adding to the
+war literature which was certain to be evoked by the present campaign.
+But I now publish this simple narrative because it was suggested to me
+by a friend that the sale of such a book might perhaps serve to augment
+in some measure the Fund established by the patriotism and energy of
+Lady Lansdowne and her Committee. Lady Lansdowne has cordially approved
+of the suggestion; so I trust that the profits derived from this little
+volume may be enough to justify its existence.
+
+ERNEST N. BENNETT.
+
+
+
+
+WITH METHUEN'S COLUMN ON AN AMBULANCE TRAIN.
+
+
+The first view of Capetown from the sea is not easily forgotten. We
+sailed into the bay just as the sun was rising in splendour behind the
+cliffs of Table Mountain. The houses of the town which fill the space
+between the hills and the sea were still more or less in shadow, picked
+out here and there by twinkling lights. On the summit rested a fleecy
+cloud which concealed the pointed crags and hung from the edges of the
+precipice like a border of fine drapery. On the right, groups of
+buildings stretched onwards to Sea Point, where the surf was breaking on
+the rocks within a few feet of the road; on the left were the more
+picturesque suburbs of Rosebank, Newlands and Claremont nestling amid
+their woods and orchards; and still further on lay Wynberg, with its
+vast hospital, already become a household word in English homes. The
+dreary flats of Simon's Bay, where British war-ships lay at anchor, shut
+in the view.
+
+Pleasing as the picture is when seen from the deck of a Castle Liner,
+disappointment generally overtakes the voyager who has landed. Capetown
+itself has little to boast of in the way of architecture. Except
+Adderley Street, which is adorned by the massive buildings of the Post
+Office and Standard Bank, the thoroughfares of the town offer scarcely
+any attractions. The Dutch are not an artistic race, and the fact that
+natives here live not in "locations" but anywhere they choose has
+covered some portions of the town's area with ugly and squalid houses.
+Nor, as a matter of fact, does the general tone of thought and feeling
+in Cape Colony naturally lend itself to aesthetic considerations. Even
+the churches fail to escape the influence of a spirit which subordinates
+everything else to practical and utilitarian considerations. Can two
+uglier buildings of their kind be found in the civilised world than the
+English and Dutch cathedrals at Capetown?
+
+Another unpleasant feature of life in Capetown is the misfortune, not
+the fault, of the inhabitants in being frequently exposed to the full
+fury of the south-east wind. Sometimes for whole days together the Cape
+is swept by tremendous blasts, which tear up the sea into white foam and
+raise clouds of blinding dust along the streets of the town.
+
+Nevertheless the kindness and generosity of the people are not in any
+way lessened by these unpleasant features in their surroundings. The
+warmth of colonial hospitality is acknowledged by all travellers, and
+may be partly due to that love of the mother country which survives in
+the hearts of Englishmen who have never left South Africa, and yet
+recognise in the visitor a kind of tie, as it were, between themselves
+and old England. Such hospitality blesses him that gives as well as him
+that takes, and the host listens with deepest interest to his guest's
+chatter about London, or perhaps the country town or village where he or
+his forefathers lived in days gone by. Any one who is accustomed in
+England to the conventional "Saturday to Monday" or the "shooting week"
+in a country house opens his eyes with wonder when he receives a warm
+invitation from a colonial to spend a month with him at his house on the
+Karroo. And such invitations, unlike those which the Oriental traveller
+receives, are uttered in earnest and meant to be accepted.
+
+Capetown is by far the most cosmopolitan of all our colonial capitals.
+Englishmen, Dutchmen, Jews, Kaffirs, "Cape boys" and Malays bustle about
+the streets conversing in five or six different languages. There is a
+delightful freedom from conventionalism in the matter of dress. At one
+moment you meet a man in a black or white silk hat, at another a
+grinning Kaffir bears down upon you with the costume of a scarecrow; you
+next pass a couple of dignified Malays with long silken robes and the
+inevitable _tarbush_, volubly chattering in Dutch or even Arabic. These
+Malays form a particularly interesting section of the population. They
+are largely the descendants of Oriental slaves owned by the Dutch, and,
+of course, preserve their Moslem faith, though some of its external
+observances, _e.g._, the veiling of women, have ceased to be observed. I
+did my best during a few days' stay at Somerset West to witness one of
+their great festivals called "El Khalifa". At this feast some devotees
+cut themselves with knives until the blood pours from the wounds, and a
+friend of mine who had witnessed the performance on one occasion seemed
+to think that in some cases the wounding and bleeding were not really
+objective facts, but represented to the audience by a species of
+hypnotic suggestion. As, however, my visit to Somerset West took place
+during the month of Ramazan there was no opportunity of witnessing the
+"Khalifa," which would be celebrated during Bairam, the month of
+rejoicing which amongst Moslems all the world over succeeds the
+self-mortifications of Ramazan. Even if their external observances of
+the usages of Islam seem somewhat lax, the Cape Moslems, I found,
+faithfully observe the month of abstinence, and I remember talking to a
+most intelligent Malay boy, who was working hard as a mason in the full
+glare of the midday heat, and was touching neither food nor drink from
+sunrise to sunset.
+
+All around were signs and tokens of the war. Large transports lay gently
+rolling upon the swell in every direction, and it was said that not less
+than sixty ships were lying at anchor together in the bay. H.M.S.
+_Niobe_ and _Doris_ faced the town, and further off was stationed the
+_Penelope_, which had already received its earlier contingents of Boer
+prisoners. It is very difficult, by the way, to understand how some of
+these captives contrived later on to escape by swimming to the shore,
+for, apart from the question of sharks, the distance to the beach was
+considerable.
+
+On land the whole aspect of the streets was changed. Every few yards one
+met men in khaki and putties. This cloth looks fairly smart when it is
+new and the buttons and badges are burnished; but, after a very few
+weeks at the front, khaki uniforms become as shabby as possible. No one
+who is going into the firing line has any wish to draw the enemy's fire
+by the glint of his buttons or his shoulder-badges, and so these are
+either removed or left to tarnish. Nor does khaki--at any rate the
+"drill" variety--improve its beauty by being washed. When one has
+bargained with a Kaffir lady to wash one's suit for ninepence it comes
+back with all the glory of its russet brown departed and a sort of limp,
+anaemic look about it. And when the wearer has lain upon the veldt at
+full length for long hours together in rain and sun and dust-storm his
+kit assumes an inexpressible dowdiness, and preserves only its one
+superlative merit of so far resembling mother earth that even the keen
+eyes behind the Mauser barrels fail to spot Mr. Atkins as he lies prone
+behind his stone or anthill.
+
+As our lumbering cab drove up Adderley Street to the hotel a squadron of
+the newly raised South African Light Horse rode past. The men looked
+very jaunty and well set up with their neat uniforms, bandoliers and
+"smasher" hats with black cocks' feathers. There has never been the
+slightest difficulty in raising these irregular bodies of mounted
+infantry. The doors of their office in Atkinson's Buildings were
+besieged by a crowd of applicants--very many of them young men who had
+arrived from England for the purpose of joining. A certain amount of
+perfectly good-humoured banter was levelled against these brand-new
+soldiers by their friends, and some fun poked at them about their
+riding. Occasionally, for instance, a few troopers were unhorsed during
+parade and the riderless steeds trotted along the public road at
+Rosebank. But certainly the tests of horsemanship were severe. Many of
+the horses supplied by Government were very wild and sometimes behaved
+like professional buckjumpers; and it is no easy task to control the
+eccentric and unexpected gyrations of such a beast when the rider is
+encumbered with the management of a heavy Lee-Metford rifle. Since the
+day on which I first saw the squadron in question it has passed through
+its baptism of fire at Colenso. The Light Horse advanced on the right of
+Colonel Long's ill-fated batteries, and was cruelly cut up by a
+murderous fire from Hlangwane Hill.
+
+Capetown is not well furnished with places of amusement. There is, it is
+true, a roomy theatre, whose manager, Mr. de Jong, sent an invitation
+to the staff of the "Pink 'Un" to dine with him and his friends at
+Pretoria on New Year's Day! How the Boers must have laughed when they
+read of this cordial invitation! During the few days which elapsed
+before our ambulance train started for the front we paid a visit to the
+theatre, but we found the stage tenanted by a "Lilliputian Company," and
+it is always tiresome and distressing to watch precocious children of
+twelve aping their elders. One feels all the time that the whole
+performance scarcely rises above an exhibition of highly-trained cats or
+monkeys, and that the poor mites ought all to be in bed long ago.
+Nevertheless, this dreary theatre was, in default of anything better,
+visited again and again by British officers and others. A friend of mine
+in the Guards told me with a sigh that he had actually watched the
+performances of these accomplished infants for no less than seven
+nights.
+
+There are several music halls in Capetown. I have visited similar
+entertainments in Constantinople, Cairo, Beyrout and other towns of the
+East, but I never saw anything to match some of these Capetown haunts
+for out-and-out vulgarity. There was, it is true, a general air of
+"patriotism" pervading them--but it was frequently the sort of
+patriotism which consists in getting drunk and singing "Soldiers of the
+Queen". On one occasion I remember a curious and typical incident at one
+of these music halls. Standing among a crowd of drunken and half-drunken
+men was a quiet and respectable-looking man drinking his glass of beer
+from the counter. One of the _habitues_ of the place suddenly addressed
+him, and demanded with an oath whether he had ever heard so good a song
+as the low ditty which had just been screamed out by a painted woman on
+the stage. The stranger remarked quietly that it "wasn't a bad song, but
+he had certainly heard better ones," when the bully in front without any
+warning struck him a violent blow in the face, felling him to the
+ground. A comrade of mine, a Welshman, who was standing near the victim,
+protested against such cowardly behaviour, and was immediately set upon
+by some dozen of the audience, who savagely knocked him down and then
+drove him into the street with kicks and blows. These valiant
+individuals then returned and were soon busy with a hiccuping chorus of
+"Rule, Britannia". How forcibly the whole scene recalled Dr. Johnson's
+words: "Patriotism, sir, is the last resort of a scoundrel".
+
+The Uitlander refugees were numerous in Capetown, and the principal
+hotels were full of them. Those whom I happened to meet did not seem at
+all overwhelmed by their recent oppression, and some of them contrived
+out of their shattered fortunes to drink champagne for dinner at a
+guinea a bottle. I do not think that the average Johannesburg Uitlander
+impresses the Englishman very favourably. Mining camps are not the best
+nurseries for good breeding or nobility of character, and one could not
+help feeling sorry that gallant Englishmen were dying by hundreds while
+some of these German Jews wallowed in security and luxury. Quite
+recently an officer overheard a "Jew-boy" loudly declaring in a shop
+that "after all, British soldiers were paid to go out and get shot,"
+etc., and in a fit of righteous indignation the Englishman seized the
+Semite and threw him out of the door.
+
+English visitors to the Cape who, like myself, wished to contribute our
+humble share towards the work of the campaign had several directions in
+which to utilise their energies. The Prince Alfred's Field Artillery was
+raising recruits, and on the point of leaving for the front for the
+defence of De Aar. The Duke of Edinburgh's Rifle Volunteers enlisted men
+on Thursday, drilled them day and night, and sent them off on the
+Tuesday. This fine corps has, much to its vexation, been almost
+continuously employed in guarding lines of communication and protecting
+bridges and culverts from any violence at the hands of colonial rebels.
+The South African Light Horse has already been mentioned. For those of
+us who found it impossible to pledge ourselves for the whole period of
+the war, owing to duties at home which could not be left indefinitely,
+and who possessed some knowledge of ambulance work, an excellent opening
+was found in one of the ambulance corps originated by the Red Cross
+Society under Colonel Young's able and energetic management.
+
+Having volunteered for service on one of the ambulance trains and been
+accepted, I set off with a corporal to Woodstock Hospital to secure my
+uniform and kit. The quartermaster who supplied me was justly annoyed
+because some mistake had been made about the hour for my appearance, and
+when he rather savagely demanded what sized boots I wore, I couldn't for
+the life of me remember and blurted out "nines," whereas my normal
+"wear" is "sevens". Instantly a pair of enormous boots and a
+correspondingly colossal pair of shoes were hurled at me, while, from
+various large pigeon-holes in a rack, bootlaces, socks, putties and
+other things were rained upon me. I couldn't help laughing as I picked
+them up. Here I was equipped from head to foot with two uniform suits of
+khaki--which mercifully fitted well--shirts, boots, shoes, helmet,
+field-service cap and other minutiae, and the entire equipment occupied
+some four minutes all told. What a contrast to the considerable periods
+of time often consumed at home over the colour of a tie or the shape of
+a collar!
+
+Shouldering the waterproof kit-bag containing my brand-new garments, and
+saluting the irritated officer, I marched off to ambulance train No. 2,
+where I speedily exchanged my civilian habiliments for her Majesty's
+uniform. The "fall" of my nether garments was not perfect, but on the
+whole I was rather pleased with the fit of the khaki, relieved on the
+arm with a red Geneva Cross.
+
+One of the two ambulance trains on the western side is manned entirely
+by regulars, the other (No. 2) is in charge of an R.A.M.C. officer, but
+the staff under him is composed almost wholly of volunteers. This staff
+consists of a civilian doctor from a London hospital attached to the
+South African Field Force, two Red Cross nurses from England, a staff
+sergeant, two corporals, a couple of cooks and ten "orderlies" in charge
+of the five wards.
+
+Introductions to my comrades followed. We were certainly one of the
+oddest collection of human beings I have ever come across. Our pursuits
+when not in active service were extremely varied--one of our number was
+an accountant, another a chemist, a third brewed beer in Johannesburg, a
+fourth was an ex-baker, and so on. We were, on the whole, a very
+harmonious little society, and it was with real regret that I left my
+comrades when I returned to England. At least four of our number were
+refugees from Johannesburg, and very anxious to return. These
+unfortunates retailed at intervals doleful news about well-furnished
+houses being rifled, Boer children smashing up porcelain ornaments and
+playfully cutting out the figures from costly paintings with a pair of
+scissors, and grand pianos being annexed to adorn the cottages of Kaffir
+labourers. Another member of our little society had a very fair voice
+and good knowledge of music, for in the days of his boyhood he had sung
+in the choir of a Welsh cathedral; since that time he had practised as a
+medical man and driven a tramcar. The weather was very trying sometimes
+and J----, our Welsh singer, had acquired an almost supernatural skill
+in leaping from the train when it stopped for a couple of minutes,
+securing a bottle of Bass and then boarding the guard's van when the
+train was moving off. On one of these successful forays I saw J---- send
+three respectable people sprawling on their backs as he violently
+collided with them in his desperate efforts to overtake the receding
+train. The victims slowly got up and some nasty remarks about J---- were
+wafted to us over the veldt. We had a couple of cooks. One of them was
+an American who had served in the Cuban war, the other a big Irishman
+called Ben. The American _chef_, being the only man out of uniform on
+the train, had access to alcoholic refreshments at the stations, which
+were very properly denied to the troops, and he rejoiced exceedingly to
+exercise his privilege. He could sleep in almost any position, and
+generally lay down on the kitchen dresser without any form of pillow, or
+slept serenely in a sitting posture with his feet elevated far above his
+head.
+
+We steamed away from the Capetown station in the afternoon. The regular
+service had to a large extent been suspended, and here and there
+sentries with fixed bayonets kept watch over the government trains as
+they lay on the sidings. If it was thought prudent to guard trains from
+any injury in Capetown itself, one can realise the absolute necessity of
+employing the colonial volunteers in patrolling the long line of some
+600 miles from the sea to Modder River.
+
+"Queen Victoria's afternoon tea"--as we called it--was served about
+five. The two orderlies for the day brought from the kitchen a huge
+tea-urn, some dozen bowls, and two large loaves. We supplemented this
+rudimentary fare with a pot of "Cape gooseberry" jam, the gift of a
+generous donor, and improved the quality of the tea with a little
+condensed milk. Fresh from the usages of a more effete civilisation I
+did not feel after two cups of tea and some butterless bread that
+"satisfaction of a felt want"--to quote Aristotle--which comes, say,
+after a dinner with the Drapers' Company in London, and for two nights I
+tore open and devoured with my ward-companion a tin of salmon which I
+bought from a Jew along the line. But, strange to say, after a few days
+of this _regime_, which in its chronological sequence of meals and its
+strange simplicity recalled the memories of early childhood, my
+internal economy seemed to have adapted itself to the changed
+environment, and after five o'clock with its tea and bread I no longer
+wished for more food. Exactly the same experience befalls those
+inexperienced travellers in tropical countries who, at first, are
+continually imbibing draughts of water, but soon learn the useful lesson
+of drinking at meal-time only, and before long do not even take the
+trouble to carry water-bottles with them at all.
+
+Our destination was supposed to be De Aar, but nobody ever knew exactly
+where we were going or what we were going to do when we got there.
+During a campaign orders filter through various official channels, and
+frequently by the time they have reached the officer in charge of a
+train others of a contradictory purport are racing after them over the
+wires. This sort of thing is absolutely unavoidable. Between the army at
+the front and the great base at Capetown stretched some 700 miles of
+railway, and over this single line of rails ran an unending succession
+of trains carrying troops, food, guns, and last, but by no means least,
+tons upon tons of ammunition. The work of supplying a modern army in the
+field is stupendous, and the best thanks of the nation are due to the
+devoted labours of the Army Service Corps. The officers and men of the
+A.S.C. work night and day, they rarely see any fighting, and are seldom
+mentioned in the public press or in despatches; yet how much depends
+upon their zeal and devotion! Amateur critics at home have frequently
+asked why such and such a general has not left strong positions on the
+flank and advanced into the enemy's country further afield. Quite apart
+from the fearful danger of exposing our lines of communication to attack
+from a strong force of the enemy, these critics do not seem to possess
+the most elementary idea of what is involved in the advance of an army.
+How do they suppose hundreds of heavily laden transport waggons are to
+be dragged across the uneven veldt, intersected every now and then by
+rugged "kopjes" and "spruits" and "dongas"? Ammunition alone is a
+serious item to be considered. Lyddite shells, _e.g._, are packed two in
+a case: each case weighs 100 lb., and I have frequently seen a waggon
+loaded with, say, a ton of these shells, and drawn by eight mules, stuck
+fast for a time in the open veldt; the passers-by have run up and shoved
+at the wheels and so at last the lumbering cart has jogged slowly on.
+This load would probably in action disappear in half an hour; and when
+one reflects that in one of our recent engagements each battery fired
+off 200 shells, it is easy to understand the enormous weight of metal
+which has to follow an army in order to make the artillery efficient,
+and to realise how unwilling a general is to leave a railway behind him,
+and attempt to move his transport across the uncertain and devious
+tracks of an unmapped African veldt. Lord Kitchener's successful march
+upon Omdurman was only rendered possible by the fact that the army kept
+continuously to the railway and the Nile.
+
+The railway journey northwards is full of interest. Between Capetown and
+Worcester the country is well watered and fields of yellow corn
+continually meet the eye, interspersed with vines and mealies. Yet here
+and there that lack of enterprise which seems to characterise the Dutch
+farmer is easily noticeable. Irrigation is sadly neglected and hundreds
+of acres which with a little care and outlay would grow excellent crops
+are still unproductive.
+
+Soon after leaving Worcester the line rises by steep gradients nearly
+2,500 feet. Right in front the Hex River Mountains extend like a vast
+barrier across the line and seem to defy the approaching train. But
+engineering skill has here contrived to surmount all the obstacles set
+up by Nature. The train goes waltzing round the most striking curves,
+some of them almost elliptical. Tremendous gradients lead through
+tunnels and over bridges, and the swerving carriages run often in
+alarming proximity to the edge of precipitous ravines. What a splendid
+position for defensive purposes! Had the present war been declared three
+weeks earlier De Aar would have been quite unable to stand against the
+Boers, and thus the enemy might with his amazing mobility have made a
+swift descent along the railway and occupied the Hex River pass. Out of
+this position not all the Queen's horses and all the Queen's men would
+have dislodged him without enormous loss. With the armed support of all
+the Dutch farmers from Worcester to the Orange River, a Boer occupation
+of this strong position would have been a terrible menace to Capetown
+itself. As it is, shots are occasionally fired at trains as they run
+northward from Worcester, and as a few pounds of dynamite would wreck
+portions of the Hex River line for weeks the government patrols in this
+locality cannot be too careful.
+
+Our first passage through the Karroo was by night, but during the busy
+days of service which followed we frequently saw this dreary expanse of
+desert in daylight. Some mysterious charm, hidden from the eyes of the
+unsympathetic tourist, dwells in the Karroo. The country folk who
+inhabit these vast plains all agree that to live in them is to love
+them. Children speak of the kopjes as if they were living playmates, and
+farmers grow so deeply attached to their waggons and ox teams that Sir
+Owen Lanyon's forcible seizure of one in distraint for taxes appeared a
+kind of sacrilege in the eyes of the Boers.
+
+At times nothing can be more unlovely than the stony, barren wilderness
+of the Karroo. The Sudan desert with its rocky hills and the broad Nile
+between the yellow banks is infinitely more picturesque than this vast
+South African plain. Still, at certain periods of the day and year the
+Karroo becomes less forbidding to the view. Sometimes after heavy rain
+the whole country is covered with a bright green carpet, but in summer,
+and, indeed, most of the year, the short scrub which here takes the
+place of grass is sombre in tint. Nevertheless cattle devour these
+apparently withered shrubs with avidity and thrive upon them. Again,
+when the warm tints of the setting sun flood the whole expanse of
+desert, there is a short-lived beauty in the rugged kopjes with all
+their fantastic outlines sharply silhouetted against the glowing sky.
+The farms on the Karroo, and, in fact, generally throughout the more
+northern parts of the colony, are of surprising size. It is quite common
+to find a Dutchman farming some 10,000 acres. Arable land in the Karroo
+is of course very rare, and one would think that the "Ooms" and the
+"Tantas" and their young hopefuls would have their time fully occupied
+even in keeping their large herds and flocks within bounds. One
+continually sees half a dozen ostriches stalking solemnly about a huge
+piece of the veldt, with no farm-house anywhere in sight, and it is
+difficult to understand how these people contrive to catch their
+animals.
+
+At the lower extremity of the vast Nieuweveld range which shuts in the
+Karroo on the west lies the little township of Matjesfontein, a
+veritable oasis in the desert. Here lies the body of the gallant
+Wauchope who perished in the disastrous attack on the Magersfontein
+trenches. The whole line north of this point was patrolled by colonial
+volunteers, amongst whom I noticed especially the Duke of Edinburgh's
+Rifles, with gay ribbons round their "smasher" hats. Nothing could be
+less exciting or interesting than their monotonous routine of work. We
+continually came across a little band of, say, twenty or thirty men and
+a couple of officers stationed near some culvert or bridge. Their tents
+were pitched on a bit of stony ground, with not a trace of vegetation
+near it, and here they stayed for months together, half dead from the
+boredom of their existence. Nevertheless such work was quite essential
+to the success of the campaign, for the attitude of the Dutch colonists
+up-country has been throughout the war an uncertain factor, and if these
+long lines of communication had been left unprotected it is more than
+likely that our "Tommies'" supplies would not have arrived at the front
+with unfailing regularity. As it was, shots were occasionally fired at
+the trains, and at one spot we passed a curious incident occurred in
+this connection. A patrol suddenly came across a colonist who had
+climbed up a telegraph post and was busily engaged in cutting the wires.
+"Crack" went a Lee-Metford and the rebel, shot like a sitting bird,
+dropped from his perch to the ground. On another occasion we heard a
+dull explosion not unlike the boom of a heavy gun, and found a little
+later that a culvert had been blown up a few miles ahead of us not far
+from Graspan. In short, I do not think that the British public fully
+realised the danger threatened by any serious and extensive revolt of
+the Dutch colonists. Had the farmers in that vast triangle bounded by
+the railway, the coast and the Orange River thrown off their allegiance,
+it would have taken many more than 15,000 colonial volunteers to prevent
+their mobile commandos from swooping down here and there along this long
+line of railway, and utterly destroying our western line of
+communication as well as menacing Lord Methuen's forces in the rear.
+Whatever may be said or thought of some of Mr. Schreiner's actions, it
+is held, and justly held, by level-headed people of both parties at the
+Cape, that the continuance in office of the Dutch ministry has
+contributed more than anything else to preserve the colony from the
+peril of an internal rebellion. For this we cannot be too thankful!
+
+Signs of animal life in the Karroo are few and far between. There are
+scarcely any flowers to attract butterflies, and I never saw more than
+four or five species of birds. There was one handsome bird, however, as
+big as a crow, with black and white plumage--probably the small bustard
+(_Eupodotis afroides_)--which occasionally rose from among the scrub and
+after a brief flight sank vertically to the ground in a curious
+fashion. Sometimes too, at nightfall, a large bird would fly with a
+strong harsh note across the stony veldt to the kopjes in the distance.
+Of the larger fauna I saw only the springbok. A small herd of these
+graceful little creatures were one evening running about the veldt
+within 500 yards of the train. On another occasion too, very early in
+the morning, one of our two Red Cross nurses was startled by the sudden
+appearance of a large baboon which crept down a gully near
+Matjesfontein--the only one we ever saw.
+
+Between Matjesfontein and the great camp of De Aar there is little to
+interest or amuse the traveller. The only town which is at all worthy of
+the name is Beaufort West, nestling amid its trees, a bright patch of
+colour amid the neutral tints of the hills and surrounding country. Here
+reside many patients suffering from phthisis, for the air is dry and
+warm and the rainfall phenomenally small. But after all what a place to
+die in! Rather a shorter and sweeter life in dear England than a cycle
+of Beaufort West!
+
+As we steamed into De Aar the sun had set, and all the ways were
+darkened, so, after a vain attempt to take a walk about the camp after
+the regulation hour, 9 P.M.--an effort which was checked by the
+praiseworthy zeal of the Australian military police--we returned to the
+train. Here I was greeted to my amazement by the notes of an anthem, "I
+will lay me down in peace," sung very well by our Welsh ex-choir-boy and
+two other members of the corps, who nevertheless did not lay them down
+in peace or otherwise till the small hours of the morning.
+
+Next day we rose early, but found that we should have to spend five or
+six days at De Aar. This news was not at all pleasant. I have been in
+many dreary and uninteresting spots in the world, _e.g._, Aden or Atbara
+Camp, but I have never disliked a place as much as I did De Aar. The
+whole plain has been cut up by the incessant movement of guns, transport
+waggons and troops, and the result is that one is nearly choked and
+blinded by the dense clouds of dust. Huge spiral columns of sand tear
+across the plain over the tops of the kopjes, carrying with them scraps
+of paper and rubbish of all sorts. The irritation produced by the
+absorption of this permeating dust into the system militates to some
+extent against the rapid recovery of men who suffer from diseases like
+dysentery or enteric fever. It travels under doors and through window
+sashes, and a patient is obliged, whether he will or no, to swallow a
+certain amount of it daily. Nevertheless the South African dust does not
+appear to be so bacillus-laden as, _e.g._, that of Atbara Camp, which,
+amongst other evil effects, continually produced ulceration in the mouth
+and throat.
+
+De Aar lies in the centre of a large plain, shut in on every side by
+kopjes. In fact its position is very similar indeed to that of
+Ladysmith. The hills on the east and west were always held by pickets
+with some field guns belonging to the Royal Artillery and the Prince
+Alfred's Artillery Volunteers. A much loftier line of kopjes to the
+north was untenanted by the British, but any approach over the veldt
+from the north-east was blocked by several rows of shelter trenches and
+a strongly-constructed redoubt with wire entanglements, ditch, and
+parapet topped with iron rails. Signallers were continually at work, and
+at night it was quite a pretty sight to watch the twinkling points of
+the signal lights as they flashed between the tents on the plain and the
+distant pickets on the tops of the kopjes. Boers had been seen to the
+east and on the west; some at least of the Dutch colonists were in open
+revolt; so officers and men were always prepared at a moment's notice to
+line the trenches for defence, while the redoubts and the batteries on
+the hills were permanently garrisoned.
+
+Everybody loathed De Aar. With the exception of some feeble cricket
+played on some unoccupied patches of dusty ground, and a couple of
+shabby tennis courts, usually reserved for the "patball" of the local
+athletes of either sex, there was absolutely nothing to do, and we were
+too far off Modder River to feel that we were at all in the swim of
+things. The heat was sometimes appalling. On Christmas day the
+temperature was 105 deg. in the shade, and most people took a long siesta
+after the midday dinner and read such odds and ends of literature as
+fell into their hands.
+
+We train people, of course, read and slumbered in one of the wards,
+while our comrades under canvas lay with eight heads meeting in the
+centre of a tent and sixteen legs projecting from it like the spokes of
+a wheel. Mercifully enough scorpions were few and far between at De Aar,
+so one could feel fairly secure from these pests. How different it was
+in the Sudan campaign, especially at some camps like Um Teref, where
+batches of soldiers black and white came to be treated for scorpion
+stings, which in one case were fatal. _A propos_ of reading we were
+wonderfully well provided with all manner of literature by the kindly
+forethought of good people in England. The assortment was very curious
+indeed. One would see lying side by side _The Nineteenth Century_, _Ally
+Sloper's Half Holiday_, and the _Christian World_. This literary
+syncretism was especially marked in the mission tent at De Aar, where
+the forms were besprinkled with an infinite variety of magazines and
+pamphlets--to such an extent indeed that in some cases the more vivid
+pages of a _Family Herald_ would temporarily seduce the soldier's mind
+from the calmer pleasures of Mr. Moody's hymn book, and those who came
+to pray remained to read.
+
+In the evening about 5 o'clock, when the rays of the setting sun were
+less vertical and the cool of the evening was not yet merged in the
+chill of the night, we sallied out for a stroll. Everybody walked to and
+fro and interchanged war news--such as we had!--and mutual condolences
+about the miseries of our forced inaction at De Aar. Canteens were
+opened in the various sections of the camp, and long columns of
+"Tommies" stood with mess-tins, three abreast, waiting their turn to be
+served, for all the world like the crowd at the early door of a London
+theatre. The natural irritability arising from residence in De Aar,
+added to the sultry heat and one's comparative distance from the canteen
+counter, frequently caused quarrels and personal assaults in the swaying
+column. But those who lost their temper generally lost their places too,
+and the less excitable candidates for liquor closed up their ranks and
+left the combatants to settle their differences outside.
+Non-commissioned officers enjoyed the privilege of entering a side door
+in the canteen for their beer, and thus avoided the crush: and one of my
+comrades cleverly but unscrupulously secured a couple of stripes somehow
+or other and, masquerading as a corporal, entered the coveted side door,
+and brought away his liquor in triumph.
+
+Apart from these liquid comforts, which were, very properly, restricted
+in quantity, those of us who possessed any ready money could purchase
+sundry provisions at two stores in De Aar. The volunteers were paid at
+the rate of 5s. a day, which seems a very high rate of pay when one
+remembers that the British soldier, who ran much greater risk and did
+more actual fighting, received less than 1s. Of course there were
+volunteers here and there like myself who possessed some means of our
+own and so thought it right and proper to return our pay to the Widows'
+and Orphans' Fund, but nevertheless I fail to see why we should be paid
+at this exorbitant rate. The most glaring instances of over-paid troops
+were the Rimington Scouts, who actually received 10s. a day and their
+rations. One trembles to think of the bill we shall all have to pay at
+the close of the campaign!
+
+The articles most in request at De Aar were things like "Rose's lime
+juice cordial," Transvaal tobacco, cigarettes, jam, tinned salmon,
+sardines, etc. Now it happened that the entire retail trade of the place
+was in the hands of two Jewish merchants. The more fashionable of the
+two shops took advantage of our necessities and demanded most exorbitant
+prices for its goods. "Lime juice cordial," _e.g._, which could be got
+for 1s. 6d. or 1s. 3d. in Capetown, was sold for 2s. 6d. and 3s. at De
+Aar, and the other charges were correspondingly high. Nemesis, however,
+overtook the shopman, for the camp commandant hearing of his evil deeds
+placed a sentry in front of the store and so put it out of bounds. He
+held out for a couple of days, while his more reasonable if less
+pretentious rival flourished exceedingly, but a daily loss of L200 is
+too severe a tax on the pertinacity of a Jew, or indeed of anybody, so
+the rival tariffs were arranged on similar lines, and the sentry sloped
+rifle and walked off. The mission workers at De Aar--some excellent
+people--dwelt in two railway carriages on a siding. There were, I think,
+two ladies and a gentleman. They worked exceedingly hard and their
+mission tent was generally well filled. It is astonishing what keenness
+is evoked by evangelical services with "gospel hymns". We all sang a
+hymn like "I _do_ believe, I _will_ believe," with an emphasis which
+seemed to imply that the effort was considerable, but that nobody, not
+even a Boer commando, could alter our conviction. Many of the
+hymns--poor doggerel from a literary point of view--were sung to
+pleasing tunes wonderfully well harmonised by the men's voices. Then
+there was a brief address by a young man with a serious and kindly face,
+and this was succeeded by a series of ejaculatory prayers taken up here
+and there by the men. It was a strange and impressive spectacle to see a
+soldier rise to his feet, his beard rough and unkempt, his khaki uniform
+all soiled and bedraggled, and forthwith proceed to utter a long prayer.
+Such prayers were largely composed of supplications on behalf of wives
+and families at home, and one forgot the bad grammar, the rough accent
+and the monotonous repetition in one's sympathy for these honest fellows
+who were not ashamed to pray.
+
+Would we Churchmen had more enthusiasm and courage in our teaching and
+our methods! This was the quality that enabled the infant church to
+emerge from its obscure dwelling in a Syrian town and spread all the
+world over. It is this warmth of conviction which lent fortitude to the
+martyrs of old time, and at this moment breathes valour into our brave
+enemies. But where is such vital enthusiasm to be found in the Church of
+England? In one of our cathedrals we read the epitaph of a certain
+ecclesiastic: "He was noticeable for many virtues, and sternly repressed
+all forms of religious enthusiasm". History repeats itself, and for
+manly outspeaking on great questions of social and political importance
+the laity are learning to look elsewhere than to the pulpit. Oh! for one
+day in our National Church of Paul and Athanasius and Luther, men who
+spoke what they felt, unchecked by thoughts about promotion and
+popularity and respectability. Enthusiastic independence is as unpopular
+in religion as it is in politics; and the fight against prejudice and
+unfairness is often exceeding bitter to the man who dares to run his
+tilt against the opinion of the many. The struggle sometimes robs life
+of much that renders it sweet; nevertheless it may help to make history
+and will bring a man peace at the last, for he will have done what he
+could to leave the world a little better than he found it. These good
+mission-folk looked after our physical as well as our spiritual
+necessities. They had annexed a small house and garden just opposite
+their tent, and here we could buy an excellent cup of tea or lemonade
+for one penny, as well as a variety of delectable buns, much in request.
+So pressing was the demand for these light and cheap refreshments that
+the supply of cups and glasses gave out, and the lemonade was usually
+served out in old salmon or jam tins. Very often, after a couple of
+hymns and, perhaps, a prayer, we went across and finished up the evening
+with a couple of buns and a cup of tea. One of my ambulance comrades,
+an ex-baker from Johannesburg, was extremely good in helping on the
+success of the refreshment bar, and frequently stood for hours together
+at the receipt of custom. The returns were very large. One day, I
+remember, they amounted to L22 in pennies: this would mean, I think, on
+a low estimate, that something like 1,500 soldiers used the temperance
+canteen on that evening. Apart from this enterprising work, private
+gifts in the way of fruit occasionally arrived on the scene, and I well
+remember one day when almost every "Tommy" one met carried a pine apple
+in his hands. In addition to such pleasures of realised satisfaction we
+enjoyed the pleasures of anticipation; for was not her Gracious
+Majesty's chocolate _en route_ for South Africa? The amount of interest
+exhibited in the arrival of these chocolate boxes was amazing. Men
+continually discussed them, and a stranger would have thought that
+chocolate was some essential factor in a soldier's life, from which we
+had, by the exigencies of camp life, been long deprived! As a matter of
+fact, portable forms of cocoa are extremely valuable in cases where
+normal supplies of food are cut off. Every soldier on a campaign carries
+in his haversack a small tin labelled "emergency rations". This cannot
+be opened unless by order from a commanding officer and any infraction
+of the rule is severely punished. At one end of the oblong tin are "beef
+rations," at the other "chocolate rations," enough to sustain a man amid
+hard and exhausting work for thirty-six hours. The chocolate rations
+consist of three cubes and can be eaten in the dry state; once, however,
+I came across a spare emergency tin, and found that with boiling water a
+single cube made enough liquid chocolate for ten men, a cup each. People
+make a great fuss in England if they don't get three or four meals a
+day, but a healthy man can easily fight with much less nourishment than
+this. I have seen Turkish troops during the Cretan insurrection live on
+practically nothing else than a few beans and a little bread, and on
+this meagre and precarious diet they fought like heroes. In the Sudan a
+few bunches of raisins will keep one going all day. At the same time,
+these things are to some extent relative to the individual. I have known
+huge athletic men curl up in no time because they couldn't get three
+meals a day on a campaign, whereas others, of half their build and
+muscle, may bear privations infinitely better. It is annoying to find
+here and there in the newspapers querulous letters from men at the front
+complaining that plum puddings and sweetmeats haven't reached them, and
+that their Christmas fare was only a bit of bully beef and a pint of
+beer. These men don't represent the rank and file of the army a bit. The
+English soldier is better fed and clothed and looked after than any
+other fighting man in the world, except possibly the American, and the
+manly soldier is not in the habit of whining after the fashion of these
+letters because he doesn't get quite as good a dinner on the veldt as he
+does in the depot at home.
+
+The military authorities at De Aar exercised the utmost stringency in
+refusing permission to unauthorised civilians to stay in the camp or
+pass through it. These regulations were absolutely necessary. The
+country round De Aar was full of Dutchmen, who were, with scarcely an
+exception, thoroughly in sympathy with the enemy, and throughout the
+campaign, at Modder River, Stormberg, the Tugela, and even inside
+Ladysmith and Mafeking spies have been repeatedly captured and shot.
+Some of the attempts by civilians to get through De Aar without adequate
+authorisation were quite amusing. I remember a particularly nice Swedish
+officer arriving one night, equipped after the most approved fashion of
+military accoutrements--Stohwasser leggings, spurs, gloves, etc., but
+his papers were not sufficient for his purpose, and charm he never so
+wisely, the camp commandant politely but firmly compelled him to return
+to Richmond Road, which lay just outside the pale of military law.
+Another gentleman, well known in England, failed in his first effort to
+penetrate the camp on his way northwards, but succeeded finally in
+reaching De Aar by going up as an officer's servant!
+
+The run from De Aar to Belmont is about 100 miles. The ambulance train
+arrived there on the evening of the battle, and the staff on board
+found plenty of work ready for them. The wounded men were all placed
+together in a large goods' shed at the station. They lay as they were
+taken from the field by the stretcher-bearers. Lint and bandages had
+been applied, but, of course, uniforms, bodies and even the floor were
+saturated with blood. Such spectacles are not pleasing, but nobody ever
+thinks about the unaesthetic side of the picture when busily engaged in
+helping the wounded. "The gentleman in khaki," poor fellow, has often
+precious little khaki left on him by the time he reaches the base
+hospital. When the femoral artery is shot through one does not waste
+time by thinking of the integrity of a pair of trousers--a few rips of
+the knife and away goes a yard or two of khaki. If the cases had not
+been so sad we should often have laughed at the extraordinary appearance
+of some of the men. One soldier, for example, was brought into our train
+with absolutely nothing on him except one sleeve, which he seemed to
+treasure for the sake of comparative respectability! Wounded men
+frequently lose so much blood before they are found that their clothes
+become quite stiff, and the best thing to do is to cut the whole uniform
+off them and wrap them in blankets.
+
+Perhaps it is worth while writing a few words about the general method
+pursued in the collection and treatment of our wounded men. In a frontal
+attack upon a position held in force by the enemy, our men advance in
+"quarter column," or other close formation, till they get within range
+of the enemy's fire. They then "extend," _i.e._, every man takes up his
+position a few paces away from his neighbour, and in all probability
+lies or stoops down behind whatever he can find, at the same time
+keeping up an incessant riflefire on the enemy. Far behind him, and
+usually on his right or left, the artillerymen are hard at work sending
+shell after shell upon the trenches in front. Every now and then the
+infantrymen run or crawl forward fifty or sixty yards, and thus
+gradually forge ahead till within two hundred yards of the enemy, when
+with loud cheers and fixed bayonets they leap up and rush forward to
+finish off the fight with cold steel.
+
+Even from this skeleton outline it is easy to see that the wounded in a
+battle like Belmont and Graspan are all over the place, though the
+motionless forms grow more numerous the nearer we get to the enemy's
+lines. Now, strictly speaking, stretcher-bearers ought not to move
+forward to the aid of the wounded _during the battle_. The proper period
+for this work is two hours after the cessation of hostilities. But
+in almost every engagement of the present campaign our stretcher-bearers
+with their officers have gallantly advanced during the progress of the
+fighting and attended to the wounded under fire. Such plucky conduct as
+this merits the warmest praise. In the non-combatant, who has none of
+the excitement bred of actual fighting to sustain him, it requires a
+high decree of courage to kneel or stoop when every one else is lying
+down, and in this exposed position first to find the tiny bullet
+puncture, and then bandage the wound satisfactorily. Many and many a
+life has been saved by this conduct on the part of our medical staff,
+for if an important artery is severed by a bullet or shell-splinter a
+man may easily bleed to death in ten minutes. I have myself on one
+occasion in Crete seen jets of blood escaping from the femoral artery of
+a Turkish soldier, without being able to render him any assistance. In
+short, it is believed that quite three-fifths of those who perish on a
+battle-field die from loss of blood. In some cases a soldier may, by
+digital pressure or by improvising a rough tourniquet, check the flow of
+blood from a wound, but the nervous prostration which accompanies a
+wound inflicted by a bullet travelling nearly 2,000 feet a second is so
+great, that most men seriously wounded are physically incapable of
+rendering such assistance to themselves, even if they understand the
+elementary amount of anatomy requisite for the treatment.
+
+At the same time it is only fair to point out that stretcher-bearers who
+advance during an engagement and render this gallant assistance to the
+wounded do so entirely at their own risk and must take their chance of
+getting hit. Complaints have been from time to time made, by persons who
+did not know the circumstances, that our stretcher-bearers have been
+shot by the Boers. If this took place during an action no blame can
+fairly attach to the enemy, for in repelling an attack they cannot of
+course be expected to cease fire because stretcher-bearers show
+themselves in front. The hail of bullets comes whistling along--ispt,
+ispt, ispt--and everywhere little jets of sand are spurting up. Can we
+wonder if now and then a stretcher-bearer is struck down? To put the
+case frankly--he is doing a brave work, but he has no business to be
+where he is. It is easy to see why the usages of war do not permit the
+presence of ambulance men in the firing line. Quite apart from the
+serious losses incurred by so valuable a corps, advantage might be taken
+by an unscrupulous enemy to bring up ammunition under cover of the Red
+Cross.
+
+It is no easy task in the dark or in a fading light to find the
+khaki-clad figures lying prone upon the brown sand. But when the wounded
+are discovered the ambulance man finds out as quickly as he can the
+position and nature of the wound, and a "first aid" bandage or a rough
+splint is applied. The sufferer is raised carefully upon a stretcher or
+carried off in an ambulance waggon to a "dressing-station" somewhere in
+the rear. If there are not enough stretchers, or the wound is merely a
+slight one, the disabled soldier is borne away on a seat made of the
+joined hands of two bearers. A second row of ambulance waggons is loaded
+from the dressing-station--each waggon holds nine--and goes lumbering
+off to the field hospital. Here the men are laid on the ground with
+perhaps a waterproof sheet under them and a blanket over them. The
+R.A.M.C. officers come round, select certain cases for operation, and
+see to the bandaging and dressing of the others. Finally one of the
+ambulance trains arrives, about 120 men are packed in it and it steams
+off rapidly to some base hospital at Orange River, De Aar, Wynberg or
+Rondebosch.
+
+Any detailed account of Lord Methuen's battles lies outside the scope of
+this little volume, and the British public know already practically all
+that can be known about the general plan of such engagements as Belmont,
+Graspan and Modder River.
+
+Belmont is an insignificant railway station lying in the middle of as
+dreary a bit of veldt as can well be imagined. A clump of low kopjes run
+almost parallel to the railway on the right, and to ascend these hills
+our men had to advance over an absolutely level plain devoid of any
+cover save an occasional big stone or an anthill (precarious rampart!)
+or the still feebler shelter of a bush two feet high. In their
+transverse march our men had to cross the railway, and lost considerably
+during the delay occasioned by cutting the wire fences on either side to
+clear a way for themselves and the guns.
+
+The Boers did not apparently intend to make any serious stand against
+Lord Methuen's column at Belmont. The fight was little else than an
+"affair of outposts" on their side and it seems very doubtful if more
+than 800 of the enemy had been left for the defence of the position.
+Their horses were all ready, as usual, behind the kopjes, and when our
+gallant men jumped up with a cheer and for the last 100 yards dashed up
+the rough stony slope in front, very few Boers remained. Most of them
+were already in the saddle, galloping off to Graspan, their next
+position. The unwounded Boers who did remain remained--nearly all of
+them--for good; rifle bullets and shrapnel and shell splinters are
+deadly enough, but deadliest of all is the bayonet thrust. So much
+tissue is severed by the broad blade of the Lee-Metford bayonet that the
+chances of recovery are often very slight. As volunteer recruits know
+sometimes to their cost, the mere mishandling of a bayonet at the end of
+a heavy rifle may, even amid the peaceful evolutions of squad drill,
+inflict a painful wound. When the weapon is used scientifically with the
+momentum of a heavy man behind it, its effects are terrible. Private St.
+John of the Grenadiers thrust at a Boer in front of him with such force
+that he drove not only the bayonet, but the muzzle of the rifle clean
+through the Dutchman. St. John was immediately afterwards shot through
+the head and lay dead on the top of the kopje, side by side with the man
+he had killed.
+
+When our train, after its journey to Capetown, next returned to Belmont,
+few signs of the recent engagement were visible. The strands of wire
+fencing on either side the line were cut through here and there, and
+twisted back several yards where our fifteen-pounders had been galloped
+through to shell the retreating Boers. Now and again the eye was caught
+by little heaps of cartridge cases marking the spot where some soldier
+had lain down.
+
+Less pleasant reminiscences were furnished by the decomposing bodies of
+several mules, and four or five vultures wheeling over the plain. Some
+enthusiasts on our train had on the previous journey cut off several
+hoofs from the dead mules as relics of the fight. Our under-cook had
+secured a more agreeable souvenir of Belmont in the shape of a small
+goat found wandering beside the railway. This animal now struts about a
+garden in Capetown with a collar suitably inscribed around its neck, and
+the proud owner has refused a L10 note for it. Before their abandonment
+of the position the enemy had hurriedly buried a few of their dead, but
+it is very difficult to dig amongst the stones and boulders, and the
+interment was so inadequate that hands and feet were protruding from the
+soil. In fact several of our men whose patrol-beat covered this ground
+told me it was terribly trying to walk among these rough and ready
+graves in the heat of the day.
+
+Along the whole line from Belmont northwards and to some distance
+southwards the telegraph lines had been cut by the Boers. Not content
+with severing the wires here and there, they had cut down every post for
+miles along the railway. I wondered what the grinning Kaffirs thought of
+such a spectacle; here were the white men, the pioneers of
+enlightenment, engaged in cutting each other's throats and destroying
+the outward signs of their civilisation! Perhaps it is worth mentioning
+that native opinion in Cape Colony has, as far as can be judged from the
+native journal _Imvo_, been decidedly against us in the present war.
+This is a factor which must be reckoned with as regards the question
+whether or no blacks shall be armed and permitted to share in the
+fighting. Of course it seems at first sight perfectly fair to give the
+Zulus or Basutos the means of defending themselves from cattle-raiding
+Boers, but if you once arm a savage there is a very real danger of his
+getting out of control, and Zulus might make incursions into the Free
+State or Basutos into Cape Colony. From such things may we be preserved!
+There is an intensely strong feeling amongst colonial Englishmen as well
+as Dutchmen--much more intense than anything we feel at home--against
+the bringing of natives into a quarrel between white men.
+
+The train soon traverses the distance between Belmont and Graspan. None
+can wish to linger on this journey, for the surrounding region is dreary
+and forbidding. The everlasting kopje crops up here and there, looking
+like--what in fact it is--a mere vast heap of boulders and stones from
+which the earth has been dislodged by the constant attrition of wind and
+rain. The hillocks in the Graspan district are by no means lofty--none
+of them seemed to get beyond a few hundred feet--but beyond Modder River
+the big kopje on the right which was seamed with Boer trenches must be,
+I should guess, well over six hundred feet from the plain. A large
+proportion of the kopjes in this part of the country have absolutely
+flat tops--why, I cannot imagine--and the whole appearance of the
+country suggests at once the former bed of an ocean. _A propos_ of
+geology, I once in camp came across a sergeant who was surrounded by a
+little band of privates, deeply interested in his scientific remarks,
+which began as follows: "Now, some considerable time before the Flood,
+Table Mountain was at the bottom of the sea, for sea shells are found
+there at the present day, etc." It is quite a mistake to suppose that
+the soldier cares for none of these things. As a "Tommy" myself I had
+some unique opportunities of learning what they talked about and how
+they talked, and certainly the subjects discussed sometimes covered a
+very big field. I have heard a heated discussion as to the position of
+the port of Hamburg, and was finally called on to decide as arbitrator
+whether this was a Dutch or German town. Theological discussions were
+also by no means infrequent. One of my comrades insisted with a fervour
+almost amounting to ferocity upon the reality of "conversion," and was
+opposed by another whose tendencies were more Pelagian, and who went so
+far as to maintain that no one would employ the services of a
+"converted" man if he could secure one who was "unconverted". The amount
+of bad language evoked in the course of this theological argument was
+extraordinary. Such acrimonious discussions as these acted, however, as
+a mere foil to our general harmony, and a common practice on an evening
+when we had no wounded on our hands was to start a "sing-song". The
+general tone of these concerts was decidedly patriotic. "God save the
+Queen" and "Rule Britannia" were thrown in every now and then, but
+seldom, if ever, I am glad to say, that wearisome doggerel "The
+Absent-Minded Beggar". It is quite a mistake, by the way, to suppose
+that Mr. Kipling's poetry is widely appreciated by the rank and file of
+the army. From what I have noticed, the less intelligent soldiers know
+nothing at all about Mr. Kipling's verses, while the more intelligent of
+them heartily dislike the manner in which they are represented in his
+poems--as foul-mouthed, godless and utterly careless of their duties to
+wives and children. I remember a sergeant exclaiming: "Kipling's works,
+sir! why, we wouldn't have 'em in our depot library at any price!" Of
+course it would be ridiculous to maintain that many soldiers do not use
+offensive language, but the habit is largely the outcome of their social
+surroundings in earlier life and is also very infectious; it requires
+quite an effort to refrain from swearing when other people about one are
+continually doing this, and when such behaviour is no longer viewed as a
+serious social offence. As to Mr. Atkins' absent-mindedness I shall have
+a word to say later on.
+
+In addition to the National Anthem and "Rule Britannia," we had, of
+course, "Soldiers of the Queen," and a variety of other less known
+ballads which described the superhuman valour of our race, and deplored
+the folly of any opposition on the part of our enemies even if they
+outnumbered us by "ten to one". One of our cook's greatest hits was a
+song entitled "Underneath the Dear Old Flag". In order to furnish a
+touch of realism the singer had secured a small _white_ flag which
+floated on the top of our train; but he never seemed to realise the
+incongruity of waving this peaceful emblem over his head as he thundered
+out his resolve "to conquer or to die".
+
+Just below Graspan Station the Boers had made one of their many attempts
+to wreck the line. They had torn up the metals and the sleepers, and a
+good many bent and twisted rails lay beside the permanent way. But this
+sort of injury to a railway is very speedily set right. In an hour or
+two a party of sappers can relay a long stretch of line if no culverts
+or bridges are destroyed. Mishaps to the telegraph are still more easily
+repaired, and already, side by side with the wreckage of the original
+wires, the piebald posts of the field telegraph service ran all along
+the lines of communication.
+
+Here and there Kaffir families sat squatting about their primitive huts,
+or kept watch over flocks of goats and sheep. Ostriches stalked solemnly
+up to the railway and gazed at the train, and sometimes their curiosity
+cost them the loss of a few tail feathers if we could get a snatch at
+them through the wire railings. On one occasion a soldier attempting to
+take this liberty with an ostrich was turned upon by the indignant bird,
+and a struggle ensued which might have proved serious to the man; he
+was, however, lucky enough to get a grip on the creature's neck and
+succeeded by a great effort in killing it. Ordinarily, however, the
+ostriches, despite an occasional surrender of tail feathers, lived on
+terms of amity with our men, and at Belmont they were to be seen walking
+about the camp and concealing their curiosity under a great show of
+dignity. During the fight one of these birds took up its quarters with a
+battery, and watched the whole battle without taking any food, except
+that on one occasion when a man lit his pipe the bird suddenly reached
+out for the box of lucifers and swallowed it with great gusto.
+
+It was curious to notice a variety of chalk marks upon some of the ant
+hills on the battle-field. The Boers had carefully measured their ground
+beforehand, as we did at Omdurman, and knew exactly how to adjust their
+sights as we advanced against their position. The battle of Graspan
+consisted, as at Belmont, in a frontal attack upon a line of kopjes held
+by a much larger force of the enemy than was present at the earlier
+engagement. Lord Methuen succeeded in working his way to the foot of the
+kopjes, and a final rush swept the Boers away in headlong flight. His
+victory would have been much more complete had the cavalry succeeded in
+cutting off the enemy's retreat, but this was not done.
+
+We brought back a load of wounded men from this fight. The corps which
+suffered most heavily was the naval brigade, composed of 200 marines and
+50 bluejackets. It is worth mentioning the numbers here, because I have
+seen several accounts of this fight in which the gallantry of the
+"bluejackets" is spoken of in the warmest terms with absolutely no
+mention of the marines. Correspondents, some of them without any
+previous knowledge of military matters, repeatedly single out certain
+regiments and corps for special mention, even when these favoured
+battalions have not taken any leading part in the battle. We have, of
+course, had the case of the Gordons at Dargai--who ever hears of any
+other regiment popularly mentioned in this connection? Again, at the
+battle of Magersfontein the Gordons were not amongst the Highland
+battalions which bore the full brunt of that awful fusilade, yet various
+English newspapers singled them out for special mention. I speak in this
+way not because I am at all lacking in appreciation for the valour and
+dash of both Gordons and "bluejackets," but simply because other
+regiments who have often done as good or even better work--in special
+cases--bitterly resent the unfair manner in which their own achievements
+are sometimes slurred over in the press. Needless to say these
+thoughtless reports are due almost entirely to journalists and would be
+repudiated by none more keenly than the gallant men of the Gordon
+Highlanders and the Royal Navy.
+
+At the battle of Graspan the marine brigade left their big 47 guns in
+the rear and advanced as infantry to the frontal attack. At 600 yards
+from the Boer lines the order was given to fix bayonets: the brigade
+then pushed forward for fifty yards further, when it was met by a storm
+of Mauser bullets, which had killed and wounded no less than 120 out of
+the 250 before the survivors reached the foot of the kopjes. It is
+extremely difficult to clamber up the rough sides of an African kopje.
+To do it properly one needs india-rubber soles or bare feet, for boots
+cause one to slip wildly about on the smooth, rough stones. By the time
+our men had got to the summit of the low ridge the Boers had leapt upon
+their horses and were already nearly 1,000 yards away. Our gallant
+fellows were out of breath with the arduous climb, and as it is almost
+impossible to do much effective shooting when one is "blown," and the
+cavalry had not appeared on the scene, the enemy got off nearly scot
+free.
+
+Amongst a number of wounded men brought down by our train from Modder
+River was a private of that fine corps, the R.M.L.I., who had, after
+passing through the perils of Graspan, suffered an extraordinary
+casualty at the Modder River fight. He was standing near one of the 47
+guns which was firing Lyddite shells at the enemy's trenches. Suddenly
+the force of the explosion burst the drum of his right ear and, of
+course, rendered him stone deaf on that side. He was an excellent
+fellow, very intelligent and well informed, and I hope by this time the
+surgeons at Simon's Bay naval hospital have provided him with an
+artificial ear-drum. This marine had, as said above, come out of the
+awful fire at Graspan unscathed, but I counted no less than _five_
+bullet holes in his uniform; two of them were through his trousers, two
+had pierced his sleeves, and the other had passed through his coat just
+to the left of his heart!
+
+The kopjes which were ultimately carried by the gallantry of our troops
+at Graspan had been subjected to an awful shell fire before the infantry
+attack. Nevertheless, the enemy was able to meet the advance with a
+rifle fire which swept our men down by scores. On the right of the naval
+brigade there was a little group of nineteen men, of these one only
+remained! The Boers exhibited here, as elsewhere, the most marvellous
+skill in taking advantage of cover. These farmers lay curled up behind
+their stones and boulders while shrapnel bullets by thousands rained
+over their position, and common shell threw masses of earth and rock
+into the air. Then at the moment when the artillery fire was compelled
+to cease, owing to the near approach of our infantry, the crafty
+sharp-shooters crawled out of their nooks and crannies and used their
+rifles with deadly precision and rapidity.
+
+On this point--the general ineffectiveness of artillery fire when the
+enemy possesses good cover--the history of modern warfare repeats
+itself. The Russian bombardments of Plevna were quite futile, and
+General Todleben acknowledged that it sometimes required a whole day's
+shell fire to kill a single Turkish soldier. At the fight round the
+Malaxa blockhouse in Crete, at which I was present, the united squadrons
+of the European powers in Suda Bay suddenly opened fire on the hill and
+the village at its foot. In ten minutes from eighty to one hundred
+shells came screaming up from the bay and burst amongst the insurgents
+and their Turkish opponents. We all of us--on the hill and in the
+village--bolted like rabbits and took what cover we could. The total net
+casualties from these missiles--some of them 6-inch shells--were, I
+believe, three, all told.
+
+Some of those amateur critics at home who write indignant letters about
+the War Office labour under a twofold delusion. They frequently ask
+indignantly how it is that our guns have been outclassed by those of the
+Boers? As a matter of fact in almost every engagement of the present
+campaign our artillery has been superior to that of the enemy; but, of
+course, the artillery of a defending force, well posted on rising
+ground, possesses enormous advantages over that of the assailants, who
+have frequently to open fire in open and exposed positions easily swept
+by shrapnel fire from guns, which, hidden amid trenches and rocks, are
+often well-nigh invisible.
+
+Another fundamental error in many of the indignant letters about the
+alleged defects of our artillery arises from a misunderstanding of the
+real value of guns in attacking a fortified position. The most sanguine
+officer never expects his shells actually to kill or disable any very
+large number of the enemy if they are protected by deep and
+well-constructed earthworks. Of course, if a shell falls plump into a
+trench it is pretty certain to play havoc with the defenders, but, when
+one considers that the mouth of a trench is some five or six feet wide,
+it is easy to realise the difficulty of dropping a shell into the narrow
+opening at a range, say, of 4,000 yards. Moreover, some of the more
+elaborate Boer trenches are so cleverly constructed in a waving line
+like a succession of S's, that even if a shell does succeed in pitching
+into one bit of the curve it makes things uncomfortable only for the two
+or three men who occupy that portion of the earthwork. No, the real
+value of artillery in attack is to shake the enemy and keep down his
+rifle fire. If shells are accurately fired the tops of trenches may be
+swept by a constant rain of shrapnel bullets, under which the enemy's
+riflemen will of necessity suffer when they expose their heads and
+shoulders to take aim over the parapet. But even in this case the shell
+fire must be extremely accurate if it is to be of any great use. If
+shrapnel shells burst well, some thirty yards in front of the enemy, the
+force of the bullets released by the explosion is terrific; if, on the
+other hand, the shells burst high up in the air, 150 yards in front, you
+might almost keep off the bullets with an umbrella; and one sometimes
+hears of these missiles being actually found in the pockets of
+combatants. At Omdurman our shells played tremendous havoc with the
+dense masses of the enemy; but here the Dervishes advanced to the attack
+in broad daylight and over a flat plain absolutely devoid of cover, and
+with its "ranges" well known and marked out beforehand.
+
+In one of our southward journeys with a load of wounded men we passed, a
+little below Graspan, through the midst of a swarm of locusts. We pulled
+up the windows and so kept the wards free from these clumsy insects. At
+one period they seemed to almost shut out the daylight, and it was easy
+to realise how unpleasant it would be to meet a flight of locusts when
+walking or even riding on horseback. Some odd stories are told about
+these creatures. I have heard it gravely stated that occasionally a
+train is stopped by the accumulated masses which fall on the metals. My
+informant evidently believed that the engine in these cases was
+absolutely unable to force its way through the piled up insects, in the
+same way as trains are sometimes blocked by gigantic snowdrifts! This,
+of course, is ridiculous; what really happens is that the rails become
+so greasy from the crushed bodies of the locusts that the wheels can
+secure no grip on the metals and spin round to no purpose.
+
+The attitude of the Boers towards the locust is very quaint. If a swarm
+of these insects settles on a Dutchman's land, the owner will not
+attempt to destroy them because he regards them as a visitation of
+Providence. But I have heard that he does not scruple to modify slightly
+the schemes of Providence by shovelling the unwelcome locusts upon any
+of his neighbours' fields which may adjoin his own estate!
+
+On this same journey we pulled up, as usual, for a brief interval at De
+Aar, and just opposite our train was a carriage containing seventeen
+Boer prisoners, returning to the front. At the battle of Graspan a
+number of Boer artillerymen were found with the Geneva Red Cross on
+their arms, and it seems pretty clear that these men had deliberately
+slipped the badge on the sleeves in order to avoid capture. They were,
+of course, at once secured and treated as ordinary prisoners of war. But
+in the hurry of the moment, and very naturally under the circumstances,
+some seventeen of the Boers who were _bona-fide_ ambulance men were
+arrested on suspicion and despatched with the crafty gunners to
+Capetown. Here they were examined, and when the authorities realised
+that they were genuinely entitled to the protection of the Red Cross,
+and were not combatants fraudulently equipped with this protective
+badge, the seventeen were forthwith sent back to General Cronje. As they
+were returning we met them and had a chat with them. Five at least of
+the number were Scotchmen or Irishmen; two more of them did not speak,
+and I rather think from their appearance that they too were of English
+race, and preferred to remain silent. Several of them complained of
+ill-treatment at our hands, but I must say their complaints appeared to
+resolve themselves into the fact that on their journeys to and from
+Capetown their meals had not been quite regular. Three of us gave them
+some bread, jam and cigarettes, for which they were extremely grateful.
+They wore ordinary clothes much the worse for wear, and told me that
+they left their "Sunday" suits at home. On the whole I was most
+favourably impressed by these fellows, with one exception. The exception
+was a Free-Stater who spoke English volubly. He loudly declared that he
+was sick of the war and intended the moment he secured an opportunity to
+desert and go home to his farm. I felt rather indignant at this person's
+remarks, and with an air of moral superiority I said: "We don't think
+any the better of you for saying that; although you are an enemy you
+ought to stick to your General, and not sneak away from the front". But
+the Free-Stater was not a bit impressed by my rhetoric, and simply said,
+"Oh, skittles!"
+
+Some of the prisoners were from the Transvaal and they seemed to me much
+more keen and enthusiastic than their Free State companions, and evinced
+no signs whatever of despondency or depression. There was a very
+pathetic note in the conversation of one of the Transvaalers, a mere
+boy of seventeen. He said to me in broken English, "It is such a
+causeless war. What are we fighting for, sir?" and I referred him for
+his answer to three Johannesburg Uitlanders who were standing by.
+Accursed as war always is, it is thrice accursed when young boys and old
+men are called upon to fight. At present every man in the Republic from
+sixteen to sixty years of age is at the front. The authorities intend as
+their losses increase to call out children from twelve to sixteen, and
+every old man from sixty onwards who can still see to sight a rifle.
+Last and most terrible thought of all, it is an undoubted fact that
+wives and daughters are everywhere throughout the Republic engaged in
+rifle practice! May God preserve us from having to fight against women!
+At present entire families are fighting together. I know one Dutch lady
+who has no less than six brothers amongst the burghers who have been
+fighting round Ladysmith, and another who has already lost four sons in
+the war. In one of our engagements a Boer boy of seventeen was struck
+down by a bullet; the father, a man of sixty, left his cover and went
+to the succour of his son, when he himself was shot, and the two lay
+dead, one beside the other.
+
+A little to the north of the kopjes which formed the scene of the
+Graspan engagement lies the station of Enslin. Here one of the pluckiest
+fights of the campaign took place. Two companies of the Northamptons
+occupied a small house and orchard beside the line. They had thrown up a
+hurried earthwork and placed rails along the top of the parapet. In this
+position they were suddenly attacked by a force of apparently 500
+Boers--so it was supposed--with one or two field guns. The small
+garrison lined their diminutive trenches and succeeded in keeping the
+enemy off for several hours; but had not some artillery reinforcements
+come up the line most opportunely to their assistance it might have
+fared badly with the plucky Northamptons. As it was, the Boers finally
+withdrew with some loss. On December 10th we were delayed for some time
+at Enslin by an accident and I had a careful look at the position held
+by our men in this minor engagement. There was scarcely a twig or leaf
+in the orchard which was not torn by shrapnel and Mauser bullets. The
+walls of the house were chipped and pierced in every direction, and one
+corner of the earthwork had been carried off by a shell. Yet in the two
+companies there were only eight casualties! An almost parallel case was
+furnished by Rostall's orchard at Modder River, which was held by the
+Boers, and swept for hours by so fearful a fire of shrapnel that the
+peach-trees were cut down in every direction and scarcely a square foot
+behind the trenches unmarked by the leaden hail. Nevertheless, when the
+guns had perforce to cease fire on the advance of our infantry, the
+Boers who held the orchard leapt up from behind the earthwork and poured
+such a murderous fire upon our men that they were forced to withdraw. It
+was the old story over again--that shell fire, unless it enfilades, does
+not kill men in trenches.
+
+As everybody called the river crossed by the railway the Modder, Modder
+let it be. Its real name, however, is the Riet, of which the Modder is a
+tributary flowing from the north-west and joining the main stream well
+to the east of the line. As a stream the river does not impress the
+visitor favourably: its waters were yellow and muddy, and the vegetation
+on its banks was thin and scrappy. There are no respectable fish in
+either the Modder or the Orange River; even if the fish could see a fly
+on the top of the liquid mud, they haven't the spirit to rise at it.
+Some of our officers, it was said, had managed to land a few specimens
+of a coarse fish like a barbel which haunts these streams, but I should
+not think any one, even amid the monotony of camp rations, was very keen
+about eating his catch, for a good many dead Boers had been dragged out
+of the river. It was, in fact, a rather grisly joke in camp to remark,
+_a propos_ of our water supply, on the character of "Chateau Modder, an
+excellent vintage with a good deal of body in it"! There was a tap at
+the station, which by the way is some distance north of the river, but
+on attempting to fill a bucket I found the tap guarded by a sentry,
+because, apparently, the water came from the river and was thought to be
+dangerous.
+
+The water question is always a difficult one in exploring or
+campaigning. One can do a certain amount with alum towards rendering the
+water less foul. Rub the inside of a bucket with a lump of alum, and in
+ten minutes most of the mud sinks to the bottom, and the water is
+comparatively clear. But besides producing a nasty flavour in the water,
+if used in any quantity, the astringent alum tends to produce
+disagreeable effects internally. Of course the only absolute guarantee
+against the bacilli of enteric fever or other diseases which may be
+admitted into one's system by drinking, is to boil the waters for five
+minutes; but it is very provoking, when the thermometer stands at 90 deg. in
+the shade, to wait until the boiled water cools, and as it is impossible
+to boil a whole river a few thousand bacilli may quite well get into our
+food through "washing up".
+
+The Boers have almost raised trench digging to the level of a fine art,
+and on every occasion when their commandants have found it necessary to
+withdraw they have had an entrenched position ready for them at some
+distance in the rear. At Modder River the trenches on either side of
+the stream were, as far as I saw them, a series of short ditches holding
+about six riflemen. These small trenches were separated from each other
+in order possibly to avoid that appearance of continuity which would
+have rendered their detection more easy to our scouts. In the Modder
+River fight a new factor is noticeable. For the first time in the
+campaign the Boers fought on level ground. Hitherto their bullets had
+come from the summits of the hills, and for this reason had not proved
+nearly so effective as a sustained fire from rifles raised, say, about
+four and a half feet from the ground. It is of course very much harder
+to hit a moving enemy when you aim from above at a considerable angle
+than when you merely hold your rifle steadily at the level of his chest
+and fire off Mauser cartridges at the rate of twenty a minute. The
+enemy's fire was very deadly at the Modder. As Lord Methuen said in his
+despatch, it was quite unsafe to remain on horseback at 2,000 yards'
+range. The result was that our infantry were compelled to lie prone on
+the ground, and, without being able to do much by way of retaliation,
+were exposed for hours to a scathing fusilade from the trenches beside
+the river. One poor fellow, of whom I saw a good deal, had been through
+the battle despite the fact that he was suffering great pain from
+dysentery. He, together with two friends, lay on the veldt for no less
+than fourteen hours. They had fortunately descried a slight hollow in
+the ground some 500 yards from the Boer trenches, and between them they
+"loosed off" quite 1,000 rounds of ammunition. "Well," I asked him, "did
+you hit anything?" "I don't think we did," was his reply, "because we
+never saw a Boer the whole day." When the enemy are firing smokeless
+powder behind their splendidly constructed earthworks they are
+practically invisible, a fact born witness to by Captain Congreve, V.C.,
+in his account of the first reverse at the Tugela. Now of course when
+you can't see your enemy you can't very well hit him, so when we clear
+our minds of fairy-stories about Lyddite and the universal destruction
+wrought by concussion, it seems highly probable that there is much more
+truth in the Boers' returns of their casualties than has been believed
+at home. Take, _e.g._, the lurid account sent by one of our
+correspondents about the awful effects of our shell fire upon General
+Cronje's laager. We were told in graphic language of every space in the
+laager being torn and rent by the deadly fire of more than fifty field
+guns, of the trenches being enfiladed and the green fumes of Lyddite
+rising up from the doomed camp. Cronje emerges with a casualty roll of
+170 men, and the only inconvenience from our bombardment experienced by
+the ladies was the slight abrasion of a young woman's forefinger!
+
+The fact that so many of our Generals have been struck by bullets during
+the campaign would seem to corroborate what I have heard on good
+authority, _viz._, that some of the best shots in the Transvaal forces
+have been told off for long range shooting, and the picking off of our
+leaders. One of these fancy shots--a German--was captured in Natal and
+told an officer that he was glad to be a prisoner, as he heartily
+disliked the task imposed upon him. Some little distance north of the
+Modder bridge is a small white house. Within this was found a Boer lying
+on a table stone-dead, with a shrapnel bullet in his skull. His Mauser,
+still clutched in his stiffened hands, lay on a tripod rest in front of
+him and the muzzle pointed through a vertical slit made in the masonry
+of the cottage. Every house in the neighbourhood was more or less
+injured by shrapnel, and one of them was the scene of a sanguinary
+conflict which was utterly misrepresented by one of the Cape papers. The
+misrepresentation was to the effect that at the battle of Modder River
+the house in question was occupied by a number of Boer wounded from
+Belmont and Graspan in charge of several attendants. It was alleged that
+two of the attendants deliberately fired upon our troops, who forthwith
+entered the house and bayoneted every occupant, wounded and unwounded
+alike, the bodies being afterwards weighted, with stones and thrown into
+the river. This terrible story spread like wildfire through the Colony,
+and Lord Methuen despatched an official denial of the alleged
+circumstances to Capetown. The Boer General never, as far as I am
+aware, brought any such charge against our troops, but as it undoubtedly
+gained considerable credence in the Colony it is perhaps worth while to
+mention the real facts of the case. The house in question was occupied
+as an outpost by thirty-six Boers, who fired upon some companies of
+British troops. About a dozen of our men, chiefly Argyll and Sutherland
+Highlanders with a lieutenant of the Fifth Fusiliers--for an
+extraordinary intermingling of various units took place in this
+engagement--rushed the house. Two of the Highlanders were shot down but
+the rest took a speedy revenge. The thirty-six Boers clubbed their
+rifles and fought pluckily, but they were crowded together and could do
+little against our bayonets. Every man of the thirty-six perished. "I
+didn't like to see it, sir," said one of the Highlanders to me. This is,
+of course, a very different story from the disgraceful tale alluded to
+above. None of the Boers in the house were wounded before our men
+appeared on the scene, and it is clear that the Boer corpses in the
+river, with stones tied to their ankles, were put there by their own
+comrades.
+
+Fair-minded and thoughtful men who have followed the events of the
+present campaign must long ago have come to the conclusion that
+non-official news must frequently be received with great caution. Before
+the war began misrepresentation was rife on both sides, and it has
+continued ever since. Mr. Winston Churchill may well call South Africa a
+"land of lies". Various slanders against ourselves have emanated to some
+extent from the Dutch papers in Cape Colony and the Transvaal, but in a
+much fuller and more substantial form from the Continental papers,
+notably the Parisian Press. On the other hand, our own journalists have
+not been altogether free from this taint. Let us take one or two
+concrete instances, _e.g._, violation of the white flag, firing on
+ambulances, the use of "explosive" bullets, looting. Just after the
+first reverse at the Tugela, a correspondent wired home that the Boers
+were "shooting horses and violating all the usages of civilised
+warfare". A man who would write such tomfoolery about horses ought to be
+kept in Fleet Street, and not sent out as a war correspondent; and as
+to his sweeping accusations in general, it is worth noticing that he was
+publicly and severely rebuked by Sir Redvers Buller, who denied his
+statements, and said that it was dishonourable to malign our brave
+opponents in this fashion.
+
+As to the _vexata quaestio_ of the white flag, it seems clear that in
+some instances the Boers have used this symbol of surrender in an
+absolutely unjustifiable way. Such a misusage of the flag occurred, for
+example, at Belmont.[A] But, as a Boer prisoner said to me, there are
+blackguards in every army, and it is utterly unfair to represent the
+whole Boer army as composed of these treacherous scoundrels--who, by the
+way, in almost every instance have paid the penalty of their treachery
+with their lives. Moreover, a white flag--which is sometimes merely a
+handkerchief tied to a rifle--may, in a comparatively undisciplined
+force like that of our opponents, be easily raised by a combatant on
+one side of a kopje, without being ordered or being noticed by his
+officer or the bulk of his comrades. How easily this may happen can be
+seen from what occurred amongst our own men at Nicholson's Nek. Here the
+white flag was raised, according to the published letter of an officer
+present, by a subaltern, without the knowledge and against the wishes of
+the officer in command. The officer who raised the flag may quite
+well--we do not know the circumstances accurately--have wished to save
+the lives of the men immediately round him, or may have been unable to
+see what was happening elsewhere on the kopje, and so have imagined that
+he and his men alone were left.
+
+Something very similar to this appears to have happened at Dundee. A
+body of Boers standing together raised a white flag when our men
+approached and were duly taken prisoners, but the rest of their commando
+were, according to Boer accounts, already engaged in retreating with
+their guns, and, being either unaware of this unauthorised surrender or
+completely ignoring it, continued their flight.
+
+I have already spoken of the risks incurred by stretcher-bearers and
+ambulance waggons which approach close to the firing line. Wounded men
+have told me again and again that the Boers at Magersfontein did not
+fire wilfully on our ambulance waggons, except when our troops got
+behind them in their retreat. Moreover, excitable people in England, who
+greedily swallow any story about such alleged occurrences, have probably
+the vaguest idea of what a modern battle-field looks like, and of the
+enormous area now covered by military operations. It may be extremely
+difficult to see a small white or Red Cross flag a long way off. At
+Ladysmith, _e.g._, one of our guns put a shell clean through a Boer
+ambulance, and Sir George White, of course, at once sent an apology for
+the mistake. If mistakes occur on one side they may occur on the other.
+Reuter's agent at Frere Camp reports on 4th December:--
+
+"After the evacuation of Dundee the Boers shelled the hospital and the
+ambulance until the white flag was hoisted, when their firing ceased.
+Captain Milner rode with one orderly into the Boer camp with a flag of
+truce, and was told that the Boers could not see the Red Cross flag.
+This statement he verified by personal observation."
+
+As to the use of "explosive" bullets, which makes the "man in the
+street" so indignant, it is worth mentioning that, as far as I am aware,
+not a single instance of the employment of such a missile came under the
+notice of our medical staff with Lord Methuen's column. I do not for one
+instant deny that occasionally such bullets may have been fired at our
+troops, but it is clear that the utmost confusion prevails about the
+nature of these projectiles. The Geneva Convention prohibits the use of
+explosive bullets, _i.e._, hollow bullets charged with an explosive
+which is fired by a detonating cap on coming in contact with a resisting
+surface. Now it is almost impossible to render a Mauser bullet
+"explosive," owing to its extreme slenderness, so that any explosive
+bullets which may have been used by the enemy must have come from
+sporting rifles, which are--as all evidence goes to show--extremely rare
+in their commandos. Expansive bullets are made by cutting off the
+rounded tip of the bullet, scooping out its point, constructing its
+"nose" of some softer metal, or simply making transverse cuts across the
+end. These missiles are not prohibited by the Geneva Convention:
+nevertheless their employment against white men is altogether
+unnecessary and reprehensible.
+
+As to looting, we must not forget that all commandeering of goods on the
+part of the enemy has been so described. But, of course, it is perfectly
+legitimate according to the usage of modern warfare to seize any
+property necessary for an army provided receipts are duly handed over to
+the persons from whom the goods are obtained. The Germans invariably
+acted in this way during the Franco-Prussian war, and no historian has
+ever described them as "savages" for this reason. Of course the wanton
+destruction of property which appears to have been perpetrated by the
+Boers in Natal is absolutely indefensible.
+
+If any one on reading the above thinks the writer "unpatriotic" he can
+only say that many British soldiers serving their Queen and country are
+"unpatriotic" in the same way. I hold no brief for the Boers, and I
+feel sure that here and there one may find an unmitigated scoundrel in
+their ranks who would fire on white flags, loot houses and use explosive
+bullets. On the other hand wounded and captured soldiers have repeatedly
+testified to the great kindness shown them by the enemy. In short, I
+have invariably found soldiers more generous and fair towards the enemy,
+and less disposed to blackguard them recklessly and unjustly, than
+newspaper writers and readers. Men who have faced the Boers have learnt
+to respect their courage and devotion, and I feel sure that British
+officers and soldiers deprecate much of the atrocity talk anent foemen
+so worthy of their steel, and however little they may sympathise with
+some portions of Dean Kitchin's sermon, they would at any rate desire to
+support his wish that the "quarrel should be raised to the level of a
+gentlemen's quarrel".[B] Quite recently Lord Methuen spoke like an
+honourable and chivalrous British soldier when he declared that he
+"never wished to meet a braver general than Cronje and had never served
+in a war where less vindictive feelings existed between the two opposing
+armies than in this."
+
+One more word on a kindred topic and we will leave criticism alone! The
+tone adopted by some sections of the Colonial and even British Press
+with respect to the religious feeling of the Boers is very painful. Some
+correspondents have described with evident glee how Boer prayer-meetings
+have been broken up by Lyddite shells. I feel sure that no British
+General would think for a moment of deliberately shelling any body of
+the enemy assembled for prayer, and the vulgarity and wickedness of such
+paragraphs would certainly not commend itself to the best sentiment of
+the British army. Again and again the Boers are described in the Press
+as "canting hypocrites" or their thanksgivings to God as
+"sanctimonious". What right have we as Christians to bring such
+wholesale charges against our Christian enemies? Several thousand
+burghers advanced from Jacobsdal to reinforce Cronje, and as it marched
+the entire force sang the Old Hundredth in unison. There is something
+splendid and majestic in such a spectacle as this. Let us as Englishmen
+fight our best against these men and defeat them thoroughly, but do not
+let us sneer at their religious enthusiasm!
+
+On December 10th, as we were standing on a siding at De Aar, a telegram,
+arrived ordering us to leave for Modder River in the morning. We were
+delighted at the prospect of getting rid of our enforced inaction at De
+Aar. The air was full of rumours about an impending attack on Cronje's
+position, and we fully expected to be in time for the fight and probably
+to be employed as stretcher-bearers during the battle. Alas! our hopes
+were all in vain. Next day, some miles below Modder River, our engine
+with its tender suddenly left the metals. The stoker jumped off, but the
+engine fortunately kept on the top of the embankment and nobody was
+hurt. We none of us knew how or why the accident had occurred, but one
+of the officials suspected very strongly that the rails had been
+tampered with.
+
+At any rate, there we were within a few miles of a big fight, off the
+metals and quite helpless! We were all perfectly wild with vexation and
+disappointment. But up flew a wire to Modder River for a gang of sappers
+with screwjacks. Pending the arrival of their assistance I climbed up to
+the top of a neighbouring kopje with a lot of Tasmanians. From this
+point the flashes of the guns above Modder River were visible, and the
+dull boom of Lyddite was borne to our ears. Methuen's artillery was
+still doing its best to avenge or retrieve the disaster of the early
+morning. The sappers at length arrived. We all helped--pushing and
+digging and lifting--and at length after several hours' delay steamed
+off to Modder River, too late for anything, except to wait for the
+morning and the wounded. We knew by this time that at 3:30 that morning
+the Highland Brigade had made a frontal attack on the Magersfontein
+lines and had been repulsed with terrible loss. The accounts which were
+vaguely given of the disaster were frightful, but accurate details were
+still lacking. Yes, here we were within four miles of the nearest point
+of Cronje's lines and we did not know half as much about the fight as
+people in Pall Mall 7000 miles away!
+
+On 12th of December I woke at four. The sun was just beginning to rise
+and the raw chill of the night had not yet left the air. In the grey
+light a long string of ambulance waggons was moving slowly towards the
+camp from the battle-field. Parallel to the line of waggons a column of
+infantry was marching northwards, perhaps to reinforce some of our
+outlying trenches against a possible Boer attack. I shall long remember
+the sight--the column of dead and wounded coming in, the living column
+going out, and scarcely a sound to break the silence.
+
+The wards of the train were all ready for the wounded, so I went off
+with a couple of buckets to replenish our water supply. Wounded men are
+generally troubled with thirst, and the washing of their hands and faces
+always refreshes them greatly. I found the station tap, however,
+guarded by a sentry; no water was to be drawn for the use of the
+troops, as the pipes--so it was said--came from Modder River, which was
+contaminated by the Boer corpses.
+
+We were soon busy with the wounded Highlanders and well within an hour
+we had safely placed some 120 men in our bunks, and some on the floor. I
+am afraid the poor soldiers often suffered agony when they were lifted
+in or rolled from the stretchers on to the bunks. It was sometimes
+impossible to avoid hurting a man with, say, a shattered thigh-bone and
+a broken arm in thus changing his position. We however did our best and
+lifted them with the utmost care and gentleness, but they often, poor
+fellows, groaned and cried out in their cruel pain.
+
+At 6 P.M. we saw the funeral of sixty-three Highlanders--all buried in
+one long trench close to the line. No shots were fired over the vast
+grave, but tears rolled down many a bronzed cheek and the bagpipes
+played a wild lament. Surely there is no music like this for the burial
+of young and gallant men. The notes seem to express an almost frenzied
+access of human sorrow!
+
+Soon after this my old Sudan acquaintance, Frederick Villiers, passed
+through the train. He did not recognise me in my uniform and I did not
+make myself known to him as he was with an officer and I was only an
+orderly. I wonder if he remembers that dreadful night, 31st August,
+1898, when we lay side by side in the desert at Sururab, soaked to the
+skin from a tropical downpour, and, to make his misery complete, he was
+stung in the neck by a large scorpion.
+
+We ran down to Orange River with our first load of wounded men, and just
+as we were crossing the sappers' pontoon bridge over the Modder a trolly
+or small waggon broke loose and rushing down the incline in front met
+our engine and was broken into matchwood. Most of our cases on this
+first run were "severe" or "dangerous". Some of the men had no less than
+three bullet wounds, and several were still living whose heads had been
+pierced by bullets. During a former journey, after Belmont, poor ---- of
+the Guards lived for several days with a bullet through his brain; he
+was apparently unconscious or semi-conscious and struggled so
+desperately to remove the bandages from his head that it took three
+orderlies to hold him down. When he died the wounded soldier next him
+burst into tears.
+
+Amongst some cases peculiarly interesting from a medical point of view
+was that of a Highlander who had three of his fingers shot off with the
+result that his arm and side were paralysed; in another case a bullet
+tore its way through and across the crown of a soldier's head and caused
+paralysis of the opposite side of the body. Another man had, so it was
+said, been hit on the shoulder; the bullet passed right through his body
+piercing his lungs and intestines and coming out at the thigh. Yet,
+strange to say, the poor fellow was in excellent spirits and complained
+only of slight pain in the abdomen.
+
+There was one death at Magersfontein which seemed especially painful to
+ourselves. It was that of a young officer in the Argyll and Sutherland
+Highlanders who, after the fight on the Modder, came into our train and
+had a kindly word for every one of his wounded men; he walked along the
+wards shaking hands with them and giving them little money presents as
+he passed. His voice was full of sympathy, and at length he broke down
+utterly in his compassion for some of their terrible wounds. His tears
+did him credit, and we heard with genuine sorrow that he had fallen at
+Magersfontein. So good a man was indeed worthy of a longer life and a
+kindlier fate.
+
+Almost all the wounds inflicted by the Mauser bullets seemed to be quite
+clean and healthy, with no signs of suppuration. It has been suggested
+that the satisfactory condition of such wounds is partly due to a
+species of cauterisation produced by the heat of the bullet. But I
+hardly think this can be so, for it is extremely doubtful if a bullet
+ever gets hot enough to cauterise flesh. I once picked up a spent
+Martini bullet which dropped within a yard or two of where I was
+standing; it was quite warm but not nearly hot enough to hurt my bare
+hand. A Mauser bullet fired at a fairly close range, say, 500 yards,
+travels at such a tremendous velocity that it generally splinters any
+bone it meets; on the other hand at long ranges--1,000 yards and
+upwards--the bullet frequently bores a clean little hole through the
+opposing bone and thus saves the surgeon a great deal of trouble.
+
+The wounds from shell fire were not numerous in our wards. It seems
+likely that if a one-pounder shell from the Maxim-Nordenfeldt hits a man
+it is pretty sure to kill him. Some of the wounded men told me how
+terrible it was to hear the cries of a comrade ripped to pieces by this
+devilish missile.
+
+The condition of the Highlanders' legs was terrible. Many of the poor
+fellows lay in the open for hours--some of them from 4 A.M. to 8
+P.M.--and the back of their legs was, almost without exception, covered
+with blisters and large burns from the scorching sun. Very many of those
+who had escaped bullet wounds could not, I should think, have marched
+ten miles to save their lives. The Highland Light Infantry wore trousers
+and their legs were all right. How much longer are we going to clothe
+our Highland regiments in kilts on active service? Every man I spoke to
+was dead against their use in a subtropical campaign like the present
+one. Besides, even as it is, our men have to put up with a compromise in
+the matter of kilts which makes their retention almost ridiculous,
+_i.e._, in order to screen his gay attire from the keen eyes behind the
+Mauser barrels every Highlander wears over the tartan a dingy apron of
+khaki. The war pictures we occasionally see in illustrated papers of
+Scotch regiments charging with flying sporrans are probably drawn in
+England. Even when the apron is used, the khaki jacket, the tartan kilt
+and the white legs offer a good mark when the wearer is lying on the
+ground. At Omdurman I stood with the Seaforths and Camerons in the
+firing line and I noticed that they appeared to lose more than any other
+battalion.
+
+On arriving at Orange River we carried our load of wounded to the base
+hospital. I wish some of those well-meaning enthusiasts in Trafalgar
+Square who clamoured for war could have viewed the interior of these
+hospital tents and seen the poor twisted forms lying on the ground in
+every direction. What a stupid and brutal thing war is! Certainly the
+alleged "bringing out of our nobler qualities" is dearly purchased! If a
+superior national type is the outcome of all this death and pain and
+misery, War, like Nature, seems at any rate utterly "careless of the
+single life"!
+
+The battle of Magersfontein has been frequently described in the Press
+and the main outlines of the fight are already well known to the public.
+The Highland Brigade, consisting of the Black Watch, Argyll and
+Sutherland Highlanders, Seaforths and Highland Light Infantry, had
+dinner on Sunday at 12. They then marched from 2 to 7.30 P.M., when they
+bivouacked. They advanced again at 11 P.M. in quarter column through the
+darkness, using ropes to keep the direction and formation intact. At
+3.30 the order to extend had just been given when a murderous fire was
+suddenly poured into the Brigade from the first line of Boer trenches at
+the foot of a large kopje. Our men had already seen two red lanterns
+burning at either extremity of this entrenched position. All at once the
+lamp on the left of the line was extinguished, and this seemed to be
+the signal for the Boer riflemen to commence fire. The light was so
+bad--in fact there was scarcely any light at all--that it was impossible
+to see the foresight of a rifle clearly. How were the Boers able to
+discern our approaching columns? One very intelligent boy in the Black
+Watch told me that he thought the "wild-fire"--the summer lightning
+which plays over the veldt--showed up the approaching troops. Others who
+were present stated that the Kimberley flash-light did the mischief, and
+a sergeant who marched in the rear of the brigade told me that he could
+see the whole line of helmets in front of him illumined by these
+electric flashes. Apart from this, it is quite possible that some
+treacherous signals from Dutchmen near Modder River camp may have
+apprised the Boers of our approach.
+
+Be this as it may, the first volleys from the opposing trenches swept
+through the crowded ranks of the Black Watch with deadly effect. Great
+confusion ensued, our men could do little by way of retaliation,
+contradictory orders were given, and the Brigade, unable to hold its
+ground under the murderous fire, fell back. The fusilade was fearfully
+severe and what added to its severity was its unexpectedness. It is
+especially the case in war that the unexpected is terrible. This has
+been exemplified again and again. On one occasion during the siege of
+Paris a body of Zouaves had fought splendidly all day in a sortie under
+a hot fire from the Prussians. They were at length ordered to withdraw
+some distance into a hollow which would shield them effectually from the
+Prussian shells and bullets. The Zouaves ensconced themselves in this
+excellent bit of cover and after their exertions prepared to get a
+little rest. Suddenly, to their astonishment, a Prussian shell fell
+plump into the hollow, and although it hurt nobody the entire company
+leapt to their feet and never stopped until they found themselves within
+the ramparts of Paris. Yet these men had faced a deadly fire all day
+when they expected it.
+
+No troops in the world could have done anything in face of the
+Magersfontein fire: some of the Highlanders, however, lay down and
+maintained their position actually within 200 yards of the Boer lines
+throughout the day. They had scarcely any cover, and if they showed
+themselves by any movement they were picked off by the enemy's
+sharp-shooters. Several of our wounded told me that they had seen one
+Boer, got up in the most sumptuous manner--polished jackboots, silk
+neck-cloth and cigar--strolling leisurely about outside the trenches and
+firing with extraordinary accuracy at the recumbent figures which dotted
+the ground before him.
+
+As the Brigade fell back various units were, in the darkness
+inextricably mixed up, and our losses became more severe as the accuracy
+of the enemy's fire increased. The booming of our artillery and the rush
+of our shells upon the Boer trenches put fresh heart into our
+temporarily disheartened troops, and rallying lines were formed in
+various directions. Occasional rushes were made towards the almost
+invisible enemy over the slope already thickly dotted with the bodies of
+our dead and wounded, and at the close of the disastrous day several
+gallant Highlanders were found lying dead across the wire entanglements
+within 150 yards of the Boers, riddled with bullets. The 12th Lancers
+dismounted, and at one moment, advanced as infantry right up to the Boer
+trenches. Every one I spoke to expressed the warmest admiration for
+their coolness and pluck.
+
+A sergeant in the Black Watch, when all the officers had apparently been
+struck down, cried out to the Highlanders near him: "Charge, men, and
+prepare to meet your God!" He rushed forward at the head of a few
+comrades and fell dead with a bullet through his brain within a yard or
+two of the trenches. There is something truly sublime in this man's
+devotion to his duty. Many and many an individual act of heroism was
+displayed during those awful moments in the semi-darkness when the enemy
+opened fire on our crowded battalions. British officers stood upright,
+utterly regardless of self, doing their best to rally the shaken troops,
+and then falling beneath the pitiless hail of bullets. Later on the
+hillside was littered with field-glasses.
+
+Almost 1,000 yards from the line of kopjes three lines of wire had been
+placed, which were cut during our advance, and other entanglements were
+stretched just in front of the trenches. Several men in each company
+carried wire-cutters with them, but to stand up and snip through lines
+of barbed wire when the Mauser bullets and the deadly shells of the
+Pom-Pom gun are tearing up the soil around is perilous work. Some of
+these entanglements had already been removed after the bombardment on
+Sunday night, for E Company of the Black Watch and a company of the
+Seaforths went forward about 7 P.M. in skirmishing order and pulled up
+the iron stakes and knocked over three parallel lines of barbed wire.
+
+Some of the Highland Brigade very sensibly withdrew towards the right of
+the Boer position with the idea of outflanking and enfilading the enemy.
+They succeeded for some time and actually captured some prisoners, but
+were soon afterwards themselves enfiladed and compelled to retire. Eight
+men of the Seaforths, however, when the frontal attack failed, retired
+towards the left instead of the right and suddenly found themselves, to
+their dismay, well inside the enemy's trenches! The Boers took away
+their rifles but forgot their side-arms, whereupon one of the
+Highlanders drew his bayonet, leapt to his feet and stabbed the sentry
+who was guarding them in the neck. The whole eight then jumped over the
+earthwork and decamped, escaping unhurt through the bullets which
+followed them from the enraged burghers.
+
+Many of our wounded lay on the ground from early morning till seven or
+eight in the evening, exposed all day to the scorching rays of an almost
+tropical sun. Some of the men brought away in the ambulances were, in
+fact, suffering from sunstroke, in addition to their wounds, and, as was
+said above, the bare legs of the three kilted battalions were terribly
+burnt. The Boers were very kind to our wounded. They came out of the
+trenches and gave them water. They did not in any case shoot at our
+wounded men, but frequently shot at any one who came forward during the
+fight to bandage the wounded. The slightest movement, however, of the
+_bona-fide_ combatants in our ranks drew a hail of bullets from the
+trenches. A Scotch sergeant, Gilham by name, a most kindly and
+courageous man, noticed that a comrade near him had been shot through
+the abdomen. He raised himself up from his recumbent position and began
+to bandage the wounded man. "Lie down you ---- fool," said the friend;
+"can't you see you are drawing the fire?" As he spoke a bullet passed
+between Gilham's knees and struck the wounded man. Soon afterwards an
+officer called out for a stretcher, so Gilham jumped up and put on his
+best "hundred" pace in a slanting run towards the ambulance waggons.
+Several other wounded men leapt up and joined him. One of them was
+immediately shot through the shoulder, and the good sergeant again
+stopped and bandaged him. The Boers had been watching him, and as he
+recommenced his devious course they sent two bullets through a bush two
+feet in front of him. These small bushes formed very inadequate cover,
+and the enemy, taking for granted that men were lying concealed behind
+them, fired repeatedly into the shrubs. In one case no less than eight
+Highlanders were shot behind one bush.
+
+I have made no attempt to give a detailed account of the day's
+fighting. If I did I should naturally speak of the excellent work done
+by the Guards on the right, where the Scandinavian contingent was almost
+annihilated, and, later on in the day, by the Gordons, who left their
+convoy work on the left and advanced gallantly towards the Boer
+position. No praise can be too high for our artillery. It was their
+excellent shooting that helped our men to rally after the first shock,
+and which ultimately succeeded in driving the Boers from their first
+line of trenches. These trenches were admirably constructed in long deep
+parallel lines connected at the ends so that a force could advance or
+withdraw from any point without being noticed by ourselves. Shell fire
+could do little against troops so splendidly entrenched. The Boers, like
+the Turks at Plevna, crept under their _epaulements_ while the shells
+screamed overhead or swept the parapets with shrapnel bullets, and then,
+when this tyranny was overpast, crept out and poured in one of the most
+terrific fusilades of the century's warfare.
+
+When we returned to Modder River with our carriages ready for a fresh
+load we found all our troops and guns back again in camp. The trenches,
+however, were manned, and every one on the alert. The armistice to bury
+the dead expired on the 13th, and a Boer commando had been sighted to
+the west. In a brief interval of leisure I took a short stroll, and I
+noticed how much more plentiful tobacco was now than a month ago when a
+Mauser rifle was offered for a sixpenny packet of cigarettes. One
+soldier told me that he had actually paid three shillings for a single
+cigarette.
+
+We loaded up with 120 fresh cases and steamed off for Capetown. The
+armoured train was moving fitfully about as we left, but the poor
+thing's energies were rather cramped as the line disappeared about 300
+yards north of the station.
+
+Just before we crossed the river we saw the two war-balloons floating
+above the camp, and our cook informed us with a great show of expert
+knowledge that these balloons were absolutely proof against bullets or
+even shells, "for," said he, "if anything hits them it rebounds from
+them like my fist does from this 'ere pillow". A rather similar story
+was told me by a wounded Highlander. He declared that a pal of his had
+been struck in the stomach by a shell at the Modder River fight. "Oh,"
+said I, "there wasn't much of your poor friend left, I suppose?" "He
+wasn't much hurt," was the reply, "though he did spit blood for a few
+hours." "Great Scot! what became of the shell?" "Oh," said my informant,
+"I didn't notice, but it must have bounced off Bill's stomach." The
+soldier quite believed that this marvellous incident had occurred. What
+had happened was probably this: a shell had passed so close to the man
+that the concussion of the air had "taken his wind" and ruptured some
+small blood-vessels. I remember at the capture of Malaxa in Crete that
+three insurgents were hurled to the ground by the air pressure of a
+Turkish shell which passed within a yard or two of their heads.
+
+Several of our cases on this downward journey were interesting. Corporal
+Anderson of the Black Watch lay in our ward, struck deaf and dumb from
+the bursting of a Boer shell, though he was otherwise uninjured by the
+explosion. Wounds through the intestines were to be found here and
+there. Such injuries in the larger intestines, if left to themselves and
+not operated on, have--when inflicted by the humane Mauser bullet--a
+fairly good chance, and that is all that can be said. One man had been
+shot through the elbow as he lay at the "present". The bullet had
+shattered the bone, but there was every prospect of the arm being saved.
+How different would have been the probable effects, in such a case, of
+the big Martini bullet!
+
+One incident which seemed to amuse the men very much was this. During
+the Modder River battle a bullet struck a corporal on the back; it
+glanced superficially across his shoulder and then piercing his
+canteen-tin remained inside. The corporal, imagining himself _in
+extremis_, fell to the ground and called for the ambulance. Somebody ran
+up to the prostrate man, and after a diligent but fruitless search for
+the wound at length discovered the bullet in the canteen-tin. The
+apparently moribund corporal, seeing this, instantly recovered, and
+leaping briskly to his feet told them to countermand the
+stretcher-bearers and pressed forward to the attack with renewed
+vigour.
+
+Just as we left De Aar a train full of Queensland Mounted Infantry was
+entering the station _en route_ for the front. The occupants were in the
+highest spirits and cheered loudly. "Ah!" said some of our poor fellows,
+"we were like that when we went up!" The contrast between the two
+trains--there, life and vigour: here, weakness and death--was very
+striking.
+
+So far from being "absent-minded" about their people at home, the
+wounded soldiers were continually thinking about their sweethearts,
+wives and families. Several soldiers in my ward, _e.g._, had lined their
+helmets with ostrich feathers. "My eye," said they, "won't the missus
+look fine in these!" One of the reservists asked me: "Do you think I
+shall lose my thigh? You see, I want to do the best I can for my family,
+and if I do lose my leg I shall be useless, as I work in the pits in
+Fife." Another Scotchman, a shoemaker, was full of anxiety about the
+future support of his wife and children. "If only my wound," he said
+dejectedly, "had been below my knee instead of above it! Because
+this"--pointing to the wounded spot--"is just the place I use for my
+work."
+
+Yes! to mix with the rank and file of an army as one of themselves is a
+great privilege. One understands them in this way far better than
+through the medium of books. Many little acts of unostentatious heroism
+are casually spoken of--noble deeds done by humble soldiers who live
+without a history and often perish without a memorial--as, for instance,
+the devotion of a private at Modder River who applied digital pressure
+to the severed artery of a comrade for hours under fire and so saved his
+life. Again, the soldier's religion, where it exists, is often very
+genuine indeed. Just after the Magersfontein reverse a wounded
+Highlander entreated me to find his rosary for him which was hidden
+under a pile of accoutrements. On another occasion we picked up on the
+floor of the train a piece of paper which proved to be the will of a
+poor private, a Roman Catholic, who left "all he possessed" to the
+Church. I need not say that this will was forwarded to the proper
+quarter. The wounded men too were frequently very grateful for any
+little services one could render them, and made us odd little presents
+by way of return. One H.L.I. man gave me the badges from his ruined
+khaki jacket, and an Argyll and Sutherland Highlander bestowed upon me a
+pair of goggles he had taken from the face of a dead Boer.
+
+By the time we reached Richmond Road the usual influx of private
+offerings for the wounded had, as usual, begun. We always left the front
+with the ordinary comforts of an ambulance train; by the time we reached
+Capetown we looked like a sort of cross between a green-grocer's stall
+and a confectioner's shop. We simply didn't know what to do with the
+masses of fruit and flowers, puddings and jellies, which the people
+along the line forced upon us. These kindly folk--men, women and
+children--thrust their various offerings through the windows; then they
+peeped through themselves, and the women would say "poor dear" to some
+six-foot guardsman, who smiled his thanks or told them how he got hit.
+As I say, the train was, by the time we reached Wynberg, simply choked
+with luxuries--some of them quite unsuitable for wounded men--a
+veritable _embarras de richesses_. We used to begin the journey with
+moderation and end it with a species of debauch! But it was most kind
+and thoughtful of these colonists all the same.
+
+By the time we reached Wynberg on 16th December it was quite dark. A row
+of ambulance waggons stood ready beyond the platform, and in front of
+them a line of St. John's Ambulance men, fresh from England, looking
+very spruce and neat. The wounded were speedily conveyed to the waggons
+and safely lodged in the hospital. On a former occasion one poor fellow
+died at the moment he was being lifted out of the train. My comrades and
+myself had had about six hours' sleep in three consecutive nights, and
+after we had remade the beds and swept the train we slept soundly. Next
+morning we were on duty till twelve, when we were allowed a few hours'
+leave. A warm bath and a lunch at the Royal Hotel with a good bottle of
+wine was very welcome, and we were all in excellent spirits when the
+whistle sounded and we steamed away once more to the north with 600
+miles before us.
+
+We halted again at De Aar, where we remained till Christmas. The weather
+grew hotter and hotter. The whirling dust, the stony plains, the glaring
+heat, the evening coolness, the glowing sunsets, the bare rocky hills,
+how it all recalled the Sudan! Train after train lumbered by with stores
+and guns and ammunition for the front, the whole of this enormous
+traffic being run on a single line of rails. Amongst the most
+troublesome items to deal with were the mules. Sometimes a mule would
+suddenly produce a violent uproar in a waggon by beginning to kick, his
+hoof against every mule and every mule's hoof against him. Even if these
+beasties were taken out of the waggon to be watered their behaviour was
+unseemly. A soldier would with infinite patience marshal the mules in
+line with himself, their halters all tied together. The march would then
+begin, but within half a dozen yards the mules in the centre would press
+forward till the whole thing looked like a Pyrrhic phalanx. The wearied
+soldier would then smite the aggressive animals, and, after a few more
+strides, the centre mules would hang back while the wings would close
+in, and then, as confusion became worse confounded, some of the restless
+brutes would commence to roll, and the group finally resembled a sort of
+mulish "scrum" with the soldier on his back as football.
+
+There were, of course, various camp services on Christmas Day: most of
+my comrades on the train went to the little Episcopal Church in De Aar.
+The Church of England community in this out-of-the-way village numbers
+some fifty all told. Nevertheless these churchmen had contrived to build
+a pretty little church and their services were very hearty. Officers,
+men, and two Red Cross sisters formed the bulk of the congregation and
+we listened to a delightful sermonette written and delivered in
+excellent style by the good Vicar, an old Corpus man at Oxford. We sang
+the old familiar hymns, "While shepherds watched" and "Hark, the Herald
+Angels sing," which took our thoughts away to distant homes and
+services in England, 7,000 miles away. At the close of the service came
+that hymn of prayer, "O God of peace, give peace again;" and as we
+walked back to the train a sergeant said to me: "If there is a God who
+will listen to prayer, my prayer for peace went straight to Him". I
+think he spoke for all of us. Most people who love war for war's sake
+are not soldiers.
+
+Our Christmas dinner was a most gorgeous affair. We were determined to
+do everything in the best possible style, and everybody helped. We first
+rigged up a trestle table beside the train and stretched a tarpaulin
+above it to shelter us from the fierce heat. Three of our number were
+then despatched to secure all the green stuff they could for decorative
+purposes, and as the good people of De Aar were quite ready to give us
+some of their scanty flowers and allow us to dismember their shrubs, our
+envoys returned with armfuls of material. The outside of the train and
+the surface of the table were gaily decorated, and two photographs of
+her Majesty which we had cut out of magazines were framed in leaves and
+flowers and bits of coloured paper, the very best we could do! We had
+secured an order for some beer and a couple of bottles of whisky, and
+when these adjuncts had been duly fetched from the canteen we sat down
+to our Christmas dinner. Towards the end of it our kind and deservedly
+popular C.O. Captain Fleming, R.A.M.C., paid us a visit, with a civilian
+doctor and the two nurses. The Captain made us a little speech and
+informed us that the Queen had sent her best Christmas wishes to the
+troops. We then cheered her Majesty, and Captain Fleming and Dr. Waters
+and the nurses, and our visitors left us to enjoy the rest of the
+evening as we liked.
+
+After various toasts--the Queen, our General, Absent Friends and so
+on--several comrades from other corps dropped in and every one was
+called upon for a song. It is curious to find the extraordinary
+popularity amongst soldiers of lugubrious and doleful songs. The
+majority of our songs at that Christmas dinner dealt with graves and the
+flowers that grew upon them, on the death of soldiers and the grief of
+parents. One song, I remember, was almost ludicrously sad. It told how
+a young soldier on active service in the Sudan or some other distant
+region hears, apparently by telepathic means, that his mother--the
+conventional grey-haired mother--is in some distress. The soldier at
+once, without any attempt to secure leave of absence, sets out for
+"home" on foot. He is brought back, and, as the excuse about his mother
+is very naturally discredited, the deserter is sentenced to be shot.
+Just as his lifeless body falls back riddled with bullets the mother
+arrives--how, it is not explained--so, as the refrain has it, "The
+Pardon comes too late". There were also several pauses in the
+conversation for "solos from the band," to wit, a flute and a fiddle.
+
+After dismantling the marquee and dinnertable we started through the
+darkness for Modder River. We had thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas fare,
+and K----, a Scotchman, attempted with some success to perform a
+sword-dance on two crossed sticks, and when we pulled up at some station
+with a Dutch name his fervid patriotism broke loose in an attempt to
+address the people on the platform, whom he apostrophised as "rebels"
+and threatened with dire vengeance. Our cook was equal to the occasion.
+He dragged K---- back and apologised to the aggrieved colonists,
+explaining--by a pious fraud--that he was K----'s father and so
+responsible for bringing him out that evening. Our gleemen now stepped
+into the breach with "Ye Banks and Braes," and we left the station amid
+cheers.
+
+Another of my friends under the excitement of song and mirth frequently
+clutched my arm and pointed to imaginary batches of Dutchmen standing
+suspiciously near the line and presumably intent on wrecking the train.
+These were usually prickly-pear bushes. When we approached Modder River
+he exclaimed that we were now within range of the Boer guns, and
+accordingly pulled up the windows as a sort of protection against shells
+and bullets.
+
+As we steamed into Modder River station the 4.7 gun called "Joe
+Chamberlain" loosed off a Lyddite shell at the Magersfontein trenches.
+Some desultory shelling continued on both sides at 7,000 yards, chiefly
+in the early morning and evening--a kind of "good day" and "good night"
+exchanged between "Joe Chamberlain" and "Long Tom,". During our stay on
+this occasion some excellent practice was made on both sides. On the
+26th a shell from our gun struck a Boer water-cask and smashed it to
+bits; next day a Boer shell fell plump into a party of Lancers and
+killed four horses. On another occasion more than fifty shells--so I
+heard--fell round the 4.7 gun, and although the gunners were compelled
+to seek cover the gun was absolutely uninjured.
+
+Apart from this interchange of artillery fire the camp was undisturbed.
+The trenches were of course manned day and night, but spare time was
+filled up to some extent by various games. Goal posts were visible here
+and there, and Lord Methuen had offered a challenge cup for "soccer"
+football, the ties of which were being keenly contested.
+
+We took on board a fresh load of sick and wounded men--chiefly the
+former--bound for Wynberg hospital. Just before we left I walked a
+hundred yards from the line and saw the graves of Colonel Downman,
+Lieutenant Campbell, Lieutenant Fox, and a Swede called, I think, Olaf
+Nilsen. The graves were marked by simple wooden crosses: those who were
+enemies in life lay side by side in the gentle keeping of Death, the
+Healer of Strife, for so the Greeks of old time loved to call him.
+
+Soon after leaving the Modder the sky grew black with clouds, the birds
+hid themselves from view and the veldt-cricket ceased from his
+monotonous chirrup. Then all at once the storm burst upon us. The
+lightning played incessantly and sheets of rain blotted out the kopjes
+and the veldt from view. It was in weather like this that our poor
+fellows advanced through the darkness upon the Magersfontein trenches!
+
+At Orange River we halted for some time, and somebody suggested a snake
+hunt in the scrub, but no one seemed very keen about this form of sport.
+The "ringhals" in the veldt are very deadly. I remember speaking to a
+Kaffir about them and asking him if he had known of any fatal bites. He
+replied, pathetically enough: "Yes, sah, a brudder of me--two hours, he
+was dead--mudder and sister and me was there".
+
+Near Enslin a most unhappy accident had occurred. A sentry of the
+Shropshire had seen two figures advancing in the evening towards his
+post, had challenged, and, failing to get the prescribed reply, had
+fired off seven bullets into the two supposed Boers, who turned out to
+be a sergeant and private of his own regiment. By a miracle both these
+wounded men ultimately recovered, but while we were at Enslin we heard
+that the poor sentry was absolutely prostrated by grief and horror over
+the unfortunate affair.
+
+At a station lower down a lighter incident took place. A corporal from
+our train, a Johannesburg man, in taking a short stroll came across
+three Uitlander volunteer recruits. They did not for the moment
+recognise their quondam acquaintance in his uniform, so he called
+"Halt!" The recruits became rigid. "Medical inspection," cried the
+corporal--"Tongues out!" Three tongues were instantly thrust out.
+"Salute your general," was the next order. This was too much. In the
+middle of a spasmodic attempt at a salute a dubious look began to
+spread over the faces of the three victims, which broadened into
+certainty as with a yell they leapt upon their oppressor and made him
+stand them a drink.
+
+At Richmond Road we came across a detachment of Cape Volunteers who were
+practising the capture of kopjes in the neighbourhood of the line. In
+condoling with one of them on the dreariness of the place, he remarked
+that they occasionally shot a hare with a Lee-Metford bullet. This is
+pretty good shooting if the hare is moving. I remember hearing a Boer
+say with apparent _bona fides_ that he invariably shot birds on the wing
+with Mauser bullets. Some of his birds must have looked ugly on the
+table.
+
+As we passed through the Karroo somebody remarked that a Cape newspaper
+had suggested that our yeomen should ultimately settle in the country
+and continue their pastoral life in the veldt-farms of South Africa.
+Evidently the journalist who wrote this article imagines that our
+gallant yeomen were all tillers of the soil. Even if they were, few
+Englishmen will care to exchange the green fields and leafy copses of
+England for the solitude of these dreary, sun-baked plains. Moreover,
+where is the land to come from for any considerable number of such
+settlers? Practically all the land which is worth cultivating in the
+colonies of South Africa and the two Republics is already occupied. Even
+if we confiscate the farms of those colonial rebels actually and legally
+proved to be such, I doubt very much whether the land thus obtained
+would provide for more than three or four hundred settlers. Enthusiasts
+in England who write to the papers on this topic seem often to take for
+granted that the farms of the burghers in the two Republics will at the
+close of the war be presented to any reservist or yeoman who wishes to
+settle in South Africa. But is there any precedent in modern times for
+the confiscation of the private property of a conquered people? Are the
+burghers who survive the struggle to be evicted from their farms and
+left with their wives and children to starvation? This would be a bad
+beginning towards that alleviation of race hatred after the war which
+all good men of every political party earnestly desire. There is, it is
+true, a certain amount of land owned by the State in the Transvaal, but
+if we distribute this _gratis_ to a few hundred individuals we shall be
+depriving ourselves of one of the few sources from which a war-indemnity
+could accrue to the nation as a whole.
+
+Nothing, of course, could be more desirable than the planting in South
+Africa of a large body of honest, hard-working English settlers with
+their wives and families. But there are many difficulties to be overcome
+before the idyllic picture of the reservist surrounded by the orchards
+and cornfields of his upland farm can be realised in actual fact. The
+Dutch farmers of South Africa are as a rule very poor. They rise up
+early and take late rest, and eat the bread of carefulness, but their
+life is one of constant poverty. If we talk of "improvements" we must
+remember that irrigation in such a country is sometimes difficult and
+costly, and light railways demand considerable capital. Who is to
+provide the money for these? I doubt very much if many Englishmen or
+Australians or New Zealanders _who have seen South Africa_ will
+exchange their present homes for the dreary and unproductive routine of
+an African farm.
+
+During the latter part of our run the kindly enthusiasm of the colonists
+was as much in evidence as ever. Offerings of flowers and delicacies
+were again showered upon the wounded. It was amusing to notice how
+truculent some of the ladies were. One of them, as she put her welcome
+basket through the window, remarked _a propos_ of Kruger, Steyn, etc.,
+"Yes, bury them all, bury them all!"
+
+After our sick men had been duly conveyed to the hospital we stayed in
+Capetown till the close of the year. A plentiful supply of English
+newspapers were lying about in the smoking-room of the hotel and it was
+exceedingly painful to read of the violent criticisms passed upon our
+Generals. If journalists in England wish to criticise the behaviour of
+our Generals, let them do so over their own signature when the war is
+over and these servants of the Government can defend themselves fairly.
+During the progress of a campaign a General has practically no
+opportunity of defending himself against newspaper attacks. Military
+success amid the surroundings of a South African campaign is often so
+difficult: criticism in Fleet Street is so easy! Very frequently the
+same man who cheers wildly at Waterloo and labels the outgoing General's
+luggage "To Pretoria" is the first to vituperate the same officer if
+amid the vicissitudes of warfare some measure of defeat falls to his
+lot. Military success does not depend entirely on the devotion or
+capacity of a commander. How cruel were those of the paragraphs which we
+read directed against our own General, Lord Methuen--the only British
+commander who had, if we except Elandslaagte, won any successes up to
+the present. Let the public wait before they so freely condemn a General
+who drove back the enemy in three successive engagements. That
+Magersfontein was a bad reverse is patent to everybody, but the causes
+of that defeat are not nearly so apparent.[C] It is disgraceful that
+English newspapers should, during the progress of a campaign, print
+letters from soldiers at the front which asperse the character and
+conduct of their commanding officers. Publicity of this sort strikes at
+the root of military discipline and common fairness too, for the public
+can scarcely expect a British General to reply in the public Press to
+the letter of a private serving under him!
+
+The bells of the Cathedral tolled mournfully as the old year died. Would
+that its bitter memories could have perished with it! And then from
+steeple and steamship, locomotive and factory, a babel of sound burst
+forth as sirens and bells and whistles welcomed the birth of 1900. Yet,
+as the shrill greetings died away, one heard the tramp of infantry
+through the streets. The Capetown Highlanders--a volunteer
+battalion--were under arms all that night, as a rising of the Dutch had
+been anticipated on New Year's Day. May the new year see the end of this
+cruel strife, and the sun of righteousness arise upon this unhappy land
+with healing in his wings! As one sits in the dimly-lit wards while the
+train tears through the darkness, and nothing breaks the silence save
+the groan of a wounded man or the cries of some poor fellow racked with
+rheumatic fever--at times like these one thinks of many things, past,
+present and future. An ever-deepening gloom of military disaster seemed
+to be spreading itself around us--Magersfontein, Stormberg and the
+latest repulse on the Tugela, a veritable [Greek: trikumia kakon]! Of
+course, in the long run, we _shall_ and _must_ win. But what afterwards?
+Will the vanquished Dutch submit and live in peace and amity with their
+conquerors, or will they preserve the memory of their dead from
+generation to generation, and cherish that unspeakable bitterness which
+they at present feel for England and her people? Verily all these things
+lie on the knees of the gods!
+
+
+
+ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS.
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] Since these lines were written Lord Roberts has personally testified
+to the misuse of the white flag in the Paardeberg fighting.
+
+[B] Cf. _The River War_, by Winston Spencer Churchill, vol. ii., p. 394.
+"It is the habit of the boa-constrictor to besmear the body of its
+victim with a foul slime before he devours it; and there are many people
+in England, and perhaps elsewhere, who seem to be unable to contemplate
+military operations for clear political objects, unless they can cajole
+themselves into the belief that the enemy is utterly and hopelessly
+vile."
+
+[C] _Cf._ Tacitus, _Agricola_, xxvii.: Iniquissima haec bellorum
+condicio est; prospera omnes sibi vindicant, adversa uni imputantur.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of With Methuen's Column on an Ambulance
+Train, by Ernest N. Bennett
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