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diff --git a/25135-8.txt b/25135-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf3ce2b --- /dev/null +++ b/25135-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8466 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, With the Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to +Koomati Poort and Back, by Edward P. Lowry + + +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 the Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to Koomati Poort and Back + + +Author: Edward P. Lowry + + + +Release Date: April 22, 2008 [eBook #25135] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH THE GUARDS' BRIGADE FROM +BLOEMFONTEIN TO KOOMATI POORT AND BACK*** + + +E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Christine P. Travers, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 25135-h.htm or 25135-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/1/3/25135/25135-h/25135-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/1/3/25135/25135-h.zip) + + +Transcriber's note: + + Obvious printer's errors have been corrected; all other + inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling + has been maintained. + + Text enclosed by equal signs was in bold face (=bold=). + + Text enclosed by asterisks was in an old font (*old font*). + + Page 122: "After the treasure ship _Hermione_ had thus been + secured off Cadiz by the _Actĉan_ and the _Favorite_" should + probably be "After the treasure ship _Hermione_ had thus been + secured off Cadiz by the _Active_ and the _Favorite_". + + + + +WITH THE GUARDS' BRIGADE + +FROM BLOEMFONTEIN TO KOOMATI POORT AND BACK + +by THE + +REV. E. P. LOWRY + +Senior Wesleyan Chaplain with the South African Field Force + + + + + + + +London +Horace Marshall & Son +Temple House, Temple Avenue, E.C. +1902 + + + + + TO + THE OFFICERS, + NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS, AND MEN + OF THE GUARDS' BRIGADE + THIS IMPERFECT RECORD OF THEIR HEROIC DARING, AND OF + THEIR YET MORE HEROIC ENDURANCE IS + RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, + IN TOKEN OF SINCEREST ADMIRATION, AND IN GRATEFUL + APPRECIATION OF NUMBERLESS COURTESIES RECEIVED + BY ONE OF THEIR FELLOW TRAVELLERS AND + CHAPLAINS THROUGHOUT THE BOER + WAR OF 1899-1902 + + + + +PREFACE + + +The story of my long tramp with the Guards' Brigade was in part told +through a series of letters that appeared in _The Methodist Recorder_, +_The Methodist Times_, and other papers. The first portion of that +series was republished in "Chaplains in Khaki," as also extensive +selections in "From Aldershot to Pretoria." In this volume, therefore, +to avoid needless repetition, the story begins with our triumphal +occupation of Bloemfontein, and is continued till after the time of +the breaking-up of the Guards' Brigade. + +No one will expect from a chaplain a technical and critical account of +the complicated military operations he witnessed at the seat of war. +For that he has no qualifications. Nor, on the other hand, would it be +quite satisfactory if he wrote only of what the chaplains and other +Christian workers were themselves privileged to do in connection with +the war. That would necessitate great sameness, if not great tameness. +These pages are rather intended to set forth the many-sided life of +our soldiers on active service, their privations and perils, their +failings and their heroisms, their rare endurance, and in some cases +their unfeigned piety; that all may see what manner of men they were +who in so many instances laid down their lives in the defence of the +empire; and amid what stupendous difficulties they endeavoured to do +their duty. + +We owe it to the fact that these men have volunteered in such numbers +for military service that Britain alone of all European nations has +thus far escaped the curse of the conscription. In that sense, +therefore, they are the saviours and substitutes of the entire manhood +of our nation. If they had not consented of their own accord to step +into the breach, every able Englishman now at his desk, behind his +counter, or toiling at his bench, must have run the risk of having had +so to do. We owe to these men more than we have ever realised. It is +but right, therefore, that more than ever they should henceforth live +in an atmosphere of grateful kindliness, of Christian sympathy and +effort. + + "God bless you, Tommy Atkins, + _Here's your country's love to you!_" + +My authorities for the statements made in the introductory chapter are +Fitzpatrick's "Pretoria from Within," and Martineau's "Life of Sir +Bartle Frere." For the verifying or correcting of my own facts and +figures, given later on, I have consulted Conan Doyle's "The Great +Boer War," Stott's "The Invasion of Natal," and almost all other +available literature relating to the subject. + + EDWARD P. LOWRY. + +PRETORIA, _March 1902_. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER + + Page + + THE ULTIMATUM AND WHAT LED TO IT 1 + +Two Notable Dreamers--A Bankrupt Republic--The Man who +Schemed as well as Dreamed--The Gold Plague--Hated Johannesburg +--Boer preparations for War--Coming events cast their shadows +before--The Ultimatum--The Rallying of the Clans--The +Rousing of the Colonies. + + +CHAPTER I + + ON THE WAY TO BLOEMFONTEIN, AND IN IT! 14 + +A capital little Capital--Famished Men and Famine Prices-- +Republican Commandeering--A Touching Story--The Price of +Milk. + + +CHAPTER II + + A LONG HALT 24 + +Refits--Remounts--Regimental Pets--Civilian Hospitality and +Soldiers' Homes--Soldiers' Christian Association Work-- +Rudyard Kipling's Mistake--All Fools' Day--Eastertide in +Bloemfontein--The Epidemic and the Hospitals--All hands and +houses to the rescue--A sad sample of Enteric--Church of +England Chaplains at work. + + +CHAPTER III + + THROUGH WORLDS UNKNOWN AND FROM WORLDS UNKNOWN 45 + +A Pleasure Jaunt--Onwards, but Whither!--That Pom-Pom again +--A Problem not quite solved--A Touching Sight--Rifle Firing +and Firing Farms--Boer Treachery and the White Flag--The Pet +Lamb still lives and learns--Right about face--From Worlds +Unknown--The Bushmen and their Australian Chaplains. + + +CHAPTER IV + + QUICK MARCH TO THE TRANSVAAL 57 + +A Comedy--A Tragedy--A Wide Front and a Resistless Force-- +Brandfort--"Stop the War" Slanders--A Prisoner who tried to +be a Poet--Militant Dutch Reformed Predikants--Our Australian +Chaplain's pastoral experiences--The Welsh Chaplain. + + +CHAPTER V + + TO THE VALSCH RIVER AND THE VAAL 70 + +The Sand River Convention--Railway Wrecking and Repairing-- +The Tale, and Tails, of a Singed Overcoat--Lord Roberts as +Hospital Visitor--President Steyn's Sjambok--A Sunday at last +that was also a Sabbath--Military Police on the March--A +General's glowing eulogy of the Guards--Good News by the way-- +Over the Vaal at last. + + +CHAPTER VI + + A CHAPTER ABOUT CHAPLAINS 88 + +A Chaplain who found the Base became the Front--Pathetic Scenes +in Hospital--A Battlefield Scene no less Pathetic--Look on +this Picture, and on that--A third-class Chaplain who proved a +first-rate Chaplain--Running in the Wrong Man--A Wainman who +proved a real Waggoner--Three bedfellows in a barn--A +fourth-class Chaplain that was also a first-rate Chaplain--A +Parson Prisoner in the hands of the Boers--Caring for the +Wounded--How the Chaplain's own Tent was bullet-riddled--A +Sample Set of Sunday Services. + + +CHAPTER VII + + THE HELPFUL WORK OF THE OFFICIATING CLERGY 103 + +At Cape Town and Wynberg--Saved from Drowning to sink in +Hospital--A Pleasant Surprise--The Soldiers' Reception +Committee--The other way about--Our near kinship to the Boers +--More good Work on our right Flank. + + +CHAPTER VIII + + GETTING TO THE GOLDEN CITY 113 + +An elaborate night toilet--Capturing Clapham Junction--Dear +diet and dangerous--No Wages but the Sjambok--The Gold Mines +--The Soldiers' Share--The Golden City--Astonishing the +Natives. + + +CHAPTER IX + + PRETORIA--THE CITY OF ROSES 127 + +Whit-Monday and Wet Tuesday--"Light after Dark"--Why the +Surrender?--Taking Possession--"Resurgam"--A Striking +Incident--No Canteens and no Crime. + + +CHAPTER X + + PRETORIAN INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS 142 + +The State's Model School--Rev. Adrian Hoffmeyer--The +Waterfall Prisoners--A Soldier's Hymn--A big Supper Party-- +The Soldiers' Home--Mr and Mrs Osborn Howe--A Letter from +Lord Kitchener--Also from Lord Roberts--A Song in praise of +De Wet--Cordua and his Conspiracy--Hospital Work in Pretoria +--The Wear and Tear of War--The Nursing Sisters--A Surprise +Packet--Soldierly Gratitude--_The Ladysmith Lyre_. + + +CHAPTER XI + + FROM PRETORIA TO BELFAST 169 + +The Boer way of saying "Bosh"--News from a far Country +--Further fighting--Touch not, taste not, handle not--More +Treachery and still more--The root of the matter--A Tight Fit +--Obstructives on the Rail--Middleburg and the Doppers-- +August Bank Holiday--Blowing up Trains--A peculiar Mothers' +Meeting--Aggressive Ladies--A Dutch Deacon's Testimony--A +German Officer's Testimony. + + +CHAPTER XII + + THROUGH HELVETIA 190 + +The Fighting near Belfast--Feeding under Fire--A German +Doctor's Confession--Friends in need are Friends indeed--The +Invisible Sniper's Triumph--"He sets the mournful Prisoners +free"--More Boer Slimness--A Boer Hospital--Foreign +Mercenaries--A wounded Australian--Hotel Life on the Trek-- +A Sheep-pen of a Prison--Pretty Scenery and Superb. + + +CHAPTER XIII + + WAR'S WANTON WASTE 210 + +A Surrendered Boer General--Two Unworthy Predikants--Two +Notable Advocates of Clemency--Mines without Men, and Men +without Meat--Much Fat in the Fire--More Fat and Mightier +Flames--A Welcome Lift by the Way--"Rags and Tatters, get ye +gone!"--Destruction and still more Destruction--At Koomati +Poort--Two Notable Fugitives--The Propaganda of the Africander +Bond--Ex-President Steyn--Paul Botha's opinion of this +Ex-President. + + +CHAPTER XIV + + FROM PORTUGUESE AFRICA TO PRETORIA 231 + +Staggering Humanity--Food for Flames--A Crocodile in the +Koomati--A Hippopotamus in the Koomati--A Via Dolorosa-- +Over the Line--Westward Ho!--Ruined Farms and Ruined Firms-- +Farewell to the Guards' Brigade! + + +CHAPTER XV + + A WAR OF CEASELESS SURPRISES 245 + +Exhaustlessness of Boer resources--The Peculiarity of Boer +Tactics--The Surprisers Surprised--Train Wrecking--The +Refugee Camps--The Grit of the Guards--The Irregulars--The +Testimony of the Cemetery--Death and Life in Pretoria. + + +CHAPTER XVI + + PRETORIA AND THE ROYAL FAMILY 261 + +Suzerainty turned to Sovereignty--Prince Christian Victor--A +Royal Funeral--A Touching Story--The Death of the Queen-- +The King's Coronation. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER + +THE ULTIMATUM AND WHAT LED TO IT + + +When the late Emperor of the French was informed, on the eve of the +Franco-German War, that not so much as a gaiter button would be found +wanting if hostilities were at once commenced, soon all France found +itself, with him, fatally deceived. But when the Transvaal Burghers +boasted that they were "ready to give the British such a licking as +they had never had before," it proved no idle vaunting. Whether the +average Boer understood the real purpose for which he was called to +arms seems doubtful; but his leaders made no secret of their intention +to drive the hated "Roineks" into the sea, and to claim, as the +notorious "Bond" frankly put it, "all South Africa for the +Africanders." The Rev. Adrian Hoffmeyer of the Dutch Reformed Church +freely admits that the watchword of the Western Boers was "Tafelburg +toc," that is, "To Table Mountain"; and that their commandant said to +him, "We will not rest till our flag floats there." + +Similarly on the eastern side it was their confident boast that +presently they would be "eating fish and drinking coffee at sea-side +Durban." There would thus be one flag floating over all South Africa; +and that flag not the Union Jack but its supplanter. + +[Sidenote: _Two notable Dreamers._] + +Now the Dutch have undoubtedly as absolute a right to dream dreams of +wide dominion as we ourselves have; and this particular dream had no +less undeniably been the chief delight of some among them for more +than a decade twice told. + +Even PRESIDENT BRAND, of the Orange Free State, referring to Lord +Carnarvon's pet idea of a federated South Africa, said: "His great +scheme is a united South Africa _under the British Flag_. He dreams of +it and so do I; but _under the flag of South Africa_." Much in the +same strain PRESIDENT BURGERS, of the Transvaal Republic, when +addressing a meeting of his countrymen in Holland, said: "In that +far-off country the inhabitants dream of a future in which the people +of Holland will recover their former greatness." He was convinced that +within half a century there would be in South Africa a population of +eight millions; all speaking the Dutch language; a _second_ Holland, +as energetic and liberty-loving as the first; but greater in extent, +and greater in power. + +[Sidenote: _A Bankrupt Republic._] + +Nevertheless, in this far-seeing President's day, the Transvaal, after +fourteen years of doubtful independence, reached in 1877 its lowest +depths of financial and political impotency. Its valiant burghers were +vanquished in one serious conflict with the natives; and, emboldened +thereby, the Zulus were audaciously threatening to eat them up, when +Shepstone appeared upon the scene. "I thank my father Shepstone for +his restraining message," said Cetewayo. "The Dutch have tired me out; +and I intended to fight with them once, _only once_, and to drive them +over the Vaal." The jails were thrown open because food was no longer +obtainable for the prisoners. The State officials, including the +President, knew not where to secure their stipends, and were +hopelessly at variance among themselves. The Transvaal one-pound notes +were selling for a single shilling, and the State treasury contained +only twelve shillings and sixpence wherewith to pay the interest on a +comparatively heavy State debt, besides almost innumerable other +claims. + +No wonder, therefore, that Burgers, in disgust, declared he would +sooner be a policeman under a strong government. "Matters are as bad +as they ever can be," said he; "they cannot be worse!" Hence its +annexation, in 1877, by Sir Theophilus Shepstone, without the +assistance of a solitary soldier, but with the eager assent of +thousands of the burghers, bade fair to prove the salvation of the +Transvaal, and probably would have done, had the easily-to-be-obtained +consent of the Volksraad been at once sought, and Lord Carnarvon's +promise of speedy South African Federation, together with a generous +measure of local self-government, been promptly redeemed. But European +complications, with serious troubles on the Indian frontier, caused +interminable delay in the maturing of this scheme; and as the +disappointed Boers grew restive, a "Hold your Jaw" Act was passed, +making it a penal offence for any Transvaaler even to discuss such +questions. In our simplicity we sit upon the safety valve and then +wonder why the boiler bursts. To the "Hold your Jaw" policy the Boer +reply was an appeal to arms; and at Majuba in the spring of 1881 their +rifles said what their jaws were forbidden to say. Majuba was indeed a +mere skirmish, an affair of outposts; but Magersfontein and Spion Kop +are the legitimate sons of Majuba. + +[Sidenote: _The man who Schemed as well as Dreamed._] + +Napoleon, with possibly a veiled reference to himself, once said to +the French people, "You have the men, but where is _The Man_?" The +Boers in the day of their uprising against British rule found "The +Man" in PAUL STEPHANUS KRUGER. To all South Africa a veritable "man of +Destiny" has he proved to be; and for eighteen successive years, as +their honoured President he has ruled his people with an absoluteness +no European potentate could possibly approach. By birth a British +subject, and for a brief while after the annexation a paid official of +the British Government, he yet seems all his life to have been a +consistent hater of all things British. When only ten years old, a +tattered, bare-legged, unlettered lad, he joined "The great Trek" +which in 1837 sought on the dangerous and dreary veldt beyond the Vaal +a refuge from British rule. He it was who, surviving the terrors of +those tragic times and trained in that stern school, became like Brand +and Burgers a dreamer of dreams. He lived to baffle by his superior +shrewdness, or slimness, all the arts of English diplomacy. In his +later years this President manifestly deemed himself chosen of Heaven +to make an end of British rule from the Zambesi to the sea. "The +Transvaal shall never be shut up in a kraal," said he. A Sovereign +International State he declared it was, or should be, with free access +to the ocean; and how astonishingly near he came to the accomplishment +of these bold aims we now know to our exceeding cost. Nevertheless, to +this persistent dreamer of dreams the two South African Republics owe +their extinction; while the British Empire owes to him more than to +any other living man its fast approaching Federation. + +With surprising secrecy and success the Transvaal officials prepared +for the inevitable conflict which the attempted fulfilment of such +bold dreams involved, and in that preparation were rendered essential +aid, first by the discovery, not far from Pretoria, of the richest +goldfield in the whole world, which soon provided them with the +necessary means; and next by the Jameson Raid, which provided them +with the necessary excuse. + +To Steevens, the lamented correspondent of _The Daily Mail_, a Dopper +editor and predikant said, "I do not think the Transvaal Government +has been wise, and I told them they made a great mistake when they let +people come in to the mines. _This gold will ruin you; to remain +independent you must remain poor_"! Perhaps so! but the modern world +is not built that way. No trekkers nowadays may take possession of +half a continent, forbid all others to come in, and right round the +frontier post up notices "Trespassers will be prosecuted." Even +Robinson Crusoe had not long landed on his desolate isle when he was +startled by the sight of a strange footprint on the seashore sand. +Welcome or unwelcome, somebody else had come! Crusoe and his man +Friday might set up no exclusive rights in a heritage that for a brief +while seemed all their own. The Boer with his Kaffir bondsman has been +compelled to learn the same distasteful lesson. The wealth of the +Witwaters Rand was for those who could win it; and for that stupendous +task the Boer had neither the necessary aptitude nor the necessary +capital. It was not, therefore, for him to echo the cry of Edie +Ochiltree when he found hid treasure amid the ruins of St Roth's +Abbey--"Nae halvers and quarters,--hale o' mine ain and nane o' my +neighbours." The bankrupt Boer had to let his enterprising neighbour +in to do the digging, or get no gold at all. + +[Sidenote: _Hated Johannesberg._] + +Nevertheless, the upspringing as by magic of the great city of +Johannesberg in the midst of the dreary veldt filled Kruger's soul +with loathing. When once asked to permit prospecting for minerals +around Pretoria, he replied, "Look at Johannesberg! We have enough +gold and gold seekers in the country already!" The presence of this +ever-growing multitude was felt to be a perpetual menace to Dutch, and +more especially to Dopper supremacy. So, in his frankly confessed +detestation of them, their Dopper President for five years at a +stretch never once came near them, and when at last he ventured to +halt within twenty miles of their great city it was thus he commenced +his address to the crowd at Krugersdorp:--"Burghers, friends, +_thieves_, _murderers_, _newcomers_, and others." The reek of the Rand +was evidently even then in his nostrils; and the mediĉval saint that +could smell a heretic nine miles off was clearly akin to Kruger. +Unfortunately for him the "newcomers" outnumbered the old by five to +one, and were a bewilderingly mixed assortment, representing almost +every nationality under the whole heaven. In what had suddenly become +the chief city of the Transvaal, with a white population of over +50,000, only seven per cent. were Dutch, and sixty-five per cent. were +British. These aliens from many lands paid nearly nine-tenths of the +taxes, yet were persistently denied all voice alike in national and +municipal affairs. "Rights!" exclaimed the angry President when +appealed to for redress, "Rights! They shall win them only over my +dead body!" At whatever cost he was stubbornly resolved that as long +as he lived the tail should still wag the dog instead of the dog the +tail; and that a continually dwindling minority of simple farmer folk +should rule an ever-growing majority of enterprising city men. Though +the political equality of all white inhabitants was the underlying +condition on which self-government was restored to the Transvaal, what +the Doppers had won by bullets they would run no risk of losing +through the ballot box, and so one measure of exclusion after another +rapidly became law. When reminded that in other countries Outlanders +were welcomed and soon given the franchise, the shrewd old President +replied, "Yes! but in other countries the newcomers do not _outswamp_ +the old burghers." The whole grievance of the Boers is neatly summed +up in that single sentence; and so far it proves them well entitled to +our respectful pity. + +It was, however, mere fatalism resisting fate when to a deputation of +complaining Outlanders Kruger said "Cease holding public meetings! Go +back and tell your people I will never give them anything!" Similarly +when in 1894 35,000 adult male Outlanders humbly petitioned that they +might be granted some small representation in the councils of the +Republic, which would have made loyal burghers of them all, the +short-sighted President contended that he might just as well haul down +the Transvaal flag at once. There was a strong Dopper conviction that +to grant the franchise on any terms to this alien crowd would speedily +degrade the Transvaal into a mere Johannesberg Republic; and they +would sooner face any fate than that; so the Raad, with shouts of +derision, rejected the Outlanders' petition as a saucy request to +commit political suicide. They felt no inclining that way! +Nevertheless one of their number ventured to say, "Now our country is +gone. Nothing can settle this but fighting!" And that man was a +prophet. + +[Sidenote: _Boer preparations for War._] + +For that fighting the President and his Hollander advisers began to +prepare with a timeliness and thoroughness we can but admire, however +much in due time we were made to smart thereby. Through the suicide of +a certain State official it became known that in 1894--long therefore +before the Raid--no less than £500,000 of Transvaal money had been +sent to Europe for secret uses. Those secret uses, however, revealed +themselves to us in due time at Magersfontein and Colenso. The +Portuguese customs entries at Delagoa Bay will certify that from 1896 +to 1898 at least 200,000 rifles passed through that port to the +Transvaal. It was an unexampled reserve for states so small. The +artillery, too, these peace-loving Boers laid up in store against the +time to come, not only exceeded in quantity, but also _outranged_, all +that British South Africa at that time possessed. Their theology might +be slightly out-of-date, but in these more material things the Boers +were distinctly up-to-date. For many a week after the war began both +the largest and the smallest shells that went curving across our +battlefields were theirs; while many of our guns were mere popguns +firing smoky powder, and almost as useless as catapults. It was not a +new Raid these costly weapons were purchased to repel; neither men nor +nations employ sledge-hammers to drive home tinned-tacks. It was a +mighty Empire they were intended to assail; and a mighty Republic they +were intended to create. + +When the fateful hour arrived for the hurling of the Ultimatum, in +very deed "not a gaiter button" was found wanting on their side; and +every fighting man was well within reach of his appointed post. +Fierce-looking farmers from the remotest veldt, and sleek urban +Hollanders, German artillerists, French generals, Irish-Americans, +Colonial rebels, all were ready. The horse and his rider, prodigious +supplies of food stuffs, and every conceivable variety of warlike +stores, were planted at sundry strategic points along the Natal and +Cape Colony frontiers. War then waited on a word and that word was +soon spoken! + +[Sidenote: _Coming events cast their shadows before._] + +As early as September 18th, 1899, the Transvaal sent an unbending and +defiant message to the British Government. On September 21st the +Orange Free State, after forty years of closest friendship with +England, officially resolved to cast in her lot with the Transvaal +against England. On September 29th through railway communication +between Natal and the Transvaal was stopped by order of the Transvaal +Government. On September 30th twenty-six military trains left Pretoria +and Johannesberg for the Natal border; and that same day saw 16,000 +Boers thus early massed near Majuba Hill. Yet at that very time the +British forces in South Africa were absolutely and absurdly inadequate +not merely for defiance but even for defence. On October 3rd, a full +week before the delivery of the Ultimatum, the Transvaal mail train to +the Cape was stopped at the Transvaal frontier, and the English gold +it carried, valued at £500,000, was seized by the Transvaal +Government. Whether that capture be regarded merely as a premature act +of war or as highway robbery, it leaves no room for doubt as to which +side in this quarrel is the aggressor; and when at last the challenge +came, even chaplains could with a clear conscience, though by no means +with a light heart, set out for the seat of war. + +[Sidenote: _The Ultimatum._] + +Surely never since the world began was such an Ultimatum presented to +one of the greatest Powers on earth by what were supposed to be two of +the weakest. At the very time that armed and eager burghers were thus +massing threateningly on our frontiers, the Queen it will be +remembered was haughtily commanded to withdraw from those frontiers +the pitifully few troops then guarding them; to recall, in the sight +of all Europe, every soldier that in the course of the previous +twelvemonth had been sent to our South African Colonies; and solemnly +to pledge herself, at Boer bidding, that those then on the sea should +not be suffered to set foot on African soil. Moreover, so urgent was +this audacious demand that Pretoria allowed London only forty-eight +hours in which to decide what should be its irrevocable doom, to lay +aside the pride of empire, or pay the price of it in blood. + +Superb in its audacity was that demand: and, if war was indeed fated +to come, this daring challenge was for England as serviceable a deed +as unwitting foemen ever wrought. + +[Sidenote: _The rallying of the Clans._] + +It put a sudden end for a season to all controversy. It rallied in +defence of our Imperial heritage almost every class, and every creed. +It thrilled us all, like the blast of the warrior horn of Roderick +Dhu, which transformed the very heather of the Highlands into fighting +men. As the soldiers' laureate puts it "Duke's son and cook's son," +with rival haste responded to the martial call. To serve their +assailed and sorrowing Queen, royal court and rural cottage gave +freely of their best. It intensified the patriotism of us all; and +probably never, since the days of the Armada, had the United Kingdom +of Great Britain and Ireland found itself so essentially united. + +[Sidenote: _The rousing of the Colonies._] + +The effect of the Ultimatum throughout the length and breadth of +Greater Britain was no less remarkable than its first results at home. +Not only the two Colonies that, alas, were soon to be overrun by +hostile hordes, and mercilessly looted, but also those farthest +removed from the fray, instantly took fire, and burned with +imperialistic zeal that stinted neither men nor means. + + "A varied host, from kindred realms they come, + Brethren in arms, but rivals in renown." + +The declaration of war united the ends of the earth in a common +enthusiasm, and sent a strange throb of brotherhood right round the +globe. The whole empire at last awoke to a sense of its essential +oneness. Australians and Canadians, men from Burma, from India and +Ceylon, speedily joined hands on the far distant veldt in defence of +what they proudly felt to be their heritage as well as ours. Their +presence in the very forefront of the fray betokened the advent of a +new era. Nobler looking men, or men of a nobler spirit, were never +brought together at the unfurling of any banner. They were the outcome +of competitions strangely keen and close. Sydney for instance called +for five hundred volunteers; but within a few days _three thousand_ +five hundred valiant men were clamouring for acceptance. So was it in +Montreal. So it was everywhere. Often too at no slight financial +sacrifice was the post of peril sought. As a type of many more, I was +told of an Australian doctor who paid a substitute £300 to carry on +his practice, while he as a private joined the fighting ranks and +faced cheerily the manifold privations of the hungry veldt. Rich is +the empire that owns such sons; and myriads of them in the hour of +impending conflict were ready to say-- + + "War? We would rather peace! But, MOTHER, if fight we must, + There are none of your sons on whom you can lean with a surer trust. + Bone of your bone are we; and in death would be dust of your dust!" + +It was the Ultimatum that thus linked to each other and to us those +loyal hearts that longed to keep the empire whole; and thus President +Kruger in his blindness became Greater Britain's boundless benefactor. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +ON THE WAY TO BLOEMFONTEIN, AND IN IT + + + "For old times' sake + Don't let enmity live; + For old times' sake + Say you will forget and forgive. + Life is too short for quarrel; + Hearts are too precious to break; + Shake hands and let us be friends + For old times' sake!" + +So gaily sang the Scots Guards as, in hope of speedy triumph and +return, we left Southampton for Kruger's Land on the afternoon of +October 21st, 1899. + +[Illustration: _From a photograph by Mr Westerman_ + +A Magersfontein Boer Trench.] + +Our last evening in England brought us the welcome tidings that on +that day, the Boers who had thus early invaded Natal with a view to +annexing it, had been badly beaten at Talana Hill. That seemed a good +beginning; and it sent us to sea with lightsome hearts; nor was it +till long after we landed in South Africa that we learned what had +really taken place during our cheerful voyage;--that on the very day +we embarked, the battle of Elandslaagte had been won by our +hard-pressed comrades, but at a cost of 260 casualties; and that the +very next day--The _Nubia's_ first Sunday at sea--Dundee with all its +stores had perforce been abandoned by 4000 of our retreating troops, +for whose relief, two days later, Tinta Inyoni was fought by General +French; that on Oct. 29th while we were spending a tranquil Sunday +in St Vincent's harbour there commenced the struggle that culminated +in the Nicholson's Nek disaster; and that on Nov. 13th, while we were +awaiting orders in Table Bay, the capture of our armoured train at +Chieveley took place. Clearly it was blissful ignorance that begat our +hopes of brief absence from home, and of the easy vanquishing of our +hardy foes! + +Two days later I reached the Orange River; and, on the courteous +suggestion of Lord Methuen, was attached to the mess of the 3rd +Grenadier Guards, as was also my "guide, philosopher and friend" the +Rev. T. F. Falkner our Anglican chaplain. Here I left my invaluable +helper, Army Scripture Reader Pearce; while, with the Guards' Brigade +now made complete by the arrival of the 1st and 2nd Coldstream +battalions, I pushed forward to be present at the four battles which +followed in startlingly swift succession, and which I have already +with sufficient fulness described in "Chaplains in Khaki," viz. +Belmont on Nov. 23rd, Graspan on Nov. 25th, Modder River on Nov. 28th, +and the Magersfontein defeat on Dec. 11th, for which, however, the +next Amajuba Day--Feb. 27th, 1900--brought us ample compensation in +the surrender of Cronje and his 4000 veterans, with the ever memorable +sequel to that surrender, the occupation of Bloemfontein by the +British forces. + +[Sidenote: _A capital little Capital._] + +It would probably be difficult to find anywhere under the sun a more +prosperous and promising little city, or one better governed than +Bloemfontein, which the Guards entered on the afternoon of Tuesday, +March 13th, 1900. There is not a scrap of cultivated land anywhere +around it. It is very literally a child of the veldt; and still clings +strangely to its nursing mother. Indeed the veldt is not only round +about it on every side, but even asserts its presence in many an +unfinished street. You are still on the veldt in the midst of the +city; and the characteristic kopje is in full view here, there, and +everywhere. On one side of the city is the old fort built by the +British more than fifty years ago, and soon after vacated by them, but +it is erected of course on a kopje, on one slope of which, part of the +city now stands. On the opposite side of the town is a new fort; but +that also crowns a kopje. This metropolis of what was then the Orange +Free State, thus intensely African in its situation and surroundings, +was nevertheless an every way worthy centre of a worthy State. + +Many of its public buildings are notably fine, as for instance the +Government Offices over which it was my memorable privilege to see the +Union Jack unceremoniously hoisted; and the Parliament Hall, on the +opposite side of the same road, erected some twelve years ago at a +cost of £80,000. The Grey College, which accommodates a hundred boy +boarders, is an edifice of which almost any city would be proud; and +"The Volk's Hospital," that is "The People's Hospital," is also an +altogether admirable institution. From the commencement of the war +this was used for the exclusive benefit of sick or wounded Boers and +of captured Britishers who were in the same sore plight. Among these I +found many English officers, who all bore witness to the kind and +skilful treatment they had uniformly received from the hospital +authorities; but when the Boer forces hurried away from Bloemfontein +they were compelled to leave their sick and wounded behind; with the +result that as at Jacobsdal, the English patients at once ceased to be +prisoners, while the Boer patients at once became prisoners. So do the +wheels of war and fortune go whirling round! + +With a white population of under ten thousand all told, a large +proportion is of British descent; and presently a positively +surprising number of Union Jacks sprang forth from their hiding-places +and fluttered merrily all over the town. Everybody was thankful that +no bombardment had taken place; but many even of the British residents +regarded with sincere regret the final extinction of the independence +of this once self-governed and well-governed Republic. + +[Sidenote: _Famished men and famine prices._] + +The story has now everywhere been told of the soldier lad who, when he +caught sight of his first swarm of locusts, wonderingly exclaimed as +he noted their peculiar colour, "I'm blest if the butterflies out here +haven't put on khaki." Bloemfontein very soon did the same. Khaki of +various shades and various degrees of dirtiness saluted me at every +point. Khaki men upon khaki men swarmed everywhere. Brigade followed +brigade in apparently endless succession; but all clad in the same +irrepressible colour, till it became quite depressing. No wonder the +townspeople soon took to calling the soldiers "locusts," not merely +out of compliment to the gay colour of their costume, but also as +aptly descriptive of their apparent countlessness. They seemed like +the sands by the seashore, innumerable. They bade fair to swallow up +the place. + +That last expression, however, suggests yet another point of +resemblance. For longer than these men seemed able to remember, the +order of the day had been "long marches and short rations." When, +therefore, they reached this welcome halting-place they were simply +famished; insatiably hungry, they eagerly spent their last coin in +buying up whatever provisions had fortunately escaped the +commandeering of the Boers. There was no looting, no lawlessness of +any kind; and many a civilian gave his last loaf to a starving +trooper. There was soon a famine in the place and no train to bring us +fresh supplies. All the bakeries of the town were commandeered by the +new government for the benefit of the troops; but like the five loaves +of the gospel story, "What were they among so many?" I saw the men, +like swarms of bees, clustering around the doors and clambering on to +the window-sills of these establishments, enjoying apparently the +smell of the baking bread, and cherishing the vain hope of being able +to purchase a loaf when at last the ovens were emptied. + +So too at the grocers' shops, a "tail" was daily formed outside the +door, which at intervals was cautiously opened to let in a few at a +time of these clamorous customers, who presently retired by the back +door, laden more or less with such articles as happened to be still in +store; but muttering as they came out "this is like Klondyke," with +evident reference not to Klondyke gold, but to Klondyke prices. It was +not the traders that needed protection as against the troopers, but +the troopers that needed protection as against some of the traders. +Even proclamation prices were alarmingly high, as for instance, a +shilling for a pound of sugar. Sixpence was the popular price for a +cup of tea, often without milk or sugar. The quartermaster whose tent +I shared was charged four shillings for a single "whisky and soda," +and was informed that if he wanted a bottle of whisky the price would +be thirty-five shillings. On such terms tradesmen who, before the war, +had laid in large and semi-secret stores now reaped a magnificent +harvest. One provision merchant was reported to have thus sold £700 +worth of goods before breakfast on a certain Saturday morning, in +which case he would perhaps reckon that on that particular date his +breakfast had been well earned. It probably meant in part a wholesale +army order; but even in that case it would be for cash, and not a case +of commandeering after the fashion of the Boers. + +A crippled Scandinavian tailor told me that his constant charge, +whether to Colonels or Kaffirs, was two shillings an hour; and that he +thought his needle served him badly if it did not bring him in £6 a +week. About the same time a single-handed but nimble-fingered barber +claimed to have made £100 in one week out of the invading British; but +his victims declared that his price was a shilling for a shave and two +shillings for a clip. At those figures the seemingly impossible comes +to pass--if only customers are plentiful enough. Oh for a business in +Bloemfontein! + +[Sidenote: _Republican Commandeering._] + +The Republicans of South Africa have always been credited with an +ingrained objection to paying rates and taxes even in war time; but +they frankly recognise the reasonableness of governmental +commandeering, and apparently submit to it without a murmur; +especially when it hits most heavily the stranger within their gates. +Accordingly, the war-law of the Orange Free State authorises the +commandeering without payment of every available man, and of all +available material of whatsoever kind within thirty days of war being +declared. During those thirty days, therefore, the war-broom sweeps +with a most commendable thoroughness; and all the more so, because +after that date everything must be paid for at market values. Why pay, +if being a little "previous" will serve the same purpose? + +A gentleman farmer whom it was my privilege to visit, some fifteen +miles out from Bloemfontein, told me he had been thus commandeered to +the extent of about £3100; the value of waggons, oxen, and produce, he +was compelled gratuitously to supply to his non-taxing government. A +specially prosperous store-keeper in the town was said to have had +£600 worth of goods taken from him in the same way; but then, of +course, he had the compensating comfort of feeling that he was not +being taxed! Even Republics cannot make war quite without cost; and by +this time some are beginning to discover that it is the most ruinously +expensive of all pursuits. + +The Republican conscription was equally wide reaching; for every +capable man between the ages of sixteen and sixty was required to +place himself and his rifle at the service of the State. Even sons of +British parentage, being burghers, were not allowed to cross the +border and so escape this, in many a case, hateful obligation. Their +life was forfeit, if they sought to evade the dread duties of the +fighting line, and refused to level reluctant rifles against men +speaking the same mother tongue. Some few, however, secured the rare +privilege of acting simply as despatch riders, or as members of the +Boer ambulance corps. + +[Sidenote: _A touching story._] + +One of the sons of my Methodist farmer friend had been thus employed +at Magersfontein, but had now seized the first opportunity of taking +the oath and returning to his home. With his own lips he told me that +on that fatal field he had found the body of an English officer, in +whose cold hand lay an open locket, and in the locket two portraits; +one the portrait of a fair English lady, and the other that of a still +fairer English child. So, before the eyes of one dying on the +blood-stained veldt did visions of home and loved ones flit. Life's +last look turned thither! In war, the cost in cash is clearly the cost +that is of least consequence. Who can appraise aright the price of +that one locket? + +Yet, appositely enough, as, that same evening, I was being driven back +to town in a buggy and four, a little maiden--perchance like the +maiden of the locket--wonderingly exclaimed as she watched the sun +sink in radiance behind a neighbouring hill: "Why! just look! The sky +is English!" "How so?" asked her father. "Can't you see?" said the +child; "it is all red, white, and blue!" which indeed it was! + +[Sidenote: _The price of milk._] + +But our title to this newly-conquered territory was by no means quite +so unchallenged as such a complacent and complimentary sky might have +led one to suppose. The heavens above us were for the moment English, +but scarcely the earth beneath us; and certainly not the land beyond +us. Great even thus far had been the price of conquest; but the full +sum was not yet ready for the reckoning. No new Magersfontein awaited +us, and no new Paardeberg; but the incessant risking of precious life, +and much loss thereof in other fashions than those of the battlefield. + +Possibly one of the most distressing cases of that kind occurred only +two days after near Karee, a few miles beyond Bloemfontein. The +officers of the Guards had become famous for their care of their men, +and for their constant endeavour to keep them well served with +supplementary supplies of food. They foraged right and left, and +bargained with the farmers for all available milk and butter and +cheese and bread. Men on the march cannot always live on rations only, +and good leadership looks after the larder as well as after the lives +of the men. On this gracious errand there rode forth from the camp as +fine a group of regimental officers as could possibly be found; to +wit, the colonel of the Grenadiers, his adjutant and transport officer +who, beyond most, were choice young men and goodly; also the colonel +of one of the Coldstream battalions, and one orderly. Hiding near a +neighbouring kopje was a small body of Zarps watching for a chance of +sniping or capturing a seceding Boer. Of them our officers caught +sight, and with characteristic British pluck sought to capture them. +But on the kopje the Boers found effectual cover, plied their rifles +vigorously and presently captured all their would-be captors. As at +Belmont, and on the same day of the month, the colonel of the +Grenadiers was wounded in two places; the transport officer, the son +of one of our well-known generals, lost his right arm; the adjutant, a +younger brother of a noted earl, was shot through the heart, and the +life of the other colonel was for a while despaired of. It was in some +senses the saddest disaster that had yet befallen the Guards' Brigade; +and it was the outcome not of some decisive battle, but of a kindly +quest for milk. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A LONG HALT AT BLOEMFONTEIN + + +[Sidenote: _Refits._] + +Before we could resume our march every commissariat store needed to be +replenished, and every man required a new outfit from top to toe. If +the march of the infantry had been much further prolonged we should +have degenerated into a literally bootless expedition, for some of the +men reached Bloemfontein with bare if not actually bleeding feet, +while their nether garments were in a condition that beggared and +baffled all description. Once smart Guardsmen had patched their +trousers with odd bits of sacking, and in one case the words "Lime +Juice Cordial" were still plainly visible on the sacking. So came that +"cordial" and its victorious wearer into the vanquished capital. +Others despairingly gave up all further attempts at patching, having +repeatedly proved, as the Scriptures say, that the rent is thereby +made worse. So they were perforce content to go about in such a +condition of deplorable dilapidation as anywhere else would inevitably +result in their being "run in" for flagrant disregard of public +decorum. + +The Canadians took rank from the first as among the very finest troops +in all the field, and adopted as their own the following singular +marching song:-- + + "We will follow ROBERTS, + Follow, follow, follow; + Anywhere, everywhere, + We will follow him!" + +Brave fellows that they were, they meant it absolutely, utterly, even +unto death. But thus without boots and other yet more essential +belongings, how could they? + +[Sidenote: _Remounts._] + +The cavalry was in equally serious plight. It is said that Sir George +White took with him into Ladysmith over 10,000 mules and horses, but +brought away at the close of the siege less than 1100. Many of the +rest had meanwhile been transformed into beefsteak and sausages. We +also, during the month that brought us to Bloemfontein had used up a +similar number. A cavalryman told me that out of 540 horses belonging +to his regiment only 50 were left; and in that case the sausage-making +machine was in no degree responsible for the diminished numbers. Yet a +cavalryman without a horse is as helpless as a cripple without a +crutch. It was therefore quite clear that most of our cavalry +regiments would have to remain rooted to the spot till their remounts +arrived. + +Not until May 1st was another forward move found possible; and during +one of those weeks of waiting there happened the Sanna's Post +disaster, a grievous surrender of some of our men at Reddersburg, a +serious little fight at Karee, and a satisfactory skirmish at Boshof, +which made an end of General de Villebois-Mareuil and his commando of +foreign supporters of the Boers; but in none of these affairs were +the Guards involved. + +[Sidenote: _Regimental Pets._] + +Meanwhile the men during their few leisure hours found it no easy +matter to amuse themselves. In the rush for Bloemfontein, footballs +and cricket bats were all left behind. There were no canteens and no +open-air concerts. The only pets the men had left were pet animals, +and of them they made the most. The Welsh, of course, had their goat +to go before them, and were prouder of it than ever. The Canadians at +Belmont bought a chimpanzee which still grinned at them from the top +of its pole in front of their lines, and with patient perseverance, +still did all the mischief its limited resources would permit; whereat +the men were mightily pleased. The adjoining battalion boasted of +possessing a yet more charming specimen of the monkey tribe; a mite of +a monkey, and for a monkey almost a beauty; but as full of mischief as +his bigger brother. + +Strange to tell, the Grenadiers' pet was, of all things in the world, +a pet lamb; and of all persons in the world, the cook of the officers' +mess was its kindly custodian. "Mary had a little lamb," says the +nursery rhyme. So had we! + + "Its fleece was white as snow; + And everywhere that Mary went + That lamb was sure to go!" + +So was it with ours! Walking amid camp-kettles, and dwelling among +sometimes cruelly hungry men that lamb was jokingly called our +"Emergency Rations," but it would have had to be a very serious +emergency, indeed, to cut short that pet's career. Yet a lamb thus +playing with soldiers, and marching with them from one camping ground +to another, was well-nigh as odd a sight as I have ever yet seen. + +[Sidenote: _Civilian Hospitality and Soldiers' Homes._] + +During our six weeks of waiting I was for the most part the guest of +the Rev. Stuart and Mrs Franklin, whose kindness to me was great with +an exceeding greatness. Ever to be remembered also was the hospitality +of the senior steward of the Wesleyan Church, who happened, like +myself, to be a Cornishman; and from whose table there smiled upon me +quite familiarly a bowl of real Cornish cream. Whole volumes would not +suffice to express the emotions aroused in my Cornish breast by that +sight of sights in a strange land. + +Through the kindness of these true friends we were enabled to open the +Wesleyan Sunday School as a Soldiers' Home where the men were welcome +to sing and play, read, and write letters to their hearts' content. +Here also every afternoon from 200 to 700 soldiers were supplied with +an excellent cup of tea and some bread and butter for threepence each. +A threepenny piece is there called "a tickey," and till the troops +arrived that was the lowest coin in use. An Orange Free Stater scorned +to look at a penny; but a British soldier's pay is constructed on +other lines; and what he thought of our "tickey" tea, the following +unsolicited testimonial laughingly proves. It is an unfinished letter +picked up in the street, and was probably dropped as the result of a +specially hurried departure, when some passing officer looked in and +shouted "Lights out!" + + BLOEMFONTEIN, O.F.S. + + DEAR MOTHER,--I can't say I care much for this place. Nothing to + see but kopjes all round; and if you want to buy anything, by + Jove, you have to pay a pretty price. For instance, cup of tea, + 6d.; bottle of ginger beer, 6d.; cigarettes, 1s. a packet. But at + the Soldiers' Home a cup of tea is only 3d. Thanks to those in + authority, the S.H. is what I call our "haven of rest." I shan't + be sorry when I come home to _our own_ haven of rest, as it is + impossible to buy any luxuries on our little pay. Just fancy, a + small tin of jam, 2s. It's simply scandalous; and the inhabitants + seem to think Tommy has a mint of money. + +[Sidenote: _S.C.A. Work._] + +After a while similar Homes were opened in various parts of the town; +but this long pause in our progress was a veritable harvest-time for +all Christian workers; and especially for those of the S.C.A., who +planted two magnificent marquees in the very midst of the men, and had +the supreme satisfaction of seeing them crowded night after night and +almost all day long. Every Sunday morning I was privileged to conduct +one of my Parade Services under their sheltering canvas; and many a +time in the course of each succeeding week took part in their +enthusiastic religious gatherings. + +Here, as at Modder River, secular song was nowhere, while sacred song +became all and in all. I am told that sometimes on the march, +sometimes amid actual battle scenes, our lads caught up and encouraged +themselves by chanting some more or less appropriate music-hall ditty. +One battalion when sending a specially large consignment of whizzing +bullets across into the Boer lines did so to the accompanying tune of + + "You have to have 'em + Whether you want 'em or no!" + +Another fighting group, when specially hard pressed, began to sing +"Let 'em all come!" But in the Bloemfontein camps I seldom heard any +except songs of quite another type; and on one occasion was greatly +touched by listening to a Colonial singing a sweet but unfamiliar +melody about + + "The pages that I love + In the Bible my mother gave to me." + +Even among men on active service, many of whom are nearing mid-life, +and have long been married, mother's influence is still a supremely +potent thing! + +[Sidenote: _Rudyard Kipling's Mistake._] + +Partly as the result of influences such as these, and partly as the +result of prohibitory liquor laws, we became the most absolutely sober +army Europe ever put into the field. Prior to our coming, no liquor +might at any price be sold to a native; and there were in the whole +country no beer shops, but only hotels bound to supply bed and board +when required, and not liquor only, with the result that this fair +land has long been almost as sober as it is sunny. + +The sale of intoxicants to the troops was equally restricted, and no +liquor could be obtained by them except as a special favour on special +terms. Absolutely the only concert or public meeting held in +Bloemfontein while the Guards were in the neighbourhood was in +connection with the Army Temperance Association, Lord Roberts himself +presiding; and concerning him the soldiers playfully said, "He has +water on the brain." Through all this weary time of waiting our troops +were as temperate as Turks, and much more chaste; so that the +soldiers' own pet laureate is reported to have declared, whether +delightedly or disgustedly he alone knows, that this outing of our +army in South Africa was none other than a huge Sunday School treat; +so incomprehensibly proper was even the humblest private and so +inconceivably unlike the Tommy Atkins described in his "Barrack-room +Ballads," Kipling discovered in South Africa quite a new type of Tommy +Atkins, and, as I think, of a pattern much more satisfactory. +Nevertheless, in one small detail the laureate's simile seems gravely +at fault. In the homeland no Sunday School treat was ever yet seen at +which the girls did not greatly outnumber the boys; but on the African +veldt the only girl of whom we ever seemed to gain even an occasional +glimpse was--"The girl I left behind me." + +[Sidenote: _All Fools' Day._] + +During our stay in Bloemfontein a part of the Guard's Brigade was sent +to protect the drift and broken railway bridge across the Modder River +at "The Glen"; which was the first really pretty pleasure resort we +had found in South Africa since Table Mountain and Table Bay had +vanished from our view. Here the Grenadier officers had requisitioned +for mess purposes a little railway schoolhouse, cool and shady, in the +midst of the nearest approach to a real wood in all the regions round +about; and here I purposed conducting my usual Sunday parade, but +with my usual Sunday ill-fortune. On arrival I found the whole +division that had been encamped just beyond the river had suddenly +moved further on, quite out of reach; so the service arranged for them +inevitably fell through. + +But on Saturday afternoon a set of ambulance waggons arrived, bringing +in the first instalment of about 170 wounded men belonging to that +same division. It was rumoured that the K.O.S.B.'s, in a sort of +outpost affair, had landed in a Boer trap, planted of course near a +convenient kopje; with the result that our ambulances were, as usual, +speedily required. In the course of the campaign some of our troops +developed a decided proficiency in finding such traps--by falling into +them! + +Nevertheless, two battalions of Guards remained in camp, and they, at +any rate, might be confidently relied on for a parade next morning. +Indeed, one of the majors in charge, a devout Christian worker, told +me he had purposed to himself conduct a service for my men if I had +not arrived; and for that I thanked him heartily. Moreover, the men +just then were busy gathering fuel and piling it for a camp-fire +concert, to commence soon after dark that evening. Clearly, then, the +Guards were anchored for some time to come, though their comrades +beyond the river had vanished. + +I had yet to learn that the coming Sunday was "All Fools' Day," and +that for those who had been busy thus scheming it was fittingly so +called. At the mess that very evening our usual "orders" informed us +that the men would parade for worship at 6.45 next morning; but +within a few minutes a telegram arrived requiring the Coldstream +battalion and half the Grenadiers to entrain for Bloemfontein at once, +thence to proceed to some unnamed destination; and every man to take +with him as much ammunition as he could carry. So, instead of a big +bonfire and their blankets, the men at a moment's notice had to face a +long night journey in open trucks, with the inspiring prospect of a +severe fight at that journey's end. Nothing daunted, every man +instantly got ready to obey the call; and just before midnight forty +truck-loads of fighting men set out, they knew not whither, to meet +they knew not what; but cheerily singing, as the train began to move, +"The anchor's weighed." It was indeed! + +"What does it all mean?" asked one lad of another; but though vague +rumours of disaster were rife,--(it proved to be the day of the +Sanna's Post mishap),--nothing definite was known; and on the eve of +"All Fools' Day" it seemed doubly wise to be wholesomely incredulous. +So I retired to my shelter, made of biscuit boxes covered with a rug; +and slept soundly till morning light appeared. Then the sun, which at +its setting had smiled on two thousand men and their blanket shelters, +at its rising looked in vain for men or blankets; all were gone, save +a few Grenadiers left for outpost duty. I had come from Bloemfontein +for nought. Just behind my shelter stood the pile of firewood neatly +heaped in readiness for the previous night's camp fire, but never +lighted; and close beside my shelter was spread on the ground fresh +beef and mutton, enough to feed fifteen hundred men; but those fifteen +hundred were now far away, nobody knew where; and of that fresh meat +the main part was destined to speedy burial. Truly enough that Sunday +was indeed "All Fools' Day"; though the fooling was on our part of a +quite involuntary order! + +Yet in face of oft recurring disappointment and disaster the favourite +motto of the Orange Free State amply justified itself, and will do to +the end. It says _Alles zal recht komen_; which means, being +interpreted, "All will come right." While God remains upon the throne +that needs must be! + +[Sidenote: _Eastertide in Bloemfontein._] + +_Good Friday_ for many of us largely justified its name. It was a +graciously good day. My first parade in a S.C.A. marquee was not only +well attended but was also marked by much of hallowed influence. Then +followed a second parade service in the Wesleyan church which was +still more largely attended; and attended by men many of whose faces +were delightfully familiar. It was an Aldershot parade service held in +the heart of South Africa, and in what is supposed to be the hostile +capital of a hostile state. + +In the course of the afternoon over five hundred paid a visit to our +temporary Soldiers' Home for letter writing and the purchase of such +light refreshments as we found it possible to provide in that famine +haunted city. The evening we gave up to Christian song in that same +Soldiers' Home; and when listening to so many familiar voices singing +the old familiar hymns, some of us seemed for the moment almost to +forget we were not in the hallowed "Glory Room" of the Aldershot Home. + +On _Easter Sunday_ at the two parade services in the Town Church the +most notable thing was the visible eagerness with which men listened +to the old, old story of Eastertide, and the overwhelming heartiness +with which they sang our triumphant Easter hymns. There is a capital +Wesleyan choir in Bloemfontein; but they told me they might as well +whistle to drown the roaring of a whirlwind as attempt "to lead" the +singing of the soldiers. + +At these Sunday morning parades the church was usually packed with +khaki in every part. The gallery was filled to overflowing; chairs +were placed in all the aisles on the ground floor; the choir squeezed +themselves within the communion rail; and the choir seats were +occupied by men in khaki, for the most part deplorably travel-stained +and tattered. Soldiers sat on the pulpit stairs; and into the very +pulpit khaki intruded, for I was there and of course in uniform. It +was a most impressive sight, this coming together into the House of +God of comrades in arms fresh from many a hard fought conflict and +toilsome march. + +At one of these services a sergeant of the 12th Lancers was present; +and his was just a typical case. It was at the battle of Magersfontein +we had last met. On that memorable morning he and his troop rode past +me to the fight; we grasped hands, whispered one to the other +"494"[1]; and then parted to meet months after, unharmed amid all +peril, in our Father's House in Bloemfontein. The thrill of such a +meeting, which represents cases of that kind by the score, no one can +fully understand till it becomes inwoven in his own experience. So we +met, and remembering the way our God had led us, we sang as few men +could + + "Praise ye the Lord! 'tis good to raise + Your hearts and voices in His praise!" + +How good, supremely good, I have no words to tell! + +[Footnote 1: "God be with you till we meet again."--_Sacred Songs and +Solos_, No. 494.] + +On that Easter afternoon there came a sudden summons to conduct +another soldier's funeral. For a full hour and a half I watched and +waited beyond the appointed time, while the digging of a shallow grave +in difficult ground was being laboriously completed; and then in the +name of Him who is the "Resurrection and the Life," we laid our +soldier-brother in his lowly resting place, enwrapped only in his +soldier-blanket. Meanwhile, in accordance with a touching Anglican +custom, there came into the cemetery a long procession of choir boys +and children singing Easter hymns, joining in Easter liturgies, and +then proceeding to lay on the new made graves an offering of Easter +flowers. + +At the Easter evening service I was surprised to see in the Wesleyan +church another dense mass of khaki. Every man had been required to +procure a separate personal "pass" in order to be present, and the +evening was full of threatenings, threatenings that in due time +justified themselves by a terrific thunderstorm, which resulted in +nearly every tunic being drenched before it could reach its sheltering +tent. Yet in spite of such forbiddings the men came in from the +outlying camps, literally by hundreds, to attend that Easter evening +service; and I deemed their presence there a notable tribute to the +spiritual efficiency of spiritual work among our troops the wide world +over. + +_Easter Monday_, as in England so in Bloemfontein, is a Bank holiday, +and usually devoted to picnicking in The Glen, till the war put its +foot thereon, as well as on much else that was pleasurable. My most +urgent duty that day was the conducting of another military funeral; +and thereupon in the cemetery I saw a triple sight significant of +much. + +At the gate were some soldiers in charge of a mule waggon on which lay +the body of a negro, awaiting burial. In the service of our common +Queen that representative of the black-skinned race had just laid down +his life. Inside the gates two graves were being dug; one by a group +of Englishmen for an English comrade, and one by a group of Canadians +for a comrade lent to us for kindred service by "Our Lady of the +Snows." So now are lying side by side in South African soil these two +typical representatives of the principal sections of the Anglo-Saxon +race; their lives freely given, like that of their black brother, in +the service and defence of one common heritage--that Christian empire +which surely God himself has builded. Camp and cemetery alike teach +one common lesson, and by the lips of the living and the dead enforce +attention to the same vast victorious fact! Next day it was an +Australian officer I saw laid in that same treasure-house of dead +heroes. He that hath eyes to see let him see! This deplorable war, +which thus brought together from afar the builders and binders of the +empire, in an altogether amazing measure made them thereby of one +mind and heart. It is life arising out of death; and surely every +devout-minded Englishman will learn at last to say "This is the Lord's +doing; and it is marvellous in our eyes!" + +[Sidenote: _The Epidemic and the Hospitals._] + +The first military funeral since the reoccupation of Bloemfontein by +the British it fell to my lot to conduct two days after our arrival. A +fine young guardsman who had taken part in each of our four famous +battles, and in our recent march, just saw this goal of all our hopes +and died. The fatal symptoms were evidently of a specially alarming +type, for he was hastily buried with all his belongings, his slippers, +his iron mug, his boots, his haversack, and the very stretcher on +which he lay; then over all was poured some potent disinfectant. It +was a gruesome sight! So to-day he lies in the self-same cemetery +where rests many a British soldier who fell not far away in the fights +of fifty years ago. It was British soil in those distant days, and is +British soil again, but at how great cost we were now about to learn. + +That guardsman was the first fruits of a vast ingathering. In the +course of the next few weeks over 6000 cases of enteric sprang up in +the immediate neighbourhood of that one little town; and 1300 of its +victims were presently laid in that same cemetery, which now holds so +much of the empire's best, and towards which so many a mother-heart +turns tearfully from almost every part of the Anglo-Saxon world. It +was the after-math of Paardeberg, which claimed more lives long after, +than in all its hours of slowly intensifying agony! Boers and +Britons, both together, there were vastly fewer who sighed their last +beside the Modder River banks than the sequent fever claimed at +Bloemfontein; and all through the campaign the loss of life caused by +sickness has been so much larger than through wounds as to justify the +soldiers' favourite dictum respecting it: "Better three hits than one +enteric." + +Such an epidemic, laying hold as it did in the course of a few weeks +of one in five of all the troops within reach of Bloemfontein, is +quite unexampled in the history of recent wars; and the Royal Army +Medical Corps can scarcely be censured for being unable to adequately +cope with it. They were 900 miles from their base, with only a broken +railway by which to bring up supplies. The little town, already so +severely commandeered by the Boers, could furnish next to nothing in +the way of medical comforts or necessities. Every available bed, or +blanket, or bit of sheeting, was bought up by the authorities; but if +every private bedroom in the place had been ransacked, the +requirements of the case even then could scarcely have been met. +Possibly that ought to have been done, but all through this campaign +our army rulers have been excessively tender-handed in such matters; +forgetting that clemency to the vanquished is often cruelty to the +victors. So in Bloemfontein healthy civilians, whether foes or +friends, slept on feather beds, while suffering and delirious soldiers +were stretched on an earthen floor that was sodden with almost +incessant rain. Neither for that rain can the army doctors be held +responsible, though it almost drove them to despair. Nor was it their +fault that the Boers were allowed at this very time to capture the +Bloemfontein waterworks, and shatter them. Bad water at Paardeberg +caused the epidemic. Bad water at Bloemfontein brought it to a climax. +In this little city of the sick the medical men had at one time a +constant average of 1800 sufferers on their hands; mostly cases of +enteric which, as truly as shot and shell, shows no respect of +persons. Not only our fighting-men--soldiers of high degree and low +degree alike--but non-combatants, chaplains, army scripture readers, +war correspondents, doctors, and army nurses, it remorselessly claimed +and victimised. In such a campaign the fighting line is not the chief +point of peril, nor the fighting soldiers the only sufferers. Hospital +work has its heroes, though not its trumpeters, and many a man of the +Royal Army Medical Corps has as faithfully won his medal as any that +handled rifle. + +[Sidenote: _All hands and houses to the rescue._] + +Our "Kopje-Book Maxims" told us that "two horses are enough to shift a +camp--provided they are dead enough." Either the camp or the horses +must be quickly shifted if pestilence is to be kept at bay; yet in +spite of all shiftings, of all sanitary searchings and strivings, the +fever refused to shift; the field hospitals were from the first +hopelessly crowded out; and the city of death would quickly have +become the city of despair, but for the timely arrival of sundry +irregular helpers and organisations that had been lavishly equipped +and sent out by private beneficence. Such was the huge Portman +Hospital. In the Ramblers' Club and Grounds, the Longman Hospital was +housed; and here I found Conan Doyle practising the healing art with +presumably a skill rivalling that with which he penned his superb +detective tales. In the forsaken barracks of the Orange Free State +soldiery, the Sydney doctors established their house of healing, +assisted by ambulance men and ambulance appliances unsurpassed by +anything of the kind employed in any other part of Africa. Australia, +like her sister colonies, sent to us her best; and bravely they bore +themselves beside our best. + +[Illustration: _From a photograph taken at Pretoria, June 1900_ + +Rev. T. F. Falkner, M.A. Chaplain to the Forces. + +Chaplain to the First Division and to the Guards' Brigade, South +African Field Force, 1899-1900] + +To relieve the pressure thus created almost every public building in +the town was requisitioned for hospital purposes; schools and clubs +and colleges, the nunnery, the lunatic asylum, and even the stately +Parliament Hall with its marble entrance and sumptuous fittings. The +presidential chair, behind the presidential desk, still retained its +original place on the presidential platform; but,--"how are the mighty +fallen!" I saw it occupied by an obscure hospital orderly who was busy +filling up a still more obscure hospital schedule. The whole floor of +the building was so crowded with beds that all the senatorial chairs +and desks had perforce been removed. The Orange Free State senators +sitting on those aforesaid chairs had resolved in secret session, only +a few eventful months before, to hurl in England's face an Ultimatum +that made war inevitable, and brought our batteries and battalions to +their very doors. But now they were fugitives every one from the city +of their pride, which they had surrendered without striking a solitary +blow for its defence; while the actual building in which their lunacy +took final shape, and launched itself on an astonished Christendom, +I beheld full to overflowing with the deadly fruit of their doing. In +the very presence of the president's chair of state, here a Boer, +there a Briton, it may be of New Zealand birth or Canadian born, +moaned out his life, and so made his last mute protest against the +outrage which rallied a whole empire in passionate self-defence. + +Among the more than thousand victims the Bloemfontein fever epidemic +claimed, few were more lamented than a sergeant of the 3rd Grenadier +Guards, who, according to the _Household Brigade Magazine_, had a +specially curious experience in the assault on Grenadier Hill at the +battle of Belmont, for "he was hit by no less than nine separate +bullets, besides having his bayonet carried away, off his rifle, by +another shot, making a total of ten hits. He continued till the end of +the action with his company in the front of the attack, where on +inspection it was found he had only actually five wounds; but besides +some damage to his clothing had both pouches hit and all his +cartridges exploded. He did not go to hospital till the next day, when +he felt a little bruised and stiff." It really seemed hard to succumb +to enteric after such a miraculous escape from the enemies' murderous +fire. + +[Sidenote: _Church of England Chaplains at work._] + +The following letter by the Rev. T. F. Falkner refers to this period, +and was sent originally to the Chaplain-General; but is here +published, slightly abridged, as an excellent illustration of the +spirit and work of the many chaplains of the Church of England who +have taken part in this campaign:-- + + "I was particularly anxious that you should know the luxury in + which we are living in the matter of Church privileges, and the + keen appreciation which our people show of that which is so + freely offered. Nothing can exceed the kindness of the dean and + his clergy. They allow us to have the use of the cathedral on + Sunday mornings at nine o'clock for a parade service for the + Guards, and at 5.30 on Sunday evenings we have a special evensong + for the convenience of officers and men to enable them to get + back to barrack or camp in good time; in addition to this, we + have permission to hold a special mission service for soldiers on + Friday evenings at 6.30. There is a daily celebration as well as + Morning and Evening Prayer and Litany, while on Sundays there are + three celebrations of Holy Communion. These are luxuries to us + wayfarers on the veldt. Now for the appreciation of them. On the + Sunday after we came in, the cathedral choir volunteered their + help at our nine o'clock (Guards') parade, and the service was + home-like and hearty. The drums were there and rolled at the + Glorias, and 'God Save the Queen,' which was sung because it was + a parade service. I spoke to the men on the blessings of a + restful hour of worship in an English church after our + journeyings, and of the mercies which had been granted to us, + basing what I had to say on 'It is good for us to be here.' At + the morning service at 10.30 there was a large number of the + headquarter staff present, many of whom, Lord Roberts included, + stayed to the celebration.... At 7.30, the ordinary hour for + evensong, long before the service began the church was literally + _packed_ with officers and men, one vast mass of khaki; all + available chairs and forms were got in, and officers were put up + into the long chancel wherever room could be found for them. The + heartiness of that service, the reverence and devoutness of the + men, the uplifting of heart and voice in the familiar chants and + hymns, the clear manly enunciation of the Articles of our Faith, + and the ready responses, all combined to make the service a grand + evidence of the religious side of our men and a striking + testimony to their desire to worship their God in the beauty of + holiness. Many of us will remember that Sunday night with + thankfulness. Coney preached us a very excellent sermon. The few + civilians who were able to get in were much struck by the evident + sincerity and devout behaviour of the men who surrounded them. + And yet the Boers say 'the English _must_ lose because they have + no God.' One of the clergy told me a day or two after we got here + that he met one of our men outside the cathedral as he was + walking along, and the soldier accosted him. 'Beg pardon, sir, + is that an English church?' 'Yes,' said the clergyman. 'Might I + go in, sir?' 'Why, of course,' was the reply, 'it is open all + day.' 'Thank you, sir; I should just like to go in and say a + prayer for the wife and children;' and in he went. + + "I felt after our first experience that it was hardly fair to + oust so many of the regular worshippers from their own place of + worship, and so we arranged for the extra service at 5.30. It was + to be purely a soldiers' service. But a word or two about the + Friday evening special Lenten service. Familiar hymns, a metrical + litany, and part of the Commination Service were gladly joined in + by a large number of men, the cathedral being more than half + full, and the archdeacon gave us a very helpful address. After + that service a good number of men stayed behind, at our + invitation, to practise psalms and hymns for the soldiers' + evening service on the following Sunday, a precaution which + served its purpose well. At that service the church was _filled_; + Lord Roberts came to it, and it was an ideal soldiers' service. + Coney and I took the service, Norman Lee and Southwell read the + lessons, Blackbourne was at the organ, and the dean preached. One + of the staff officers said afterwards that he had never enjoyed a + service so much, and I think many others had similar feelings. + But the flow of khaki-clad worshippers had not ceased, for no + sooner had our 5.30 service ended than men and officers began + coming in for the 7.30 ordinary service, and at that the chancel + and more than half the body of the church was again filled with + our troops. It _was_ cheering to see and comforting to share in. + + "The morning of this Sunday I spent at Bishop's Glen, about + fourteen miles up the line, close to the bridge over the Modder + River which was blown up directly we got here, where two + battalions of the Guards were afterwards sent. I had to go up in + great haste on the Saturday to bury the adjutant of the 3rd + Grenadiers, who was killed the day before; a very sad task for + me, for having been with the battalion all along, I had got to + know him well and to appreciate him highly, as every one did who + knew him. I got to camp about 5.30 on Saturday evening, after + three and a half hours' heavy travelling along a muddy track over + the veldt, through dongas and drifts, and we laid him to rest on + a little knoll overlooking the well-wooded banks of what is + _there_ a pretty river, a short distance only from the broken + bridge, which stood out against a background of shrubs and trees + on the river side, and struck me as a fitting emblem of a strong + and useful life smitten down suddenly by an unseen hand. I + stayed the night at Glen, where Grenadiers and Coldstreams took + care of me, and on Sunday morning at seven we had our parade + service, followed by a celebration at the railway station, at + which we had a nice number of communicants. + + "We find the hospital work here very heavy. There are no less + than ten public buildings in use as hospitals in the town: in + addition, of course, to our field hospitals, which are _full_. + For a short time last week I was left to do all this with two + chaplains besides myself. The chaplains here are splendid, so + keen and self-denying, nothing seems too much trouble; all going + strong and working hard. It is a pleasure to be with such men. We + are all distressed at our inability to do more, and conscious of + our failure to do what we would wish; but we do what we can. The + S.C.A. has two tents and are working on good lines, and the men + appreciate them. Lowry and I have walked the whole way so far, + save that I had a lift from Jacobsdal to Klip Drift, and I am + thankful to be able to say I have not been other than fit all + through. All the others have had horses to ride: they are welcome + to them. I am a bit proud of having had a share in that march + from Klip Drift to Bloemfontein, and am thankful for the strength + that was given me to do it. I am jealous for the honour of the + department, and all I want at the end of the campaign is that the + generals should say, the Church of England chaplains have done + their duty well. One said to me the other day, 'I _should_ like + to be mentioned in despatches.' I replied, 'I have no such wish. + To do that you must go where you have no business to be.' Our + chaplains are brave men; there's not one who would flinch if told + to go into the firing line; but the generals _all_ say that our + place is at the field hospital; moving quietly amongst the sick + and wounded when they are brought in, and burying the dead when + they are carried out. There's not one of our chaplains out here + who has not earned, so far as I can gather, kind words from those + with whom he serves, and I think you will find your selection has + been more than justified. + + "We had an excellent meeting in connection with the A.T.A. in the + Bloemfontein Town Hall last night, with Lord Roberts in the + chair. He spoke admirably; and though most of the troops were out + of the city the hall was full." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THROUGH WORLDS UNKNOWN AND FROM WORLDS UNKNOWN + + +[Sidenote: _A pleasure jaunt._] + +During this six weeks of tarrying at Bloemfontein I found myself able +to visit a most interesting Methodist family residing some twenty +miles south of the town. For my sole benefit the express to the Cape +was stopped at a certain platelayer's hut, and then a walk of about a +mile across the veldt brought me to the pleasant country house of a +venerable widow lady. Her belongings had of course been freely +commandeered by the Boers on the outbreak of war; nor had the sons, +being burghers, though loyal-hearted Britishers, been able to elude +their liability to bear arms against their own kin. The two youngest, +schoolboys still, though of conscript age, had been sent down south +betimes; and so were well out of harm's way, but the two elder were +not suffered to thus escape. One as a despatch rider, and one as a +commissariat officer, they were compelled to serve a cause that did +violence to their deepest convictions. On the first appearance +therefore of the British, both brothers following the bidding of +strongest blood bonds, transferred their allegiance, if not their +service, to the other side. Thereupon they were so incessantly +threatened with a volley of avenging Boer bullets they felt compelled +to take a holiday trip to the Cape. Thus was their gentle mother with +war still raging round her gates bereft of the presence, protection, +and sorely needed aid of all her sons. + +We arranged for the holding in her home of an Easter Sunday evening +service; and then returning to the railway were cheered by the speedy +sight of a goods train bound for Bloemfontein. Whereupon I scrambled +on to the top of a heavily loaded truck, and there, being a +first-class passenger provided with a first-class ticket, travelled in +first-class style, sitting awkwardly astride of nobody knows what. On +the same truck rode a Colonial, an English cavalryman, and a Hindu who +courteously threw over me a handsome rug when the chilly eve closed in +upon us. A decidedly representative group were we atop that truck-load +of miscellaneous munitions of war. And on into the darkness, and +through the darkness, we thus rode till late at night we reached the +lights of Bloemfontein. + +[Sidenote: _Onwards but whither?_] + +On Saturday, April 22nd, the colonel of my battalion informed his +quartermaster that the next day his men would leave Kaffir River, +proceed to Springfield, and thence to "worlds unknown!" That is +precisely where we soon found ourselves. Early on Sunday morning I +said "Good-bye" to Bloemfontein, expecting to see its face no more, +for surely this must be the long looked for start towards golden +Krugerland! At Kaffir River I found the Guards were some hours ahead +of me, but was just in time to catch the tail of a long train of +transport waggons belonging to them, so that fortunately there was no +fear of my being left alone, and lost a second time upon the veldt. +Thus commenced a long Sunday march, as we all supposed, to +Springfield. Later on we learned it certainly was not Springfield we +were slowly approaching; but that possibly night-fall would land us +somewhere near the Waterworks recently shattered, and still held, by +the Boers. Yet "not there, not there, my child," were our weary feet +wending. We began to wonder whether they were wending anywhere; and to +this hour nobody seems to know the name of the place where we that +night rested. Perhaps it had no name! Soldiers on active service +seldom walk by sight. It is theirs always "to _trust_ and obey." Even +regimental officers seldom know precisely where their next +stopping-place will be, or what presently they will be called upon to +do. They often resemble the pieces on a chess board, which cannot see +the hand that moves them and cannot tell why this piece instead of +that is taken. To keep our adversaries if possible in the dark, we +have ourselves to dwell in darkness; but it is a source of sore +distress all the same. The troops hunger for information and seldom +get it; so, to supply the lack they invent it; and then scornfully +laugh at their own inventings. They would sooner travel anywhere than +"through worlds unknown"; and yet somehow that becomes for them the +commonest of all treks! + +[Sidenote: _That Pom-Pom again!_] + +While the afternoon was still new we heard on our near left the sound +of heavy shell firing; of which, however, the men took no more notice +than if they had been manoeuvring on Salisbury Plain. They marched on +as stolidly and cheerily as ever, chatting and laughing as they +marched. But presently there broke upon our ears the familiar sound of +the pom-pom, which months ago at the Modder had so shaken everybody's +nerves. Instantly there burst from the whole brigade a cry of +recognition, and every man instinctively perceived that some grim +business had begun. Another Sunday battle was raging just over the +ridge, and the rest of that day's march had for its accompaniment the +music of pom-poms, the rattle of rifle fire, and the thud of shells. +But at the close of the day an officer somewhat discontentedly +reported that "if" our artillery had only reached a certain place by a +certain time, something splendid would have happened. Many of our +rat-traps proved thus weak in the spring, and snapped too slowly, +specially on Sundays. Some such disastrous "if" seemed to spring up in +connection with most of our Sunday fights, though we still seem to +cling fondly to the belief that for fighting the Lord's battles the +Lord's day is of all days incomparably the best. It was on Sunday, +December 10th, the disastrous attack on Stormberg was delivered; and +on the evening of that same fatal Sunday the Highland Brigade marched +out of the Modder River Camp to meet their doom on Magersfontein. +Similarly on the night of Sunday, January 22nd, our men set out to +win, and lose, Spion Kop. The Paardeberg calamity, the costliest of +all our contests, was also a Sunday fight; and though in the face of +such facts no man may dogmatise, such coincidences, all happening in +the course of a few weeks, in the conduct of the same war, make one +wonder whether Sunday is really a lucky day for purposes so dread, and +whether the Boers are not justified in their supposed refusal to +fight on Sundays excepting in self-defence. In that respect, I at any +rate, am with the Boers as against the Britons. + +[Sidenote: _A problem not quite solved._] + +When night at last arrived, we had neither tents nor shelters of any +sort provided for us, though the cold was searching, and everything +around us was wet with heavy dew. Men and officers alike spread their +waterproof sheets on the bare ground, and then made the best they +could of one or two blankets in which to wrap themselves. Through the +kindness, however, of my quartermaster friend, since dead, I was +privileged to push my head and shoulders under a transport waggon +which effectually sheltered me from wind and wet; and there, in the +midst of mules and men, mostly darkies, I slept the sleep of the +weary. + +Brief rest, however, of a more delicious kind I had already found in +the course of that toilsome afternoon tramp described above. During a +short halt by the way I lay upon my back watching a huge cloud of +locusts flying far overhead, and thinking tenderly of those just then +assembling at our Aldershot Sunday afternoon service of song, not +forgetting the gentle lady who usually presides at the piano there. +Then I took out my pocket Testament, and read Romans xii.: "If thine +enemy hunger, feed him." But about that precise moment the adjoining +kopje, with a shaking emphasis, said to me, "pom-pom," and again +"pom-pom." But how to feed one's enemy while thus he speaks with +defiant throat of brass, is a problem that still awaits a +satisfactory solution! + +[Sidenote: _A touching sight._] + +In the course of the day I was greatly touched by the sight of an +artillery horse that had fallen from uttermost fatigue, so that it had +to be left to its fate on the pitiless veldt. It was now separated +from its team, and all its harness had been removed; but when it found +itself being deserted by its old companions in distress and strife, it +cast after them a most piteous look, struggled, and struggled again to +get on to its feet, and finally stood like a drunken man striving to +steady himself, but absolutely unable to go a single step further. Ah, +the bitterness alike for men and horses of such involuntary and +irrecoverable falling out from the battle-line of life! Not actual +dying, but this type of death is what some most dread! + +[Sidenote: _Rifle firing and firing farms._] + +When on Monday we resumed our march, it was still to the sound of the +same iron-mouthed music; but now at last we could not only hear, but +see some of the shell fire, and watch a few of the men that were +taking part in the fight. Far away we noticed what looked like a line +of beetles, each a good space from his fellow beetles, creeping +towards the top of a ridge. These were some of our mounted men. Lower +down the slope, but moving in the same direction, was a similar line +of what looked like bees. These were some of our infantry, on whom the +altogether invisible Boers were evidently directing their fire. As you +must first catch your hare before you can cook it, so you must first +sight a Boer before you can shift him; and the former task is +frequently the more difficult of the two. In more senses than one +short-sighted soldiers have had their day; and in all ranks those who +cannot look far ahead must give place to those who can. Henceforth the +most powerful field-glasses that can possibly be made, and the most +perfect telescopes, must be supplied to all our officers; or on a +still more disastrous scale than in this war the bees will drop their +bullets among the beetles, and Britons will be killed by Britons. + +Later in the day, to my sincere grief, a beautiful Boer house was set +on fire by our men, after careful inquiry into the facts by the +provost-marshal, because the farmer occupying it had run up the white +flag over his house, and then from under that flag our scouts had been +shot at. Such acts of treachery became lamentably common, and had at +all cost to be restricted by the only arguments a Voortrekker seemed +able to understand; but the Boers in Natal had long before this proved +adepts at kindling similar bonfires, though without any such +provocation, and cannot therefore pose as martyrs over the burning of +their own farms, however deplorable that burning be. + +[Sidenote: _Boer treachery and the white flag._] + +At Belmont a young officer of the Guards named Blundell was killed by +a shot from a wounded Boer to whom he was offering a drink of water; +and about the same time another Boer hoisted a white flag, which our +men naturally mistook for a signal of surrender, but on rising to +receive it, received instead a murderous volley of rifle fire, as the +result of which the correspondent of _The Morning Post_ had his right +arm hopelessly shattered. + +At Talana Hill, our first battle in Natal, the beaten Boers raised a +white flag on a bamboo pole, but when our gunners thereupon ceased +firing, "the brother" instead of surrendering bolted! At Colenso, a +company of burghers with rifles flung over their backs, and waving a +white flag, approached within a short distance of the foremost British +trenches, but when our troops raised their heads to welcome these +surrendering foes, they were instantly stormed at by shot and shell. +At length General Buller found it necessary in face of such frequent +treachery, officially to warn his whole army to be on their guard +against the white flag, a flag which to his personal knowledge was +already through such misuse stained with the blood of two gallant +British officers, besides many men. + +It is said that when Sir Burne Jones' little daughter was once in such +a specially angry mood as to scratch and bite and spit, her father +somewhat roughly shook the child and said, "I do not see what has got +into you, Millicent; the devil must teach you these things." +Whereupon, the little one indignantly flashed back this reply:--"Well +the devil may have taught me to scratch and bite, but the spitting is +my own idea!" With equal justice the Boers may claim that though the +ordinary horrors and agonies of war are of the devil, this persistent +abuse of the white flag is their own idea. Of that practice they +possess among civilized nations an absolute monopoly, and the red +cross flag has often fared no better at their hands. + +But then it would be absurd and most unfair to blame the two +Republics as a whole for this. No people on earth would approve such +practices, and doubtless they were as great a pain to many an +honourable Boer as they were to us. But upland farmers who have spent +their lives in fighting savage beasts, and still more savage men, are +slow to distinguish between lawful tricking and unlawful treachery, +and are apt to account all things fair that help to win the game. + +[Sidenote: _The pet lamb still lives and learns!_] + +During this long trek through worlds unknown, our pet lamb, perchance +taking encouragement from the example of the two chaplains, followed +us all the way on foot, and became quite soldierly in its tastes and +tendencies. It scorned even to look at its brother sheep on the veldt +modestly feeding on coarse veldt grass; but on sardines and bacon-fat +it seemed to thrive astonishingly; and both my bread and sugar it +coolly commandeered. So rapid and complete is camp-life education, +even when a pet lamb is the pupil! + +[Sidenote: _Right about face._] + +On the morning of our fifth day in "worlds unknown" we breakfasted +soon after four, by starlight; and before sunrise were again trekking +hard. About ten miles brought our almost interminable string of +waggons to two ugly river drifts, across which, with much toil and +shouting they were at last safely dragged. Then we suddenly halted and +to our amazement were ordered to return whence we came. So across +those two ugly drifts the waggons were again dragged; four o'clock in +the afternoon found us on the precise spot where four o'clock in the +morning had watched us breakfasting; and by the afternoon of the +following Sunday we were back in Bloemfontein from which on the +previous Sunday we had made so bold a dash for fame and fortune. In +the course of those eight excessively toilsome days the Guards had +captured three wounded Boers; but what else they had accomplished no +one could ever guess. Somebody said, however, that something wonderful +had been done by somebody somewhere in connection with that week of +wonders; which was of course consoling; but it was only long after we +learned that De Wet after laying siege to Wepener for seventeen days +had made a sudden rush to reach his sure retreat in the north-east +corner of the Free State; that we with other columns had been sent out +to intercept him; and had as by a hair's breadth just managed to miss +him. Such are the fortunes and misfortunes of war. As an attacking +force, De Wet in the course of the war made some bold and brilliant +moves, though always on a comparatively small scale; but in the art of +running away and escaping capture, no matter by whom pursued, he has +given himself more practice than probably any other general that ever +lived. "Oh my God make him like a wheel!" We were a lumbering waggon +chasing a light-winged wheel; and the wheel was winner! + +[Sidenote: _From worlds unknown._] + +While on this long trek I lighted on a newly-arrived contingent of +Canadian mounted infantry which had come to our aid from worlds +unknown. They proved to be a splendid body of men, and worthy +compatriots of the earlier arrived Canadians who had rendered such +heroic service at Paardeberg. Their Methodist chaplain, the Rev. Mr +Lane, of Nova Scotia, seemed incontestably built on the same lines; a +conspicuously strong man was he, and delightfully level-headed. I +therefore all the more deeply deplored the early and heavy failure of +his health, as the result of the severe hardships that hang round +every campaigner's path, and his consequent return, invalided home. + +[Sidenote: _The Bushmen._.] + +About this same time another equally remarkable body, the Australian +Bushmen, who, like the Canadians, had come from worlds unknown, were +in the far north making their way _through_ worlds unknown to the +relief of Mafeking. Their advance, says Conan Doyle, was one of the +finest performances of the war. Assembled at their port of embarkation +by long railway journeys, conveyed across thousands of miles of ocean +to Cape Town, brought round another two thousand to Beira, transferred +by a narrow gauge railway to Bamboo Creek, thence by a broader gauge +to Marandellas, sent on in coaches for hundreds of miles to Bulawayo, +again transferred by trains for another four or five hundred miles to +Ootsi, and then facing a further march of a hundred miles, they +reached the hamlet of Masibi Stadt within an hour of the arrival of +Plumer's relieving columns; and before that week was over the whole +Empire was thrilled, almost to the point of delirium, by learning that +at last the long-drawn siege of Mafeking was raised; and a defence of +almost unexampled heroism was thus brought to a triumphant end. + +[Sidenote: _The Australian Chaplains._] + +From start to finish the Bushmen were accompanied by an earnest +Methodist chaplain, whom I met only in Pretoria, the Rev. James Green, +who, most fortunately, throughout the whole campaign, was not laid +aside for a single day by wounds or sickness; and who, after returning +home with this time-expired first contingent of Australian troops, +came back in March 1902 with what, we hope, the speedy ending of the +war will make their last contingent. + +Between Mr Green's two terms of service I was, however, ably assisted +by yet another Australian Wesleyan chaplain, the Rev. R. G. Foreman, +though he, like so many others, was early invalided home. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +QUICK MARCH TO THE TRANSVAAL + + +It was with feelings of unfeigned delight that the Guards learned May +Day was to witness the beginning of another great move towards +Pretoria. We had entered Bloemfontein without expending upon it a +single shot; we had been strangely welcomed with smiles and cheers and +waving flags and lavish hospitality; but none the less that charming +little capital had made us pay dearly for its conquest, and for our +six weeks of so-called rest on the sodden veldt around it. Its traders +had levied heavy toll on the soldiers' slender pay; and no fabled +monster of ancient times ever claimed so sore a tribute of human +lives. It was not on the veldt but under it that hundreds of our lads +found rest; and hundreds more were soon to share their fate. The +victors had become victims, and the vanquished were avenged. Seldom +have troops taken possession of any city with such unmixed +satisfaction, or departed from it with such unfeigned eagerness. + +[Sidenote: _A Comedy._] + +My quartermaster friend and myself, unable to start with the Brigade, +set out a few hours later, and tarried for the night at a Hollander +platelayer's hut. The man spoke little English, and we less Dutch; +but he welcomed us to the hospitality of his two-roomed home with a +warmth that was overwhelming. His wife, when the war began, was sent +away for safety's sake; and married men thus flung back upon their +bachelorhood make poor cooks and caterers unless they happen to be +soldiers on the trek; but this man, in his excitement at having such +guests to entertain, expectorated violently all over the floor on +which presently we expected to sleep; fire was soon kindled and coffee +made; the quartermaster produced some tinned meat; I produced some +tinned fruit; the ganger produced some tinned biscuits--in this +campaign we have been saved by tin--and so by this joint-stock +arrangement there was provided a feast that hungry royalty need not +have disdained. Next our entertainer undertook to amuse his guests, +and did it in a fashion never to be forgotten. He produced a box +fitted up as a theatre stage--all made out of his own head, he +said--and mostly wooden; there were two puppets on the stage, which +were made to dance most vigorously by means of cords attached secretly +to the ganger's foot, whilst his hands were no less vigorously +employed on the concertina which provided the accompanying dance +music. This delighted old man was the oddest figure of the three, as +the perspiration poured down his grimy face. To light on such a comedy +when on the war path would have been enough to make Momus laugh; and +when the laugh was spent we swept the floor, for reasons already +hinted at, sought refuge in our blankets; and long before breakfast +time next morning landed in Karee Camp. + +[Sidenote: _A Tragedy._] + +To reach Karee we passed through "The Glen" lying beside the Upper +Modder, where a deplorable tragedy had occurred not long before. A +remarkably fine-looking sergeant of the Guards went to bathe in what +he supposed were the deep waters of the Modder, and dived gleefully +into deeps that alas were not deep. Striking the bottom with his head, +instantly his neck was dislocated, and when I saw him a few hours +after, though he was perfectly conscious and anxiously hopeful, he was +paralysed from his shoulders downwards. A married man, his heart, too, +was broken over such an undreamed of disaster, and in three weeks he +died. The mauser is not the only reaping-machine the great harvester +employs in war time. There have been over five hundred "accidental" +deaths in the course of this campaign. At the Lower Modder we once +arranged to hold a Sunday morning service for the swarms of native +drivers in our camp, but in that case also were compelled to prove it +is the unexpected that happens. One of the "boys" went to bathe that +morning in the suddenly swollen river; he sank; and though search +parties were at once sent out, the body was never recovered. So +instead of a service we had this sad sensation. + +About that same time, and in that same camp, one of my most intimate +companions, the quartermaster of the Scots Guards, was one moment +laughing and chatting with me in his tent; but the next moment, +without the slightest warning, he dropped back on his couch, and that +same evening was laid by his sorrowing battalion in a garden-grave. +The other quartermaster, who shared with me the ganger's hospitality +and laughter, when the campaign was near its close, was found lying on +the floor of his tent. He had fallen when no friendly hand was near to +help, and had been dead for hours when discovered. My first campaign, +and last, has stored my mind with tragic memories; it has filled my +heart with tendernesses unfelt before; and perchance has taught me to +interpret more truly that "life of lives" foreshadowed in Isaiah's +saying: "Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." + +[Sidenote: _A wide front and a resistless force._] + +When, on the 3rd of May, we started from Karee Camp the Guards' +Brigade consisted, as from the outset, of the 1st and 2nd Coldstream +battalions, the 3rd Grenadier Guards, and the 1st Scots Guards, all +under the command of General Inigo Jones, from whom I received +unfailing courtesy. With them was linked General Stephenson's Brigade, +consisting of the Welsh, the Warwicks, the Essex, and the Yorks, these +two Brigades forming the Eleventh Division under General Pole Carew. +On our left was General Hutton with a strange medley of mounted +infantry to which almost every part of the empire had contributed some +of its noblest sons. On our right was General Tucker's Division, the +Seventh; and beyond that again other Divisions, covering a front of +about forty miles, which gradually narrowed down to twenty as we +neared Kroonstad. Reserves were left at Bloemfontein under General +Kelly Kenny; and Lord Methuen was on our remote left flank not far +from Mafeking; while on our remote right was Rundle's Division, the +Eighth. There thus set out for the conquest of the Transvaal a central +force nearly 50,000 strong--the finest army by far that England had +ever yet put into the field, and led by the ablest general she has +produced since Wellington. Yet it perhaps would be more correct to +speak of it as the first army _Greater_ Britain had ever fashioned; +and in my presence Lord Roberts openly gloried in being the first +general the empire had entrusted with the command of a really Imperial +host. In this epoch-making conflict neither the commander nor the +commanded had any cause to be ashamed one of the other. + +Yet from this point onward there was astonishingly little fighting. +Before the campaign was over some of the guardsmen wore out several +pairs of boots, but scarcely fired another bullet. The Boers were so +out-manoeuvred that their mausers and machine-guns availed them +little. They fought scarcely any but rear-guard actions, and their +retreat was so rapid as to be almost a rout. Within about a month of +leaving Bloemfontein the Guards' Brigade was in Pretoria; which, +considering all they had to carry, and the constant repairing of the +railway line required from day to day, would be considered good +marching even if there had been no pom-poms planted to oppose +progress. + +[Sidenote: _Brandfort._] + +When we left Karee it was confidently predicted that the Boers would +make a stiff stand amid the kopjes which guard the prettily placed and +prettily planted little town of Brandfort. So the next day and the +day after we walked warily, while cannon to right of us and cannon to +left of us volleyed and thundered. Little harm was however done; and +as the second afternoon hastened to its sunset hour, we were gleefully +informed that "the brother" had once more "staggered humanity" by a +precipitate retreat from positions of apparently impregnable strength. +So Brandfort passed into our hands for all that it was worth, which +did not seem to be much; but what little there was, no man looted. All +was bought and paid for as in Piccadilly; but at more than Piccadilly +prices. Whatever else however could be purchased, no liquor was on +sale; no intemperance was seen; no molestation of woman or child took +place. So was it with rare exceptions from the very first; so was it +with very rare exceptions to the very last. + +[Sidenote: _"Stop the War" slanders._] + +In this respect my assistant-chaplain, the Rev. W. Burgess, assures me +that his experience tallies with mine, and he told me this tale as +illustrative of it. At Hoekfontein he called at a farmhouse close to +our camp, and in it he found an old woman of seventy and her husband, +of whom she spoke as nearly ninety. "Do you believe in God?" she asked +the chaplain, and added, "so do I, but I believe in hell as well; and +would fling De Wet into it if I could." Then she proceeded to explain +that her first husband was killed in the last war; that of her three +sons commandeered in this war one was already slain, and that when the +other two returned from the fighting line De Wet at once sent to fetch +them back. + +"But look at the broken panel of that door," said the old lady. "Your +men did that when I would not answer to their knocks, and they stole +my fowls." "Very well," replied Burgess, "where yonder red flag is +flying you will find General Ian Hamilton; go and tell him your +story." As the result, a staff officer sent to inspect the premises +asked the Dutch dame whether food or money should be given her by way +of compensation, and whether £15 would fully cover all her loss? She +seemed overwhelmingly pleased at such an offer in payment for a broken +panel and a few fowls. "Very good," added the staff officer. +"To-morrow I will send you £20, but," quoth he to Burgess, "we'll make +the scouts that broke the panel pay the twenty!" + +In spite of all the real and the imaginary horrors recorded in "War +against War," this has been the most humanely conducted struggle the +world has ever seen; but would to God it were well over. + +[Sidenote: _A prisoner who tried to be a poet._] + +In the yard of the little town jail I saw nine prisoners of war, only +two of whom were genuine Boers. Some were Scotch, some were English, +some were Hollanders; and one a fiery Irishman, who expressed so +fervent a wish to be free, to revel in further fightings against us, +that it was deemed desirable to adorn his wrists with a pair of +handcuffs. In one of the cells, it was clear some of our British +soldiers had at an earlier date been incarcerated, and were fairly +well satisfied with the treatment meted out to them. Written on the +wall I found this interesting legend: No. 28696, I. M'Donald, 4th Reg. +M. Inf., Warwick's Camp; taken prisoner 7-3-1900; arrived here +11-3-1900. Also this, by a would-be poet called Wynn, a scout +belonging to Roberts' Horse:-- + + "To all who may read: + I have been well treated + By all who have had me in charge + Since I've been a prisoner here." + +The poetry is not much; but the peace of mind which could pencil such +lines in prison is a great deal! + +[Sidenote: _Militant Dutch reformed predikants._] + +The two best buildings in Brandfort appeared to be the church and +manse belonging to the Dutch Reformed Community. The church seats 600, +though the town contains only 300 whites. But then the worshippers +come from near and far. Hence I found here, as at Bloemfontein that +the farmers have their "church houses"--whole rows of them in the +latter town--where with their families they reside from Saturday to +Monday, especially on festival occasions, that they may be present at +all the services of the Sabbath and the sanctuary. A typical Dutchman +is nothing if he is not devout; though unfortunately his devoutness +does not prevent his being exceeding "slim," which seems to some the +crown of all excellencies. + +The young and intelligent pastor of this important country +congregation on whom I called, was evidently an ardent patriot, like +almost all his cloth. He had unfortunately firmly persuaded himself +that the British fist had been thrust menacingly near the Orange Free +State nose; and that therefore the owner of that aforesaid nose was +perfectly justified in being the first to strike a deadly blow. He +told me he had been for a month at Magersfontein, and that he was out +on the Brandfort hills the day before I called watching our troops +fighting their way towards the town. I understood him to say he had +been shooting buck. What kind of buck is quite another question. +Whether as a pastor his patriotism had confined itself to the use of +Bunyan's favourite weapon, "all-prayer," on our approach; or whether +as a burgher he had deemed it a part of his duty to employ smokeless +powder to emphasise his patriotism, I was too polite to ask. But he +pointed out to me on his verandah two old and useless sporting guns, +which the day before he had handed to some of our officers, by whom +they had been snapped in two and left lying on the floor. There they +were pointed out to me by their late owner as part of the ravages of +war. They were the only weapons he had in the house, he said, when he +surrendered them. + +It was a very common trick on the part of surrendered burghers who +took the oath of neutrality and gave up their arms, to hand in weapons +that were thus worthless and to hide for future use what were of any +value. We did not even attempt to take possession of any such a +burgher's horse. We found him a soldier, and when he surrendered we +left him a soldier, well horsed, well armed, and often deadlier as a +pretended friend than as a professed foe. Because of that exquisite +folly, which we misnamed "clemency," we have had to traverse the whole +ground twice over, and found a guerilla war treading close on the +heels of the great war. + +This young predikant with more of prudence, and perchance more of +honour, recollected next morning that though, as he had truly said, he +had no more weapons in the house, he had a beautiful mauser carbine +hidden in his garden. There it got on his nerves and perhaps on his +conscience; so calling in a passing officer of the Grenadier Guards he +requested him to take possession of it, together with a hundred rounds +of ammunition belonging to it. When with a sad smile he pointed out to +me "the ravages of war" on his verandah floor my politeness again came +to the rescue, and I said nothing about that lovely little mauser of +his, which an hour before I had been curiously examining at our mess +breakfast table. Too much frankness on that point would perhaps have +spoiled our pleasant chat. + +[Sidenote: _Our Australian Chaplain's pastoral experiences._] + +In the course of that chat he candidly confessed himself to be +thoroughly anti-British; and for his candour this young predikant is +to be honoured; but some few of his ministerial brethren proved near +akin to the ever-famous Vicar of Bray, whom an ancient song represents +as saying: + + "That this is law I will maintain + Unto my dying day, Sir; + That whatsoever king may reign, + I'll be Vicar of Bray, Sir." + +So were there Dutch predikants who were decidedly anti-British while +the British were over the hills and far away; but who fell in love +with the Union Jack the moment it arrived; even if they did not set it +fluttering from their own chimney-top. One such our chaplain with +the Australian Bushmen met at Zeerust. When the Bushmen arrived this +predikant was one of the first to welcome them, and helped to hoist +the British flag. Then "the Roineks," that is the "red neck" English, +retired for a while, and De La Rey arrived; whereupon the resident +Boers went wild with joy, and whistled and shouted one of their +favourite songs, "Vat jougoed entrek," which means "Pack your traps +and trek." That was a broad hint to all pro-Britishers. So this +interesting predikant hauled down the Union Jack, which his sons +instantly tore to tatters, ran up the Boer flag, and drove De La Rey +hither and thither in his own private carriage. Though to our +Australian chaplain he expressed, still later on, his deep regret that +"the Hollanders had forced the President into making war on England," +when Lord Methuen, in the strange whirligig of war, next drove out De +La Rey from this same Zeerust, our versatile predikant's turn soon +came to "Pack his traps and trek." Even in South Africa "Ye cannot +serve two masters." + +[Sidenote: _The Welsh Chaplain._] + +After one day's rest at Brandfort the Guards resumed their march, and +aided by some fighting, in which the Australians took a conspicuous +part, we reached the Vet River, and encamped near its southern banks +for the night. Here the newly-appointed Wesleyan Welsh chaplain, Rev. +Frank Edwards, overtook me; and until it could be decided where he was +to go or what he was to do, he was invited to become my brother-guest +at the Grenadiers' mess. + +The next day being Sunday Mr Edwards had a speedy opportunity of +learning how little the best intentioned chaplain can accomplish when +at the front in actual war time. It was the sixth Sunday in succession +I was doomed to spend, not in doing the work of a preacher but of a +pedestrian. All other chaplains were often in the same sad but +inevitable plight; and though Mr Edwards had come from far of set +purpose to preach Christ in the Welsh tongue to Welshmen, had all the +camp been Welsh he would that day have found himself absolutely +helpless. We were all on the march; and the only type of Christian +work then attemptable takes the form of a brief greeting in the name +of Christ to the men who tramp beside us, though they are often too +tired even to talk, and we are compelled to trudge on in stolid +silence. + +The drift we had to cross that Sunday at the Vet was by far the worst +we had yet reached in South Africa, and till all the waggons were +safely over, the whole column was compelled to linger hard by. I +therefore took advantage of that long pause to hurry on to Smaldeel +Junction, where the headquarter staff was staying for the day. Here I +was privileged to introduce Mr Edwards to the Field-Marshal, and was +so fortunate as to secure his immediate appointment as Wesleyan +chaplain to the whole of General Tucker's Division, with special +attachment to the South Wales Borderers. This important and +appropriate task successfully accomplished, I retired to rest under +the broken fans of a shattered windmill. + +Mr Edwards' association with the Guards' Brigade was thus of very +short duration; but some interesting glimpses of his after work are +given, from his own pen, in "From Aldershot to Pretoria." I must, +therefore, only add that he was early struck by a small fragment of a +shell, and was at the same time fever-stricken, so that for ten weeks +he remained on the sick list. Still more unluckily he had only just +resumed work, when there developed a further attack of dysentery, +fever and jaundice, which ended in his being invalided home. Thus, +like many another chaplain, he found his South African career became +one of suffering rather than of service. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +TO THE VALSCH RIVER AND THE VAAL + + +After resting for two days at Smaldeel, the Guards set out for +Kroonstad on the Valsch or False River, so called because in some +parts it so frequently changes its channel that after a heavy freshet +one can seldom be quite sure where to find it. This march of +sixty-five miles was covered in three days and a half; Smaldeel seeing +the last of us on Wednesday and Kroonstad seeing the first of us about +noon on Saturday. In the course of this notable march we saw, or +rather heard, two artillery duels; the Boers half-heartedly opposing +our passage, first at the Vet River just before we reached Smaldeel, +and then at the Sand River, long since made famous by the Convention +bearing that name. + +[Sidenote: _The Sand River Convention._] + +Though Great Britain is supposed to suffer from insatiable land hunger +it is a notable truth that she has voluntarily surrendered more +oversea territory than some important kingdoms ever possessed; but not +one of these many surrenders proved half so disastrous to all +concerned as that on which the Sand River Convention set its seal in +1852. At that time our colonial possessions were accounted by many +overtaxed statesmen to be all plague and no profit, involving the +motherland in incessant native wars out of which she won for herself +neither credit nor cash. That had proved specially true in South +Africa. When, therefore, the Crimean war hove in sight with its +manifold risks and its drain on our national resources, it was +resolved to lessen our liabilities in that then unattractive quarter +of the globe. The Transvaal was at that time a barren land, given over +to wild beasts, and to Boers who seemed equally uncontrollable. An +Ishmael life was theirs, their hand against every man's and every +man's hand against them. Every little township was a law unto itself +and almost every homestead; so the British Government threw up the +thankless task of governing the ungovernable, as soon as a life and +death struggle with Russia appeared inevitable. The Sand River +Convention gave to the Transvaal absolute independence save only in +what related to the treatment of the natives. There was to be no +slavery in the Transvaal; but no Convention ever yet framed could +apparently bind a Boer when his financial interests bade him break it. +So set he his face to evade the conditions both of the Pretoria and +the London Conventions of later date; and the one requirement of this +first Convention he set at nought. During several following years he +still hunted for slaves whom he took captive in native wars; sjamboked +them into serving him without pay; bought them, sold them, but never +called them slaves. They were "apprentices," which was a fine word for +a foul thing. So was the Convention kept in the letter of it and +broken in the spirit of it. For five-and-twenty years of widening and +deepening anarchy that Convention remained in force, the Transvaal +fighting with the Orange Free State, and Boer bidding defiance to Boer +with bullets for his arguments. When little Lydenberg claimed the +right to set up as an independent republic, Kruger himself reasoned +with it at the muzzle of his rifle, as we have since been compelled to +reason with him. So at last Shepstone appeared upon the scene to +evolve order out of chaos; and though he knew it not, he was the true +herald of the Guards' Brigade, and sundry others, that after many days +crossed the Sand River to make an end for ever of all that the Sand +River Convention involved. + +The year following that in which the Convention was signed, another +step was taken in the same direction and independence was forced on +the Orange Free State. The people protested, and pleaded for +permission to still live under the protection of the British flag; but +their prayers were as unavailing as "the groans of the Britons," +which, as recorded in the early pages of our own island story, +followed the retiring swords of Rome. Now, after nearly forty years of +uttermost neighbourliness, the Orange Free State, with machine gun and +mauser hurls back the gift once so reluctantly accepted, and forces us +to recall what now they still more reluctantly surrender. How +bewildering are the ways of Fate! + +[Illustration: _From a photograph by Mr Westerman_ + +Broken Bridge at Modder River.] + +[Sidenote: _Railway wrecking and repairing._] + +The crossing of the drifts at the two rivers was almost as difficult a +task as the overtaking of our ever retreating foes. The railway +bridges over both these streams had been blown up by dynamite: some +of the stone piers were shattered, and some of the iron girders hurled +all atwist into the watery depths beneath; here and there culverts had +similarly been destroyed, and at many a point the very rails had been +torn by explosives till they looked like a pair of upturned arms +imploring help from heaven. We noticed, however, when we got into the +Transvaal that the Transvaalers took pity on their own portion of the +line, and studiously refrained from shattering it. Some of them were +probably shareholders. The less serious damages the Railway Pioneers +and the Royal Engineers repaired with a speed that amazed us; and our +supply trains never seemed to linger long in the rear of us, except +when a massive river bridge was broken. Then a deviation line and a +low level trestle bridge had to be constructed. At that fatigue work I +have seen whole companies of once smart-looking Guardsmen toiling with +spade and pick like Kaffirs, whilst some of their aristocratic +officers, bearing lordly titles, played the part of gangers over these +soldier-navvies. It was a new version and a more useful one of Ruskin +and his collegiate road-makers. + +[Sidenote: _The tale, and tails, of a singed overcoat._] + +Bridge or no bridge, many a mile of transport waggons, of ammunition +carts, of provision carts, with sundry naval guns, each drawn by a +team of thirty-two oxen, had somehow to be got down the dangerous +slope on one side of the drift, then across the stream, and up the +still more difficult slope on the other side. It was a herculean +task at which men and mules and horses toiled on far into the night. +Meanwhile, when the troops reached their camping ground some miles +beyond the river, they found they would have to wait for hours before +they could get a scrap of beef or biscuit, and that it would probably +be still longer before their overcoats or blankets arrived. For the +hungry and shivering men this seemed an almost interminable interval, +and for their officers it was scarcely less trying. A devoted +Methodist non-commissioned officer perceiving my sorry plight most +seasonably procured for me the loan of a capital military greatcoat. I +also fortunately found a warm anthill, which the Boers earlier in the +day had hollowed out and turned into an excellent stove or +cooking-place. I stirred up the hot ashes inside with my +walking-stick, but could find no trace of actual fire, so lay down +beside the mound for the sake of its gentle warmth and instantly fell +fast asleep. In my sleep I must have leaned hard against the anthill, +for presently a burning sensation at my back awoke me, to discover +that already a big hole had been charred in the coat I wore; and +"alas! master, it was borrowed." Boer rifle fire never harmed a hair +of my head, but this Boer fire did mischief nobody bargained for. +Clearly our pursuit was much too hot for my personal comfort! + +[Illustration: _From a photograph by Mr Westerman_ + +The Deviation Bridge at Modder River.] + +A little earlier in the evening another glowing anthill had been found +by one of our officers, and the thought of possible soup at once +suggested itself. A three-legged crock was borrowed from a native and +a fire of green mimosa shrub was laboriously coaxed into vigour by a +young aspirant to a seat in the House of Lords. Into the crockful +of water one of us cast a few meat lozenges reserved for just such a +day of dire need; another found in his haversack a further slender +store, which instantly shared the same fate. Somebody else cast into +the pot the contents of a tiny tin of condensed beef tea; and with +sundry other contributions of the same kind there was presently +produced a delightful cup of soup for all concerned. To mend matters +still further and to improve the no longer shining hours, an officer +caught sight of a stray pig upon the veldt and shot it, just as though +it had been a sniping "brother." A short time after a portion of that +porker took its place among the lozenges and condensed beef tea in +that simmering crock. So in an hour or two there followed another cup +of glorious broth, with a dainty morsel of boiled pork for those who +desired it:-- + + "Oh ye gods, what a glorious feast!" + +Soon after, our Cape cart with its load of iron mugs and tinned +provisions reached that same crock side; while waggon loads of +blankets, beef and biscuits, made possible a satisfactory night's +rest, even on the frosty veldt, for all our well-wearied men. + +Kroonstad, the but recently proclaimed second capital of the Orange +Free State, is a very inferior edition of Bloemfontein. There is not a +single stately building, public or private, in the whole place--the +Dutch Reformed Church, afterwards taken for hospital purposes, being +the best, as it is meet and right God's House should always be. + +[Sidenote: _Lord Roberts as Hospital Visitor._] + +It was while I was visiting the sick and suffering laid, of course +without beds, on the bare floor of this extemporised House of Healing +that our ever busy commander-in-chief called on a similar errand of +pitying kindliness. Fortunately for all concerned the master-mind of +the whole campaign is of a devout as well as kindly type. _Lord +Roberts_ not only encouraged to the uttermost all army temperance +work, being himself the founder of the A.T.A., but like Lord Methuen +took a lively interest in the spiritual welfare of the troops. Yet +never was a general more loved by his men, or more implicitly trusted. +They reposed so much the calmer confidence in his generalship because +of their instinctive belief in his goodness, and as an illustration of +that belief the following testimony sent by a certain bombardier +appeared in a recent report of Miss Hanson's Aldershot Soldiers' +Home:-- + + "Lord Roberts! Well, he's just _a father_. Often goes round + hospital in Bloemfontein, and it's 'Well, my lad, how are you + to-day? Anything I can do for you? Anything you want?' and never + forgets to _see_ the man has what he asks for. Goes to the + hospital train--'Are you comfortable? Are you _sure_ you're + comfortable?' Then it's 'Buck up! Buck up!' to those who need it. + But when he sees a man dying, it's 'Can I pray with you, my lad?' + I've seen him many a time praying, with not a dry eye + near,--tears in his eyes and ours. It don't matter if there is a + clergyman or anyone else present, if he sees a man very ill he + will pray with him. He _is_ a lord!" + +Whether in this story there is any slight touch of soldierly +imaginativeness, I cannot tell, but happy is the general about whom +his men write in such a fashion; and happy is the army controlled by +such a head! + +[Sidenote: _President Steyn's Sjambok._] + +On the Friday evening, a few hours before our arrival, President Steyn +stood in the drift of the Kroonstad stream, sjambok in hand, seeking +to drive back the fleeing Boers to their new-made and now deserted +trenches; but the President's sjambok proved as unavailing as Mrs +Partington's heroic broom. The Boer retreat had grown into a rout; and +the President's own retirement that night was characterised by more of +despatch than dignity. He is reported to have said, "Better a Free +State ruined than no Free State at all." For its loss of freedom, and +for its further ruin, no living man is so responsible as he. But for +his sympathy and support the Boers would have made less haste in the +penning of their Ultimatum, and war might still have slept. =Steyn's +ambition awoke it!= + +Whilst its President-protector fled, Kroonstad that night found itself +face to face with pandemonium let loose. The great railway bridge over +the Valsch was blown up with a terrific crash. The new goods station +belonging to the railway, recently built at a cost of £5000, and +filled with valuable stores, including food stuffs, was drenched with +paraffin by the =Boer Irish Brigade=, and given to the flames; while +five hundred sacks of Indian corn piled outside shared the same fate. +No wonder that, as at Bloemfontein, the arrival of the Guards' Brigade +was welcomed with ringing cheers, and the frantic waving by many a +hand of tiny Union Jacks. Our coming was to them the end of anarchy. + +It is however worthy of note that the Boers who thus gave foodstuffs +to the flames, and strove continually to tear up the rails along +which food supplies arrived, yet left their wives and children for us +to feed. About that they had no compunctions and no fear, in spite of +the fabled horrors ascribed to British troops. They knew full well +that even if those troops were half starved, these non-combatants +would not be suffered to lack any good thing. Even President Kruger, +though careful to carry all his wealth away, commended his wife to our +tender keeping. Some of us would rather he had taken the wife and left +the wealth; but concerning the scrupulous courtesy shown to her, no +voice of complaining has ever been heard. When we ourselves were +famished we fed freely the families of the very men who set fire to +our food supplies; and their children especially were as thoughtfully +cared for as though they were our own. War is always an accursed +thing, but even in this dread sphere the Christ-influence is not +unfelt. + +[Sidenote: _A Sunday at last that was also a Sabbath._] + +To my intense delight after so many Sabbathless Sundays, I found +myself privileged to conduct a well-attended parade service for the +Nonconformists in the Guards' Brigade at 9 A.M., and for the men of +General Stephenson's Brigade at a later hour. In the afternoon I paid +a visit to the native Wesleyan church which has connected with it +about twelve hundred members in and around Kroonstad. The building, +which is day school, Sunday school and chapel all in one, is already +of a goodly size, but it was about to be enlarged when the war began. +I found a capital congregation awaiting my appearing, the women +sitting on one side, the men on the other. There were three +interpreters who translated what I said into Kaffir, Basuto and Dutch; +an arrangement which gives a preacher ample time to think before he +speaks; though once or twice I fear I forgot when number two had +finished that number three had still to follow. I noticed when the +collection was taken, there seemed almost as many coins as +worshippers, and all the coins were silver, excepting only two. Yet +this was a congregation of Kaffirs! + +At night, assisted by the Canadian chaplain, I took the service in the +Wesleyan English church, where the singing and the collection were +both golden. So also was the text; and delightsomely appropriate +withal. "The Most High ruleth the kingdom of men and giveth it to +whomsoever He will." Of the sermon based upon it however it is not for +me to speak. So ended my first Sunday in Kroonstad, where I was the +favoured guest of Mr and Mrs Thorn, late of Bristol, and still +Britishers "to the backbone the thick way through." + +[Sidenote: _Military Police on the march._] + +This memorable march from the Valsch to the Vaal was, in consequence +of the transport difficulties already described, one of the hungriest +in all our record. To all the other miseries of the men there was +added an incessant pining for food which it was impossible for them to +procure in anything like satisfying quantities, and I have repeatedly +watched them gather up from the face of the veldt unwholesomenesses +that no man could eat; I have seen them many a time thus try with wry +face to devour wild melon bitter as gall, and then fling it away in +utter disgust, if not despair. + +Yet at the head of the Brigade there marched a strong body of Military +Police whose one business it was to see that these famished men looted +nothing. When a deserted house was reached no pretence at protecting +it was made. Such a house of course never contained food, and our men +sought in it only what would serve for firewood, in some cases almost +demolishing the place in their eagerness to secure a few small sticks, +or massive beams. Nothing in that way came amiss. + +But if man, woman or child were in the house a cordon of police was +instantly put round the building. The longing eyes and tingling +fingers passed on, and absolutely nothing was touched except on +payment. Tom Hood in one of his merry poems tells of a place:-- + + "Straight down the crooked lane + And right round the square," + +where the most toothsome little porkers cried "Come eat me if you +please." That, to the famine-haunted imagination of the troops, was +precisely what many a well-fed porker on the veldt seemed to say, but +as a rule say in vain. After thousands of troops had gone by, I have +with my own eyes seen that lucky porker still there, with ducks of +unruffled plumage still floating on the farmhouse pond, and fat +poultry quite unconscious how perilous an hour they had just passed. +Yet the owner of the aforesaid pig and poultry was out on commando, +his mauser charged with a messenger of death, which any moment might +wing its way to any one of us. No wonder if the famished soldiers +could not quite see the equity of the arrangement which left him at +liberty to hunt for their lives but would not allow them to lay a +finger on one of his barndoor fowls. It would be absurd to suppose +that, in the face of such pressure, the vigilance of the police was +never eluded; and our mounted scouts were always well away from police +control. As the result their saddles became sometimes like an inverted +hen-roost; heads down instead of up; but they were seldom asked in +what market they had made their purchases or what price they had paid +for their poultry. + +It would require a clever cook to provide a man with three savoury and +substantial meals out of a mugful of flour, about a pound of tough +trek ox, and a pinch of tea. Yet occasionally that was all it proved +possible to serve out to the men, and their ingenuity in dealing with +that miserable mugful of flour often made me marvel. They reminded me +not unfrequently of the sons of the prophets, who, in a day of dearth +went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine, and +gathered thereof wild gourds and shred them into the pot and they +could not eat thereof. Violent attacks of dysentery and kindred +complaints only too plainly proved that occasionally in this case +also, as in that ancient instance, there was apparently ample +justification for the cry, "Oh thou man of God, there is death in the +pot." Nevertheless, and notwithstanding the lynx-eyed vigilance of the +police, the smell from the pot was sometimes astonishingly like unto +the smell of chicken-broth; which clearly shows what good cooking can +accomplish even on the barren veldt. + +[Sidenote: _A General's glowing eulogy of the Guards._] + +This amazing ability of the Guards to face long marches with short +rations was triumphantly maintained, not for a few months merely but +to the very end of the campaign. In the February of 1901 it fell to +the lot of the Scots Guards, for instance, to accompany General +French's cavalry to the Swaziland border. They took with them no tents +and the least possible amount of impedimenta of any kind. But for +three weeks they had to face almost incessant rain, and as they had no +shelter except a blanket full of holes, they were scarcely ever dry +for half a dozen hours at a time. The streams were so swollen that +they became impassable torrents, and the transport waggons were thus +left far behind, with all food supplies. For eight or ten days at a +stretch men and officers alike had no salt, no sugar, no tea, no +coffee, no jam, no flour, bread or biscuits; no vegetables of any +kind; but only one cupful of mealies or mealie meal per day, and as +much fresh killed meat as their rebellious stomachs could digest +without the aid of salt or mustard. Yet the only deaths were two by +drowning; and at the close of the operations the general addressed +them as follows:-- + +General French's farewell speech to the 1st Brigade, Scots Guards at +Vryheid, on April 1st, 1901:-- + + Major Cuthbert, officers, N.C.Os. and men of the Scots Guards. + The operations in the Eastern Transvaal are brought to a close, + and I have had the opportunity of addressing the Royal Horse and + Field Artillery and Cavalry; but, although you were with me in + the Western Transvaal, this is the first time I have had the + pleasure of addressing you on parade. The operations from Springs + to Ermelo, and from Ermelo to Piet Retief, were conducted under + the most trying circumstances and severe hardships. Lying on the + ground, which was under water, with no shelter, with very short + rations and for sometime none at all, you had to exist on the + meagre supplies of the district, which were very poor. At one + time it caused me the deepest anxiety, as in consequence of the + weather all communications were temporarily suspended; but the + cheery manner and disposition of this splendid battalion did a + great deal to disperse this anxiety. What struck me most forcibly + was your extraordinary power of marching. I have frequently + noticed that when the cavalry and mounted infantry were engaged + (happily very slightly) in these operations, I have been + surprised on looking round to see this splendid battalion close + behind and extended ready to take part in the fighting, and have + wondered how they got there. Another important item I wish to + remark upon is the magnificent manner in which this battalion + performed outpost duty and night work. On several occasions news + has come to me through my Intelligence Department of a meditated + attack on the camp of this column, but owing to the skilful way + in which the outposts were thrown out and the vigilance of the + sentries the attack was never developed. + + Another thing I noticed was the highly disciplined state of the + battalion. It is not always in fighting that a soldier proves his + qualities. Though at the commencement of the campaign you had + hard fighting and heavy losses, the past few weeks stand + unsurpassed, I believe, for hardships in the history of the + campaign! I thank every officer and N.C.O. for the great + assistance given to me during these operations. Should your + services be required elsewhere, or further hardships have to be + endured, I know you will do as you have done before. I wish you + all good-bye. + +[Sidenote: _Good news by the way._] + +Among those who, like myself, on October 21st left England in the same +boat as General Baden-Powell's brother, the most frequent theme of +conversation was the then unknown fate of Mafeking. Its relief was the +news most eagerly enquired for at St Vincent's, and we were all hugely +disappointed when on reaching the Cape we learned that the interesting +event had not yet come off. Some toilsome and adventurous months +brought us to May 21st, our last day at Kroonstad; and it proved a +superbly satisfactory send-off on our next perilous march to learn +that day that the long-delayed but intensely welcome event had at last +actually taken place just four days before. It filled the whole camp +with pardonable pride and pleasure, though the sober-sided soldiers on +the veldt scarcely lost their mental balance over the business as the +multitudes at home, and as all the great cities of the empire seem to +have done. We know it was a tiny town defended by a tiny garrison of +for the most part untrained men; and therefore in itself of scant +importance; but we also know that for many a critical week it had held +back not a few strong commandoes in their headlong rush towards the +Cape; it had for weary months illustrated on the one hand the staying +power of British blood, and on the other the timidity and impotence of +the Boers as an attacking force. Not a single town or stronghold to +which they laid siege had they succeeded in capturing; the very last +of the series was safe at last, and after all that had been said about +British blunderings, this event surely called for something more than +commonplace congratulations. Hereward the Wake was wont to say, "We +are all gallant Englishmen; it is not courage we want: it is brains"; +but at Mafeking for once brains triumphed over bullets. A new Wake had +arisen in our ranks, and so Mafeking has found a permanent place among +the many names of renown in the long annals of our island story. + +It was an admirably fitting prelude to another historic event of that +same week. On the last anniversary we shall ever keep of our venerable +Queen's birthday, on May 24th, the Orange River Colony was formally +annexed to the British Empire, and Victoria was proclaimed its +gracious sovereign. That empire has grown into the vastest +responsibility ever laid on the shoulders of any one people, and +constitutes a stupendously urgent call to the pursuit and practice of +righteousness on the part of the whole Anglo-Saxon race. It is a +superb stewardship entrusted to us of God; and "it is required in +stewards that they be found faithful." + +[Sidenote: _Over the Vaal at last._] + +All that week the Guards continued in hot pursuit of the Boers without +so much as once catching sight of them. Repeatedly, however, we +scrambled through huge patches of Indian or Kaffir corn, enough, so to +say, to feed an army, but all left to rot and perish uncut. It was one +of the few evidences which just then greeted us that war was really +abroad in the land, and that they were no mere autumn manoeuvres in +which we then were taking part. Some of the rightful owners of that +corn were probably among our prisoners of war at St Helena, spending +their mourning days in vainly wondering how long its hateful +unfamiliar waves would keep them captive. Others had, perchance, +themselves been garnered by the great Harvester, who ever gathers his +fattest sheaves hard by the paths of war. + +Occasionally we came, in the course of our march, on a +recently-deserted Boer camp, with empty tins strewn all about the +place and the embers of camp fires still glowing, but never so much as +a penny worth of loot lying on the ground. Either they had little to +leave, or else they so utilised the railway in assisting to get their +belongings away that in that respect they had the laugh of us +continually. This final service rendered, the Boers made haste to +prevent the rail being used by us; and so far as time or timidity +would permit, they blew up every bridge, every culvert, as soon as +their last train had crossed it. Fortunately of the long and beautiful +bridge across the Vaal we found only one broad span broken. + +About nine o'clock on Sunday morning the troops reached Val Joen's +Drift, the terminal station on the Orange Free State Railway. This +drift it was that President Kruger had once resolved to close against +all traffic in order the more effectually to strangle British trade in +the Transvaal. Another mile or two through prodigiously deep sand, +brought us to the Vaal River coal mines, with their great heaps of +burning cinders or other refuse, which brought vividly to many a north +countryman's remembrances kindred scenes in the neighbourhood of busy +Bradford and prosperous Sunderland. + +Then came the great event to which the laborious travel of the last +seven months had steadily led up, the crossing of the Vaal, and the +planting of our victorious feet on Transvaal soil. Here we were +assured the Boers would make their most determined stand; and the +natural strength of the position, together with the urgent necessities +of the case, made such an expectation more than merely reasonable. Yet +to our delighted wonderment not a single trench, so far as we could +see, had been dug, nor a solitary piece of artillery placed in +position. From the top of a cinder heap a few farewell mauser bullets +were fired at our scouts, and then as usual our foemen fled. Once in a +Dutch deserted wayside house I picked up an "English Reader," which +strangely opened on Montgomery's familiar lines:-- + + "There is a land of every land the pride; + Belov'd by Heaven o'er all the world beside. + Where shall that land, that spot of earth be found? + + Art thou a Man, a Patriot? Look around! + Oh thou shalt find, howe'er thy footsteps roam, + That land thy country, and that spot thy home!" + +Boer patriotism we had supposed to be not merely pronounced, but +fiercely passionate; and "a Dutchman," said Penn, "is never so +dangerous as when he is desperate"; yet when the Guards' Brigade +stepped out of the newly-conquered Free State into the about to be +conquered Transvaal, scarcely a solitary Dutchman appeared upon the +scene to dispute our passage, or to strike one desperate blow for +hearth and altar and independence. In successive batches we were +peacefully hauled across the river on a pontoon ferry bridge; and as I +leaped ashore it was with a glad hurrah upon my lips; a grateful +hallelujah in my heart! + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A CHAPTER ABOUT CHAPLAINS + + +Whilst our narrative pauses for a while beside the Vaal which served +as a boundary between the two Republics, it may be well to devote one +chapter to a further description of the work of the chaplains with +whom in those two Republics I was brought into more or less close +official relationship. Concerning the chaplains of other Churches +whose work I witnessed, it does not behove me to speak in detail; I +can but sum up my estimate of their worth by saying concerning each, +what was said concerning a certain Old Testament servant of +Jehovah:--"He was a faithful man and feared God above many." + +Of Wesleyan acting-chaplains, devoting their whole time to work among +the troops, and for the most part accompanying them from place to +place, there were eight; and to the labours of three of them--the +Welsh, the Australian and the Canadian--reference has already been +made. A fourth, the Rev. Owen Spencer Watkins, represented the +Wesleyan Church in the Omdurman Campaign and was officially present at +the memorial service for General Gordon; but in this campaign he was +unfortunately shut up in Ladysmith, so that we never met. His story +however has been separately told in "Chaplains at the Front." There +remain three whom I repeatedly saw, and who reported to me from time +to time the progress of their work--viz. the Revs. M. F. Crewdson, T. +H. Wainman, and W. C. Burgess, each of whom in few words it will now +be my privilege to introduce. + +[Sidenote: _A Chaplain who found the Base became the Front._] + +Mr Crewdson, who had for some years been my colleague in England, at +the commencement of the war was compelled to leave Johannesburg, and +became a refugee minister at the Cape, where on my arrival he was one +of the first to welcome me. Possessed of brilliant preaching abilities +and uncontrollably active, a life of semi-indolence soon became to him +unendurable; and presently his offer was accepted of service with the +troops, but instead of being sent as he desired into the thickest of +the fray, he found himself detailed for hospital and other homely +duties, at De-Aar Nauwpoort and Norval's Pont. Here for over twelve +months he rendered admirable, though to him monotonous, service; when, +lo, suddenly the Boers doubled back upon their pursuers, and attempted +not unsuccessfully though unfruitfully, a second invasion of Cape +Colony. The base became the front, and this vast region of hospitals +and supply depôts became the scene of very active operations indeed, +in which the Guards' Brigade, now recalled from Koomati Poort, took a +prominent part. Mr Crewdson found himself at last not where wounds are +healed merely, but where wounds are made, and for the moment, being +intensely pro-British, found in that fact a kind of grim content. + +[Sidenote: _Pathetic scenes in Hospital._] + +Few chaplains in the course of this campaign have had so extensive an +experience in hospital work as Mr Crewdson, and in the course of his +correspondence he relates many pathetic incidents that came under his +own personal observation. At De-Aar he found a lance-corporal with a +fractured jaw and some twenty other slight or serious wounds, all +caused by fragments of a single shell. "I was one of seven," he said, +"entrenched in a little sangar on a hill. Hundreds of Boers and Blacks +came up against us. One of the seven disappeared, four others were +killed; so to my one surviving comrade I said, 'Look here, corporal, +we'll stick this out till one of us is wounded then the other must +look after him.'" Presently that unlucky shell made a victim of this +plucky fellow; but a hero it could not make him. He was that already. + +A company of the West Yorkshire Mounted Infantry only twenty strong +had sustained, in storming a kopje, no less than ten casualties. The +lieutenant, shot through the base of the skull, lay in that hospital +in utterly helpless, if not hopeless, collapse; and near to him was +his sergeant who, while bandaging the wounds of a comrade, was shot +through the bridge of the nose, and his eye so damaged it had to be +removed; whilst yet another of this group, shot through the shoulder, +with characteristic cheerfulness said, "Oh, it's nothing, sir. I'll be +at it again in a week." Some of them would say that, brave fellows, if +their heads were blown off--or would try to! + +Writing from Colesberg at a somewhat later date Mr Crewdson informed +me that going the round of hospitals,--where he met representatives +from Ceylon, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa and +the United Kingdom,--had filled much of his time during the previous +fortnight. "I cannot tell the sweet brave things I have heard from +tongues that had almost lost their power to speak. One was a Canadian +lad, who had passed through his course as a student for the ministry, +and being refused as a chaplain had volunteered as a trooper, and when +the chaplain tenderly asked, 'How are you, old man?' he received in a +kind of gasp this reply: 'Trusting Jesus!' Another, now nearly +convalescent, said, 'I have been a Christian for twenty years, but the +weeks spent in hospital have taught me more of God, and of the wonders +of His grace, than years of health.' His eyes glistened and then +dimmed as with faltering voice he added, 'I want to say, that it was +good for me that I was afflicted.'" + +[Sidenote: _A battlefield scene no less pathetic._] + +In the course of these incessant hospital rounds Mr Crewdson found an +Australian whose leg had been shattered by an explosive bullet and who +told him this strange tale. When thus wounded he fell between two +rocks and found himself unable to move, but while lying there a young +well-dressed Boer discovered him, and with a perfect English accent +said, "Are you much hurt, old fellow?" The Australian, suspecting +treachery, turned white and trembled in spite of the stranger's kindly +tone. + +"Oh, don't be afraid of me, you are hurt enough already. Shall I get +you some water?" was the instant Boer rejoinder to the Australian's +signs of suspicion. The water was soon produced; and next there came +forth from the pocket of that young Boer a couple of peaches, which +were offered to the sufferer, and thankfully accepted. + +"You must be faint with this fierce sun beating on you," said this +strange foeman; and thereupon he sat upon a rock for over an hour in +such a position that his shadow sheltered the wounded man, and surely, +as in Peter's story, that shadow must have had grace and healing in +it. Ultimately an ambulance arrived, and this chivalrous Transvaaler +crowned the helpfulness of that eventful hour by tenderly lifting the +crippled Australian on to a stretcher, with an expression of hope that +he would soon be well again. + +At the close of this unnatural conflict it is our best consolation to +be divinely assured that the brotherliness which thus presented +peaches to a wounded foe will ultimately triumph over the bitterness +which winged the explosive bullet that well-nigh killed him. + +[Sidenote: _Look on this picture--and on that._] + +While it is undeniable that cases of chivalrous courtesy such as this +occurred repeatedly in the course of the campaign, it is equally +undeniable that the Boers sometimes deliberately set aside all the +usages of civilized war. Mr Crewdson, for instance, says that after +the Slingersfontein fight he met at least a dozen men who declared +that the Boers drove up the hill in front of them hundreds of armed +Kaffirs, and then themselves crept up on hands and knees under cover +of this living moving wall. Such strategy is exceedingly slim; but +they who make use of semi-savages must themselves for the time being +be accounted near akin to them. One word from the Queen would have +sufficed to let loose on the Boers the slaughterous fury of almost all +native South Africa, but had that word been spoken there could have +been found no forgiveness for it in this life or in the life to come. +Yet Slingersfontein was not the only sad instance of this sort, for +Sir Redvers Buller in his official report concerning Vaalkrantz +solemnly declares that then also there were armed Kaffirs with the +Boer forces, and that there also the Red flag was abominably abused, +for he himself and his Staff saw portions of artillery conveyed by the +Boers to a given position in an ambulance flying the Geneva flag. The +loss of honour is ever out of all proportion to the help such +treachery affords. + +[Sidenote: _A third class Chaplain who proved a first-rate Chaplain._] + +It was at Waterval Boven I first met my assistant-chaplain, the Rev. +T. H. Wainman, and found him all that eulogising reports had +proclaimed him to be. Seventeen years ago he accompanied the +Bechuanaland Expedition under Sir Charles Warren, and then acquitted +himself so worthily that the Wesleyan Army and Navy Committee at once +turned to him in this new hour of need, resting assured that in him +they had a workman that maketh not ashamed. At the time he received +the cable calling him to this task he was a refugee minister from +Johannesburg, residing for a while near Durban. There he left his +family and at once hurried to report himself in Chieveley Camp, where +a singular incident befell him. + +[Sidenote: _Running in the wrong man._] + +A few hours before his arrival an official notice was issued that a +Boer spy in khaki was known to be lurking in the camp, and all +concerned were requested to keep a sharp look-out with a view to +speedy arrest. Mr Wainman's appearance singularly tallied with the +published portraiture of the aforesaid spy, and all the more because +after his long journey he by no means appeared parson-like. He was +just then as rough looking as any prowling Boer might be supposed to +be. When, therefore, he was challenged by the sentinel as he +approached the camp, and to the sentinel's surprise gave the right +password, he was nevertheless told that he must consider himself a +prisoner, and was accordingly marched off to the guard-room for safe +keeping and further enquiry. It was a strange commencement for his new +chaplaincy. More than one of our chaplains has been taken prisoner by +the Boers, but he alone could claim the distinction of being made a +prisoner of war, even for an hour, by his own people, till a yet more +painful experience of the same type befell Mr Burgess; nor did +ill-fortune fail to follow him for some time to come. He was attached +to a battalion where chaplains were by no means beloved for their own +sake; and though one of the most winsome of men, he was made to feel +in many ways that his presence was unwelcome. + +[Sidenote: _A Wainman who was a real waggoner._] + +Presently, however, there came an opportunity which he so skilfully +used as to become the hero of the hour, and in the end one of the most +popular men in the whole Brigade. When on the trek one of the +transport waggons stuck fast hopelessly in an ugly drift, and no +amount of whip-leather or lung-power sufficed to move it. One waggon +thus made a fixture blocks the whole cavalcade, and is, therefore, a +most serious obstruction. But Mr Wainman had not become an old +colonist without learning a few things characteristic of colonial +life, including the handling of an ox team. He therefore volunteered +to end the deadlock, and in sheer desperation the Padré's offer was, +however dubiously, accepted. So off came his tunic; this small thing +was straightened, that small thing cleared out of the way, then next +he cleared his throat, and instead of hurling at those staggering oxen +English oaths or Kaffir curses, spoke to them in tones soothing and +familiar as their own mother tongue. Some one at last had appeared +upon the scene that understood them, or that they could understand. +Then followed a long pull, a strong pull, a pull altogether, and lo as +by magic the impossible came to pass. The waggon was out of the drift! +"Brave padré," everybody cried. His name means "waggoner," and a right +good waggoner he that day proved to be. This skilful compliance with +one of the requirements of the Mosaic laws helped him immensely in the +preaching of the Gospel. He became all the more powerful as a minister +because so popular as a man. In many ways his mature local knowledge +enabled him to become so exceptionally useful that he received +promotion from a fourth to a third class acting chaplaincy, and the +very officers who at first deemed his presence an infliction combined +to present him with a handsome cigarette case in token of uttermost +goodwill. You can't tell what even a chaplain is capable of till you +give him a chance. + +[Sidenote: _Three bedfellows in a barn._] + +When Mr Wainman first reached his appointed quarters, the wounded were +being brought in by hundreds from the Colenso fight; later on he +climbed to the summit of Spion Kop, "The Spying Mountain," to search +for the wounded, and to bury the dead that fell victims to the fatal +mischance that having captured, then surrendered that ever famous +hill; and at night he slept in a barn with a Catholic priest lying on +one side of him and an Anglican chaplain on the other--a delightful +forecasting that of the time when the leopard shall lie down with the +kid, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a +little child shall lead them. The Christian Catholicity to which this +campaign has given rise is one of its redeeming features. + +While the Rev. Owen Spencer Watkins, the Wesleyan chaplain from Crete +remained shut up in Ladysmith, Mr Wainman remained with the relieving +force, ultimately accompanied General Buller into the Transvaal, where +I frequently met him, and finally, on the approaching conclusion of +the war, resumed charge, like Mr Crewdson, of his civilian church in +Johannesburg. No man learns to be a soldier by merely watching the +troops march past at a royal review; neither did Mr Wainman acquire +his rare gifts for such rough yet heroic service while sitting in an +easy chair. He endured hardness, as every man must who would serve his +generation well according to the will of God. + +[Sidenote: _A fourth-class Chaplain that was also a first-rate +Chaplain._] + +The Rev. W. C. Burgess was a refugee minister from Lindley, in the +Orange River Colony, and like Mr Wainman, was early chosen for service +among the troops, joining General Gatacre's force just after the +lamentable disaster at Stormberg. He was attached to the "Derbys," and +found among them a goodly number of godly men, as in all the +battalions and batteries that constituted that unfortunate column. +Some of these were Christian witnesses of long standing, including no +less than five Wesleyan lay preachers, and some were newly-won +converts. Hence, at the close of Mr Burgess's very first voluntary +service, one khaki man said to him, "I gave my heart to the Lord last +Sunday on the line of march before we met the enemy"; while many more, +though not perhaps walking in the clear shining of the light of God's +countenance, yet spoke freely of their religious upbringing and +relationships. It was possibly one such who, at the close of a little +week-night service, where nearly all the men were drenched with recent +rain, suggested the singing of "Love divine, all loves excelling." The +character of that man's upbringing it is not difficult to divine. +Another said, "I have a wife and four children who are praying for +me"; while yet another added, "For me an aged mother prays." It would +be strange indeed if such confessors were not themselves praying men. +They were to be found by hundreds, probably by thousands, among the +troops sent to South Africa. Never was an army so prayed for since the +world began; and seldom, if ever, has an army contained so many who +themselves were praying men. + +[Sidenote: _A Parson Prisoner in the hands of the Boers._] + +Nearly four months after the Stormberg tragedy, but only four days +after that at Sanna's Post, Mr Burgess found himself, with three +companies of the Irish Rifles and two of the Northumberland Fusiliers, +cooped up on a kopje about three miles long not far from Reddersburg. +With no water within reach, with no guns, and an almost exhausted +store of rifle ammunition, this small detachment found itself indeed +in evil plight when De Wet's commando of 3200 men put a girdle of +rifle barrels around it, and then began a merciless cannonade with +five guns. That cannonade indeed was merciless far beyond what the +rules of modern war permit, for it seemed to be directed, if not +mainly, certainly most effectually, on the ambulances and hospital +tents, over which the Red Cross flag floated in vain. In the vivid +description of the fight which Mr Burgess sent to me, he says that +several of the ambulance mules were killed or badly wounded, and it +was a marvel only one of the ambulance men was hit, for in one of +their tents were four bullet holes, and a similar number in the Red +Cross flag itself. Some of the occupants of the hospital were Boer +prisoners, some were defenceless natives, so all set to work to throw +up trenches for the protection of these non-combatants, and among the +diggers and delvers was the Wesleyan chaplain with coat thrown off, +and plying pick like one to the manner born. To that task he stuck +till midnight, and oh, that I had been there to see! A chaplain thus +turning himself into a navvy is probably no breach of the Geneva +Convention, but all the same it is by no means an everyday occurrence; +and those Boer prisoners would think none the worse of that Wesleyan +predikant's prayers after watching the work, on their behalf, of that +predikant's pick. + +The defence of Reddersburg was one of the least heroic in the whole +record of the campaign, and the troops early next morning surrendered, +not to resistless skill or rifle fire on the part of the Boers, but to +the cravings of overmastering thirst. A relieving force was close at +hand when they ran up the horrid white flag, and had they been aware +of that fact we may be sure no surrender would have taken place. It +requires scant genius to be wise after the event, and still scantier +courage to denounce as lacking in courage this surrender of 500 to a +force six times as large. That was on April 4th, and among those taken +captive by De Wet was the Wesleyan chaplain. His horse, his kit, and +all his belongings at the same time changed hands, and though he was +solemnly assured all would be restored to him, that promise still +awaits redemption. + +[Sidenote: _Caring for the Wounded._] + +Mr Burgess, though stripped of all he possessed, except what he wore, +received De Wet's permission to search for the wounded as well as to +bury the dead; and in one of his letters to me he tells of one +mortally wounded whom he thus found, and who, in reply to the query, +"Do you know Jesus?" replied, "I'm trusting Jesus as my Saviour"; then +recognising Mr Burgess as his chaplain, he added, "Pray for me!" so, +amid onlooking stretcher-bearers and mounted Boers, the dying lad was +commended to the eternal keeping of his Saviour. It is this element +which has introduced itself into modern warfare which will presently +make war impossible, except between wild beasts or wilder savages. +Prayer on the battlefield, and the use on the same spot of explosive +bullets, is too incongruous to have in it the element of perpetuity. + +The number of soldiers that thus die praying, or being prayed for, may +be comparatively small; but even the unsaintly soldier, when wounded, +often displays a stoicism that has in it an undertone of Christian +endurance. A lad of the Connaughts at Colenso, whom a bullet had +horribly crippled in both legs, shouted with defiant cheerfulness to +his comrades--"Bring me a tin whistle and I will play you any tune you +like"; and a naval athlete at Ladysmith, when a shell carried away one +of his legs and his other foot, simply sighed, "There's an end of my +cricket." Pious readers would doubtless in all such cases much prefer +some pious reference to Christ and His Cross in place of the tin +whistle and cricket; but even here is evidence of the grit that has +helped to make England great, and it by no means follows that saving +grace also is not there. The most vigorous piety is not always the +most vocal. + +After nearly four and twenty hours of terrific pelting by shot and +shell, Mr Burgess tells me our total loss was only ten killed and +thirty-five wounded. Not one in ten was hit; and so again was +illustrated the comparative harmlessness of either Mauser or +machine-gun fire against men fairly well sheltered. This war thus +witnessed a strange anomaly. It used the deadliest of all weapons, +and produced with them a percentage of deaths unexampled in its +smallness. + +[Sidenote: _How the Chaplain's own tent was bullet-riddled._] + +Late on in the campaign Mr Burgess was moved, not to his own delight, +from near Belfast to Germiston, but was speedily reconciled to the +change by the receipt of the following letter from an officer of the +Royal Berks:-- + + "Truly you are a lucky man to have left Wonderfontein on Monday; + and it may be that it saved your life, for the same night we were + attacked. It was a very misty night; but we all went to bed as + usual, and at midnight I was awakened by heavy rifle fire. Almost + immediately the bugle sounded the alarm, and everybody ran for + their posts like hares. From where I was it sounded as if the + Boers had really got into camp; but after two hours of very heavy + firing they retired. Yesterday morning, when I went over the + ground, _the first thing I saw was six or eight bullet holes + through your tent_; and one end of our mess had twenty-three + bullet marks in it. Nooitgedacht, Pan and Dalmanutha were all + attacked the same night at exactly the same hour, causing us a + few casualties at each place." + +It may perchance be for our good we are sometimes sent away from +places where we fain would tarry. + +[Sidenote: _A sample set of Sunday Services._] + +The following typical extract is taken from Mr Burgess's Diary:-- + + "_Sunday, January 20th._--Rode out to Fort Dublin for church + parade at 9 A.M. Held parade in town church at 11. Then rode out + to surrendered burghers' laager and held service in Dutch, fully + a hundred being present. Conducted service for children in town + church at 3.30 P.M., and at 4.30 rode out to Hands Up Dorp; two + hundred present and ten baptisms. Managed to ride back to town + just in time for the evening service in the church at 6.30, which + was well attended." + + "Oh, day of _rest_ and gladness!" + +As the war was nearing its close, I sent Mr Burgess to labour along +the blockhouse lines of communication, which have Bloemfontein for +their centre. Here the authorities granted to him the use of a church +railway van, in which he travelled almost ceaselessly between +Brandfort and Norval's Pont, or beyond; and thus he too for a while +became chaplain to part of the Guards' Brigade. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE HELPFUL WORK OF THE OFFICIATING CLERGY + + +In addition to the eight Acting Chaplains referred to in previous +chapters, some forty-five or fifty Wesleyan ministers were appointed +"Officiating Clergymen." These, while still discharging, so far as +circumstances might permit, their ordinary civilian duties, were +formally authorised to minister to the troops residing for a while in +the neighbourhood of their church. Many of the local Anglican clergy +were similarly employed, and supplemented the labours of the +commissioned and acting Anglican chaplains sent out from England. +Their local influence and local knowledge enabled them to render +invaluable service, and great was their zeal in so doing. While the +regular chaplains who came with the troops as a rule went with the +troops, these fixtures in the great King's service were able not only +to make arrangements for religious worship, but for almost every +imaginable kind of ministry for the welfare of the men. They were +often the Army Chaplain's right hand and in some cases his left hand +too. It would be a grievous wrong, therefore to make no reference to +what they attempted for God and the Empire, though it is impossible +here to do more than hurriedly refer to a few typical cases that in +due course were officially reported to me. + +[Sidenote: _At Cape Town and Wynberg._] + +The very day the Guards landed at Cape Town I was introduced to the +Rev. B. E. Elderkin, who in conjunction with the Congregationalists at +Seapoint made generous provision for the social enjoyment and +spiritual profiting of the troops. I was also that same day taken to +the Wynberg Hospital by the Rev. R. Jenkin, who, on alternate Sundays +with the Presbyterian chaplain, conducted religious services there for +the convalescents, and ministered in many ways to the sick and +wounded, of whom there were sometimes as many as 2000 in actual +residence. Among them Mr Jenkin could not fail to discover many cases +of peculiar interest; and concerning one, a private of the Essex, he +has supplied the following particulars:-- + +[Sidenote: _Saved from drowning to sink in hospital._] + +This lad was badly wounded in the thigh on Sunday, March 11th, +somewhere not far from Paardeberg, but he seems to have got so far +into the Boer lines that our own shells fell around him and our own +stretcher-bearers never reached him; so he lay all night, his wound +undressed, and without one drink of water. Next day a mounted Boer +caught sight of him, got off his horse, gave him a drink, and then +passed on. On Wednesday, in sheer desperation, he wriggled to the +river to get a drink, but in his feebleness fell in; was caught by the +branch of a tree, and for more hours than seem credible thus hung, +half in the water, half out, before he rallied sufficient strength to +crawl out and up the bank. For five days he thus remained without +food, and his festering wound unbandaged. On the Friday, when Lord +Roberts offered to exchange six wounded prisoners, the Boers espied +at last this useful hostage, took him to their laager, put a rough +bandage round his thigh, and sent him into the British camp. He was +still alive, full of hope, when Wynberg Hospital was reached, and +responsive to all Mr Jenkin said concerning the mercy of God in +Christ; but the long delay in dealing with his case rendered an +operation necessary. There was no strength left with which to rally--a +sudden collapse, and he was gone to meet his God. Fifteen days after +he fell he was laid to rest, with full military honours, in the +Wesleyan Cemetery at Wynberg. It is well that all fatal cases are not +of that fearful type! + +Whilst the Guards were making their way to the Transvaal, the Rev. W. +Meara, a refugee Wesleyan minister from Barberton, was doing +altogether excellent work among the troops at East London; and has +since gone back to Barberton as officiating clergyman to the troops +there, where later on in 1902 I had the opportunity of personally +noting what his zeal hath accomplished for our men. + +[Sidenote: _A pleasant surprise._] + +Concerning his army work while away from Barberton, Mr Meara sent me +the following satisfactory report:-- + + "During the early part of my chaplaincy there were large numbers + of men in camp, and we held open-air services with blessed + results. The services were largely attended and much appreciated. + We then established a temporary Soldiers' Home; and after a + fortnight the Scripture Reader of the Northumberland Fusiliers + handed me over the responsibility, as he was proceeding with his + regiment to the front. The Home was on the camp ground, and so + was within easy reach of the men, who availed themselves fully of + its advantages. We provided mineral waters at cost prices, and + eatables, tobacco, etc., and for some weeks when there was a + great rush of men in camp upwards of £120 a week was taken. We + supplied ink, pens, notepaper, etc., free, and we had all kinds + of papers in the Reading Room. We agreed that any profits should + be sent to the Soldiers' Widows and Orphans Fund, and so before I + left East London we sent the sum of £43 to Sir A. Milner for the + fund above referred to. Besides the Soldiers' Home, we started a + Soldiers' 'Social Evening' on Wednesdays in Wesley Hall, which + was largely patronised by the men. I have found the officers + without a single exception ready to further my work in every way. + I had also a good deal of hospital work, which to me was full of + pathetic interest. I have had the joy of harvest in some + instances, for some of the men have been led to Christ. When I + purposed leaving, the circuit officials generously took the Town + Hall for two nights at a cost of £14 for my Farewell Service on + Sunday night, and the Farewell Social on Tuesday. The hall was + packed with about 1500 people on the Sunday. We had a grand + number of soldiers. Then on the Tuesday in the same hall there + were about 1000 people who sat down to tea, including from 400 to + 500 soldiers. When tea was over I was to my surprise presented + with a purse of sovereigns from the circuit, and to my still + greater astonishment Col. Long of the Somerset Light Infantry + came on the platform, and spoke most appreciatively of my work + amongst the men, and their great regret at my departure. When he + had finished he called upon Sergt.-Master-Tailor Syer to make a + presentation to me on behalf of the men. It was a beautiful + walking-stick with a massive silver ferrule suitably inscribed, + and a very fine case of razors. Then every soldier in the hall + rose to his feet and gave the departing chaplain three cheers. It + was really one of the proudest moments in my life." + +[Sidenote: _The Soldiers' Reception Committee._] + +Of the Durban Soldiers' Reception Committee the chairman was the Rev. +G. Lowe, also a Transvaal refugee Wesleyan minister; and in a letter +from him now lying on my table he states that he was sometimes on the +landing jetty for fifteen hours at a stretch. He adds that he was the +first to begin this work of welcoming the troops on landing at +Durban, and obtained the permits to take in a few friends within the +barriers for the distribution of fruit, tobacco and bread to the +soldiers, on the purchase of which nearly £300 was expended. +Twenty-five thousand troops were thus met; over £2000 sent home to the +friends of the soldiers; more than 8000 letters announcing the safe +arrivals of the men were dispatched, many hundreds of them being +written for the men by various members of the committee. This work was +most highly appreciated by General Buller; and Colonel Riddell of the +3rd K.R. Rifles left in Mr Lowe's hands £208, 18s. belonging to the +men of his regiment to be sent to the soldiers' relatives. Then, only +a few days before his death at Spion Kop, he wrote expressing his +personal thanks for the excellent work thus done on behalf of his own +and other battalions. + +[Sidenote: _The other way about._] + +About the same time that the Guards reached the Vaal their comrades on +the right, under General Ian Hamilton, arrived at Heilbron, and here +the Rev. R. Matterson at once opened his house and his heart to +welcome them. In face of the dire difficulty of dealing satisfactorily +with the sick and wounded in so inaccessible a village, Mr and Mrs +Matterson received into their own home two enteric patients belonging +to the Ceylon Mounted Infantry, one of them being a son of the +Wesleyan minister at Colombo; but here, as in so many another place, +while the civilians did what they could for the soldiers, the soldiers +in their turn did what they could for the civilians. At Krugersdorp, +so our Welsh chaplain told me, he arranged for a crowded military +concert, which cleared £35 for the destitute poor of the town, mostly +Dutch. So here at Heilbron the troops, fresh from the fray, and on +their way to further furious conflicts, actually provided an open-air +concert for the benefit of a local church charity in the very +neighbourhood, and among the very people they were in the very act of +conquering. It is a topsy-turvy world that war begets: but most of all +this war, in which while the kopjes welcomed us with lavish supplies +of explosive bullets, the towns and villages welcomed us with +proffered fruit and the flaunting of British flags; the troops, on the +other hand, seizing every chance of entertaining friends and foes +alike with instrumental music, comic, sentimental, and _patriotic_ +songs. Even on the warpath, tragedy and comedy seem as inseparable as +the Siamese twins; in proof whereof here follows the programme of one +such soldierly effort to aid a local church charity in the Orange Free +State:-- + + POPULAR PROMENADE CONCERT + TO BE HELD ON + _SATURDAY, 22nd DECEMBER 1900, at 4.45_ P.M. + +By the kind permission of Lieut.-Col. the Hon. A. E. DALZELL +and the Officers of the 1st Oxfordshire Light Infantry. + +PROGRAMME. + + 1. GRAND MARCH--"Princess Victoria" _O'Keefe_ BAND. + 2. SONG Serg. COX, + 1st O.L.I. + 3. COON SONG Trooper GREENWOOD, + I.Y. + 4. OVERTURE--"Norma" _Bellini_ BAND. + 5. SENTIMENTAL SONG Corp. ASHLY, + 1st O.L.I. + 6. RECITATION Corp. SAMPSON, + R.G.A. + 7. CORNET SOLO--"My Pretty Jane" _Bishop_ Band-Serg. BROOME. + 8. SONG Mr J. ILSLEY. + 9. DESCRIPTIVE SONG Corporal COOKE, + 1st O.L.I. + 10. SELECTION--"The Belle of New York" _Kerker_ BAND. + 11. SONG Gunner HIGGINBOTHAM, + R.G.A. + 12. SONG Gunner M'GINTZ, + R.G.A. + 13. VALSE--"Mia Cara" _Bucalossi_ BAND. + 14. PATRIOTIC SONG Serg. GEAR, + 1st O.L.I. + 15. COMIC SONG Corporal CROWLY, + 1st O.L.I. + 16. GALOP--"En Route" _Clarke_ BAND. + +"_GOD SAVE THE QUEEN._" + +Admission to Ground--ONE SHILLING. Refreshments at reasonable prices. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: _Our near Kinship to the Boers._] + +Of another important fact which grew upon us later on, we gained our +first glimpse during these early days. The Boers we found were in many +respects startlingly near akin to us. They sprang originally from the +same liberty-loving stock as ourselves. Hosts of them spoke correct +and fluent English, while not a few of them were actually of English +parentage. Moreover, the Hollanders and the English have so freely +intermarried in South Africa that at one time it was fondly hoped the +cradle rather than the rifle would finally settle our racial +controversies. They are haunted by the same insatiable earth hunger as +ourselves, and hence unceasingly persisted in violating the +Conventions which forbade all further extension of Transvaal +territory. As a people they are more narrowly Protestant than even we +have ever been. The Doppers, of whom the President was chief, are +Ultra-Puritans; and they would suffer none but members of a Protestant +Church to have any vote or voice in their municipal or national +affairs. Jews and Roman Catholics as such were absolutely +disfranchised by them; and their singing, which later on we often +heard, by its droning heaviness would have delighted the hearts of +those Highland crofters who, at Aldershot, said they could not away +with the jingling songs of Sankey. "Gie us the Psalms of David," they +cried. The Dutch Reformed Church and the Presbyterian Church of +Scotland are nearer akin than cousins; and when after Magersfontein +our Presbyterian chaplain crossed over into the Boer lines to seek out +and bury the dead, he was heartily hailed as a _Reformed_ minister, +was treated with as much courtesy as though he had been one of their +own predikants, and as the result was so favourably impressed that an +imaginative mind might easily fancy him saying to Cronje, "Almost thou +persuadest me to become a Boer!" + +Of all wars, civil wars are the most inexpressibly saddening; and this +terrible struggle was largely of that type. Neighbours who had known +each other intimately for years, members of the same church, and even +of the same family, found themselves ranged on opposite sides in this +awful fray. When Boer and Briton came to blows it was a _brother-bond_ +that was broken, in sight of the awestruck natives. It was once again +even as in the days of old when Ephraim envied Judah and Judah vexed +Ephraim! Nevertheless, times without number, a concert in the midst of +strife, such as that described above, sufficed to draw together all +classes in friendliest possible intercourse, and seemed a tuneful +prophecy of the better days that are destined yet to dawn. + +[Sidenote: _More good work on our right flank._] + +We can only linger to take one more glance at this type of service by +this type of worker before we proceed with our story of the Guards' +advance. Winburg, like Heilbron, lay on our right flank, and was +occupied by the troops about the same time as we entered Kroonstad. +The Wesleyan clergyman was the only representative of the Churches +left in the place; and the story of his devotion is outlined in the +following memorandum to the D.A.A.G. with the official reply +thereto:-- + + WINBURG, O. R. C. + _Dec. 21, 1900._ + + To MAJOR GOUGH, D.A.A.G., + + Kindly allow me to state a few facts in order to show the + exceptional character of my position and work, both before and + since the time of my appointment. + + 1. Previous to the occupation of Winburg by the British troops, I + was employed in attending to the sick and wounded English + soldiers who were brought here as prisoners of war by the Dutch + Forces. + + 2. During a period of at least five months--as no other chaplain + or clergyman was living within a distance of about fifty miles--I + was the only one available for religious services, either parade + or voluntary, for hospital visitation and burial duties, which + were then so urgently and frequently needed. We had six + hospitals, and occasionally as many as three funerals on the same + day. + + 3. From the date of the British occupation, May 5th, my knowledge + of the country and people--acquired during twenty-five years' + residence in various parts of the O. R. C.--has been at the + disposal of the military authorities. I have often acted as + interpreter and translator, and as such accompanied the + Commandant of Winburg when, a few weeks ago, he went to meet the + leader of the Boer forces near their laager in this district. + + 4. As almost all the English population left the town before the + war, our nearly empty church was then, and still remains, + available for the garrison troops. About nine-tenths of both my + Sunday and week-day congregations are soldiers, for whom all the + seats are free. + + 5. Immediately after the arrival of the British forces, our + church was utilised for an entirely undenominational Soldiers' + Home, and books for the emergency were supplied from my library. + Colonel Napier, who was then C.O. of Winburg, expressed his + appreciation of this part of our garrison work, and assisted in + its development. By his direction, the Home was removed to the + premises it now occupies. It consists of separate rooms for + reading, writing and refreshments; also rooms and kitchen for the + manageress. It is still under my superintendence.--Yours, C. HARMON. + + + (_Copy._) _Colonel Napier's Recommendation._ + + To STAFF OFFICER, Bloemfontein. + + I strongly recommend that the Rev. C. Harmon be retained as an + acting chaplain to the troops. I can fully endorse all the + reverend gentleman has stated in the above memorandum. He has + been most useful to the Garrison and Military Authorities at + Winburg, and his thorough knowledge of the Dutch language makes + his services among the refugees and natives indispensable. + + JOHN SCOTT NAPIER, Col. + + WINBURG, _Jan. 3, 1901_. + +It is a supreme satisfaction to know that our men were thus in so many +ways well served by the local clergy of South Africa, to whom our +warmest thanks are due. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +GETTING TO THE GOLDEN CITY + + +So utter, and for the time being so ludicrously complete, was the +collapse of our adversaries' defence, that on that first night within +the Transvaal border we lay down to rest on the open veldt without any +slightest shelter, but also without any slightest fear, save only the +fear of catching cold; and slept as undisturbed as though we had been +slumbering amid hoar-frost and heather on the famous Fox Hills near +Aldershot. On that particular Sunday night our tentless camp was +visited by ten or twelve degrees of frost, so that when the morning +dawned my wraps were as hoary as the hair of their owner is ever +likely to become. + +[Sidenote: _An elaborate night toilet._] + +But then as the night, so must the nightdress be; and my personal +toilet was arranged in the following tasteful fashion. Every garment +worn during the heat of the day was of course worn throughout the +chilly night, including boots; for at that season of the year we +regularly went to bed with our boots on. Indeed the often footsore men +were expressly forbidden to take them off at night, lest a possible +night attack should find them in that important respect unready. Over +the tunic was put a sweater, and over that a greatcoat, with a hideous +woollen helmet as a crown of glory for the head, and a regulation +blanket wrapped round the waist and legs. Then on the least rugged bit +of ground within reach a waterproof sheet was spread, and on that was +planted the "bag blanket," into which I carefully crept, having first +thrown over it an old mackintosh as some small protection from the +heavy evening dew and the early morning frost. So whether the ground +proved rough as a nutmeg-grater or ribbed like a gridiron, I soon said +good-night to the blushing stars above me and to the acres of +slumbering soldiers all around. After that, few of us were in fit +condition to judge whether there were ten degrees of frost or twelve +till five o'clock next morning, when we sat on the whitened ground to +breakfast by starlight. At that unkindly hour the least acute observer +of Nature's varying moods could not fail to note that a midwinter dawn +five thousand feet above the sea-level can even in South Africa be +bitingly severe. + +[Sidenote: _Capturing Clapham Junction._] + +After two more days of heavy marching we found abundant and beautiful +spar stones springing up out of the barren veldt, as in my native +Cornwall; and we needed no seer to assure us that the vast and +invaluable mining area of Johannesburg was close at hand. Presently we +passed one big set of mining machinery after another, each with its +huge heap of mine refuse. If only some clotted cream had been +purchasable at one of the wayside houses, or a dainty pasty had +anywhere appeared in sight, I could almost have fancied myself close +to Camborne. + +Instead, however, of marching straight towards Johannesburg, we +suddenly pounced on Elandsfontein, the most supremely important +railway junction in all South Africa--its Clapham Junction--and +following swiftly in the footsteps of Henry's mounted infantry took +its defenders delightfully by surprise. The Gordons on our far left +had about a hundred casualties, and the C.I.V.'s on our right, +fighting valiantly, were also hard hit, but the Guards escaped +unscathed. Shots enough, however, were fired to lead us to expect a +serious fight, and to necessitate a further exhausting march of five +or six miles, out and back, amid the mine heaps lying just beyond the +junction. Fortunately, the fight proved no fight, but only a further +flight; though the end of a specially heavy day's task brought with +it, none the less, an abounding recompense. Whilst most of the Boers +precipitately vanished, those unable to get away gave themselves up as +prisoners of war, and thus without further effort we secured a +position of vast strategic importance, including the terminus of the +railway line leading to Natal; but it was also the terminus of the +long line from Johannesburg and the regions beyond; so that there was +now no way of escape for any of the rolling stock thereon. It might +peradventure be destroyed before the troops could rescue it, but got +away for the further service of the Boers it could not be. Among other +acquisitions we captured at Elandsfontein a capitally equipped +hospital train, hundreds of railway trucks laden more or less with +valuable stores, and half a dozen locomotives with full head of steam +on; so that had we arrived a little less suddenly, locomotives, trains +and empty trucks would all have eluded our grasp and got safely to +Pretoria. It was indeed an invaluable haul, especially for haulage +purposes, and we had tramped 130 miles in the course of a single week +to secure it! + +[Sidenote: _Dear diet and dangerous._] + +Long after dark, weary and footsore and famished, we stumbled back +three miles to our chosen camping ground. Since the previous evening +some of the Scots Guards had managed to secure only a hasty drink of +coffee, so they told me, as their sole rations for the four-and-twenty +hours; but they seemed as happy as they were hungry, like men proudly +conscious that they had done a good day's work that brought them, so +they fondly supposed, perceptibly nearer home. Assisted by many an +undesirable expletive, they staggered and darkly groped their way over +some of the very roughest ground we had thus far been required to +traverse; they got repeatedly entangled in a profusion of barbed wire; +scrambled into deep railway ditches, then scrambled out again; till at +last they reached their appointed resting-place, and in dead darkness +proceeded as best they could to cook their dinners. + +Greatly to our surprise the people, who seemed mostly Dutch or of +Dutch relationship, received us like those in the Orange Free State +towns, with demonstrative kindness; and in many a case brought out +their last loaf as a most welcome gift to the just then almost +ravenous soldiery. Every scrap of available provisions was eagerly +bought up, and here as elsewhere honestly paid for, often at prices +that seemed far from honest. Months after at this very place I learned +that eggs were being sold at from ten to fifteen shillings a dozen, +and fowls at seven shillings a-piece! + +An Australian correspondent of the _London Times_ declares that as it +was with us, so was it with the troops that he accompanied. About the +very time we reached this Germiston Junction, his men, he says, were +practically starving; and any other army in the world would have +commandeered whatever food came in its way. He was with Rundle's +Brigade, "the starving Eighth" as they were well called, seeing that +for a while they were rationed on one and a half biscuits a day. Yet +they gave Mr Stead's "ill-treated women" two shillings a loaf for +bread that sixpence would have well paid for, and no one was allowed +to bring foodstuffs away from any farmhouse without getting a written +receipt from the vendor. If the military police caught a ragged +Leinster packing a chicken down his trouser leg through a big hole in +the seat, and he could not show a receipt for the bird, away went the +man's purchase to the nearest Field Hospital. To this same +representative of the Press the wife of a farmer still out fighting +our troops naïvely said, "For goodness sake do keep those wicked +Colonials away; I am terrified of them" (he was himself a +Colonial)--"but I am so glad when the English come; they pay me so +well." That was the experience of almost all who had anything to sell, +alike in town and country; and this particular Frau confessed to +having made a profit of ten clear pounds in a single week out of the +bread sold to the British soldiers. It is said, however, that in some +cases when they asked for bread our men got a bullet. Around many a +farmstead there hovered far worse dangers than the danger of being +fleeced. + +[Sidenote: _No wages but the Sjambok._] + +At Elandsfontein an almost frantic welcome was awarded us by the +crowds of Kaffirs that eagerly watched our coming. As we marched +through their Location almost the only darkie I spoke to happened to +be a well-dressed intelligent Wesleyan, who said to me, "Good Boss, we +are truly glad that you have come; for the last seven months the Boers +have made us work without any wages except the sjambok across our +backs." It is only fair to add that the burghers on commando during +those same seven months were supposed to receive no wages; and the +Kaffirs, who were commandeered for various kinds of service in +connection with the war, could scarcely expect the Boer Government to +deal more generously with them. From the very beginning, however, the +Kaffirs in the Transvaal were often made to feel that their condition +was near akin to that of slaves. The clauses in the Sand River +Convention which were intended to be the Magna Charta of their +liberties proved a delusion and a snare. Recent years, however, have +effected immense improvements in their relative position and +importance. Since the mines were opened their labour has been keenly +competed for, and a more considerate feeling concerning them pervades +all classes; but they are still regarded by many of their masters as +having no actual rights either in Church or State. So when a +victorious English army appeared upon the scene they fondly thought +the day of their full emancipation had dawned, and in wildly excited +accents they shouted as we passed, "=_Vic_toria! _Vic_toria!=" +Whereupon our scarcely less excited lads in responsive shouts replied, +"=_Pre_toria! _Pre_toria!=" + +Surely never was the inner meaning and significance of a great +historic event more aptly voiced. The natives beheld in the advent of +English rule the promise of ampler liberty and enlightenment under +Victoria the Good; but the hearts of the soldiers were set on the +speedy capture of Pretoria, as the crowning outcome of all their toil, +and their probable turning-point towards home. Well said both! +Pretoria! Victoria! + +[Sidenote: _The Gold Mines._] + +Lord Roberts' rapid march rescued from impending destruction the +costly machinery and shafting of the Witwaterrand gold mines, in which +capital to the extent of many millions had been sunk, and out of which +many hundreds of millions are likely to be dug. By some strange freak +of nature this lofty ridge, lying about 6000 feet above the sea level, +and forming a narrow gold-bearing bed over a hundred miles long, is by +universal confession the richest treasure-house the ransackers of the +whole earth have yet brought to light. "The wealth of Ormuz or of +Ind," immortalised by Milton's most majestic epic, the wealth of the +Rand completely eclipses, and nothing imagined in the glowing pages of +the "Arabian Nights" rivals in solid worth the sober realities now +being unearthed along this uninviting ridge. It fortunately was not in +the power of the Boer Government to carry off this as yet ungarnered +treasure, or it would certainly have shared the fate of the cart-loads +of gold in bar and coin with which President Kruger decamped from +Pretoria; but it is beyond all controversy that many of that +Government's officials favoured the proposal to wreck, as far as +dynamite could, both the machinery and mines in mere wanton revenge on +the hated Outlanders that mainly owned them. That policy was thwarted +by the swiftfootedness of the troops, and by the tactfulness of +Commandant Krause, through whose arranging Johannesburg was peacefully +surrendered; but who now, by some strange irony of fate, lies a felon +in an English jail! + +Nevertheless, later on enough mischief of this type was done to +demonstrate how deadly a blow a few desperate men might have dealt at +the chief industry of South Africa; and concerning it Sir Alfred +Milner wrote as follows:-- + + Fortunately the damage done to the mines has not been large + relatively to the vast total amount of the fixed capital sunk in + them. The mining area is excessively difficult to guard against + purely predatory attacks having no military purpose, because it + is, so to speak, "all length and no breadth," one long thin line + stretching across the country from east to west for many miles. + Still, garrisoned as Johannesburg now is, it is only possible + successfully to attack a few points in it. Of the raids hitherto + made, and they have been fairly numerous, only one resulted in + any serious damage. In that instance the injury done to the + single mine attacked amounted to £200,000, and it is estimated + that the mine is put out of working for two years. This mine is + only one out of a hundred, and is not by any means one of the + most important. These facts may afford some indication of the + ruin which might have been inflicted, not only on the Transvaal + and all South Africa, but on many European interests, if that + general destruction of mine works which was contemplated just + before our occupation of Johannesburg had been carried out. + However serious in some respects may have been the military + consequences of our rapid advance to Johannesburg, South Africa + owes more than is commonly recognised to that brilliant dash put + forward by which the vast mining apparatus, the foundation of + all her wealth, was saved from the ruin threatening it. + +That this wonderful discovery of wealth was indirectly the main cause +of the war is undeniable. But for the gold the children of "Oden the +Goer," whose ever restless spirit has sent them round the globe, would +never have found their way in any large numbers to the Transvaal. +There would have been no overmastering Outlander element, no incurable +race competitions and quarrels, no unendurable wrongs to redress; the +Boer Republic might again have become bankrupt, or broken up into +rival chieftaincies as of old, but it could not have become a menace +to Great Britain, and would never have rallied the whole Empire to +repel its assault on the Empire. It is too usually with blood that +gold is bought! + +[Sidenote: _The Soldiers' share._] + +The war was practically the purchase price of this prodigious wealth, +but it effected no transfer in the ownership. It may have in part to +provide for the expenses of the war, but it is not claimed by the +British Government as part of the spoils of war; and when Local +Government is granted it will still be included in local assets. The +capitalists, colonists and Kaffirs who live and thrive through the +mines will thrive yet more as the result of juster laws, ample +security, and a more honest administration; but the soldiers whose +heroism brought to pass the change profit nothing by it. The niggers +driving our carts were paid £4 a month, while the khaki men who did +the actual fighting were required to content themselves with anything +over about fifteen pence a day. + +When Cortez, with his accompanying Spaniards, discovered Mexico, he +sent word to its ruler, Montezuma, that his men were suffering from a +peculiar form of heart disease which only gold could cure; so he +desired him of his royal bounty to send them gold and still more gold. +In the end those Spanish leeches drained the country dry; though when +convoying their treasure across the sea no small portion of it was +seized by English warships, and shared as loot among the captors. +After the treasure ship _Hermione_ had thus been secured off Cadiz by +the _Actĉan_ and the _Favorite_, each captain received £65,000 as +prize-money (so Fitchett tells us); each lieutenant, £13,000; each +petty officer, £2000; and each seaman, £500. Our fighting men and +officers found in the Transvaal vastly ampler wealth, but no such luck +and no such loot. Well would it be, however, if these mining +Directorates when about to declare their next dividends should bethink +them generously of the widows and orphans of those whose valour and +strong-footedness rescued their mines from imminent plunder and +destruction. + +[Sidenote: _The Golden City._] + +Johannesburg, which we entered unopposed on May 31st, though it covers +an enormous area and contains several fine buildings, is only fourteen +years old, and consequently is still very largely in the corrugated +iron stage of development which is always unlovely, and in this case +proved specially so. Many of the houses were deserted, most of the +stores were roughly barricaded, and there were signs not a few of +recent violence and wholesale theft, at which none need wonder. Long +before the war broke out there was presented to President Kruger and +his Raad a petition for redress of grievances signed, as already +stated, by adult male Outlanders that are said to have outnumbered the +total Boer male population at that time of the whole Transvaal. Most +of those who signed were resident on the Rand; and as soon as war hove +in sight these "undesirables" were hurried across the border, leaving +behind them in many cases well-furnished houses and well-stocked +shops. More than ten thousand of them took up arms in defence of the +Empire, and what befell their property is best told by the one +Wesleyan minister who was privileged to remain all the time in the +town, was the first to greet me when with the Guards I marched into +the Market Square, and soon after established our first Wesleyan +Soldiers' Home in the Transvaal. He, the Rev. S. L. Morris, on that +point writes as follows:-- + + President Kruger proclaimed Sunday, May 27th, and the two + following days, as days of humiliation and prayer. Notices to + this effect were sent to officials and ministers, and doubtless + there were many who devoutly followed the directions. The conduct + of one large section of the Dutch people of Johannesburg was, + however, very strange. In Johannesburg, as in Pretoria, the last + ten years have seen the development of special locations where + the lowest class of Dutch people reside. For the most part these + are the families of landless Boers. Until recent years they lived + as squatters on the farms of their more thrifty compatriots. + Their life then was one of progressive degradation. Under the + Kruger policy hundreds of such families were encouraged to settle + in the neighbourhood of the towns. Plots of ground were given + them, and there they built rough shanties, and formed communities + which were a South African counterpart to the submerged tenth of + England. There was this difference, that these _bywoners_ became + a great strength to the Kruger party. The males of sixteen years + of age and upwards had all the privileges which were denied to + the most influential of the _Uitlanders_. It was the votes of + Vrededorp, the poor Dutch quarter, that decided the + representation of Johannesburg in the Volksraad. On the days of + humiliation and prayer, when the army under Lord Roberts was + within twenty miles of Johannesburg, the families of these poor + burghers broke into the commissariat stores of their own + Government, into the food depôts from which doles had been + distributed, and into private stores; taking away to their homes, + goods, clothing and provisions of all sorts. Those who witnessed + the invasion of the great goods sheds where the Republican + commissariat had its headquarters say that the people defied the + officials, daring them to shoot them. I met many of these people + returning to their homes laden with spoils. Sometimes there was a + wheelbarrow heaped up with sacks of flour, or tins of biscuits, + or preserved meat. Men, women, children and Kaffir "boys" trudged + along with similar articles, or with bundles of boots and + clothing. Dr Krause, the commandant, did his best to secure order + and to repress looting, but he lacked the reliable agents who + alone could have controlled the people. This sort of thing was + going on on Monday and Tuesday, May 28th and 29th. But for the + astonishing marches by which Lord Roberts paralysed opposition, + and which enabled him to summon the town to surrender on the + Wednesday morning, it is hard to say what limit could have been + put to the disorder. In all probability the dangerous section of + the large Continental element in the population would have broken + out into crime. Looting had hitherto been confined to the + property which was left unprotected, and few unoccupied houses + had not been ransacked; but had the British occupation been + delayed a few days the consequences would have been disastrous. + +[Sidenote: _Astonishing the Natives._] + +As on that Thursday morning we tramped steadily from Germiston to +Johannesburg we were greatly surprised to find near each successive +mine crowds of natives all with apparently well oiled faces that +literally shone in the sunlight; but natives of every conceivable +shade of sableness, and in some cases of almost every permissible +approach to nudity. They were for the most part what are called "raw +Kaffirs"; and as we were astonished at their numbers after so many +months of war and consequent stoppage of work, so were they also +astonished at our numbers, and confided to our native minister their +wonder at finding there were so many Englishmen in all the world as +they that day saw upon the Rand. It was a vitally important object +lesson that by this time has made its beneficent influence felt among +all the tribes of the South African sub-continent. + +About noon, so Mr Morris told me, a company of Lancers came into the +open space in front of the Court-house, and formed a hollow square +around the flagstaff. Not long after Lord Roberts with his Staff, and +Commandant Krause, rode into the square; then the Vierkleur slid down +the staff, and instantly after up went Lady Roberts' little silken +Union Jack. The British flag floated at last over this essentially +British town, the sure pledge as we hope of honest government and of +equal rights alike for Briton and for Boer. It was two o'clock before +the Guards' Brigade reached this saluting point, but till nearly +midnight one continuous stream of men and horses, of guns and +ambulances, passed through the streets to their respective camping +grounds. These well fagged troops by their fitness, even more than by +their numbers, astonished many an onlooker who was by no means a "raw +Kaffir"; and one old Dutchman expressed the thought of many minds when +he said, "You seem able to turn out soldiers by machinery, _all of the +same age_!" + +My excellent host of that red-letter day adds: "It is intensely +gratifying to be able, after the lapse of more than nine months, to +give our soldiers the same good name that was so well deserved then. +To deny that there had been any offences would be ridiculous; but the +absence of serious crime, and more particularly of gross offences, +must be acknowledged to confer upon our South African army a unique +distinction." That witness is true! + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +PRETORIA THE CITY OF ROSES + + +War and worship live only on barest speaking terms, and to the latter +the former makes few concessions; so it came to pass that Whitsunday, +like so many another Sunday spent in South Africa, found us again upon +the march, with the inevitable result that no parade service could +possibly be held. Everybody, however, seemed full of confident +expectation that the next day we should reach Pretoria, and perhaps +take possession of it. + +[Sidenote: _Whit-Monday and Wet Tuesday._] + +"If we take Pretoria on Whit-Monday," said one of the Guardsmen, "they +will get the news in England next day, and then that will be Wet +Tuesday"; which was a prophecy that seemed not in the least unlikely +to be fulfilled, inasmuch as an Englishman's favourite way of showing +his supreme delight is by accepting an extra drink, or offering one. +Others were of opinion that, with a ring of forts around Pretoria on +which hundreds of thousands of pounds had been expended, the Boer +commanders would make a desperate stand in defence of their much loved +capital, and so keep us at bay for many a day. But nothing daunted by +such uncertainties as to what might be awaiting them, our men were on +the march towards those famous forts early on Monday morning, and we +soon found a lively Bank Holiday was in store for us. Shortly after +noon, General French's cavalry having worked round to the north of the +town, General Pole Carew prepared to attack on the south and our +bombardment of the forts began, but drew from them no reply. All the +Boer guns were elsewhere; and a little way behind our own busy naval +guns, though hidden by the crest of the hill, lay the Grenadier Guards +awaiting orders to take their place and part in the fray. + +Presently a sharp succession of Boer shells, intended for the +aforesaid naval guns, came flying over our heads, and dropping among +our men. One hit a horse, which no man will ride again; one struck an +ambulance waggon, and scared its solitary fever patient almost out of +his senses; one dropped close to where a group of generals had just +before met in consultation; but only one of these Boer Whitsuntide +presents burst, and even that, strange to tell, caused no casualties, +though it drove a few kilted heroes to run for refuge into a deepish +pit, near which I sat upon the ground, and watching, wondered where +the next shell would burst. When a little later the Guards moved +further to the right to take up a position still nearer to the town, +Boer bullets came flying over that same ridge and planted themselves +among our left flank men; but when we tried to pick up some of these +leaden treasures to keep as curios, so deeply imbedded were they in +the soil they could not be removed. Yet they were playfully spoken of +as _spent_ bullets. + +[Sidenote: "_Light after dark._"] + +This grim music of gun and rifle was maintained almost till sunset, +and then died away, leaving us in doubt whether the next day would +witness a renewal of the fight, or whether, as on so many former +occasions, the Boers under cover of the darkness would execute yet +another strategic movement to the rear. That night we slept once more +on the open veldt, made black by the vast sweep of recent grass fires; +and next morning, after a starlight breakfast, I as usual retired to +kneel in humble prayer, imploring the Divine guardianship and guidance +for all in the midst of whom I dwelt. Presently I was startled by an +outburst of wildest cheering from one group; and a moment after from a +second; so springing to my feet I found our lads hurling their helmets +in the air, and shouting like men demented. Not for the chaplains only +that glad hour turned prayer to praise, and thrilled all hearts with +patriotic if not pious pride. + +An officer was riding post-haste from point to point where our men +were massed, bearing the delicious tidings that Pretoria too had +unconditionally surrendered. The news swiftly sped from battalion to +battery, and from battery to battalion. First here, then there, then +far away yonder, the cheering rang out clear and loud as a trumpet +call. Comrade congratulated comrade, while Christian men, with +tear-filled eyes, reverently looked up and rendered thanks to Him of +whom it is written, "Thine is the victory." + +[Sidenote: _Why the surrender?_] + +Remembering how feeble Mafeking was held for months by the merest +handful of men pitted against a host, it is not easy to understand +why this city of roses, so pretty, and of which the Boers were all so +proud, was opened to its captors after only the merest pretence at +opposition. Lord Roberts is reported to have said that in his opinion +it occupied the strongest position he had yet seen in all South +Africa; and to my non-professional mind it instantly brought to +remembrance the familiar lines which tell how round about Jerusalem +the hilly bulwarks rise. The surrender of such a centre of their +national life must have been to the burghers like the plucking out of +a right eye, or the cutting off of a right hand. How came it to pass, +without an effort to hinder it? + +The German expert, Count Sternberg, who accompanied the Boers +throughout the war, declared that though considered from the +continental standpoint they are bad soldiers; in their own country, in +ambushes or stratagems, which constitute their favourite type of +warfare, "they are simply superb." He adds they would have achieved +much greater success if they had not abandoned all idea of taking the +offensive. "For that they lack courage; and to that lack of courage +they owe their destruction." + +But their flight, like their long after continuance in guerilla types +of warfare, points to quite another cause than this lack of courage. +The Boer is proverbially a lover of his own; and so, though with +liberal hand he laid waste bridge and culvert and plant, as he +retreated along the railway line through the Orange River Colony, +which was not his own, he became quite miserly in his use of dynamite +when the Transvaal was reached, which was his own, and which would +infallibly be restored to him, so he reckoned, when the war was over. +So was it to be with Pretoria too! To the very last the fighting Boer +believed that whatever his fate in the field of battle, if he were +only dogged enough, and in any fashion prolonged the strife +sufficiently, British patience would tire, as it had tired before; +British plans and purposes and pledges would all be abandoned as +aforetime they had been abandoned, and he would thus secure, even in +the face of defeat, the fruits of victory. The importunate widow is +the one New Testament character "the brother" implicitly believes in +and imitates. Her tactics were his before the war, in the matter of +the Conventions; and the wasteful prolonging of the war was a part of +the same policy. Great Britain was to be forced by sheer weariness to +give back to the Transvaal in some form its coveted independence, and +with it, of course, Pretoria also. So he would on no account consent +to let the city be bombarded. Our peaceful occupation was the best +possible protection for property that would presently be again his +own; and while he still went on with his desultory fighting we were +quite welcome, at our own expense, to feed every Boer family we could +find. + +Thus, like our own hunted Pretender, he held that however long +delayed, the end was bound to restore to him his own; and he had not +far to look for what justified the fallacy. In 1881, for instance, as +one among many illustrations, an English general at Standerton +formally assured the Boers that the Vaal would flow backward through +the Drakenberg Hills before the British would withdraw from the +Transvaal. Three successive Secretaries of State, three successive +High Commissioners, and two successive Houses of Commons deliberately +endorsed that official assurance; yet though the Vaal turned not back +Great Britain did; and to that magnanimous forgetting of the nation's +oft-repeated pledge was due in part this new war and its intolerable +prolonging. It does not pay thus to say and then unsay. Thereby all +confidence, all sense of finality, is killed. + +[Sidenote: _Taking possession._] + +"Take your Grenadiers and open the ball," said Sir John Moore, as he +appointed to his men their various positions in the famous fight at +Corunna; and on this memorable 5th of June when the British finally +took possession of Pretoria the Guards as at Belmont were again +privileged to "open the ball." But whilst they were busy seizing the +railway station and stock, with other points of strategic importance, +I took my first hasty stroll through the city; and among the earliest +objects of interest I came upon was the pedestal of a monument, with +the scaffolding still around it, but quite complete, except that the +actual statue which was to crown and constitute the summit was not +there. + +"Whose monument is that?" I meekly asked. "Paul Kruger's," was the +prompt reply; "but the statue, made in Rome, has not yet arrived, +being detained at Delagoa Bay." + +That statue now probably never will arrive, and possibly enough some +other figure,--perchance that of Victoria the Good,--will ultimately +be placed on that expectant pedestal, so making the monument complete. +"Which thing," as St Paul would say, "is an allegory!" That monument +in its present form is a precise epitome of the man it was meant to +honour. It is most complete by reason of its very incompleteness. The +chief feature in this essentially strong man's career, as also in his +monument, has reference to the foundation work he wrought. It was the +finish that was a failure, and in much more important matters than +this pile of chiselled granite, the work the late President commenced +in the Transvaal its new rulers must make it their business to carry +on, and, in worthier fashion, complete. We cannot begin _de novo_. For +better for worse, on foundations laid by Boers, Britons must be +content to build. + +Close by, forming the main feature on one side of the city Square, +stood a remarkably fine building, intended to serve as a palace of +justice, but, like the monument in front of it, it was still +unfinished. In the Transvaal there was as yet no counterpart to that +most important clause in our own Magna Charta, which says "We will not +sell justice to any man." Corruption and coercion were familiar forces +alike in the making and the administration of its laws. In more senses +than one the Transvaal Government had not yet opened its courts of +justice. They mutely awaited the coming of the new _régime_. + +In one of the main streets leading out of the Square stood the +President's private residence; a gift-house, so it is said, accepted +by him as a recompense for favours received. Compared with the +Residency at Bloemfontein it is a singularly unpretentious dwelling +and was in keeping rather with the economic habits, than with the +private wealth, or official status, of its chief occupant. British +sentinels had already been posted all about the place, and on the +verandah sat a British officer with a long row of mausers lying at his +feet. There too, one on each side of the main entrance, crouched +Kruger's famous marble lions, silently watching that day's novel +proceedings. Not even the presence of those men in khaki, nor that sad +array of surrendered rifles, sufficed to draw from those stony +guardians of their master's home so much as a muffled growl. They are +believed to be of British origin, and I suspect that, so far as their +nature permits, they cherish British sympathies; for they certainly +showed no signs of lamenting over the ignoble departure of their lord. +All regardless of the griefs of his deserted lady, they still placidly +licked their paws; and as I cast on them a parting glance they gave to +me, or seemed to, a knowing wink! + +[Illustration: _From a photograph by Mr Jones, Pretoria_ + +Dopper Church Opposite President Kruger's House Built by the Late +President.] + +Precisely opposite the Residency is the handsome Dopper Church, +wherein the President regularly worshipped, and not infrequently +himself ministered in holy things. The church is nearly new, and like +much else in Pretoria is still unfinished. The four dials have indeed +been duly placed on the four faces of the clock tower; but in that +tower there is as yet no clock; and round those clock dials there move +no clock hands. No wonder Pretoria with its dominant Dopper Church, +and its still more decidedly dominant Dopper President, mistook the +true hour of its destiny, and madly made war precisely when peace +was easiest of attainment. Kruger, dim-eyed and old, lived face to +face continually with clock dials that betokened no progress, but, +merely mocked the enquiring gaze. Which thing, the Chelsea Sage would +say, was symbolical and significant of much! + +[Sidenote: "_Resurgam._"] + +In the centre of the before-mentioned Square is the large and usually +crowded Dutch Reformed Church, doomed long ago, we were told, to be +removed because of its exceeding unsightliness. Throughout the +Transvaal in every town and hamlet, the House of God is invariably the +central building, as also it is the centre of the most potent +influence. In both Republics the minister was emphatically "a Master +in Israel"; and in the welcome shadows of this great church I waited +to witness one of the most interesting events of the century--the +proclaiming of Pretoria a British city by the official hoisting in it, +as earlier in Bloemfontein, of the British flag; and by the stately +"march past" of the British troops. + +Facing me, on the side of the Square opposite to that occupied by the +Palace of Justice, were the creditably designed Government Buildings, +including the Raadsaal, which was surmounted by a golden figure of +Liberty bearing in her hand a battle-axe and flag. On the forefront of +the building in bold lettering there was graven the favourite +Transvaal watchword, + + EENDRACT MAAKT MAGT, + +which, being interpreted means, "Right makes Might"; and that motto, +as every Britisher could see, precisely explained our presence there +that day. Inside there still remained, in its accustomed place, the +state chair of the departed President, in which, later on, I ventured +to sit; and all around were ranged the, to me, eloquent seats of his +departed senators. In that very hall, just nine months before, those +senators, in secret session, had resolved to hurl defiance at the +might of Britain; and so precipitated a war by which two sister +Republics were, as such, hurried out of existence. Now the very +corridors by which I approached that hall were crowded with Boers +wearied with the fruitless fight, and eager to hand in their weapons. + +In the waiting crowd outside I found a friend who courteously supplied +me with a copy of a quite unique photograph--the only photograph taken +of the solemn burial, a few hundred yards from where I stood, of a +Union Jack, when that flag was hauled down in the Transvaal, and the +British troops ingloriously retired. As shown in the photograph, over +the grave was erected a slab, and on that slab was this most notable +inscription:-- + + IN MEMORY + OF + THE BRITISH FLAG + in the Transvaal; which departed this life + August 2nd, 1881. + Aged 4 years. + + In other lands none knew thee + But to love thee. + + RESURGAM. + +No such burial had the world seen before, and few bolder prophecies +than that "_I shall rise again_," can be found in the history of any +land; but a few minutes it became my memorable privilege to witness +the actual fulfilment of that patriotic prediction. As in +Johannesburg, so here, it was Lady Roberts' pocket edition of the +Union Jack that was used; and we looked on excitedly; but the Statue +of Liberty looked down benignly, while that tiny flag crept up nearer +and nearer to its golden feet. Liberty has never anything to fear from +the approach of that flag! + +While in Pretoria the following story was told me by the soldier to +whom it chiefly refers:-- + +[Sidenote: _A Striking Incident._] + +At the Orange River a corporal of the Yorkshire Light Infantry +received a pocket copy of the New Testament from a Christian worker, +and placed it in his tunic by the side of his "field dressing." A +godless man, who had been driven into the army by heavy drinking, he +merely glanced at a verse or two, and then forgot its very presence in +his pocket till he reached the battlefield of Graspan a few days later +on. Then a Boer bullet passed right through the Testament and the +dressing that lay beside it, was thereby deflected from its otherwise +fatal course, and finally made a long surface wound on his right +thigh. That wound he at once bound up with one of his putties, but for +two hours was unable to stir from the place where he fell. + +Then he managed to limp back to his battalion, and piteously begged +his adjutant not to let his name be put down on the casualty list, +for, said he, "my mother is in feeble health, and if she saw my name +in the papers among the wounded she would worry herself almost to +death, as years ago when she heard of my being hit in Tirah." That +brave request was granted, and he remained in the ranks marching as +one unwounded. + +Yet neither this Providential deliverance nor the terrors that soon +followed at Modder River sufficed to lure to either prayer or praise +this godless, but surely not graceless, corporal. On the 27th of +August, however, which happened to be his thirtieth birthday, a devout +sergeant had the joy of winning him to Christian decision; and that +day, as he told me in Pretoria, he resolved to find out for himself +whether after thirty years of misery the mercy of the Lord could +provide for him thirty years of happiness. + +[Sidenote: _No canteens and no crime._] + +On board the _Nubia_, amid piles of literature put on board for the +amusement of the troops during the voyage, I discovered a quantity of +pamphlets entitled "Beer Cellars and Beer Sellers," the purpose of +which was to prove that the beer sellers were England's most +indispensable patriots; that the beer cellars were England's best +citadels; and that the beer trade in general was the very backbone of +England's stability. It was horribly tantalising to the men in face of +such teaching to find that there had been placed on board for them not +so much as a solitary barrel of this much belauded beverage. Through +all the voyage every man remained perforce a total abstainer. Yet +there was not a single death among those sixteen hundred, nor a +solitary instance of serious sickness. What does Burton say to that? + +As at sea, so on land, the authorities seemed more afraid of the +beloved beer barrel than of the bullets of the Boers; and for the most +part no countersign sufficed to secure for it admittance to our camps. +An occasional tot of rum was distributed among the men; but even that +seemed to be rather to satisfy a sentiment than to serve any really +useful purpose. At any rate, some of the men, like myself, tramped all +the way to Koomati Poort, often in the worst of weather, without +taking a single tot, and were none the worse for so refraining, but +rather so much the better. + +The effect on the character of the men was still more remarkable; and +while in Pretoria I was repeatedly assured that some who had been a +perpetual worry to their officers in beer-ridden England, on the +beerless veldt, or in the liquorless towns of the Transvaal, speedily +took rank among the most reliable men in all their regiment. To my +colleague, the Rev. W. Burgess, a major of the Yorkshires, said +"Nineteen-twentieths of the crime in the British army is due to drink. +As a proof I have been at this outpost with 150 men for six weeks, +where we have absolutely no drink, and there have been only two minor +cases brought before me. There is no insubordination whatever, and if +you do away with drink you have in the British army an ideal army. +Whether or not men can be made sober by Act of Parliament, clearly +they can by martial law!" + +With the men so sober, with a field-marshal so God-fearing, the +constant outrages ascribed to them by slander-loving Englishmen at +home, become a moral impossibility; and to that fact, after we had +been long in possession of Pretoria, the principal minister of the +Dutch Reformed Church in the Transvaal bore ready witness in the +following letter sent by him to the Military Governor of Pretoria:-- + + Not a single instance of criminal assault or rape by + non-commissioned officers or men of the British army on Boer + women has come to my knowledge. I have asked several gentlemen + and their testimony is the same.... The discipline and general + moral conduct of His Majesty's troops in Pretoria is, under the + circumstances, better than I ever expected it would or could be. + There have certainly been cases of immoral conduct, but in no + single instance, so far as I know, has force been used. They only + go where they are invited and where they are welcome. + + (Signed) H. S. BOSMAN. + +When such is the testimony of our adversaries, we need not hesitate to +accept the similar tribute paid by Sir Redvers Buller to his army of +abstainers in Natal:--"I am filled with admiration for the British +soldiers," said he; "really the manner in which they have worked, +fought, and endured during the last fortnight has been something more +than human. Broiled in a burning sun by day, drenched in rain by +night, lying but three hundred yards off an enemy, who shoots you if +you show so much as a finger, they could hardly eat or drink by day; +and as they were usually attacked by night, they got but little sleep; +yet through it all they were as cheery and as willing as could be." + +Men so devoted when on duty, don't transform themselves, the drink +being absent, into incarnate demons when off duty; and no dominion, +therefore, has more cause to be proud of its defenders than our own! + + + + +CHAPTER X + +PRETORIAN INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS + + +Pretoria is manifestly a city in process of being made, and has +probably in store a magnificent future, though at present the shanty +and the palace stand "cheek by jowl." Even the main roads leading into +the town seemed atrociously bad as judged by English standards, and +the paving of the principal streets was of a correspondingly perilous +type. Yet the public buildings already referred to were not the only +ones that claimed our commendation as signs of a progressive spirit. +The Government Printing Works are remarkably handsome and complete; +and while for educational purposes there is in Pretoria nothing quite +comparable to Grey College at Bloemfontein, the secondary education of +the late Republic's metropolis was well housed. + +[Sidenote: _The State's Model School._] + +There is, however, one building provided for that purpose which has +acquired an enduring interest of quite another kind, and which I +visited, when it became a hospital, with very mingled emotions. The +State's Model School, during the early stages of the war, was utilised +as a prison for the British officers captured by the Boers. How keenly +these brave men felt and secretly resented their ill-fortune they were +too proud to tell, but one of the noblest of them had become, +through the terrors of a disastrous fight, so piteously demented for a +while that he actually wore hanging from his neck a piece of cardboard +announcing that it was he who lost the guns at Colenso. Some of them +would rather have lost their lives than in such fashion have lost +their liberty, and the story which tells how three of them regained +that liberty by escaping from this very prison is one of the most +thrilling among all the records of the war. Most noted of the three is +Winston Churchill, whose own graphic pen has told how he eluded the +most vigilant search and finally reached the sea. But the adventures +of Captain Haldane and his non-commissioned companion reveal yet more +of daring and endurance. Captured at the same time as Churchill, and +through the same cause--the disaster on November 13th to the armoured +train at Chieveley--these two effected their escape long after the hue +and cry on the heels of Churchill had died away. Within what was +supposed to be a day or two of the removal of all the officers to a +more secure "birdcage" outside the town, those two gentlemen vanished +under the floor of their room, through a kind of tiny trap-door that I +have often seen, but which was then partly concealed by a bed, and was +apparently never noticed by their Boer custodians. In this prison +beneath a prison, damp and dark and dismal beyond all describing, and +where there was no room to stand erect, these two officers found +themselves doomed to dwell, not for days merely, but for weeks. They +were of course hunted for high and low, and sought in every +conceivable place except the right place. Food was guardedly passed +down to them by two or three brother officers who shared their secret, +and at last, more dead than alive, they emerged from their dungeon the +moment they discovered the building was deserted, and then daringly +faced the almost hopeless, yet successful, endeavour to smuggle +themselves to far-distant Delagoa Bay. Evidently the element of +romance has not yet died out of this prosaic age! + +[Sidenote: _Rev. Adrian Hoffmeyer._] + +Strangely sharing the fate of these British prisoners in this Model +School was a godly and gifted minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. A +Boer among Boers. He was never told why he was arrested by his brother +Boers, and though kept under lock and key for months, he was never +introduced to judge or jury. An advocate of peace, he was suspected of +British leanings, and so almost before the war commenced rough hands +were laid upon him. There was in the Transvaal a reign of terror. +Secret service men were everywhere, and no one's reputation was safe, +no one's position secure. In this land of newly-discovered gold men +were driven to discover that the most golden thing of all was discreet +silence on the part of those who differed from "the powers that be." +So he who simply sought to avert war was suspected of British +sympathies, and to his unutterable surprise presently found himself +the fellow prisoner of many a still more unfortunate British officer. + +Of those officers, their character and intellectual attainments, he +speaks in terms of highest praise. Their enforced leisure they +devoted to various artistic and intellectual pursuits, and I have +myself seen an admirably elaborate and accurate map of the Republics, +covering the whole of a large classroom wall, drawn presumably from +joint memory by these officers, who by its aid were able to trace the +progress of the war as tidings filtered through to them by an +ingenious system of signalling practised by sympathetic friends +outside. + +By those same officers this Dutchman was invited to become their +unofficial chaplain, and he writes of the devotional services +consequently arranged as among the chief delights of his life, the +favourite hymn he says being the following:-- + + Holy Father, in Thy mercy + Hear our anxious prayer. + Keep our loved ones, now far absent, + 'Neath Thy care. + + Jesus, Saviour, let Thy presence + Be their light and pride. + Keep, Oh keep them, in their weakness, + Near Thy side. + + Holy Spirit, let Thy teaching + Sanctify their life. + Send Thy grace that they may conquer + In all strife. + +It was to this much respected and much reviled predikant a Pretorian +high official said: "We were determined to let it drift to a rupture +with England, for then our dream would be realised of a Republic +reaching to Table Mountain"; but surely such a song and such a scene +in the State's Model School was a thing of which no man dreamed! + +[Sidenote: _The Waterfall prisoners._] + +The private soldiers who like these, their officers, had become +prisoners of war, were for greater security removed from their +racecourse camp to a huge prison-pen at the Waterfall, some ten or +twelve miles up the Pietersburg line. They numbered in all about three +thousand eight hundred, and for a while fared badly at their captors' +hands. But ultimately a small committee was formed in Pretoria and +£5000 subscribed, to be spent in mitigating their lot and ministering +in many ways to their comfort. In these ministrations of mercy the +Wesleyan minister, whose grateful guest I for a while became, as +afterwards of the genial host and hostess at the Silverton Mission +Parsonage, took a prominent and much appreciated part as the following +letter abundantly proves:-- + + To the Rev. F. W. MACDONALD, + President, Wesleyan Church, London. + + PRETORIA, _4th July 1900_. + + SIR,--As chairman of a committee formed in January last for the + purpose of assisting the British prisoners of war, I have been + requested to bring officially to your notice the splendid work + done by the Rev. H. W. Goodwin. From my position I have been + thrown into intimate relationship with Mr Goodwin, and it is a + great pleasure to me to testify to his invaluable services. I am + not a member of your church, nor are my colleagues, but there is + a unanimous desire among the British subjects that were permitted + to remain in Pretoria, and who are therefore cognisant of Mr + Goodwin's work, to place his record before you. It is our united + hope that Mr Goodwin will receive some substantial mark of + appreciation from the Church of which he is so fine a + representative. I know of none finer in the highest sense in the + Church which knows no distinction of forms or creeds.--I have the + honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant, + + (Sd.) J. LEIGH WOOD. + +On my arrival in Pretoria Mr Goodwin was at my request at once +appointed as Acting Army Chaplain, and shortly after received the +following most gratifying communication:-- + + BRITISH AGENCY, + PRETORIA, _9th June 1900_. + + DEAR SIR,--If you could kindly call on Lord Roberts some time + to-day or to-morrow, it would give him great pleasure to meet one + who has done so much for our prisoners of war.--Yours faithfully, + + (Sd.) H. V. CONAN, + The Rev. Goodwin. _Lt.-Col., Mil. Sec._ + +When Mr Goodwin accordingly called nothing could well exceed the +warmth of the welcome and of the thanks the field-marshal graciously +accorded him. + +Among the prisoners at the Waterfall was a well-known Wesleyan +sergeant of the 18th Hussars, who rallied around him all such as were +of a devout spirit and became the recognised leader of the religious +life of the prison camp. I therefore requested him to supply me with a +brief statement of what in this respect had been done by the prisoners +for the prisoners. He accordingly sent me the following letter:-- + + PRETORIA, _7th July 1900_. + + REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,--Long before you asked me to write an + account of the Christian work which was carried on from the 22nd + of October 1899 to the 6th of June 1900, among the British + prisoners of war at the Pretoria Racecourse, and afterwards at + Waterfall, it had occurred to me that for the encouragement of + other Christian workers particularly, and the members of the + Church of Christ generally, some record should be made of the + wonderful way in which God blessed us, and it is with the + greatest pleasure that I accede to your request. + + I was one of the 160 who were taken prisoners after the battle of + Talana Hill (Dundee), and a few days after arriving at our + destination (Pretoria Racecourse) we heard some of our guard + singing psalms and we immediately decided to ask the commandant + for a tent for devotional purposes. It was given, and after the + first few nights, till we were released by our own forces seven + months afterwards, it was filled to overflowing nightly. On our + being removed to Waterfall, we enlarged our tent to three times + its original size, and later on we begged building material from + the commandant, and built a very nice hall with a platform and + seating accommodation for over 240. At last this became too small + and we went into the open air twice a week, when no less than 500 + to 700 congregated to hear the old, old story of Jesus and His + love. + + When we asked for the small tent we had no idea of the work + growing as it did. We used to meet together every night, a simple + gathering together of God's children, four in number, which + increased to one hundred, with the Lord Himself as teacher. Then + our comrades began to attend and we commenced to hold + evangelistic services, which were continued to the end. + + When we got to Waterfall we started a Bible-class and a prayer + meeting, held alternately. The work was helped a great deal by + other Christian brothers, without whose services, co-operation, + fellowship and sympathy the work could hardly have been continued + for any length of time. But, after all, speaking after the manner + of men, our dear friend and pastor, the Rev. H. W. Goodwin, was + the one who really enabled us to carry on the work. As the + transport and commissariat are to any army, so Mr Goodwin was to + us. + + On our application, the Boer Government consented to allow the + ministers of the various churches in Pretoria to visit us once a + month for the purpose of conducting divine service. Of course + such a privilege as this was greatly appreciated by the men, and + one cannot help wondering why such restrictions were placed upon + the ministers. + + We had many cherished plans and bright hopes with regard to the + war, and when we were captured we found it hard to recognise the + ordering of the Lord in our new conditions and unaccustomed + circumstances; but we were taught some grand lessons, and we soon + found that even imprisonment has its compensations; and we have + to confess that His Presence makes the prison a palace. I have + heard many thank God for bringing them to Waterfall gaol. + + During the months we spent together we realised that God was + blessing us in a most remarkable manner, and we may truly say + that our fellowship was with the Father and with His Son Jesus + Christ. Many backsliders were taught the folly of remaining away + from the Father, and many were turned from darkness unto light. + To Him be the glory. + + On hearing of the near approach of our deliverers, and knowing + that soon we should all part, we had a farewell meeting and many + promised to write to me. + + I received a number of letters ere we actually parted, but with + the injunction "not to be opened till separated," and from these + I intend making a few extracts which lead me like the Psalmist to + say "Because Thou hast been my help therefore in the shadow of + Thy wings will I rejoice." + +Of the extracts to which the sergeant refers it is impossible to give +here more than a few brief samples; but even these may suffice to +prove that our soldiers are by no means all, or mostly, sons of +Belial, as their recent slanderers would have us believe. + +_A Bombardier_ of the 10th Mountain Battery writes--"I was brought to +God on the 4th of February. I had often stood outside the tent and +listened to the services, and one evening I went into the +after-meeting and came away without Christ; but God was striving with +me, and a few nights afterwards I realised that I was a hell-deserving +sinner, and I cried unto God and He heard me; and that night I came +away with Christ." + +_A Sergeant-major_ of Roberts' Horse says--"I am indeed grateful to +God for the loving-kindness He has bestowed on me since my coming +here as a prisoner of war. The meetings have been a great success and +of the most orderly character." + +_A Sergeant_ of the Royal Irish Rifles adds--"Thanks be unto God, He +opened my eyes on the night of the 21st of January 1900; and He has +kept me ever since." + +_A Corporal_ of the Wilts, after telling of his capture at Rensberg, +and his arrival at Waterfall, goes on to say--"I heard about the +Gospel Tent from one of the Boer sentries, and I cannot express the +happy feelings that passed through me when I saw the Christian band +gathered together with one accord." + +_A Private_ of the Glosters relates the story of his own conversion, +and then proceeds to say he shall never forget the meetings which were +conducted by the Rev. H. W. Goodwin, especially the one in which he +administered to them the blessed Sacrament. It was a Pentecostal time, +and it pleased the Lord to add unto them eight souls that same night, +and six the night following. + +[Sidenote: _A Soldier's Hymn._] + +As the day of release drew near with all its inevitable excitement and +unrest, certain British officers, themselves prisoners, were requested +by the Boers to reside among these men at the Waterfall to ensure to +the very last the maintenance of discipline; and the sanction of the +Baptist minister who once conducted their parade service was sought by +them for the singing of the following most touchingly appropriate +hymn:-- + + Lord a nation humbly kneeling + For her soldiers cries to Thee; + Strong in faith and hope, appealing + That triumphant they may be. + Waking, sleeping, + 'Neath Thy keeping, + Lead our troops to victory. + + Of our sins we make confession, + Wealth and arrogance and pride; + But our hosts, against oppression, + March with Freedom's flowing tide. + Father, speed them, + Keep them, lead them, + God of armies, be their guide. + + Man of Sorrows! Thou hast sounded + Every depth of human grief. + By Thy wounds, Oh, heal our wounded. + Give the fever's fire relief. + Hear us crying + For our dying, + Of consolers be Thou chief. + + Take the souls that die for duty + In Thy tender pierced hand; + Crown the faulty lives with beauty, + Offered for their Fatherland. + All forgiving, + With the living + May they in Thy kingdom stand. + + And if Victory should crown us, + May we take it as from Thee + As Thy nation deign to own us; + Merciful and strong and free. + Endless praising + To Thee raising, + Ever Thine may England be! + +Say their critics what they may, soldiers who compose such songs, and +pen such testimonies, and conduct such services among themselves, +seem scarcely the sort to "let hell loose in South Africa!" + +[Sidenote: _A big supper party._] + +Of the prisoners of war thus long detained in durance vile nearly a +thousand were decoyed into a special train the night before the +Guards' Brigade reached Pretoria. These deluded captives in their +simplicity supposed they were being taken into the town to be there +set at liberty; but instead of that they were hurried by, and, with +the panic-stricken Boers, away and yet away, into their remotest +eastern fastnesses, there presumably to be retained as long as +possible as a sort of guarantee that the vastly larger number of Boers +we held prisoners should be still generously treated by us. They might +also prove useful in many ways if terms of peace came to be +negotiated. So vanished for months their visions of speedy freedom! + +The rest who still remained within the prison fence, and were, of +course, still unarmed, three days later were cruelly and treacherously +shelled by a Boer commando on a distant hill. The Boer guards detailed +for duty at the prison had deserted their posts, and under the cover +of the white flag, gone into Pretoria to surrender. Our men, +therefore, who were practically free, awaiting orders, when thus +unceremoniously shelled, at once stampeded; and late on Thursday night +about nine hundred of them, footsore and famished, arrived at Mr +Goodwin's house seeking shelter. He was apparently the only friend +they knew in Pretoria, and to have a friend yet not to use him is, of +course, absurd! So to his door they came in crowds, dragging with +them the Boer Maxim gun, by which they had so long been overawed. +While tea and coffee for all this host were being hurriedly prepared +by their slightly embarrassed host, I sought permission from a staff +officer to house the men for the night in our Wesleyan schoolrooms, +and in the huge Caledonian Hall adjoining, which was at once +commandeered for the purpose. I also requested that a supply of +rations might at utmost speed be provided for them. Accordingly, not +long before midnight a waggon arrived bringing by some fortunate +misreading of my information, provisions, not for nine hundred hungry +men, but for the whole three thousand prisoners whom we were supposed +to have welcomed as our guests. It may seem incredible, but men who at +that late hour had fallen fast asleep upon the floor, at the sound of +that waggon's wheels suddenly awoke; and still more wonderful to tell, +when morning came those nine hundred men, of the rations for three +thousand, had left untouched only a few paltry boxes of biscuits. A +hospital patient recently recovered from fever once said to me, "I +haven't an appetite for two, sir; I have an appetite for ten!" And +these released prisoners had evidently for that particular occasion +borrowed the appetite of that particular patient! + +[Sidenote: _The Soldiers' Home._] + +The Caledonian Hall above referred to is a specially commodious +building, and could not have been more admirably adapted for use as a +Soldiers' Home if expressly erected for that purpose. It was +accordingly commandeered by the military governor to be so used, and +for months it was the most popular establishment in town or camp. At +Johannesburg a Wesleyan and an Anglican Home were opened, both +rendering excellent service; but as this was run on undenominational +lines, it was left without a rival. It is a most powerful sign of the +times that our military chiefs now unhesitatingly interest themselves +in the moral and spiritual welfare of the men under their command. +Some time before this Boer war commenced, on April 28, 1898, there was +issued by the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army a memorandum +which would have done no discredit to the Religious Tract Society if +published as one of their multitudinous leaflets. A copy was supplied +presumably to every soldier sent to Africa; and the first few +sentences which refer to what may happily be regarded as steadily +diminishing evils, read as follows:-- + + It will be the duty of company officers to point out to the men + under their control, and particularly to young soldiers, the + + _disastrous effect of giving way_ + + to habits of intemperance and immorality. The excessive use of + intoxicating liquors unfits the soldier for active work, blunts + his intelligence, and is a fruitful source of military crime. The + man who leads a vicious life + + _enfeebles his constitution_ + + and exposes himself to the risk of contracting a disease of a + kind which has of late made terrible ravages in the British army. + Many men spend a great deal of the short time of their service in + the military hospitals, the wards of which are crowded with + patients, a large number of whom are permanently disfigured and + incapacitated from earning a livelihood in or out of the army. + Men tainted with this disease are + + _useless while in the army_ + + and a burden to their friends after they have left it. Even those + who do not altogether break down are unfit for service in the + field, and would certainly be a source of weakness to their + regiments, and a discredit to their comrades if employed in war. + +[Illustration: _From a photograph by Mr Jones, Pretoria_ + +Soldiers' Home at Pretoria.] + +As one of the most effectual ways of combating these evils, and of +providing an answer to the oft-repeated prayer, "Lead us not into +temptation," Soldiers' Homes are now being so freely multiplied, that +the Wesleyan Church has itself established over thirty, at a total +cost of more than £50,000. + +[Sidenote: _Mr and Mrs Osborn Howe._] + +Some of those engaged in similar Christian work among the soldiers +were gentlemen of ample private means who defrayed all their own +expenses. Mr Anderson was thus attached to the Northumberland +Fusiliers, and soon became a power for good among them. Mr and Mrs +Osborn Howe did a really remarkable work in providing Soldiers' Homes, +which followed the men from place to place over almost the entire +field covered by our military operations, including Pretoria, and +though they received quite a long list of subscriptions their own +private resources have for years been freely placed at the Master's +service, whether for work among soldiers or civilians. + +When late on in the campaign it was intimated by certain officials +that Lord Kitchener was not in sympathy with such work and would not +grant such facilities for its prosecution as Lord Roberts had done, Mr +Osborn Howe received the following reply to a letter of enquiry on +that point:-- + +[Sidenote: _A letter from Lord Kitchener._] + + I am directed by Lord Kitchener to acknowledge the receipt of + your letter of January 3rd. His Lordship much regrets that you + should have been led to imagine that his attitude towards your + work differs from that of Lord Roberts, and I am to inform you + that so far from that being the case, he is very deeply impressed + by the value of your work, and hopes that it may long continue + and increase. + + Yours faithfully, + (Signed) W. H. CONGREVE, Major, + _Private Secretary_. + +Still more notable in this same connection is the fact that soon after +Lord Roberts reached Cape Town to take supreme command, he caused to +be issued the following most remarkable letter, which certainly marks +a new departure in the usages of modern warfare, and carries us back +in thought and spirit to the camps of Cromwell and his psalm-singing +Ironsides, or to the times when Scotland's Covenanters were busy +guarding for us the religious light and liberty which are to-day our +goodliest heritage. + +[Sidenote: _Also from Lord Roberts._] + + ARMY HEADQUARTERS, CAPE TOWN, + _January 23rd_. + + DEAR SIR,--I am desired by Lord Roberts to ask you to be so kind + as to distribute to all ranks under your command the "Short + Prayer for the use of Soldiers in the Field," by the Primate of + Ireland, copies of which I now forward. His Lordship earnestly + hopes that it may be helpful to all of Her Majesty's soldiers who + are now serving in South Africa. + + Yours faithfully, + (Signed) NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN, Colonel, + _Private Secretary_. + + To the Commanding Officer. + + + *The Prayer.* + + ALMIGHTY FATHER, I have often sinned against Thee. O wash me in + the precious blood of the Lamb of God. Fill me with Thy Holy + Spirit, that I may lead a new life. Spare me to see again those + whom I love at home, or fit me for Thy presence in peace. + + Strengthen us to quit ourselves like men in our right and just + cause. Keep us faithful unto death, calm in danger, patient in + suffering, merciful as well as brave, true to our Queen, our + country, and our colours. + + If it be Thy will, enable us to win victory for England, and + above all grant us the better victory over temptation and sin, + over life and death, that we may be more than conquerors through + Him who loved us, and laid down His life for us, Jesus our + Saviour, the Captain of the Army of God. Amen. + +The general who officially invited all his troops to use such a prayer +could not fail to prove a warm friend and patron of Soldiers' Homes; +and to the Pretoria Home he came, not merely formally to declare it +open, but to attend one of the many concerts given there, thus +encouraging by his example both the workers and those for whom they +worked. A supremely busy and burdened man, _that_ he made a part of +his business; and surely he was wise, for one sober soldier is any day +worth more than a dozen drunken ones. + +The general who thus deliberately encouraged his troops to live +devoutly, instead of being deemed by them on that account unsoldierly +or fanatic, secured such a place in their confidence and affection as +few even of the most magnetic leaders among men ever managed to +obtain. The pet name by which they always spoke of him implied no +approach to unseemly familiarity, but betokened the same kind of +attachment as the veteran hosts of Napoleon the Great intended to +express when they admiringly called their dread master "The Little +Corporal." He amply justified their confidence in him, and they amply +justified his confidence in them; and so on resigning his command in +South Africa he spoke of these "my comrades," as he called them, in +terms as gratifying as they are uncommon:-- + + I am very proud that I am able to record, with the most absolute + truth, that the conduct of this army from first to last has been + exemplary. Not one single case of serious crime has been brought + to my notice--indeed, nothing that deserves the name of _crime_. + There has been no necessity for appeals or orders to the men to + behave properly. I have trusted implicitly to their own soldierly + feeling and good sense, and I have not trusted in vain. They bore + themselves like heroes on the battlefield, and like gentlemen on + all other occasions. + +[Sidenote: _A song in praise of De Wet._] + +Lord Lytton tells us that in the days of Edward the Confessor the rage +for psalm singing was at its height in England so that sacred song +excluded almost every other description of vocal music: but though in +South Africa a similar trend revealed itself among the troops, their +camp fire concerts, and the concerts in the Pretoria Soldiers' Home, +were of an exclusively secular type. At one which it was my privilege +to attend, Lady Roberts and her daughters were present as well as the +general, who generously arranged for a cigar to be given to every man +in the densely crowded hall when the concert closed. All the songs +were by members of the general's staff, and were excellent; but one, +composed presumably by the singer, was topical and sensational in a +high degree. It was entitled: "Long as the world goes round"; and one +verse assured us concerning "Brother Boer," with only too near an +approach to truth, + + He'll bury his mauser, + And break all his vows, sir, + Long as the world goes round! + +Another verse reminded us of a still more melancholy fact which yet +awakened no little mirth. It was in praise of De Wet, who in spite of +his blue spectacles, seemed by far the most clear-sighted of all the +Boer generals, and who, notwithstanding his illiteracy, was beyond all +others well versed in the bewildering ways of the veldt. He apparently +had no skill for the conducting of set battles, but for ambushing +convoys, for capturing isolated detachments, for wrecking trains, and +for himself eluding capture when fairly ringed round with keen +pursuers beyond all counting, few could rival him. Like hunted +Hereward, he seemed able to escape through a rat hole, and by his +persistence in guerilla tactics not only seriously prolonged the war +and enormously increased its cost, but also went far to make the +desolation of his pet Republic complete. So there Lord Roberts sat and +heard this sung by one of his staff:-- + + Of all the Boers we have come across yet, + None can compare with this Christian De Wet; + For him we seem quite unable to get-- + (Though Hildyard and Broadwood, + And our Soudanese Lord _should_)-- + Long as the world goes round! + +They _should_ have got him, and they would have got him, if they +could; but when Lord Roberts, long months after, set sail for home, he +left De Wet still in the saddle. Then Kitchener, our Soudanese Lord, +took up the running, and called on the Guards to aid him, but even +they proved unequal to the hopeless task. "One pair of heels," they +said, "can never overtake two pair of hoofs." Then our picked mounted +men monopolised the "tally-ho" to little better purpose. De Wet's guns +were captured, his convoys cut off, but him no man caught, and +possibly to this very day he is still complacently humming "Tommies +may come and Tommies may go, but I trot on for ever." + +[Sidenote: _Cordua and his Conspiracy._] + +The last verse of this sensational song had reference to yet another +celebrity, but of a far more unsatisfactory type. All the earlier part +of that Thursday I had spent in the second Raadsaal, attending a +court-martial on one of our prisoners of war, Lieutenant Hans Cordua, +late of the Transvaal State Artillery, who, having surrendered, was +suffered to be at large on parole. In my presence he pleaded guilty, +first to having broken his parole in violation of his solemn oath; +secondly, to having attempted to break through the British lines +disguised in British khaki, in order to communicate treasonably with +Botha; and thirdly, to having conspired with sundry others to set fire +to a certain portion of Pretoria with a view to facilitating a +simultaneous attempt to kidnap Lord Roberts and all his staff. Cordua +was with difficulty persuaded to withdraw the plea of guilty, so that +he might have the benefit of any possible flaw his counsel could +detect in the evidence; but in the end the death sentence was +pronounced, confirmed, and duly executed in the garden of Pretoria +Gaol on August 24th. It was from that court-martial I came to the +Soldiers' Home Concert, sat close behind Lord Roberts, and listened to +this song:-- + + Though the Boer some say is a practised thief, + Yet it certainly beggars all belief, + That he slimly should try _to steal our Chief_. + But no Hollander mobs + Shall kidnap our Bobs + Long as the world goes round! + +[Sidenote: _Hospital Work in Pretoria._] + +Historians tell us that the hospital arrangements in some of our +former wars were by no means free from fault. Hence Steevens in his +"Crimean Campaign" asserts that while the camp hospitals absolutely +lacked not only candles, but medicines, wooden legs were supplied to +them from England so freely that there were finally four such legs for +every man in hospital. Clearly those wooden legs were consigned by +wooden heads. Even in this much better managed war the fever epidemic +at Bloemfontein, combined with a month of almost incessant rain, +overtaxed for a while, as we have seen, the resources and strength and +organizing skill of a most willing and fairly competent medical staff. + +But Pretoria was plagued with no corresponding epidemic, and possessed +incomparably ampler supplies, which were drawn on without stint. In +addition to the Welsh, the Yeomanry, and other canvas hospitals +planted in the suburbs, the splendid Palace of Justice was +requisitioned for the use of the Irish hospital, which, like several +others, was fitted out and furnished by private munificence. The +principal school buildings were also placed at the disposal of the +medical authorities, and were promptly made serviceable with whatever +requisites the town could supply. To find suitable bedding, however, +for so vast a number of patients was a specially difficult task. All +the rugs and tablecloths the stores of the town contained were +requisitioned for this purpose; green baize and crimson baize, repp +curtains and plush, anything, everything remotely suitable, was +claimed and cut up to serve as quilts and counterpanes, with the +result that the beds looked picturesquely, if not grotesquely, gay. +One ward, into which I walked, was playfully called "The Menagerie" by +the men that occupied it, for on every bed was a showy rug, and on the +face of every rug was woven the figure of some fearsome beast, Bengal +tigers and British lions being predominant. It was in appearance a +veritable lion's den, where our men dwelt in peace like so many modern +Daniels, and found not harm but health and healing there. + +[Sidenote: _The wear and tear of War._] + +In this campaign the loss of life and vigour caused by sickness was +enormously larger than that accounted for by bullet wounds and +bayonets. At the Orange River, just before the Guards set out on their +long march, thirty Grenadier officers stretched their legs under their +genial colonel's "mahogany," which consisted of rough planks supported +on biscuit boxes. Of those only nine were still with us when we +reached Pretoria, and of the nine several had been temporarily +disabled by sickness or wounds. The battalion at starting was about a +thousand strong, and afterwards received various drafts amounting to +about four hundred more; but only eight hundred marched into Pretoria. +The Scots Guards, however, were so singularly fortunate as not to lose +a single officer during the whole campaign. + +The non-combatants in this respect were scarcely less unfortunate than +the bulk of their fighting comrades. A band of workers in the service +of the Soldiers' Christian Association set out together from London +for South Africa. There were six of them, but before the campaign was +really half over only one still remained at his post. My faithful +friend and helper, whom I left as army scripture reader at Orange +River, after some months of devoted work was compelled to hasten home. +A similar fate befell my Canadian, my Welsh, and one of my Australian +colleagues. The highly esteemed Anglican chaplain to the Guards, who +steadily tramped with them all the way to Pretoria and well earned his +D.S.O., was forbidden by his medical advisers to proceed any further, +and his successor, Canon Knox Little, whose praise as a preacher is in +all the churches, found on reaching Koomati Poort that his strength +was being overstrained, and so at once returned to the sacred duties +of his English Canonry. Thus to many a non-combatant the medical staff +was called to minister, and the veldt to provide a grave. + +[Sidenote: _The Nursing Sisters._] + +The presence of skilled lady-nurses in these Hospitals was of immense +service, not merely as an aid to healing, but also as a refining and +restraining influence among the men. In this direction they habitually +achieved what even the appearing of a chaplain did not invariably +suffice to accomplish. It was the cheering experience of Florence +Nightingale repeated on a yet wider scale. In her army days oaths were +greatly in fashion. The expletives of one of even the Crimean +_generals_ became the jest of the camp; and when later in his career +he took over the Aldershot Command, it was laughingly said "he _swore_ +himself in"; which doubtless he did in a double sense. Yet men trained +in habits so evil when they came into the Scutari Hospital ceased to +swear and forgot to grumble. Said "The Lady with the Lamp," "Never +came from one of them any word, or any look, which a gentleman would +not have used, and the tears came into my eyes as I think how amid +scenes of loathsome disease and death, there rose above it all the +innate dignity, gentleness and chivalry of the men." + +Now as then there are other ministries than those of the pulpit; and +hospitals in which such influences exert themselves, may well prove, +in more directions than one, veritable "Houses of Healing." + +[Sidenote: _A Surprise Packet._] + +As illustrating how gratefully these men appreciate any slightest +manifestation of interest in their welfare, mention may here be made +of what I regard as the crowning surprise of my life. At the close of +an open air parade service in Pretoria a sergeant of the Grenadiers +stepped forward, and in the name of the non-commissioned officers and +men of that battalion presented to me, in token of their goodwill, a +silver pencil case and a gold watch. I could but reply that the +goodwill of my comrades was to me beyond all price, and that this +golden manifestation of it, this gift coming from such a source, I +should treasure as a victorious fighting man would treasure a V.C. + +[Sidenote: _Soldierly Gratitude._] + +The kindnesses lavished on our soldiers, as far as circumstances would +permit, throughout the whole course of this campaign, by civilian +friends at home, in the Colonies, and in the conquered territories, +defy all counting and all description. In some cases, indeed, valuable +consignments intended for their comfort seem never to have reached +their destination, but the knowledge that they were thus thought of +and cared for had upon the men an immeasurable influence for good. +Later on, even the people of Delagoa Bay sent a handsome Christmas +hamper to every blockhouse between the frontier and Barberton, while +at the same time the King of Portugal presented a superb white buck, +wearing a suitably inscribed silver collar, to the Cornwalls who were +doing garrison duty at Koomati Poort. But in Pretoria, where among +other considerations my Wesleyan friends regularly provided a Saturday +"Pleasant Hour," the soldiers in return invited the whole congregation +to a "social," on which they lavished many a pound, and which they +made a brilliant success. It was a startling instance of soldierly +gratitude; and illustrates excellently the friendly attitude of the +military and of the local civilians towards each other. + +[Sidenote: _The Ladysmith Lyre._] + +It sometimes happened among these much enduring men that the greater +their misery the greater their mirth. Thus our captured officers, +close guarded in the Pretoria Model School, and carefully cut off from +all the news of the day, amused themselves by framing parodies on the +absurd military intelligence published in the local Boer papers; +whereof let the following verse serve as a sample:-- + + Twelve thousand British were laid low; + One Boer was wounded in the toe. + Such is the news we get to know + In prison. + +About this time there came into my hands a sample copy of _The +Ladysmith Lyre_; but clearly though the last word in its title was +perfectly correct as a matter of pronunciation the spelling was +obviously inaccurate. It was a merry invention of news during the +siege by men who were hemmed in from all other news; and so the +grosser the falseness the greater the fun. + + * * * * * + +In my own particular copy I found the following dialogue between two +Irish soldiers:-- + +First Private--"The captain told me to keep away from the enemy's +foire!" + +Second Private--"What did you tell the Captain?" + +First Private--"I told him the Boers were so busy shelling they hadn't +made any foire!" + +That is scarcely a brilliant jest; but then it was begotten amid the +agonies of the siege. + +One of the poems published in this same copy of _The Ladysmith Lyre_ +has in it more of melancholy than of mirth. It tells of the hope +deferred that maketh the heart sick; and gives us a more vivid idea +than anything else yet printed of the secret distress of the men who +saved Natal--a distress which we also shared. It is entitled-- + + "AFTER EDGAR ALLAN POE." + + Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, + Over all the quaint and curious yarns we've heard about the war, + Suddenly there came a rumour--(we can always take a few more) + Started by some chap who knows more than--the others knew before-- + "We shall see the reinforcements in another--month or more!" + Only this and nothing more! + + But we're waiting still for Clery, waiting, waiting, sick and weary + Of the strange and silly rumours we have often heard before. + And we now begin to fancy there's a touch of necromancy, + Something almost too uncanny, in the unregenerate Boer-- + Only this and nothing more! + + Though our hopes are undiminished that the war will soon be finished, + We would be a little happier if we knew a little more. + If we had a little fuller information about Buller; + News about Sir Redvers Buller, and his famous Army Corps; + Information of the General and his fighting Army Corps. + Only this and nothing more! + + And the midnight shells uncertain, whistling through the night's + black curtain, + Thrill us, fill us with a touch of horror never felt before. + So to still the beating of our hearts, we kept repeating + "Some late visitor entreating entrance at the chamber door, + This it is; and nothing more!" + + Oh how slow the shells come dropping, sometimes bursting, sometimes + stopping, + As though themselves were weary of this very languid war. + How distinctly we'll remember all the weary dull November; + And it seems as if December will have little else in store; + And our Christmas dinner will be bully beef and plain stickfast. + Only this and nothing more! + + Letham, Letham, tell us truly if there's any news come newly; + Not the old fantastic rumours we have often heard before:-- + Desolate yet all undaunted! Is the town by Boers still haunted? + This is all the news that's wanted--tell us truly we implore-- + Is there, _is there_ a relief force? Tell us, tell us, we implore! + Only this and nothing more. + + For we're waiting rather weary! Is there such a man as Clery? + Shall we ever see our wives and mothers, or our sisters and our brothers? + Shall we ever see those others, who went southwards long before? + Shall we ever taste fresh butter? Tell us, tell us, we implore! + We are answered--nevermore! + +When twenty months later the Scots Guards again found themselves in +Pretoria they too began dolorously to enquire, "Shall we ever see our +wives and mothers, or our sisters and our brothers?" But meanwhile +much occurred of which the following chapters are a brief record. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +FROM PRETORIA TO BELFAST + + +On reaching Pretoria, almost unopposed, our Guardsmen jumped to the +hasty and quite unjustifiable conclusion that the campaign was +closing, and that in the course of about another fortnight some of us +would be on our homeward way. They forgot that after a candle has +burned down into its socket it may still flare and flicker wearisomely +long before it finally goes out. War lights just such a candle, and no +extinguisher has yet been patented for the instant quenching of its +flame just when our personal convenience chances to clamour for such +quenching. Indeed, the "flare and flicker" period sometimes proves, +where war is concerned, scarcely less prolonged, and much more +harassing, than the period of the full-fed flame. So Norman William +found after the battle of Hastings. So Cromwell proved when the fight +at Worcester was over. So the Americans discovered when they had +captured Manila. Our occupation of Bloemfontein by no means made us +instant masters of the whole Free State, and our presence in Pretoria +we had yet to learn was not at all the same thing as the undisputed +possession of the entire Transvaal. Indeed, the period that actually +interposed between the two, proved the longest "fortnight" ever +recorded. + +[Sidenote: _Lord Milner's explanation._] + +How that came about, however, is made quite clear by the following +extract from the High Commissioner's despatches:-- + + If it had been possible for us to screen those portions of the + conquered territory, which were fast returning to peaceful + pursuits, from the incursions of the enemy still in the field, a + great deal of what is now most deplorable in the condition of + South Africa would never have been experienced. The vast extent + of the country, the necessity of concentrating our forces for the + long advance, first to Pretoria and then to Koomati Poort, + resulted in the country already occupied being left open to + raids, constantly growing in audacity, and fed by small + successes, on the part of a few bold and skilful guerilla leaders + who had nailed their colours to the mast. + + The reappearance of these disturbers of the peace, first in the + south-east of the Orange River Colony, then in the south-west of + the Transvaal, and finally in every portion of the conquered + territory, placed those of the inhabitants who wanted to settle + down in a position of great difficulty. Instead of being made + prisoners of war, they had been allowed to remain on their farms + on taking the oath of neutrality, and many of them were really + anxious to keep it. But they had not the strength of mind, nor + from want of education, a sufficient appreciation of the + sacredness of the obligation which they had undertaken, to resist + the pressure of their old companions in arms when these + reappeared among them appealing to their patriotism and to their + fears. In a few weeks or months the very men whom we had spared + and treated with exceptional leniency were up in arms again, + justifying their breach of faith in many cases by the + extraordinary argument that we had not preserved them from the + temptation to commit it. + +[Sidenote: _The Boer way of saying "Bosh"._] + +Early in the long halt near Pretoria, at Silverton Camp, the Guards' +Brigade was formally assembled to hear read a telegram from H.R.H. The +Prince of Wales, congratulating them on the practical termination of +the war; whereupon as though by positive prearrangement the Boers +plumped a protesting shell in startlingly close proximity to where our +cheering ranks not long before had stood. It was the Boer way of +saying "bosh" to our ill-timed boast that the war was over. + +Botha and his irreconcilables were at this time occupying a formidable +position, with a frontage of fifteen miles, near Pienaar's Poort, +where the Delagoa line runs through a gap in the hills, fifteen miles +east of Pretoria; and this position Lord Roberts found it essential to +attack with 17,000 men and seventy guns on Monday, June 11th, that is +just a week after the neighbouring capital had surrendered. The +fighting extended over three days; French attacking on our left, +Hamilton on our right, and Pole Carew in the centre keenly watching +the development of these flanking movements. In the course of this +stubborn contest the invisible Boers did for one brief while become +visible, as they galloped into the open in hope of capturing the Q +Battery, which had already won for itself renown by redeeming Sanna's +Post from complete disaster. Then it was Hamilton ordered the +memorable cavalry charge of the 12th Lancers, which saved the guns, +and scattered the Boers, but cost us the life of its gallant and +God-fearing Colonel Lord Airlie, who before the war greatly helped me +in my work at Aldershot. The death of such a man made the battle of +Diamond Hill a mournfully memorable one; for Lord Airlie combined in +his own martial character the hardness of the diamond with its +lustrous pureness; and his last words just before the fatal bullet +pierced his heart, were said to be a characteristic rebuke of an +excited and perhaps profane sergeant: "Pray, moderate your language!" +Wholesome advice, none too often given, and much too seldom heeded! + +[Sidenote: _News from a far Country._] + +As the inevitable result of this further fighting, the men who had +fondly hoped to be shortly on their way to Hyde Park Corner, suffered +just then from a severe attack of heart-sickness, which was none other +than a passing spasm of home-sickness! "Home, sweet home" sighed they, +"and we never knew how sweet till now"! Meanwhile, however, we were +wonderfully well supplied with home news, for within a single +fortnight no less than 360 sacks of letters and various postal packets +reached the Guards' Brigade, in spite of whole mails being captured by +the Boers, and hosts of individual letters or parcels having gone +hopelessly astray. Official reports declare that a weekly average of +nearly 750,000 postal items were sent from England to the army in +South Africa throughout the whole period covered by the war, so that +it is quite clear we were not forgotten by loved ones far away, and +the knowledge of that fact afforded solace, if not actual healing, +even for those whose heart-sickness was most acute. + +[Sidenote: _Further fighting._] + +Early in July, the commander-in-chief had accumulated sufficient +supplies, and secured sufficient remounts, to make a further advance +possible. On the 7th, the Boers were pushed back by Hutton to Bronkers +Spruit, where as the sequel of the Diamond Hill fight on June 12th, +the Australians had surprised and riddled a Boer laager. While however +Botha was thus sullenly retreating eastward, he secretly despatched a +strong detachment round our left wing to the north-west of Pretoria +under the leadership of Delarey, who on the 11th flung himself like a +thunderbolt out of a clear sky on a weak post at Nitral's Nek, and +there captured two guns with 200 prisoners. On July 16th, Botha +himself once more attacked our forces, but was again driven off by +Generals Pole Carew and Hutton; and the surrender on the 29th of +General Prinsloo, with over 4000 Boers and three guns in the Orange +River Colony, secured our remoter lines of communication from a very +formidable menace, so clearing the course for another onward move. + +[Sidenote: _Touch not, taste not, handle not._] + +On Tuesday, July 24th, the Guards' Brigade said good-bye to +Donkerhook, where their camp had become a fixture since the fight on +Diamond Hill, and where their conduct once more won my warmest +admiration. In the very midst of that camp, in which so many thousands +of men tarried so long, were sundry farmhouses, and Kaffir homes, the +occupants of which were never molested from first to last, nor any of +their belongings touched, except as the result of a perfectly +voluntary sale and purchase. Indeed, the identic day we left, turkeys, +geese, ducks, and other "small deer," were still wandering round their +native haunts, none daring to make them afraid. The owners had +declined to sell; and our ever hungry men had honourably refrained +from laying unpermitted hands on these greatly enjoyable dainties. +Such honesty in a hostile land, in relation to the property of a +hostile peasantry, made me marvel; and still more when maintained in +places where unmistakable treachery had been practised as in this +identic neighbourhood. + +At Wolmaran's pleasant country house, close beside our camp, the white +flag flew, and there our general took up his abode. Some members of +this well-known family were still out on commando, but those that +remained at home eagerly surrendered all arms, were profuse in +professions of friendliness, and were duly pledged to formal +neutrality. But a recent Transvaal law had reduced the wages of all +Kaffirs from about twenty shillings to a uniform five shillings a +week, and Wolmaran's unpaid or ill-paid negroes revenged themselves by +revealing their master's secrets. Partly as the result of hints thus +obtained, we found hidden in his garden over thirty rifles, the barrel +of a Maxim gun, and about £10,000 in gold--presumably Government +money; also a splendid supply of provisions was discovered--presumably +Government stores; and in the family cemetery there was dug up a +quantity of dynamite. The gentleman who thus gave up his arms, and in +this fashion kept his oath, at once became our prisoner, but his house +and its contents remained untouched. And when we left, some of his +barndoor fowls were still there to see us off! + +This is a notable but typical illustration of the way in which, with +unwise leniency, surrendered burghers were allowed access to our +camps, and recompensed our reliance on their honour by revealing our +secrets to our foes, and, when they dared, unearthing their buried +arms to level them once more at our too confiding troops. + +[Sidenote: _More treachery and still more._] + +A march of fifteen or eighteen miles brought us to Bronkhorst Spruit, +the scene of a dastardly massacre in December 1880, of the men of the +Connaught Rangers, who, ere yet there was any declaration of war, were +marching with their wives and children from Lydenburg to Pretoria. I +stood bareheaded beside one of the mounds that hide their bones, close +to the roadside where they fell, and bethought me of the strange +Providence through which, nearly twenty years after the event, there +was now marching past those very graves a vast avenging army on its +way to those same mountain fastnesses whence our murdered comrades of +the long ago set out on their fatal journey. Sowing and reaping are +often far apart; but there is no sundering them! + +At our mess dinner that same evening the conversation turned to the +kindred, but still more shameful deed recently devised, though happily +in vain, at Johannesburg. There Cordua had indeed been out-Corduad by +a conspiracy to assassinate in cold blood all the military officers +attending some sports about to be held under military patronage at the +racecourse. About eighty of the conspirators were captured in the very +act of completing their plans. Nearly three hundred more were said to +be implicated, and being chiefly of foreign extraction were quietly +sent out of the country. It was the biggest thing in plots, and the +wildest, that recent years have seen outside Russia. + +[Sidenote: _The root of the matter._] + +One often wonders how it comes to pass that people so demonstratively +religious prove in so many cases conspicuously devoid of truth and +honour and common honesty; but various explanations, each setting +forth some partial contributory cause, may easily be conceived. + +As among Britons, so among Boers, there are, as a matter of course, +varying degrees of loyalty to the moral law, and of sincerity in +religious profession. It is therefore manifestly unfair to condemn a +whole people because of individual immoralities. The outrageous deeds +just described may well have been in large part the work of "lewd +fellows of the baser sort," a sort of which the Transvaal has +unfortunately no monopoly, and of which the better type of Boer scorns +to become the apologist. Moreover, Johannesburg drew to itself with a +rush a huge number not only of honourable adventurers, but also of +wastrels, representing every class and clime under heaven. Many of +these were commandeered or volunteered for service on the Boer side +when war broke out, and by their lawlessnesses proved almost as great +a terror to their friends as to their foes. Young Cordua was of +foreign birth, and there were few genuine Boers among the Johannesburg +conspirators; but it was the Transvaal they blindly sought to serve; +and so on the shoulders of the whole Transvaal community is laid, none +too justly, the entire blame for such mistakes. + +Then too, however mistakenly, I cannot but think the peculiar type of +piety cherished by the Boers is largely responsible for the moral +obliquity of which, justly or unjustly, I heard complaints continually +from those who professed to know them well. These sons of the +Huguenots and of the Dutch refugees who fled from the persecuting zeal +of Alva have all sprung from an exceptionally religious stock, and +with dogged conservatism still cling to the rigid traditions and +narrow beliefs of a bygone age. The country-bred Boer resembles not +remotely our own Puritans and Covenanters. He and his are God's Elect, +and the Elect of the Lord have ever seemed prone to take liberties +with the law of the Lord. They deem themselves a chosen race to whom a +new Canaan has been divinely given, and in defence of whom Jehovah +Himself is bound to fight. At the commencement of the campaign it was +common talk that "they had commandeered the Almighty." Their piety and +practice are largely modelled on Old Testament lines. They used God's +name and quoted Scripture _ad nauseam_ even in State correspondence. +Their President was also their High Priest; yet in business +transactions they were reputed to be as slim as Jacob in his dealings +with Laban; and a lack of loyalty to the exact truth, some of their +own clergy say, had become almost a national characteristic. "The +bond-slave of my mere word I will never be" has often been quoted as a +Boer proverb; and those that had lived long in the land assured me +that proverb and practice too commonly keep company. + +It is a perilous thing for men or nations to deem themselves in any +exclusive sense Heaven's favourites. Such conceptions do not minister +to heavenly-mindedness, or beget lives of ethic beauty. The ancient +Hebrews, blinded by this very belief, became "worse than the +heathen," and herein lies a solemn warning alike for the beaten Boer +and the boastful Briton! There is no true religion where there is no +all round righteousness; and wheresoever that is wanting the wrath of +God cannot but abide. + +[Sidenote: _A tight fit._] + +Our next day's march ended just as a heavy thunderstorm with still +heavier rain broke upon us; so the Grenadier officers pitched their +mess as close as they could get to the sheltering wall of a decidedly +stenchful Kaffir cottage. There we stood in the drenching wet and ate +our evening meal, which was lunch and dinner in one. In that +one-roomed cottage, with a smoking fire on the floor and a heap of +mealie corn-cobs in the corner, there slept that night two Kaffir men, +one Kaffir woman, four Kaffir piccaninnies, four West Australian +officers, one officer of the Guards on the corn-cobs, a quantity of +live poultry, and a dead goat; its sleep, of course, being that from +which there is no awaking. That they were not all stifled before +morning is astonishing, but the fact remains that the goat alone +failed to greet the dawn. + +Nearly every man in the camp was that night soaked to the skin, and +for once the Guards made no attempt to sing at or to sing down the +storm. As they apologetically explained at breakfast time, they were +really "too down on their luck" to try. But with my usual good fortune +I managed to pass the night absolutely dry, and that too without +borrowing a corner of that horrid Kaffir cottage. The next night found +us at Brugspruit, close to a colliery, where we stayed a considerable +while, and managed to house ourselves in comparative comfort, that +gradually became near akin to luxury. Here the junior officers +courteously assisted me to shovel up an earthen shelter, with a sheet +of corrugated iron for a roof, and thus protected I envied no +millionaire his marble halls, though my blankets were sometimes wet +with evening dew, and the ground white with morning frost. + +[Sidenote: _Obstructives on the Rail._] + +During the long halt of the Grenadiers at Brugspruit, the Scots Guards +remained at Balmoral, moving thence to Middelburg, and one of the +Coldstream battalions was detailed to guard the Oliphant River, +station, and bridge, which I crossed when on my way to Middelburg to +conduct a Sunday parade service there; but at the river station the +train tarried too brief a while and the battalion was too completely +hidden on the far side of a rough kopje to permit my gaining even a +passing glance of their camp. In South Africa full often the so-called +sheep and their appointed shepherd found themselves thus unwittingly +forbidden to see each others' face. + +A little later on we found the line in possession, not of the Boers, +but of a big drove of horses which seemed bent on proving that they +could outdo even the Boers themselves in the rapidity of their retreat +before an advancing foe. Mile after mile they galloped, but mile after +mile they kept to the track, just in front of our engine, which +whistled piercingly and let off steam as though in frantic anger. +Presently we slowed down almost to a walking pace, for we had no wish +to spill the blood or crush the bones of even obstructive horses. But +as we slowed our pace they provokingly slackened theirs, and when +once more we put on steam they did the same. So in sheer desperation +our guard dismounted and ran himself completely out of breath, while +he pelted the nearest of the drove with stones, and sought to scare it +with flourishes of his official cap. But that horse behaved like a +dull-headed ass, and cared no more for the waving of official caps +than for the wild screaming of our steam whistle. We were losing time +horribly fast because our pace was thus made so horribly slow. Finally +a pilot engine came down from Middelburg to ascertain what had become +of our long belated train, and this unlooked for movement from the +rear fortunately proved too much for the nerves of even such +determined obstructionists. It scared them as effectually as a +flanking movement scared the Boers. They broke in terror from the line +and, Boerlike, vanished. + +[Sidenote: _Middelburg and the Doppers._] + +Middelburg we found to be a thriving village, which will probably grow +into an important town when the mineral wealth of the district is in +due time developed. At present the principal building is as usual the +Dutch Reformed Church, the pastor of which had forsaken the female +portion of his flock to follow the fortunes of the fighting section. +There are also two good-sized Dopper churches, which habitually remain +void and empty all the year round, except on one Sunday in each +quarter, when the farmer folk come from near and far to hold a fair, +and to celebrate the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper--"The night meal," +as they appropriately call it. These are the four great events of +the Dopper year, and of this tiny city's business life. + +The Dopper is the ultra Boer of South Africa, the Puritan of Puritans, +the Covenanter of Covenanters, whose religious creed and conduct are +compacted of manifold rigidities, and who would deem it as +unpardonable a sin to shave off his beard, as it would have been for +an early Methodist preacher to wear one. Formerly Doppers and +Methodists both piously combed their hair over their foreheads, and +clipped it in a straight line just above the eyebrows. But alas! in +this as in many other directions, Methodists and Doppers have alike +become "subject to vanity." In these degenerate days "the fringe" has +flitted from the masculine to the feminine brow; and now that it is +"crinkled" no longer claims to be a badge of superior sanctity. In one +of these Dopper churches the Rev. W. Frost long conducted Wesleyan +services, the crowding troops having made our own church far too +small. + +The other, on the occasion of my first visit, was occupied by Canon +Knox Little, who there conducted the Anglican parade service, and +preached with great fervour from the very pulpit whence, some months +before, President Kruger had delivered a discourse presumably of a +decidedly different type. But the Wesleyan church immediately +adjoining the camping ground of the 2nd Coldstream battalion, which I +had the privilege that day of reopening, was at a later period used +for a brief while by the Roman Catholic chaplains. War is a strange +revolutionist if not always a reformer. + +[Sidenote: _August Bank Holiday._] + +The next day, which was August Bank Holiday, I returned in safety to +Brugspruit, but only to discover that in those parts even railway +travelling had become a thing of deadly peril. I there saw two trains +just arrived from Pretoria, the trucks filled with remount horses and +cavalry men on their way to join General French's force. The first +engine bore three bullet holes in its encasing water tank, holes which +the driver had hastily plugged with wood, so preventing the loss of +all his water and the fatal stoppage of the train. Several of the +trucks were riddled with bullet-holes, and in one I saw a dead horse, +shot, lying under the feet of its comrades; while in another truck, +splashed with great clots of blood, similarly lay yet another horse +almost dead. Several more were wounded but still remained upon their +feet, and still had before them a journey of many miles ere their +wounds could receive attention, or the living be severed from the +dead. For horses this has been a specially fagging and fatal war, and +for them there are no well-earned medals! + +The second engine bore kindred bullet holes in its water tank. A shot +had smashed the glass in the window of the break-van in which some +officers were travelling; and in one of the trucks I was shown a hole +in the thick timber made by a bullet, which, after passing through two +inches of wood, had pierced a lancer's breast and killed him, besides +shattering the wrist of yet another lancer. Those trains had just been +fired at by a mounted Boer patrol which had caught our men literally +napping. Most of them were lying fast asleep in the bottom of the +trucks, with their unloaded carbines beside or under them, so that +not a solitary reply shot was fired as the trains sped past the point +of peril. + +After repeated disasters of this kind had occurred, orders were issued +forbidding men to travel in such careless and unguarded fashion; while +all journeying that was not indispensible was peremptorily stopped! My +own contemplated visit to Pretoria next day was consequently postponed +till there came some more urgent call or some more convenient season. + +On this part of the line the troops had often to be their own stokers +and drivers, with the result that sniping Boers were not the only +peril a passenger had to fear. From Dalmanutha in those delightsome +days a train was due to start as usual with one engine behind and one +in front. The driver of the leading engine blew his whistle and opened +his regulator. The driver of the back engine did the same, but somehow +the train refused to move. It was supposed the breaks were on, but it +was presently discovered that the rear engine had reversed its gear, +and there had thus commenced a tug of war--the one engine pulling its +hardest against the other and neither winning a prize. In those days +railway life became rich in comedies and tragedies, especially the +latter, whereof let one further illustration of much later date, as +described by Mr Burgess, suffice:-- + +[Sidenote: _Blowing up trains._] + +At Heidelberg on Thursday, March 7th, at ten o'clock in the morning +there was a loud report as of a gun firing from one of the forts; but +it was soon known that it was an explosion of dynamite on the line +about a mile and a half from the railway station. The Boers had +evidently placed dynamite under the metals, and it is supposed that +while they were doing this, a number of them came down and engaged the +outposts, and that was the firing that was heard in the town. A flat +trolley with a European ganger and seven coolies and natives went over +the first mine without exploding it; but on reaching the second, about +a mile beyond, an explosion took place. The ganger after being blown +fifty feet, escaped most miraculously with only a few bruises. Sad to +relate three Indians were blown to pieces so as hardly to be +recognised, and two others were seriously hurt. Immediately after this +first explosion, a construction train left the Heidelberg railway +station, and exploded the mine which the trolley had failed to +explode; but fortunately very little damage was done as they had taken +the precaution to place a truck in front of the engine. The second +explosion occurred about a mile from the station and was plainly +visible to those standing on the platform. + +[Sidenote: _A peculiar Mothers' Meeting._] + +On setting out a second time from Brugspruit for Middleburg to conduct +the Sunday services there, I was astonished to find the train +consisted of about a dozen trucks, some open, some closed, but all +filled to overflowing with Dutch women and Dutch children of every +sort and size. Flags were fluttering from almost every truck, no khaki +man carrying arms was suffered to travel by that train, and when the +Roman Catholic chaplain and myself entered the break-van we seemed to +be taking charge of a gigantic Mothers' Meeting out for a holiday, +babies and all, or else to be escorting a big Sunday School to "Happy +Hampstead" for its annual treat. It was the second large consignment +of the sort which General Botha had consented to receive, and of which +we were anxious to be rid. They were some of the wives and offspring +of his fighting men, and were in most cases foodless, friendless, +dependent for their daily bread on British bounty. It was therefore +more fitting their own folk should feed them, as they were abundantly +able and willing to do. Moreover, among them were women who had acted +as spies, while others had hidden arms in their homes, so that to us +they had become a serious peril, as well as a serious expense. We were +consequently glad to be quit of them, and sincerely regretted that the +capture of Barberton later on made us again their custodians. + +[Sidenote: _Aggressive Ladies._] + +Our first parade service next morning was held in the Wesleyan church, +and was followed by open-air worship in the outlying encampment of the +Scots Guards. The evening voluntary service was delightfully hearty +and delightfully well attended. But most of the afternoon was spent at +the railway station waiting for and watching the arrival of yet +another train load of women and children on their way to realms +beyond! Seven-and-twenty truck loads presently reached Middelburg in +most defiant mood, for they waved their home-made Transvaal flags in +our faces; they had bedecked themselves with Transvaal ribbons and +Transvaal rosettes almost from head to foot. They shaded their faces +with parasols in which the four Transvaal colours were combined; and +they sang with every possible variety of discordancy Transvaal hymns, +especially the Transvaal national anthem. But unless these gentle +ladies can cook and stitch vastly better than they seemed able to +sing, their husbands and brothers are much to be pitied. + +Their patriotism was so pronounced and aggressive that they literally +spat at the soldiers, and assured them that no money of theirs would +ever suffice to purchase the paltriest flag they carried. The seeds of +ill-will and hate for all things British had been planted in the mind +and heart of almost every Boer child long before the war began, but +those seeds ripened rapidly, and the reaping bids fair to be +prolonged. + +[Sidenote: _A Dutch Deacon's Testimony._] + +Before this weary conflict came to a close, nearly every Boer family +was gathered in from the perils and privations of the war-wasted +veldt; and so, while nearly 30,000 burghers were detained as prisoners +of war at various points across the sea, their wives and children, to +the number of over 100,000, were tenderly cared for in English laagers +all along the line of rails or close to conveniently situated towns. +Slanderous statements have been made as to the treatment meted out to +these unfortunates, for which my visits revealed no warrant; but of +more value is the testimony of one of their own church officials, who +carefully inspected the women's refuge camp at Port Elizabeth, and +reported the result to the local Intelligence Department. This deacon +of the Dutch Reformed Church, Mr T. J. Ferreira, says:-- + + I came down here on hearing of the reports at Steytlerville of + the bad treatment the women exiles are receiving from the + military. I was determined to find out the truth, and publish + same in the Dutch and English papers. I stayed in the camp all + day, and dined with the exiles. The food was excellent--I had + roast lamb, soup, potatoes, bread, coffee, and biscuits. All was + well cooked and perfectly satisfactory; the soup and meat were + especially well cooked. The women and children are happy, have no + complaints, and are quite content to stay where they are until + they can return to their homes. I shall return to Steytlerville + and let everybody know how humane the treatment is. The statement + that the women were ragged and barefooted and had to bathe within + sight of the military is a shameful falsehood. + +[Sidenote: _A German Officer's Testimony._] + +On August the 24th General Pole Carew with the Guards' Brigade +occupied Belfast, and a few days later Roberts and Buller combined to +drive Botha from the last position along the Delagoa Line that he made +any serious attempt to defend; and among those taken prisoners by us +at Dalmanutha was a German officer, who in due time was sent to +Ceylon, and there acquired enough knowledge of English to express in +it his views concerning the Boers he served, and the British he +opposed. He says among other things that he was wounded five times and +received no pay for all his pains. He declares concerning the Boers +that "they often ran away from commando and kept quiet, and said to +the English that they would not fight any more; but when the district +was pacified they took up arms again and looted. They don't know +anything about word of honour or oath. They put white flags upon their +houses, and fired in the neighbourhood of them. The English were far +too lenient at the beginning, and therefore they are now at the +opposite extreme. + +"You should have seen the flourishing Natal, how it was laid waste by +the Boers. This looting instinct in them is far stronger than the +fighting one. There were also lots of Boers who were praying the whole +day instead of fighting; and their officers were perhaps the best +prayers and preachers, but certainly the worst fighters; whereas I +must confess that the English, although they were headed by very bad +generals, very often behaved like good soldiers and finally defeated +the greatest difficulties. + +"The English infantry is splendidly brave and rather skilful; they are +good shots too. Tommy Atkins is a wonderful, merry, good-hearted chap, +always full of fun and good spirits, and he behaves very kind towards +the prisoners. + +"When I was captured, an English colonel who was rather haughty, asked +me which English general I thought the best; whereupon I instantly +answered 'Tommy Atkins!'" + +That clever German critic merely put an old long ago discovered truth +in new form! "If I blundered," said Wellington, "I could always rely +on my soldiers to pull me through." General Pole Carew when, near the +close of the war, he was presented with a sword of honour by my native +city, Truro, repeated the remark of a distinguished continental +soldier attached to his division, who said after seeing British +soldiers marching bootless and fighting foodless, he placed the +British army "foremost among European armies." So say they all! The +German prisoner in Ceylon spoke words of truth and soberness when he +said our private soldier is in some respects our best general. + +General Tommy Atkins I salute you! You are a credit to your country! + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THROUGH HELVETIA + + +[Sidenote: _The fighting near Belfast._] + +On August 24th the tiny little town of Belfast was reached by General +Pole Carew's division, including the Guards' Brigade; but though our +advent was unopposed, there was heavy fighting on our right, where +General Buller, newly arrived from Natal, had the day before +approached the immensely strong Boer position at Bergendal. There the +Johannesburg police, the most valorous of all the burgher forces, made +their last heroic stand three days later, and were so completely wiped +out, that Kruger is reported to have been moved to tears when the +tidings reached him. It was the last stand the Boer still had nerve +enough to make, and after Belfast their continuous retreat quickened +into almost a rout. It was on Sunday, the 26th, the Guards moved out +to take part in the general assault, and waited for hours behind the +shelter of Monument Hill while General French developed his flanking +movement on the left. Boer bullets fell freely among us while thus +tarrying, and compelled our field hospital to retire further down the +slope to a position of comparative safety. Late that afternoon the +Guards marched over the brow to face what bade fair to be another +serious Sunday battle, yet without any slightest sign of flinching. +"How dear is life to all men," said dying Nelson. It may be so; but +these men and their officers from first to last, when duty called, +seemed never to count their lives dear unto them. A few casualties, +caused by chance bullets, occurred among them before the day closed, +but scarcely so much as a solitary Boer was seen by the clearest +sighted of them. Once again outflanked, "the brother" once again had +fled, and in the deepening darkness we groped our way to our next +camping ground. + +In our Napoleonic wars the favourite command alike on land and sea +was, "Engage the enemy more closely." Each fleet or army kept well in +sight of its antagonist, and the fighting was often at such close +quarters that musket muzzle touched musket muzzle; but at Belfast Lord +Roberts' front was thirty miles in width, and our generals could only +guess where their foemen hid by watching for the fire-flash of their +long range guns. In offensive warfare the visible contends with the +invisible, and it is good generalship that conquers it. At Albuera +Soult asserted there was no beating British troops in spite of their +generals. But Lord Roberts' generalship seems never to have been at +fault, however remote the foe, and thanks thereto Belfast proved to be +about the last big fight of the whole campaign. + +[Sidenote: _Feeding under fire._] + +Early next morning we were vigorously shelled by the still defiant +Boers, but from the, for them, fairly safe distance of nearly five +miles. Just as the Grenadier officers had finished their breakfast and +retired a few yards further afield to get just beyond the reach of +those impressive salutations, a shell plumped down precisely where we +had been sitting. It made its mark, though fortunately only on the +bare bosom of mother earth; but later on in the same day, while we +were finishing lunch, another shrapnel burst, almost over our heads, +so badly injured a doctor's horse tethered close by that it had to be +killed, and compelled another somewhat rapid retirement on our part to +the far side of a neighbouring bog. In war time all our feasts are +movable! + +[Sidenote: _A German Doctor's Confession._] + +Before leaving Belfast I called on a German doctor who had been in +charge of a Boer military hospital planted in that hamlet, and who +told me that for twelve months he had been in the compulsory employ of +the Transvaal Government. Commandeered at Johannesburg, he had +accompanied the burghers from place to place till he had grown utterly +sick of the whole business; and all the more because he had received +no payment for his services except in promissory notes--which were +worthless. He also stated that over three hundred foreigners had been +landed at Delagoa Bay as ambulance men, wearing the red cross armlet; +as such they had proceeded to Pretoria for enrolment, and there he had +seen every man of them strip off the red cross, shouldering instead +the bandolier and rifle. Thus were fighting men and mercenaries +smuggled through Portuguese territory to the Boer fighting lines; and +in this as in many other ways was that red cross abused. He wastes his +time who tries to teach the Boers some new trick. In this war they +have amply proved that in that matter they have nought to learn, +except the unwisdom of it all, and the sureness of the retribution it +involves. Even in battle and battle times clean hands are best. + +[Sidenote: _Friends in need are friends indeed._] + +On leaving the neighbourhood of Belfast we soon found ourselves +marching through Helvetia, the Switzerland of South Africa, a region +of insurmountable precipices and deep defiles, where scarcely any +foliage was found, and in that winter season no verdure. There rose in +all directions towering hills, which sometimes bore upon their brow a +touch of real majesty; and when crowned, as we saw them, with fleecy +mist, resembled not remotely the snow-clad Alps. Indeed, during that +whole week the toils and travels of the Guards brought to the mind of +many the familiar story of Hannibal and his vast army crossing the +Alps; only the Carthaginian general had no heavy guns and long lines +of ammunition waggons to add to his already enormous difficulties; his +men had little to carry on their broad backs compared with what a +modern Guardsman has to shoulder; nor did Hannibal take with him a +small army corps of newspaper correspondents to chronicle all the +petty disasters and delays met with by the way. Few commanders-in-chief +are lovers of correspondents, whether of the professional or of the +private type. Tell-tale tongues and pens may perchance do more +mischief than machine guns and mausers! + +At the latter end of the week our men had to climb over what seemed to +be the backbone of that terrific region, with results almost +disastrous to our long train of transport waggons. Botha, whose +retreat towards Lydenberg our flanking movement had apparently +prevented, we failed to find; so after fighting a mild rear-guard +action, we scarce knew with whom, we encamped that night for the first +and last time side by side with Buller's column. + +The major part, however, of the Grenadier battalion remained till next +morning far away in the rear to guard our huge convoy while climbing +up and climbing down the perilous ridge just referred to, with the +result that some of us forming the advanced party found ourselves +without food or shelter. Yet the soldierly courtesy which has so often +hastened to my help during this campaign did not fail in this new hour +of need. A sergeant-major of the bearer company most graciously lent +me his own overcoat, the night being bitterly cold; the officers of +the Scots Guards not only invited me to dine with them, but one of +them supplied me with a rug, whilst another pressed on me the loan of +his mackintosh "to keep off the dew," and thus enwrapped I lay once +more on the bare ground, well sheltered behind a sheet of corrugated +iron, which I fortunately found stuck on end as though put there by +some unknown Boer benefactor for my special benefit. In fashion thus +lordly were all my wants continually supplied. The wild wind that +night blew away a second sheet of iron that another young officer, +with almost filial thoughtfulness, placed over me after I had gone to +rest, but the original sheet maintained its perpendicular position, +and by its welcome protection supplied me with a fresh illustration of +the familiar saying, "He stayeth His rough wind in the day of His east +wind." + +[Sidenote: _An Invisible Sniper's Triumph._] + +Thus toiling we reached at last a plateau about 5000 feet above sea +level, from which we looked down into the famous Waterfall Gorge, a +sheer descent of 1000 feet. Down into it there drops from Waterval +Boven the cogwheel section of the Delagoa Bay Railway, and in it there +nestles a Swiss-like village, with hotel and hospital and railway +workshops. As at Abraham's Kraal we captured the President's silk hat +but let the President's head escape, so here we captured the +President's professional cook, but the day before we arrived the +President's private railway car,--his ever-shifting capital,--had +eluded our pursuit, together with the President himself and the golden +capital, in the shape of abounding coin he carried with him. The +tidings proved to us a feast of Tantallus, so near and yet so far! How +our men sighed for a sight of that car, and for the fingering of that +coin! "At last I have him," said the exulting French General Soult of +Wellington, at the battle of St Pierre, but his exultation proved +distressingly premature. So did ours! Car and capital vanished just in +the nick of time through that Waterfall Gorge, and to this day have +never been disgorged. + +From even descending into that gorge the whole brigade of Guards was +held back for four-and-twenty hours by a solitary invisible sniper, +hidden, no one could find out where, in some secure crevice of the +opposite cliff. One of our mounted officers riding down to take +possession of the village was seriously wounded; and some of the +scouts already there were compelled through the same course to keep +under close shelter. So the naval guns, the field guns, and the +pom-poms were each in turn called to the rescue, and gaily rained shot +and shell for hours on every hump and hollow of that opposite cliff, +but all in vain; for after each thunderous discharge on our side, +there came a responsive "ping" from the valiant mauser-man on the +other side. Then the whole battalion of Scots Guards was invited to +fire volley after volley in the same delightfully vague fashion, till +it seemed as though no pin point or pimple on the far side of the +gorge could possibly have failed to receive its own particular bullet; +but + + "What gave rise to no little surprise, + Nobody seemed one farthing the worse!" + +Just as the sun set the last sound we heard was the parting "ping" of +Brother Invisible. So no man might descend into the depths that night, +hotel or no hotel! Even at midnight we were startled out of our sleep +by the quite unexpected boom of our big guns, which had, of course +during daylight, been trained on a farmhouse lying far back from the +precipice opposite to us, and were thus fired in the dead of night +under the impression that the sniper, and perhaps his friends, were +peacefully slumbering there. If so, the chances are he sniped no more. +Next day at noon we began to clamber down to the level of the railway +line, and found ourselves in undisturbed possession, after so +prolonged and costly a bombardment called forth by a single, stubborn +mauser. + +[Sidenote: _"He sets the mournful prisoners free."_] + +Meanwhile the eighteen hundred English prisoners who had so long been +kept in durance vile at Nooitgedacht, the next station on the rail to +Portuguese Africa, received their unconditional release, with the +exception of a few officers, still retained as hostages; and all the +afternoon, indeed far on into the night, these men came straggling, +now in small groups and now in large, into our expectant and excited +camp. They told us of the crowds of disconsolate Boers, some by road, +some by rail, who had passed their prison enclosure in precipitate +retreat, bearing waggon loads of killed or wounded with them. Among +them were men of almost all nationalities, including a few surviving +members of the late Johannesburg police, who declared that during that +one week they had lost no less than one hundred and fifteen of their +own special comrades. + +The prisoners also informed us that the Boer officer who dismissed +them expressed the belief that in a few days more Boer and Briton +would again be friends--an expectation we were slow to share, however +eager we might be to see this miracle of miracles actually wrought. In +the very midst of the battle of the Baltic, Nelson sent a letter to +the Danish Prince Regent, with whom he was then fighting, and +addressed it thus: "To the Danes, the Brothers of Englishmen." Within +little more than half a century from that date the daughter of the +Danish throne became heir to the Queenship of England's throne; and +our Laureate rightly voiced the whole nation's feeling when to that +fair bride he said: + + "We are each all Dane in our welcome of thee." + +When Nelson penned that strange address amid the flash and fire of +actual battle, it was with the true insight of a seer. The furious +foes of his day are the fast friends of ours, and by the end of +another half-century a similar transformation may be wrought in the +present relationship between Boer and Briton, who are quite as near +akin as Dane and Englishman. But to lightly talk of such foes becoming +friends "in a few days" is to misread the meaning and measure of a +controversy that is more than a century old. Between victors and +vanquished, both of so dogged a type, it requires more than a mere +treaty of peace to beget goodwill. + +[Sidenote: _More Boer Slimness._] + +Some of these now released prisoners were among the very first to be +captured, and so had spent many weary weeks in the Waterval Prison +near Pretoria, and were among those who had been decoyed away to these +remote and seemingly unassailable mountain fastnesses. They had thus +been in bonds altogether ten interminable months. Multiplied hardships +had during that period necessarily been theirs, and others for which +there was no real need or excuse; but they frankly confessed that as a +whole their treatment by the Boers, though leaving much to be desired, +had seldom been hard or vindictive. + +There were others of these prisoners, however, who were sick or +wounded, and therefore were quite unable to climb from the open door +of their prison to our lofty camp; so to fetch these I saw seven +ambulance waggons made ready to set out with the usual complement of +medical orderlies and doctors. These I seriously thought of +accompanying on their errand of mercy, but was mercifully hindered. +Those red cross waggons we saw no more for ever. The Boers were said +to be short of waggons, and asserted that in some way some of our men +had done them recent wrong which they wished to avenge. But whatever +the supposed provocation or pretext, it was in violation of all the +recognised usages of war that those waggons were captured and kept. It +was no less an outrage to make prisoners of doctors and orderlies +arriving on such an errand. No protests on their part or pleadings for +speedy return to duty prevailed. They were compelled to accompany or +precede the Boers in their flight to Delagoa Bay, from thence were +shipped to Durban, and after long delay rejoined the Brigade on its +return to Pretoria. For such high-handed proceedings the Transvaal +Government clearly cannot be held responsible, for at that time it had +ceased to exist, and more than ever the head of each commando had +become a law unto himself. It would be false to say that a fine sense +of honour did not anywhere exist in the now defunct Republic, but it +is perfectly fair to assert that on the warpath our troops were +compelled to tread it was not often found. Yet in every department of +life he that contendeth for the mastery is never permanently crowned +unless he contend lawfully. + +[Sidenote: _A Boer Hospital._] + +The prettily situated and well appointed hospital at Waterval Onder +was originally erected for the use of men employed on the railway, but +for months prior to the arrival of the British troops had been in +possession of the Boer Government, and was full of sick and wounded +burghers, with whom I had many an interesting chat and by whom I was +assured that though we might think it strange they still had hope of +ultimate success. Among the rest was a German baron, well trained of +course, as all Germans are, for war, who on the outbreak of +hostilities had consented at Johannesburg to be commandeered, burgher +or no burgher, to fight the battles of the Boers, in the justice of +whose cause he avowed himself a firm believer. He therefore became an +artillery officer in the service of the Transvaal, and while so +employed had been badly hit by the British artillery, with the result +that his right arm was blown off, his left arm horribly shattered, and +two shrapnel bullets planted in his breast. Yet seldom has extreme +suffering been borne in more heroic fashion than by him, and he +actually told me, in tones of admiration, that the British artillery +practice was really "beautiful." On such a point he should surely be a +competent judge seeing that he was himself a professor of the art, and +had long stood not behind but in front of our guns, which is precisely +where all critics ought to be planted. Their criticisms would then be +something worth. + +[Sidenote: _Foreign Mercenaries._] + +The baron's case was typical of thousands more. Men from all the nations +of Europe, and therefore all trained to arms, had been encouraged to +settle in various civil employments under the Transvaal Government long +before the war began--on the railway, at the dynamite works, in the +mines; and so were all ready for the rifle the moment the rifle was +ready for them. At once they formed themselves into vigorous commandoes, +according to their various nationalities,--Scandinavian, Hollander, +French, and German. Even after the war began these foreign commandoes +were largely recruited from Europe; French and German steamers landed +parties of volunteers for the burgher forces nearly every week at +Lorenço Marques. The French steamer _Gironde_ brought an unusually large +contingent, a motley crowd, including, so it is said, a large proportion +of suspicious looking characters. But the most notorious and mischievous +of all these queer contingents was "The Irish American Brigade." As far +back as the day of Marlborough and Blenheim there was an Irish Brigade +assisting the French to fight against the English, and with such fiery +courage that King George cursed the abominable laws which had robbed him +of such excellent fighting material. But at the same time there was +about them so much of reckless folly that their departure from the +Emerald Isle was laughingly hailed as "The flight of the wild geese." +New broods of these same wild geese found their way to the Transvaal, +and there made for themselves a name, not as resistless fighters, but as +irrestrainable looters. These men linked to the bywoners, or squatters, +the penniless Dutch of South Africa, did little to help the cause they +espoused, but many a time have caused every honest God-fearing burgher +to blush by reason of their irrepressible lawlessness. + +[Sidenote: _A wounded Australian._] + +Among the British patients in this hospital was a magnificent young +Australian, who it was feared had been mortally wounded in a small +scrimmage round a farmhouse not far away, but who apparently began +decidedly to mend from the time the general came to his bedside to say +he should be recommended for the distinguished service medal. "That +has done me more good than medicine," said he to me a few minutes +after. Nevertheless, when ten days later we returned from Koomati +Poort, he lay asleep in the little Waterval Cemetery, alas, like +Milton's Lycidas, "dead ere his prime." + +These Australians being all mounted men, and of an exceptionally +fearless type, have suffered in a very marked degree, in just such +outpost affairs, by the arts and horrors of sniping. Sportsmen hide +from the game they hunt, and bide their time to snipe it. It is in +that school the Boer has been trained in his long warfare with savage +men and savage beasts. A bayonet at the end of his rifle is to him of +no use. He seldom comes to close quarters with hunted men or beasts +till the life is well out of them; and so in this war he has shown +himself a not too scrupulous sportsman, rather than a soldier, to the +undoing of many a scout; and in this fashion, as well as by white flag +treachery, the adventurous Australians have distressingly often been +victimised. At Manana, four miles east of Lichtenberg, one of their +officers, Lieutenant White, was thus treacherously shot while going to +answer the white flag displayed by the Boers. He was the pet of the +Bushmen's Corps, and concerning him his own men said, "We all loved +him, and will avenge him." So round his open grave his comrades +solemnly joined hands and pledged themselves never again to recognise +the waving of a Boer white flag. My assistant chaplain, with the +Bushmen, himself an Australian, emphatically declared that as in the +beginning so was it to the end; his men were killed not in fair fight +but by murderous sniping. He was with them when Pietersburg was +surrendered without a fight, but when they marched through to take +possession they were resolutely shot at with explosive bullets from a +barricaded house in the centre of the town, till the angry Bushmen +broke open the door, and then the sniper sniped no more. On reaching +the northern outskirts they again found themselves sniped, they knew +not from whence. Several horses were wounded, a trooper was killed on +the spot; so was Lieutenant Walters; and Captain Sayles was so badly +hit he died two days afterwards. Yet no fighting was going on. The +town was undefended, and the Boers in full retreat. This sniper was at +last discovered hiding almost close at hand in a big patch of tall +African grass. He turned out to be a Hollander schoolmaster, who, +finding himself surrounded, sprang upon his knees, threw up his arms +and laughingly cried, "All right, khakis, I surrender!" But that was +his last laugh; and he lies asleep to-day in the same cemetery as his +three victims. + +That cemetery soon after I saw; and in the adjoining camp messed with +a group of irregular officers, some of whom ultimately yielded to this +spirit of lawless avenging, but were, in consequence, sternly +court-marshalled, and suffered the extreme penalty of the law. It is, +however, the only case of the kind that has come to my knowledge +during thirty months of provocative strife. + +[Sidenote: _Hotel Life on the Trek._] + +Close to the railway station at Waterval Onder was a comfortable +little hotel, kept by a French proprietor, whose French cook had +deserted him, and who would not therefore undertake to cater for the +Grenadier officers, though he courteously placed his dining-room at +their disposal, with all that appertained thereto; and sold to them +almost his entire stock of drinkables, probably at fancy prices. The +men of the Norfolk Regiment are to this day called "Holy Boys" because +their forbears in the Peninsular War, so it is said, gave their Bibles +for a glass of wine; but the Norfolks are not the only lovers of +high-class liquor the army contains, though army Bibles will not now +suffice to buy it. British officers on the trek, however, not only +know how to appreciate exquisitely any appropriate home comforts, when +for a brief while procurable, but also how to surrender them +unmurmuringly at a moment's notice when duty so requires. We had been +in possession of our well-appointed hotel table only two days when a +sudden order sent us all trekking once again. + +It is worth noting that this French hotelkeeper and the German baron +in the adjoining hospital had both fought, though of course on +opposite sides, in the great Franco-Prussian war of thirty years ago, +and now they found themselves overwhelmed by another great war wave +in one of the remotest and seemingly most inaccessible fastnesses of +South Central Africa. In this new war between Boer and Briton the +German lost a limb, if not his life, and the Frenchman a large part of +his fortune. So intimately are men of all nationalities now bound in +the same bundle of life! + +[Sidenote: _A Sheep-pen of a Prison._] + +On Monday afternoon we marched to Nooitgedacht, where the prisoners +already referred to had been confined like sheep in a pen for many a +weary week. That pen was made by a double-barbed wire fence; the inner +fence consisting of ten strands of wire, about eight inches apart, and +the outer fence of five strands, with sundry added entanglements; and +a series of powerful electric lights was specially provided to watch +and protect the whole vast area thus enclosed. It gave me a violent +spasm of heart sickness as I thought of English officers and men by +hundreds being thus ignominiously hemmed in and worse sheltered than +convicts. They had latterly been allowed to erect for themselves +grotesquely rough hovels or hutches, many of which they set on fire +when suddenly permitted to escape, so that as I found it the whole +place looked indescribably dirty and desolate. + +Even the shelters provided for the officers, and the hospital hastily +erected for the sick, were scarcely fit to stable horses in, and were +by official decree doomed to be given to the flames as the surest way +of getting rid of the vermin and other vilenesses, of which they +contained so rich a store. Here I found huge medicine bottles, never +made for the purpose, on which the names of sundry of our sick +officers remained written, to wit: "Lieut. Mowbray, one tablespoonful +four times a day. 3. VIII. 1900." In one of these bunks I found a +packet of religious leaflets, one of which contained Hart's familiar +hymn:-- + + Come ye weary, heavy laden, + Lost and ruined by the fall; + If you tarry till you are better, + You will never come at all. + Not the righteous, + Sinners, Jesus came to call. + +Although, therefore, religious services were never held in that prison +pen, the men were not left absolutely without religious counsel and +consolation. I was unfeignedly glad thus to find in that horrible +place medicine for the soul as well as physic for the body, and some +of those leaflets I brought away; but the physic I thought it safest +not to sample. + +Over this unique combination of prison house and hospital there +floated a very roughly-made and utterly tattered red cross flag, which +now serves as a memento of one of the most humiliating sights it ever +fell to my lot to witness, and I could not help picturing to myself +the overpowering heartache those prisoners must have felt as hour +after hour they were hurried farther and yet farther still through +deep defiles and vast mountain fastnesses into a region where it must +have seemed as though hope or help could never reach them. But "men, +not mountains, determine the fate of nations"; and to-day, through +the mercy of our God, that pestilential pen is no longer any +Englishman's prison. + +[Sidenote: _Pretty scenery, and superb._] + +Our next halting place was at Godwand River, still on the Delagoa +line, and here we found a wee bit of river scenery almost rivalling +the beauty of the stream that has given to Lynmouth its world-wide +fame. At this little frequented place two rivers meet, which even in +the driest part of the dry season are still real rivers, and would +both make superb trout streams, if once properly stocked, as many a +river at home has been. + +But just a little farther on we found scenery immeasurably more grand +than anything we had ever seen before. The Dutch name of this +astounding place is Kaapsche Hoop, which seems reminiscent of "The +Cape of Good Hope," though it lies prodigiously far from any sea. It +apparently owes its sanguine name to the fact that hereabouts the +earliest discoveries of gold in the Transvaal were made. But it is +also popularly called "The Devil's Kantoor," just as in the Valley of +Rocks at Lynton we have "The Devil's Cheesering," and other +possessions of the same sable owner. This African marvel is, however, +much more than a mere valley of rocks, and it bids absolute defiance +to my ripest descriptive powers. It is a vast area covered with rocks +so grotesquely shaped and utterly fantastic as would have satisfied +the artistic taste, and would have yielded fresh inspiration to the +soul of a Gustave Doré. The rocks are evidently all igneous and +volcanic, but often stand apart in separate columns, and sometimes +bear a striking resemblance to enormous beasts or images that might +once have served for Oriental idols. + +Indeed, looked at by the bewitching but deceptive light of the moon, +the whole place lends itself supremely well to every man's individual +fancy, and even my unimaginative mind could easily have brought itself +to see here a once majestic antediluvian city with its palaces and +temples, but now wrecked and ruined by manifold upheavals of nature, +and worn into rarest mockeries of its ancient splendours by the wild +storms of many a millennium. + +What I did certainly see, however, among those rocks were sundry +roughly constructed shelters for snipers, who were therefrom to have +picked off our men and horses as they crossed the adjacent drift. +Terrible havoc might have been wrought in the ranks of the Guards' +Brigade, without apparently the loss of a single Transvaaler's life, +but there is no citadel under the sun the Boers just then had heart +enough to hold. + +Immediately adjoining this unique city of rocks is a stupendous cliff +from which, our best travelled officers say, the finest panoramic view +in the whole world is obtained. The cliff drops almost straight down +twelve or fifteen hundred feet, and at its base huge baboons could be +seen sporting, quite heedless of an onlooking army. Straight across +what looked like an almost level plain, which, nevertheless, was +seamed by many a deep defile and scarred by the unfruitful toil of +many a gold-seeker, lay another great range of hills, with range +rising beyond range, but with the town of Barberton, which I visited +twenty months later, lying like a tiny white patch at the foot of the +nearest range, some twenty miles away. To the right this plateau +looked as though the tempestuous waves of the Atlantic had broken in +at that end with overwhelming force, and then had been suddenly +arrested and petrified while wave still battled with wave. It is such +a view of far-reaching grandeur as I may never hope to see again, even +were I to roam the wide world round; and could Kaapsche Hoop, with its +absolutely fascinating attractiveness, be transplanted to, say +Greenwich Park, any enterprising vendor of tea and shrimps who managed +to secure a vested interest in the same, might reasonably hope to make +such a fortune out of it as even a Rothschild need not despise. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WAR'S WANTON WASTE + + +Day after day we steadily worked our way _down_ to Koomati Poort, even +when climbing such terrific hills that we sometimes seemed like men +toiling to the top of a seven-storied house in order to reach the +cellar. Hence Monday morning found us still seemingly close to "The +Devil's Kantoor," which we had reached on the previous Saturday, +though meanwhile we had tramped up and down and in and out, till we +could travel no farther, all day on Sunday. + +[Sidenote: _A Surrendered Boer General._] + +During that Sunday tramp there crossed into our lines General +Schoeman, driving in a Cape cart drawn by four mules, on his way to +Pretoria _via_ the Godwand River railway station. Months before he had +joined in formally handing over Pretoria to the British, and had been +allowed to return to his farm on taking the oath of neutrality. That +oath he had refused to break, so he was made a prisoner by his brother +Boers. It was in Barberton gaol General French found him and once more +set him free. Such a man deemed himself safer in the hands of his foes +than of his friends, so was hasting not to his farm but to far-off +Pretoria. This favourite commandant was by the Boers called "King +David," and not only in the authoritativeness of his tone, but also +in the sharp diversities of his martial experiences, bore some not +remote resemblance to his ancient namesake. + +Far as either of us then was from foreseeing it, the general's path +and mine, though just now so divergent, were destined to meet once +more. Within a year in Pretoria on the following Whit-Sunday I was +sitting in the house of a friend, and was startled, as all present +were, by the firing, as we all supposed, of one of our huge 4.7 guns. +Later in the day we learned it was the bursting of a 4.7 shell, nearly +two miles away from where we heard the dread explosion. That +particular British shell happened to be the first that had long ago +been fired in the fight near Colesberg, and as it had fallen close to +the general's tent without bursting, he brought it away to keep as a +curio, and on that particular Sunday, so it is said, was showing it to +a Boer friend, and explaining that the new explosive now used by the +English is perfectly harmless when properly handled. + +His demonstration, however, proved tragically inconclusive. Precisely +what happened there is now no one left alive to tell. As in a moment +the part of the house in which the experimenters sat was wrecked, and +as I next day noted, some neighbouring houses were sorely damaged. The +general was blown almost to pieces; one of his daughters who was +sitting at the piano was fatally hurt. On the day of the general's +funeral the general's friend died from the effect of the injuries +received, and three other members of that family circle barely escaped +with their lives. + +On my first Whit-Tuesday in South Africa I marched with the triumphant +Guards into Pretoria. On this second Whit-Tuesday I stood reverently +beside the new-made grave of this famous Pretorian general, who had +proved himself to be one of the best of the Boers, one of the few +concerning whom it is commonly believed that his word was as good as +his bond; and thus all strangely a shot ineffectually fired from one +of our guns in Cape Colony, claimed eighteen months afterwards this +whole group of victims in far-off Pretoria. Thus in the home of peace +were so tragically let loose the horrors and havoc of war! + +This general's case aptly illustrates one of the most debatable of all +points in the conduct of this doubly lamentable struggle. Whilst those +who were far away from the scene of operations denounced what they +deemed the wanton barbarities of the British, those on the spot +denounced almost as warmly what they deemed the foolish and cruel +clemency by which the war was so needlessly prolonged. These local +complainers asserted that if every surrendered burgher had been +compelled to bring in not a rusty sporting rifle, but a good mauser, a +good supply of cartridges and a good horse, the Boers would much +sooner have reached the end of their resources. That saying is true. +Our chiefs assumed they were dealing with only honourable men, and so +in this matter let themselves be sorely befooled. Some who surrendered +to them one week, were busy shooting at them the next, with rifles +that had been buried instead of being given up; and among those who +thus proved false to their plighted troth were, alas, ministers of +the Dutch Reformed Church. + +[Sidenote: _Two Unworthy Predikants._] + +When near the close of the war I paid a visit to Klerksdorp I was +informed by absolutely reliable witnesses that one of the predikants +of that neighbourhood had not been required to take an oath because of +his sacred calling, and his simple word of honour was accepted. Yet at +the time of my visit he was out on commando, harassing with his rifle +the very village in which his own wife was still residing under our +protection. Next day at Potchetstroom eye-witnesses told me that one +of Cronje's chaplains, whom long ago we had set at liberty, soon after +seized bandolier and rifle in defiance of all honour, and so a second +time became a prisoner. "Straying shepherds, straying sheep!" When +pastors thus proved unprincipled, their people might well hold +perverted views as to what honour means and oaths involve. + +It is further maintained by these protesters against excessive +clemency that all surrendered burghers should have been placed in +laagers, or sent to the coast on parole, where they could not have +been compelled or tempted to take up arms again; but it was this +express promise that they should return to their farms there +personally to protect families and flocks and furniture, that induced +them to come in. They would never have surrendered to be sent far +afield, but would have remained in the fighting line to the finish. +All was not gained that was hoped for by this generous policy, but it +was not such an utter failure as some suppose; and it at least served +to pacify public opinion. The experiment of dealing gently with +surrendered foemen was fairly tried, and if in part it failed the +fault was not ours! + +At the latter end, when guerilla warfare became the order of the day, +and the only end aimed at was not fighting, but the mere securing or +destruction of food supplies, it became necessary to sweep the veldt +as with a broom, and to bring within the British lines everybody still +left and everybody's belongings; but even then it was a gigantic task, +involving much wrecking of what could not be removed; and in the +earlier stages of the war such a sweep, if not actually enormously +beyond the strength available for it, would certainly have involved +many a fatal delay in the progress of the troops. + +[Sidenote: _Two notable Advocates of Clemency._] + +This championship of clemency is no new thing in the war annals of our +island home, and Lord Roberts, in his insistence on it, did but tread +in the steps of the very mightiest of his predecessors. Wellington +during the Peninsular wars actually dismissed from his service and +sent back in disgrace to Spain 25,000 sorely-needed Spanish soldiers, +simply because he could not restrain their wayside barbarities. He +recognised that a policy which outrages humanity, in the long run +means disaster; and frankly confessed concerning his troops, that if +they plundered they would ruin all. In a precisely similar vein is +Nelson's last prayer, which constitutes the last entry but one in his +diary:--"May the great God, whom I worship, grant to my country ... a +glorious victory. May no misconduct in anyone tarnish it, and may +humanity after victory be the predominant feature in the British +fleet." + +It was in the spirit of Nelson's prayer and Wellington's precept that +Lord Roberts strove to conduct his South African operations. With what +success let all the world bear witness! + +[Sidenote: _Mines without Men, and Men without Meat._] + +From "The three Sisters," which we reached on our Sabbathless Sunday, +we tramped all day on Monday till we reached a tributary of the +Crocodile River close to the Noordkaap railway station, about seven +miles out from Barberton, which we were not then privileged to visit. +Near this place we found the famous Sheba gold mine, its costly +machinery for the present lying idle, and its cottages deserted at the +stern bidding of intruding war--that most potent disturber of the +industries of peace. Here from the loftiest mountain peaks were +cables, with cages attached, sloping down to the gold-crushing house; +and across the river, in which, crocodiles or no crocodiles, we +enjoyed a delicious bathe, there was a similar steel rope suspended as +the only possible though perilous way of getting across when the river +is in flood. In this as in all other respects, however, a gracious +Providence seemed to watch over us for good, seeing that not once +during all the eleven months we had been in the country had we found a +single river so full as to be unfordable. Moreover, though now +tramping through a notorious fever country, the long overdue rain and +fever alike lingered in their pursuit of us and overtook us not, so +that up to that time not a solitary case of enteric occurred in all +our camp. The incessant use of one's heels seems to be the best +preservative of health, for it is only among sedentary troops that +sickness of any sort really runs riot. + +The rations, however, have often been of the short measure type in +consequence of the prodigious difficulty of transport over roads that +are merely unfrequented tracks, and the utter wearisomeness of such +day after day tramps on almost empty stomachs has been so pronounced +that the men often laughingly avowed they would prefer fourth class by +train to even first class on foot. When they occasionally marched and +climbed in almost gloomy silence I sometimes advised them to try the +effect on their pedestrian powers of a lively song, and playfully +suggested this new version of an old-time melody-- + + Cheer, boys, cheer, + No more of idle sorrow; + Cheer, boys, cheer, + _There'll be another march to-morrow_. + +But though they readily recognised the appropriateness of the +sentiment, they frankly confessed it was impossible to sing on +three-quarters of a pound of uncooked flour in place of a full day's +rations, which indeed it was. Next day these much-tried men had to +wade three times through the river, mostly with their boots and +putties on, so that though short of bread and biscuit they were well +supplied with "dampers," unfortunately of a sort that soaked but never +satisfied. + +[Sidenote: _Much fat in the fire._] + +After passing "Joe's Luck," where for us "there was no luck about the +house, there was no luck at all," the Guards reached Avoca, another +station on the Barberton branch; and here we found not only a fine +railway bridge destroyed with dynamite, but also the railway sheds, +recently crammed full with government stores, mostly provisions, now +ruthlessly given to the flames and absolutely destroyed. Thousands of +tins of condensed milk had flown like bombs in all directions, and +like bombs had burst, when the intense heat had turned the confined +milk to steam. Butter by the ton had ignominiously ended its days by +merely adding so much more fat to the fire. All good things here, +laboriously treasured for the benefit of the Transvaal troops, were +consumed in quite another fashion from that intended. Even accumulated +locomotives to the number of about fifty had been in some cases +elaborately mutilated, or caught, and twisted out of all utility, by +the devouring flames. So wanton is the waste war begets. The torch has +played a comparatively small part in this contest; but it is food +supplies that have suffered most from its ravages, and the Boers, with +a slimness that baffled us, having thus burned their food, bequeathed +to us their famished wives and children. Thousands of these innocents +drew full British rations, when thousands of British soldiers were +drawing half rations. That is not the Old Testament and Boer-beloved +way of waging war, but it foreshadows the slow dawning of an era when, +constrained by an overmastering sense of brotherhood, + + Men will hang the trumpet in the hall, + And study war no more! + +[Sidenote: _More fat and mightier flames._] + +Beyond Avoca we rested for the night at Fever Creek, and were alarmed +by the approach of a heavy thunderstorm just as we were commencing +our dinner in the dense darkness. So I crept for refuge between the +courses of our homely meal under a friendly waggon, and thence came +forth from time to time as wind and weather permitted, to renew +acquaintance with my deserted platter. Finally, when the storm had +somewhat abated, we sought the scanty protection and repose to be +found under our damp blankets. That for us with such favouring +conditions Fever Creek did not justify its name seems wonderful. + +On the Wednesday of that week the Guards' Brigade made a desperate +push to reach Kaap Muiden, where the Barberton branch joins the main +line to Delagoa Bay, though the ever-haunting transport difficulty +made the effort only imperfectly successful. Three out of the four +battalions were compelled to bivouac seven miles behind, while the one +battalion that did that night reach the junction had at the finish a +sort of racing march to get there. While resting for a few minutes +outside "The Lion's Creek" station the colonel told his men that they +were to travel the rest of the way by rail; whereupon they gave a +ringing cheer and started at a prodigious pace to walk down the line +in momentary expectation of meeting the presumably approaching train. +Each man seemed to go like a locomotive with full head of steam on, +and it took me all my time and strength to keep up with them. +Nevertheless that train never met us. It never even started, and at +that puffing perspiring pace the battalion proceeded all the way on +foot. We had indeed come by _rail_, but that we found was quite +another thing from travelling by _train_; and the sequel forcefully +reminded one of the simpleton who was beguiled into riding in a +sedan-chair from which both seat and bottom had been carefully +removed. When the ride was over he is reported to have summed up the +situation by saying he might as well have walked but for "the say so" +of the thing. And but for the say so of the thing that merrily +beguiled battalion might as well have gone by road as by rail. + +It was, however, a most wonderful sight that greeted them as they +stumbled through the darkness into the junction. At one end of the +station there was a huge engine-house, surrounded as well as filled, +not only with locomotives but also with gigantic stacks of food +stuffs, now all involved in one vast blaze that had not burned itself +out when the Brigade returned ten days later. There were long trains +of trucks filled with flour, sugar and coffee, over some of which +paraffin had been freely poured and set alight. So here a truck and +there a truck, with one or two untouched trucks between, was burning +furiously. In some cases the mischief had been stopped in mid-career +by friendly Kaffir hands, which had pulled off from this truck and +that a newly-kindled sack, and flung it down between the rails where +it lay making a little bonfire that was all its own. Then too broken +sacks of unburnt flour lay all about the place looking in the +semi-darkness like the Psalmist's "snow in Salmon"; but flour so +flavoured and soaked with paraffin that when that night it was served +out to be cooked as best it could be by the famished men some of them +laughingly asserted it exploded in the process. Oh, was not that a +dainty dish to set before such kings! At the far end of the station +were ten trucks of coal blazing more vigorously than in any grate, +besides yet other trucks filled with government stationery and no one +knows what beside. It was an awe-inspiring sight and pitiful in the +extreme. + +[Sidenote: _A welcome lift by the way._] + +Though too late to save all the treasure stored at this junction, we +nevertheless secured an invaluable supply of rolling stock and of +certain kinds of provender, so that for a few days we lacked little +that was essential except biscuits for the men and forage for the +mules. But to prevent if possible further down the line another such +holocaust as took place here, our men started at break of day on a +forced march towards Koomati Poort. + +The line we learned was in fair working order for the next fifteen +miles, and for that distance the heavy baggage with men in charge of +the same was sent by train. I did not confess to being baggage nor was +I in charge thereof, but none the less when my ever courteous and +thoughtful colonel urged me to accompany the baggage for those few +miles I looked upon his advice in the light of a command, and so +accepted my almost only lift of any sort in the long march from the +Orange River to Koomati Poort. The full day's march for the men was +twenty-five miles through a region that at that season of the year had +already become a kind of burning fiery furnace; and the abridging of +it for me by at least a half was all the more readily agreed to +because my solitary pair of boots was unfortunately in a double sense +on its last legs. A merciful man is merciful to his boots, especially +when they happen to be his only pair. + +[Sidenote: "_Rags and tatters get ye gone._"] + +Nor in the matter of leather alone were these Guardsmen lamentably +lacking. One of the three famous Napier brothers when fighting at +close quarters in the battle of Busaco fiercely refused to dismount +that he might become a less conspicuous mark for bullets, or even to +cover his red uniform with a cloak. "This," said he, "is the uniform +of my regiment, and _in it I will show_, or fall this day." Barely a +moment after a bullet smashed his jaw. At the very outset of the Boer +war, to the sore annoyance of Boer sharpshooters, the British War +Office in this one respect showed great wisdom. All the pomp and pride +and circumstance of war were from the outset laid aside, especially in +the matter of clothing; but though in that direction almost all +regimental distinctions, and distinctions of rank, were deliberately +discarded, so that scarcely a speck of martial red was anywhere to be +seen, the clothing actually supplied proved astonishingly short-lived. +The roughness of the way soon turned it into rags and tatters, and +disreputable holes appeared precisely where holes ought not to be. On +this very march I was much amused by seeing a smart young Guardsman +wearing a sack where his trousers should have been. On each face of +the sack was a huge O. Above the O, in bold lettering, appeared the +word OATS, and underneath the O was printed 80 lbs. The proudest man +in all the brigade that day seemed he! Well-nigh as travel-stained +were we, and torn, as Hereward the Wake when he returned to Bruges. + +[Sidenote: _Destruction and still more destruction._] + +On Sunday, September 23rd, at Hector Spruit we most unexpectedly +lingered till after noonday, partly to avoid the intense heat on our +next march of nineteen miles through an absolutely waterless +wilderness, and partly because of the enormous difficulties involved +in finding tracks or making them through patches of thorny jungle. We +were thus able to arrange for a surprise parade service, and when that +was over some of our men who had gone for a bathe found awaiting them +a still more pleasant surprise. In the broad waters of the Crocodile +they alighted on a large quantity of abandoned and broken Boer guns +and rifles. Such abandonment now became an almost daily occurrence, +and continued to be for more than another six months, till all men +marvelled whence came the seemingly inexhaustible supply. At +Lydenberg, which Buller captured on September 6th, and again at +Spitzkop which he entered on September 15th, stores of almost every +kind were found well-nigh enough to feed and furnish a little army; +though in their retreat to the latter stronghold the burghers had +flung some of their big guns and no less than thirteen ammunition +waggons over the cliffs to prevent them falling into the hands of the +British. Never was a nation so armed to the teeth. As nature had made +every hill a fortress, so the Transvaal Government had made pretty +nearly every hamlet an arsenal; and about this same time French on the +14th, at Barberton, had found in addition to more warlike stores forty +locomotives which our foes were fortunately too frightened to linger +long enough to destroy. Those locos were worth to us more than a +king's ransom! + +That afternoon we marched till dark, then lighted our fires, and +bemoaned the emptiness of our water bottles, while awaiting the +arrival of our blanket waggons. But in half an hour came another sharp +surprise, for without a moment's warning we were ordered to resume our +march for five miles more. So through the darkness we stumbled as best +we could along the damaged railway line. About midnight in the midst +of a prickly jungle, a bit of bread and cheese, a drink of water if we +had any left, and a blanket, paved the way for brief repose; but at +four o'clock next morning we were all astir once more, to find +ourselves within sight of a tiny railway station called Tin Vosch, +where two more locomotives and a long line of trucks awaited capture. + +[Sidenote: _At Koomati Poort._] + +On Monday, September 24th, at about eight o'clock in the morning, to +General Pole Carew and Brigadier-General Jones fell the honour of +leading their Guardsmen into Koomati Poort, the extreme eastern limit +of the Transvaal--and that without seeing a solitary Boer or having to +fire a single bullet. The French historian of the Peninsular War +declares that "the English were the best marksmen in Europe--indeed +the only troops who were perfectly practised in the use of small +arms." But then their withering volleys were sometimes fired at a +distance of only a few yards from the wavering masses of their foes, +and under such conditions good marksmanship is easy to attain. A +blind man might bet he would not miss. On the other hand, he must be a +good shot indeed who can hit a foe he never sees. In these last weeks +there were few casualties among the Boers, because they kept well out +of casualty range. They were so frightened they even forgot to snipe. +The valiant old President so long ago as September 11th had fled with +his splendidly well-filled money bags across the Portuguese frontier; +abandoning his burghers who were still in the field to whatever might +chance to be their fate. That fate he watched, and waited for, from +the secure retreat of the Portuguese Governor's veranda close by the +Eastern Sea, where he sat and mused as aforetime on his stoep at +Pretoria; his well-thumbed Bible still by his side, his well-used pipe +still between his lips. Surely Napoleon the Third at Chislehurst, +broken in health, broken in heart, was a scarcely more pathetic +spectacle! Six or seven days later the old man saw special trains +beginning to arrive, all crowded with mercenary fighting men from many +lands, all bent only on following his own uncourageous example, +seeking personal safety by the sea. First came 700; then on the 24th, +the very day the Guards entered Koomati Poort, 2000 more, who were +mostly ruined burghers, and who thus arrived at Delagoa Bay to become +like Kruger himself the guests or prisoners of the Portuguese. + +To the Portuguese we ourselves owe no small debt of gratitude, for +they had sternly forbidden the destruction of the magnificent railway +bridge across the Koomati, in which their government held large +financial interests. But other destruction they could not hinder. + +Just in front of us lay the superbly lovely junction of the Crocodile +with the Koomati River, and appropriately enough I then saw in +midstream, clinging to a rock, a real crocodile, though, like the two +Boer Republics, as dead as a door nail. Immediately beyond ran a ridge +of hills which served as the boundary between the Transvaal and the +Portuguese territory. Along that ridge floated a line of Portuguese +flags, and within just a few yards of them the ever-slim Boer had +planted some of his long-range guns, not that there he might make his +last valiant stand, but that from thence he might present our +approaching troops with a few parting shots. This final outrage on +their own flag our friendly neighbours forbade. So we discovered the +guns still in position but destroyed with dynamite. Thus finding not a +solitary soul left to dispute possession with us we somewhat +prematurely concluded that at last, through God's mercy, our toils +were ended, our warfare accomplished. What wonder therefore if in that +hour of bloodless triumph there were some whose hearts exclaimed, "We +praise Thee O God, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord!" To the God of +Battles the Boer had made his mutely stern appeal and with this +result. + +[Sidenote: _Two notable Fugitives._] + +The _Household Brigade Magazine_ tells an amusing story of a Guardsman +hailing from Ireland who at one of our base hospitals was supplied +with some wine as a most welcome "medical comfort." Therein right +loyally he drank the Queen's health, and then after a pause startled +his comrades by adding, "Here's to old Kruger! God bless him!" Such +a disloyal sentiment, so soon tripping up the heels of his own +loyalty, called forth loud and angry protests, whereupon he exclaimed, +"Why not? Only for him where would the war be? And only for him I +would never have sent my old mother the Queen's chocolate!" + +The Queen's chocolate is not the only bit of compensating sweetness +begotten out of the bitterness of this war. The fiery hostility of +Kruger, like the quenchless hate of Napoleon a hundred years ago, has +not been without beneficent influence on our national character and +destiny, and these two years of war have seemingly done more for the +consolidation of the empire than twenty years of peace. Whether he and +Steyn used the Africander Bond as their tool or were themselves its +tools the outcome of the war is the same. To Great Britain it has so +bound Greater Britain in love-bonds and mutual loyalty as to make all +the world wonder. The President of the Transvaal months after the war +began is reported to have said: "If the moon is inhabited I cannot +understand why John Bull has not yet annexed it"; but with respect to +his own beloved Republic he reckoned it was far safer than the moon, +for he added: "So surely as there is a God of righteousness, so surely +will the Vierkleur be victorious." + +[Sidenote: _The propaganda of the Africander Bond._] + +What that victory, however, would inevitably have involved was made +abundantly plain in the pages of _De Patriot_, the once official organ +of the Africander Bond. There, as long ago as 1882, it was written: +"The English Government keep talking of a Confederation under the +British flag. That will never happen. There is just one hindrance to +Confederation, and that is the British flag. Let them take that away, +and within a year the Confederation under the Free Africander flag +would be established; but so long as the English flag remains here the +Africander Bond must be our Confederation. The British must just have +Simon's Bay as a naval and military station on the road to India, and +give over all Africa to the Africanders." + +It then adds: "Let every Africander in this Colony (that is, the Cape) +for the sake of security take care that he has a good rifle and a box +of cartridges, and that he knows how to use them." English trade is to +be boycotted, nor is this veiled hostility to end even there. "Sell no +land to Englishmen! We especially say this to our Transvaal brethren. +The Boers are the landowners, and the proud little Englishmen are +dependent on the Boers. Now that the war against the English +Government is over, the war against the English language must begin. +It must be considered a disgrace to speak English. The English +governess is a pest. Africander parents, banish this pest from your +houses!" + +Now, however, that Kruger is gone, and the Africander Bond has well +nigh given up the ghost, English governesses in South Africa will be +given another chance, which is at least some small compensation for +all the cost and complicated consequences of this wanton war. + +[Sidenote: _Ex-President Steyn_.] + +Martinus Theunis Steyn, late President of what was once the Orange +Free State, is in almost all respects a marked contrast to the +Transvaal President, whose folly he abetted and whose flight for a +while he shared. Steyn, speaking broadly, is almost young enough to be +Kruger's grandson, and was never, as Kruger was from his birth, a +British subject, for he was born at Wynburg some few years after the +Orange Free State received its independence. Whilst Kruger was never +for a single hour under the schoolmaster's rod, and is laughingly said +even now to be unable to read anything which he has not first +committed to memory, Steyn is a man of considerable culture, having +been trained in England as a barrister, and having practised at the +bar in Bloemfontein for six years before he became President. He +therefore could not plead ignorance as his excuse when he flung his +ultimatum in the face of Great Britain and Ireland. Whilst Kruger was +a man of war from his youth, a "strong, unscrupulous, grim, determined +man," Steyn never saw a shot fired in his life except in sport till +this war began, yet all strangely it was the fighting President who +fled from the face of the Guards, with all their multitudinous +comrades in arms, and never rested till the sea removed him beyond +their reach, while the lawyerly President, the man of peace, doubled +back on his pursuers, returned by rugged by-paths to the land he had +ruined, and there in association with De Wet became even more a +fugitive than ancient Cain or the men of Adullam's cave. + +That many of his own people hotly disapproved of the course their +infatuated ruler took is common knowledge; but by no one has that fact +been more powerfully emphasised than by Paul Botha in his famous book +"From Boer to Boer." Rightly or wrongly, this is what, briefly put, +Botha says:-- + +[Sidenote: _Paul Botha's opinion of this Ex-President._] + + When as a Free Stater I think of the war and realise that we have + lost the independence of our little state, I feel that I could + curse Martinus Theunis Steyn who used his country as a stepping + stone for the furtherance of his own private ends. He sold his + country to the Transvaal in the hope that Paul Kruger's mantle + would fall on him. The first time Kruger visited the Orange Free + State after Steyn's election the latter introduced him at a + public banquet with these words, "This is my Father!" The thought + occurred to me at the time, "Yes, and you are waiting for your + father's shoes." He hoped to succeed "his father" as President of + the combined republics of united South Africa. For this giddy + vision he ignored the real interests of our little state, and + dragged the country into an absolutely unnecessary and insane + war. I maintain there were only two courses open to England in + answer to Kruger's challenging policy--to fight, or to retire + from South Africa--and it was only possible for men suffering + from tremendously swollen heads, such as our leaders were + suffering from, to doubt the issue. + + I ask any man to tell me what quarrel we had with England? Was + any injury done to us? Such questions make one's hair stand on + end. Whether knave or fool, Steyn did not prepare himself + adequately for his gigantic undertaking. He commenced this war + with a firm trust in God and the most gross negligence. But it is + impossible to reason with the men now at the front. With the + exception of a few officials these men consist of ignorant + "bywoners," augmented by desperate men from the Cape who have + nothing to lose, and who lead a jolly rollicking life on + commando, stealing and looting from the farmers who have + surrendered, and whom they opprobriously call "handsuppers!" + + These bywoners believe any preposterous story their leaders tell + them in order to keep them together. One of my sons who was taken + prisoner by Theron because he had laid down his arms, told me, + after his escape, it was common laager talk that 60,000 Russians, + Americans and Frenchmen were on the water, and expected daily; + that China had invaded and occupied England, and that only a + small corner of that country still resisted. These are the men + who are terrifying their own people. I could instance hundreds + of cases to show their atrocious conduct. Notorious thieves and + cowards are allowed to clear isolated farmhouses of every + valuable. Widows whose husbands have been killed on commando are + not safe from their depredations. They have even set fire to + dwelling-houses while the inmates were asleep inside. + +As to the perfect accuracy of these accusations I can scarcely claim +to be a judge, though apparently reliable confirmation of the same +reached me from many sources; but I do confidently assert that no +kindred accusations can be justly hurled at the men by whose side I +tramped from Orange River to Koomati Poort. Their good conduct was +only surpassed by their courage, and of them may be generally asserted +what Maitland said to the heroic defenders of Hougoumont--"Every man +of you deserves promotion." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +FROM PORTUGUESE AFRICA TO PRETORIA + + +Towards sundown on Tuesday, September 24th, while most of the Guards' +Brigade was busy bathing in the delicious waters of the Koomati at its +juncture with the Crocodile River, I walked along the railway line to +take stock of the damage done to the rolling stock, and to the +endlessly varied goods with which long lines of trucks had recently +been filled. It was an absolutely appalling sight! + +[Sidenote: _Staggering Humanity._] + +Long before, at the very beginning of the war, the Boers, as we have +often been reminded, promised to stagger humanity, and during this +period of the strife they came strangely near to fulfilling their +purpose. They staggered us most of all by letting slip so many +opportunities for staggering us indeed. Day after day we marched +through a country superbly fitted for defence, a country where one +might check a thousand and two make ten thousand look about them. Our +last long march was through an absolutely waterless and apparently +pathless bush. Yet there was none to say us nay! From Waterval Onder +onwards to Koomati Poort not a solitary sniper ventured to molest us. +A more complete collapse of a nation's valour has seldom been seen. On +September 17th, precisely a week before we arrived at Koomati, +special trains crowded with fugitive burghers rushed across the +frontier, whence not a few fled to the land of their nativity--to +France, to Germany, to Russia--and amid the curious collection of +things strewing the railway line, close to the Portuguese frontier, I +saw an excellent enamelled fold-up bedstead, on which was painted the +owner's name and address in clear Russian characters, as also in plain +English, thus:-- + + P. DUTIL. ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIE. + +That beautiful little bedstead thus flung away had a tale of its own +to tell, and silently assented to the sad truth that this war, though +in no sense a war with Russia, was yet a war with Russians and with +men of almost every nationality under heaven. + +[Sidenote: _Food for Flames._] + +Humanity was scarcely less severely staggered by the lavish +destruction of food stuffs and rolling stock we were that day +compelled to witness. In the sidings of the Koomati railway station, +as at Kaap Muiden, I found not less than half a mile of loaded trucks +all blazing furiously. The goods shed was also in flames, and so was a +gigantic heap of coals for locomotive use, which was still smouldering +months afterwards. Along the Selati branch I saw what I was told +amounted to over five miles of empty trucks that had fortunately +escaped destruction, and later on proved to us of prodigious use. + +A war correspondent, who had been with the Portuguese for weeks +awaiting our advent, assured me that the Boers were so dismayed by the +tidings of our approach that at first they precipitately fled leaving +everything untouched; but finding we apparently delayed for a few +hours our coming, they ventured across the great railway bridge in a +red cross ambulance train, on which they felt certain we should not +fire even if our scouts were already in possession of the place; and +so from the shelter of the red cross these firebrands stepped forth to +perform their task of almost immeasurable destruction. It is however +only fair to add that the great majority of these mischief-makers were +declared to be not genuine Boers, but mercenaries,--a much-mixed +multitude whose ignominious departure from the Transvaal will minister +much to its future wholesomeness and honesty. + +[Sidenote: _A Crocodile in the Koomati._] + +Next morning while with several officers I was enjoying a before +breakfast bathe, a cry of alarm was raised, and presently I saw those +who had hurried out of the water taking careful aim at a crocodile +clinging to a rock in midstream. Revolver shot after revolver shot was +fired, but I quickly perceived it was the very same crocodile I had +seen at that very same spot the day before; and as it was quite dead +then I concluded it was probably still dead, though the officers thus +furiously assailing it had not yet discovered the fact; so leaving +them to continue their revolver practice I quietly returned to the +bubbling waters and finished my bathe in peace. + +[Sidenote: _A Hippopotamus in the Koomati._] + +Later on a continuous rifle fire at the river side close to the +Guards' camp attracted general attention, and on going to see what it +all meant I found a group of Colonials had thus been popping for hours +at a huge hippopotamus hiding in a deep pool close to the opposite +bank. Every time the poor brute put its nose above the surface of the +water half a dozen bullets splashed all around it though apparently +without effect. The Grenadier officers pronounced such proceedings +cruel and cowardly, but were without authority to put a stop to it. +The crocodile is deemed lawful sport because it endangers life, but +the Hippo. Transvaal law protects, because it rarely does harm, and is +growing rarer year by year. I ventured therefore to tell these +Colonials that their sportsmanship was as bad as their marksmanship, +and that the pleasure which springs from inflicting profitless pain +was an unsoldierly pursuit; but I preached to deaf ears, and when soon +after our camp was broken up that Hippo. was still their target. + +[Sidenote: _A Via Dolorosa._] + +On the second day of our brief stay at Koomati Poort, I crossed the +splendid seven spanned bridge over the Koomati River, and noticed that +the far end was guarded by triple lines of barbed wire, nor was other +evidence lacking that the Boers purposed to give us a parting blizzard +under the very shadow of the Portuguese frontier flags. + +Then came a sight not often surpassed since Napoleon's flight from +Moscow. Right up to the Portuguese frontier the slopes of the railway +line were strewn with every imaginable and unimaginable form of loot +and wreckage, flung out of the trains as they flew along by the +frightened burghers. Telegraph instruments, crutches, and rocking +chairs, frying pans and packets of medicinal powders, wash-hand basins +and tins of Danish butter lay there in wild profusion; likewise a +homely wooden box that looked up at me and said "Eat Quaker Oats." + +At one point I found a great pile of rifles over which paraffin had +been freely poured and then set on fire. Hundreds more, broken and +scattered, were flung in all directions. Then, too, I saw cases of +dynamite, live shells of every sort and size, and piles of boxes on +which was painted + + "_Explosive_ Safety Cartridges + Supplied by Vickers, Maxim & Co.; for the use of + the Government of the South African Republic." + +Likewise boxes of ammunition, broken and unbroken bearing the brand of +"Kynoch Brothers, Birmingham" were there in piles; and it was while +some men of the Gordons were superintending the destruction of this +ammunition that a terrific explosion occurred a few days later by +which three of them were killed and twenty-one wounded, including the +"Curio" of the regiment, who was stuck all over with splinters like +pins in a cushion; and in spite of seven-and-twenty wounds had the +daring to survive. Byron somewhere tells of an eagle pierced by an +arrow winged with a feather from its own breast, and in this war many +a British hero has been riddled by bullets that British hands have +fashioned. Moreover, among these bullets that thus littered that +railway track I found vast quantities of the soft-nosed and slit +varieties of which I brought away some samples; and others coated with +a something green as verdigris. It is said that in love and war all is +fair; but we should have more readily believed in the much belauded +piety of the Boers, if it had deigned to dispense with "soft noses" +and "explosive safeties," which were none the less cruel or unlawful +because of British make! + +Whole stacks of sugar I also found, in flaming haste to turn +themselves into rippling lakes of decidedly overdone toffee; and in +similar fashion piled up sacks of coffee berries were roasting +themselves not wisely but too well. Pyramids of flour were much in the +same way baking themselves into cakes, monstrously misshapen, and much +more badly burnt than King Alfred's ever were. "The Boers are poor +cooks," laughingly explained our men; "they bake in bulk without +proper mixing." Nevertheless, along that line everything seemed very +much mixed indeed. + +[Sidenote: _Over the Line._] + +On reaching the Portuguese frontier I somewhat ceremoniously saluted +the Portuguese flag, to the evident satisfaction of the Portuguese +marines who mounted guard beside it. There were just then about 600 of +them on duty at Resina Garcia, and as they were for the most part +dressed in spotless white they looked delightsomely clean and cool. +Indeed, the contrast between their uniforms and ours was almost +painfully acute; but it was the contrast between men of war's men in +holiday attire, which no war had ever touched, and weary war-men +tattered and torn by ten months' constant contact with its roughest +usage. A shameful looking lot we were--but ashamed we were not! + +As these foreigners on frontier guard knew not a word of English, and +I unfortunately knew not a word of Portuguese, there seemed small +chance of any very luminous conversation; but presently I pronounced +the magic word "Padré," and pointed to the cross upon my collar, when +lo! a look of intelligence crept into the very dullest face. They +passed on the word in approving tones from one to another, and I was +instantly supplied with quite a new illustration of the ancient +legend, "In hoc signo vinces." In token of respect for my chaplain's +badge, without passport or payment, I was at once courteously allowed +to cross the line and set foot in Portuguese Africa. There are +compensations in every lot, even in a parson's! + +The village immediately beyond the frontier is little else than a +block or two of solidly built barracks, and a well appointed railway +station, with its inevitable refreshment room, in which a group of +officers representing the two nationalities were enjoying a friendly +lunch. But great was my surprise on discovering that the vivacious +Portuguese proprietor presiding behind the bar was a veritable +Scotchman hailing from queenly Edinburgh; and still greater was my +surprise on hearing a sweetly familiar accent on the lips of a +Colonial scout hungrily waiting on the platform outside till the +aforesaid officers' lunch was over, and he, a private, might be +permitted to purchase an equally satisfying lunch and eat it in that +same refreshment room. It was the accent of the far away "West +Countree," and told me its owner was like myself a Cornishman. Yet +what need to be surprised? Were I to take the wings of the morning and +fly to the uttermost parts of the earth, I should probably find there +as at Resina Garcia, thriving Scotchman in possession, and a famished +Cornishman waiting at his gate. To these two, in this fashion, have +been apportioned the outposts of the habitable globe! + +[Sidenote: _Westward Ho!_] + +It was to everybody's extreme surprise and delight that at noon on +Thursday we received sudden orders to leave Koomati Poort at once, and +to leave it not on foot but by rail. The huge baboon, therefore, which +had become our latest regimental pet and terror, was promptly +transferred to other custody, and our scanty kits were packed with +utmost speed. We soon discovered, however, that it was one thing to +reach the appointed railway station, and quite another to find the +appointed train. Two locomotives, in apparently sound condition, had +been selected from among a multitude of utterly wrecked and ruined +ones, but serviceable trucks had also to be warily chosen from among +the leavings of a vast devouring fire; then the loading of these +trucks with the various belongings of the battalion began, and long +before that task was finished darkness set in, so compelling the +postponement of all journeying till morning light appeared. It was on +the King of Portugal's birthday that morning light dawned, and it was +to the sound of a royal salute in honour of that anniversary we +attempted to start on our westward way, while the troops left behind +us joined with those of Portugal in a royal review. + +[Illustration: _From a photograph by Mr Westerman_ + +Boer Families on their Way to a Concentration Camp.] + +As all the regular railway employés had fled with the departing Boers, +it became necessary to call for volunteers from among the soldiers to +do duty as drivers, stokers and guards. The result was at times +amusing, and at times alarming. Our locomotives were so unskilfully +handled that they at once degenerated into the merest donkey +engines, and played upon us donkey tricks. One of these amateur +drivers early in the journey discovered that he had forgotten to take +on board an adequate supply of coal, and so ran his engine back to get +it, while we patiently awaited his return. Soon after we made our +second start it was discovered that something had gone wrong with the +injectors. "The water was too hot," we were told, which to us was a +quite incomprehensible fault; the water tank was full of steam, and we +were in danger of a general blow up. So the fire had to be raked out, +and the engine allowed to cool, which it took an unconscionably long +time in doing, and we accounted ourselves fortunate in that on a +journey so diversified we escaped the further complications that might +have been created for us by our ever invisible foes, who managed to +wreck the train immediately following ours--so inflicting fatal or +other injuries on Guardsmen not a few. + +Meanwhile we noted that "fever" trees, with stems of a peculiarly +green and bilious hue, abounded on both sides the line; trees so +called, not because they produce fever, but because their presence +infallibly indicates an area in which fever habitually prevails. +Hundreds of the troops that followed us into the fatal valley were +speedily fever-stricken, and it is with a sense of devoutest gratitude +I record the fact that the Guards' Brigade not only entered Koomati +Port without the loss of a single life by bullets, but also left it +without the loss of a single life by fever. + +At first at the foot of every incline we were compelled to pause while +our engines, one in front and one behind, got up an ampler pressure of +steam, but presently it was suggested that the hundreds of Guardsmen +on board the train should tumble out of the trucks and shove, which +accordingly they did, the Colonel himself assenting and assisting. So +sometimes shoving, always steaming, we pursued our shining way, as we +fondly supposed, towards Hyde Park corner and "Home, sweet Home." + +At Waterval Onder we stayed the night, and I was thus enabled to visit +once again the tiny international cemetery, referred to in a former +chapter, where I had laid to rest an unnamed, because unrecognised, +private of the Devons. Now close beside him in that silent land lay +the superbly-built Australian, whom I had so often visited in the +adjoining hospital, and whom our general had promised to recommend for +"The Distinguished Service Medal." Not yet eighteen, his life work was +early finished; but by heroisms such as his has our vast South African +domain been bought; and by graves such as his are the far sundered +parts of our world-wide empire knit together. + +[Sidenote: _Ruined farms and ruined firms._] + +Throughout this whole journey I was painfully impressed not only by +the almost total absence of all signs of present-day cultivation, even +where such cultivation could not but prove richly remunerative, but +also by the still sadder fact that many of the farmhouses we sighted +were in ruins. Along this Delagoa line, as in other parts of the +Transvaal, there had been so much sniping at trains, and so many +cases of scouts being fired at from farmhouses over which the white +flag floated, that this particular form of retribution and repression, +which we none the less deplored, seemed essential to the safety of all +under our protection; and in defence thereof I heard quoted, as +peculiarly appropriate to the Boer temperament and tactics, the +familiar lines:-- + + Softly, gently, touch a nettle, + And it stings you for your pains; + Grasp it like a man of mettle, + And it soft as silk remains. + +Amajuba led to a fatal misjudgement of the British by the Boer. In all +leniency, the latter now recognises only an encouraging lack of grit, +which persuades him to prolong the contest by whatever tactics suit +him best. Its effect resembles that of the Danegeld our Saxon fathers +paid their oversea invaders, with a view to staying all further +strife. Their gifts were interpreted as a sign of craven fear, and +merely taught the recipients to clamour greedily for more. Long before +this cruel war closed it became clear as noonday that Boer hostilities +could not be bought off by a crippling clemency, and that an +ever-discriminating severity is, in practice, mercy of the truest and +most effective type. + +How great the pressure on the military authorities became in +consequence of these frequent breakages of the railway line, and how +serious the inconvenience to the mercantile community, as indeed to +the whole civil population, may be judged from the fact that only on +the day of my return from Resina Garcia did the Pretoria merchants +receive their first small consignments of food stuffs since the +arrival of the British troops some four months before. Clothing, +boots, indeed goods of any other type than food, they had still not +the faintest hope of getting up from the coast for many a week to +come. War is always hard alike on public stores and private cupboards; +but seldom have the supplies of any town, not actually undergoing a +siege, been more nearly exhausted than were those of Pretoria at the +time now referred to. For hungry and impecunious folk the City of +Roses was fast becoming a bed of thorns. + +[Sidenote: _Farewell to the Guards' Brigade._] + +From Pretoria I accompanied the Guards on what we all deemed our +homeward way as far as Norval's Pont. Then the Brigade, as such, was +broken up for blockhouse or other widely dispersing duties; and I was +accordingly recalled to headquarters for garrison work. At this point, +therefore, I must say farewell to the Guard's Brigade. + +For over twelve months my association with them was almost absolutely +uninterrupted. At meals and on the march, in the comparative quiet of +camp life, and on the field of fatal conflict, I was with them night +and day; ever receiving from them courtesies and practical kindnesses +immeasurably beyond what so entire a stranger was entitled to expect. +Officers and men alike made me royally welcome, and won in almost all +respects my warmest admiration. + +Their unfailing consideration for "The Cloth" by no means implied that +they were all God-fearing men; nor did many among them claim to be +such; but gentlemen were they one and all, whose worst fault was their +traditional tendency towards needlessly strong language. To Mr +Burgess, the chaplain of the 19th Hussars once said, "The officers of +our battalion are a very gentlemanly lot of fellows, and you never +hear any of them swear. The colonel is very severe on those who use +bad language, and if he hears any he says, 'I tell you I will not +allow it. If you want to use such language go out on to the veldt and +swear at the stones, but I will not permit you to contaminate the men +by such language in the lines. I won't have it!'" + +Not all battalions in the British army are built that way, nor do all +British officers row in the same boat with that aforesaid colonel. +Nevertheless, I am prepared to echo the opinion expressed by Julian +Ralph concerning the officers with whom he fraternized:--"They were +emphatically the best of Englishmen," said he; "well informed, proud, +polished, polite, considerate, and abounding with animal health and +spirits." As a whole that assertion is largely true as applied to +those with whom it was my privilege to associate. Most of them had +been educated at one or other of our great public schools, many of +them represented families of historic and world-wide renown. It was, +therefore, somewhat of an astonishment to see such men continually +roughing it in a fashion that navvies would scarcely consent to do at +home; drinking water that, as our colonel said, one would not +willingly give to a dog; and sometimes sleeping in ditches without +even a rug to cover them. + +Wild assertions have been made in some ill-informed papers about these +officers being ill-informed, and even Conan Doyle complains that he +saw only one young officer studying an Army Text-Book in the course of +the whole campaign; but then, when kits are cut down to a maximum +weight of thirty-seven pounds, what room is there for books even on +tactics? The tactics of actual battle are better teachers than any +text-books; and a cool head, with a courageous heart, is often of more +value in a tight corner than any amount of merely technical knowledge. +It is true that some of our officers have blundered, but then, in most +cases, it was their first experience of real war, especially of war +amid conditions entirely novel. It was more personal initiative, not +more text-book; more caution, not more courage that was most commonly +required. To inspire his men with tranquil confidence, one officer +after another exposed himself to needless perils, and was, as we fear, +wastefully done to death. But be that as it may the Guards' Brigade, +men and officers alike, I rank among the bravest of the brave; and my +association with them for so long a season, I reckon one of the +highest honours of a happy life. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A WAR OF CEASELESS SURPRISES + + +What Conan Doyle rightly described as "The great _Boer_ War" came +eventually to be called yet more correctly "The great _Bore_ War." It +grew into a weariness that might well have worn out the patience and +exhausted the resources of almost any nation. No one for a moment +imagined when we reached Koomati Poort that we had come only to the +half-way house of our toils and travels, and that there still lay +ahead of us another twelve months' cruel task. From the very first to +the very finish it has been a war of sharp surprises, and to most the +sharpest surprise of all has been this its wasteful and wanton +prolonging. + +[Sidenote: _Exhaustlessness of Boer resources._] + +We wondered early, and we wondered late, at the seeming +exhaustlessness of the Boer resources. In their frequent flights they +destroyed, or left for us to capture, almost fabulously large supplies +of food and ammunition; yet at the end of two years of such incessant +waste Kaffirs were still busy pointing out to us remote caves filled +with food stuffs, as in Seccicuni's country, or large pits loaded to +the brim with cases of cartridges. A specially influential Boer +prisoner told me he himself had been present at many such burials, +when 250 cases of mauser ammunition were thus secreted in one place, +and then a similar quantity in another, and I have it on the most +absolute authority possible that when the war began the Boers +possessed not less than 70,000,000 rounds of ball cartridge, and +200,000 rifles of various patterns, which would be tantamount to two +for every adult Dutchman in all South Africa. Kruger, in declaring +war, did not leap before he looked, or put the kettle on the fire +without first procuring an ample supply of coal to keep it boiling. +For many a month before hostilities commenced, if not for years, all +South Africa lay in the hollow of Kruger's hand, excepting only the +seaport towns commanded by our naval guns. At any moment he could have +overrun our South African colonies and none could have said him nay. +These colonies we held, though we knew it not, on Boer sufferance. At +the end of two years of incessant fighting we barely made an end of +the invasion of Cape Colony and Natal, and the altogether unsuspected +difficulty of the task is the true index of the deadliness of the +peril from which this dreadful war has delivered the whole empire. + +[Sidenote: _The peculiarity of the Boer tactics._] + +How it was the Boers did not succeed at the very outset in driving the +British into the sea, when we had only skeleton forces to oppose them, +was best explained to me by a son of the late State Secretary, who +penned the ultimatum, and whom I found among our prisoners in +Pretoria. The Boers are not farmers. Speaking broadly there is +scarcely an acre of ploughed land in all the Transvaal. "The men are +shepherds, their trade hath been to feed cattle." But before they +could thus, like the Patriarchs, become herdsmen, they perforce still, +like their much loved Hebrew prototypes, had to become hunters, and +clear the land of savage beasts and savage men. The hunter's +instincts, the hunter's tactics were theirs, and no hunter comes out +into the open if he can help it. It is no branch of his business to +make a display of his courage and to court death. His part is to kill, +so silently, so secretly, as to avoid being killed. Traps and +tricking, not to say treachery, and shooting from behind absolutely +safe cover, are the essential points in a hunter's tactics. Caution to +him is more than courage, and it is precisely along those lines the +Boers make war. In almost every case when they ventured into the open +it was the doing of their despised foreign auxiliaries. The kind of +courage required for the actual conquest of the colonies the Boers had +never cultivated or acquired. The men who in six months and six days +could not rush little Mafeking hoped in vain to capture Cape Town, +unless they caught it napping. But in defensive warfare, in cunningly +setting snares like that at Sanna's Post, in skilful concealment as at +Modder River, when all day long most of our men were quite unable to +discover on which side of the stream the Boer entrenchments were, and +in what they called clever trickery, but we called treachery, they are +absolutely unsurpassable. So was it through the earlier stages of the +campaign. So was it through the later stages. + +Another cause of Boer failure as explained to me by the State +Secretary's son was the inexperience and incompetency of their +generals, who had won what little renown was theirs in Zulu or Kaffir +wars. Amajuba, at which only about half a battalion of our troops took +part, was the biggest battle they had ever fought against the British, +and it led the more illiterate among them to believe they could whip +all England's armies as easily as they could sjambok a Kaffir. Their +leaders of course knew better, but even they believed there was being +played a game of bluff on both sides, with this vital difference, +however--we bluffed, and, as they full well knew, did not prepare; +they bluffed, and, to an extent we never knew, did prepare. Though +therefore their generals were amateurs in the arts of modern warfare +as so many of our own proved to be, they confidently reckoned that, if +they could strike a staggering blow whilst we were as yet unready, +they would inevitably win a second Amajuba. Magnanimity would again +leave them masters of the situation, and if not, European intervention +would presently compel us to arbitrate away our claims. But Joubert's +softness, Schoeman's incompetency and Cronje's surrender spoiled the +project just when success seemed in sight. One other cause of Boer +failure which remained in force to the very last was their utter lack +of discipline. My specially frank and intelligent informant said no +Boer ever took part in a fight unless he felt so inclined. He claimed +liberty to ignore the most urgent commands of his field cornet, and +might even unreproved slap him in the face. Such decidedly independent +fighting may serve for the defence of an almost inaccessible kopje, +but an attack conducted on such lines is almost sure to fall to +pieces. It was therefore seldom attempted, but many a lawless deed +was done, like firing on ambulances and funeral parties, for which no +leader can well be held responsible. + +[Sidenote: _The Surprisers Surprised._] + +This light formation lent itself, however, excellently well to the +success of the guerilla type of warfare, which the Boers maintained +for more than twelve months after all their principal towns were +taken. Solitary snipers were thus able from safe distances to pick off +unsuspecting man, or horse, or ox, and, if in danger of being traced, +could hide the bandolier and pose as a peace-loving citizen seeking +his own lost ox. + +In some cases small detachments of our men on convoy or outpost duty +were cut off by these ever-watchful, ever-wandering bands of Boers, +and an occasional gun or pom-pom was temporarily captured, a result +for which in one case at least extra rum rations were reputed to be +responsible. But it must be remembered that our men and officers, +regular and irregular alike, were as inexperienced as the Boers in +many of the novel duties this war devolved upon them; that the +Transvaal lends itself as scarcely any other country under the sun +could do to just such surprises, and that the ablest generals served +by the trustiest scouts have in the most heroic periods of our history +sometimes found themselves face to face with the unforeseen. We are +assured, for instance, that even on the eve of Waterloo both Blucher +and Wellington were caught off their guard by their great antagonist. +On June 15th, at the very moment when the French columns were +actually crossing the Belgian frontier, Wellington wrote to the Czar +explaining his intention to take the offensive about a fortnight +hence; and Blucher only a few days before had sent word to his wife +that the Allies would soon enter France, for if they waited where they +were for another year, Bonaparte would never attack them. Yet the very +next day, June 16th, at Ligny, Bonaparte hurled himself like a +thunderbolt on Blucher, and three days after, Wellington, having +rushed from the Brussels ballroom to the battlefield at Waterloo, +there saved himself and Europe, "so as by fire." + +The occasional surprises our troops have sustained in the Transvaal +need not stagger us, however much they ruffle our national +complacency. They are not the first we have had to face, and may +possibly prove by no means the last; but it is at least some sort of +solace to know that however often we were surprised during the last +long lingering stages of the war, our men yet more frequently +surprised their surprisers. Whilst I was still there in July 1901, +there were brought into Pretoria the surviving members of the +Executive of the late Orange Free State, all notable men, all caught +in their night-dresses--President Steyn alone escaping in shirt and +pants; whilst his entire bodyguard, consisting of sixty burghers, were +at the same time sent as prisoners to Bloemfontein. Laager after +laager during those weary months was similarly surprised, and waggons +and oxen and horses beyond all counting were captured, till apparently +scarcely a horse or hoof or pair of heels was left on all the +far-reaching veldt. The Boers resolutely chose ruin rather than +surrender, and so, alas, the ruin came; for many, ruin beyond all +remedy! + +[Sidenote: _Train Wrecking._] + +During this same period of despairing resistance the Boers imparted to +the practice of train wrecking the finish of a fine art. At first they +confined their attentions to troop trains, which are presumably lawful +game; and as I was returning from Koomati Poort the troop train that +immediately followed that on which I travelled was thus thrown off the +rails near Pan, and about twenty of the Coldstream Guards, by whose +side I had tramped for so many months, were killed or severely +injured. The provision trains on which not the soldiers only, but the +Boers' own wives and children, depended for daily food, were wrecked, +looted or set on fire. Finally, they took to dynamiting ordinary +passenger trains, and robbed of their personal belongings helpless +women, including nursing sisters. + +In Pretoria, I had the privilege of conversing with a cultured and +godly lady who told me that she had been twice wrecked on her one +journey up from the coast, and that the wrecking was as usual of a +fatal type though fortunately not for her. Like one of the ironies of +fate seemed the fact, of which she further informed me, that she had +brought with her from England some hundreds of pounds' worth of bodily +comforts, and yet more abounding spiritual consolations for free +distribution among the wives and children of the very men who thus in +one single journey had twice placed her life in deadly peril. + +Among the Bush Veldt Carabineers at Pietersburg I found an +engine-driver who in the course of a few months had thus been shot at +and shattered by Boer drivers till he grew so sick of it that he threw +up a situation worth £30 a month and joined the Fighting Scouts by way +of finding some less perilous vocation. On the Sunday I spent there I +worshipped with the Gordons who had survived the siege of Ladysmith; +the day following as I returned to Pretoria, the train I travelled by +was thrice ineffectually sniped; but soon after the turn of these same +Gordons came to escort a train on that same line when nearly every man +among them was killed or wounded, including their officer, and a +sergeant with whom during that visit I had bowed in private prayer; +but the driver, stoker and guard were deliberately led aside and shot +after capture in cold blood. So my friend in the Carabineers had not +long to wait for the justifying of his strange choice. Not until +Norman William had planted stout Norman castles at every commanding +point could he complete the conquest of our Motherland; and not until +sturdy little block-houses sprang up thick and fast beside 5000 miles +of rail and road was travelling in the Transvaal robbed of its worst +peril, and the subjugation of the country made complete. + +The worst of all our railway smashes, however, occurred close to +Pretoria, and was caused by what seemed a bit of criminal +carelessness, which resulted in a terrific collision. A Presbyterian +chaplain who was in the damaged train showed me his battered and +broken travelling trunk; but close beside the wreckage I saw the +more terribly broken bodies of nine brave men awaiting burial. It was +a tragedy too exquisitely distressing to be here described. + +[Sidenote: _The Refugee Camps._] + +When the two Republics were formally annexed to the British Crown all +the women and children scattered far and wide over the interminable +veldt, were made British subjects by the very act; and from that hour +for their support and safety the British Government became +responsible. Yet all ordinary traffic by road or rail had long been +stopped. All country stores were speedily cleared and closed. All farm +stock or produce was gathered up and carried off, first by one set of +hungry belligerents, then by the others; physic was still more scarce +than food, and prowling bands of blacks or whites intensified the +peril. The creation of huge concentration camps, all within easy reach +of some railway, thus became an urgent necessity. No such prodigious +enterprise could be carried through its initial stages without +hardships having to be endured by such vast hosts of refugees, +hardships only less severe than those the troops themselves sustained. + +What I saw of these camps at Hiedelburg, Barberton, and elsewhere made +me wonder that so much had been done, and so well done; but a gentle +lady sent from England to look for faults and flaws, and who was +lovingly doing her best to find them, complained to me that all the +tents were not quite sound, which I can quite believe. Canvas that is +in constant use won't last for ever, and it is quite conceivable that +at the end of a two years' campaign some of the tents in use were +visibly the worse for wear. Thousands of our soldiers, however, went +for a while without tents of any sort, while the families of their +foes were being thus carefully sheltered in such tents as could then +be procured. It is, moreover, in some measure reassuring to remember +that the winter weather here is almost perfect, not a solitary shower +falling for weeks together, and that within these tents were army +blankets both thick and plentiful. + +Complaint was also made in my presence that mutton, and yet again +mutton, and only mutton, was supplied to the refugee camps by way of +fresh meat rations, and that, moreover, a whole carcase, being mostly +skin and bone, sometimes weighed only about twelve pounds. It is quite +true that the scraggy Transvaal sheep would be looked down on and +despised by their fat and far-famed English cousins, especially at +that season of the year when the veldt is as bare and barren as the +Sahara; but it surely is no fault of the British Government that not a +green blade can anywhere be seen during these long rainless months, +and that consequently all the flocks look famished. South African +mutton is, at the best of times, a by no means dainty dish to set +before a king, much less before the wife of a belligerent Boer; but +British officers and men had to feed upon it and be content. + +That no fresh beef, however, was by any chance supplied sounded to me +quite a new charge, and set me enquiring as to its accuracy. I +therefore wrote to one of the meat contractors, whom I personally knew +as a man of specially good repute, and in reply was informed that for +seven months he had regularly supplied the refugee camp in his +neighbourhood with fresh beef as well as mutton, neither being always +prime, he said, but the best that in war time the veldt could be made +to yield! Those who hunt for grievances at a time like this can always +find them, though when weighed in the balances they may perchance +prove even lighter than Transvaal sheep. + +It is undeniable that the child mortality in these refugee camps has +been high compared with the average that prevails in a healthy English +town. But the South African average, especially during the fever +season, usually reaches quite another figure. A Hollander predikant, +whom I found among our prisoners, told me that he, his wife, and his +three children were all down with fever, but were without physic, and +almost without food, when the English found them in the low country +beyond Pietersburg, and brought them into camp. Nearly all their +neighbours were in the same sad plight, and several died before they +could be moved. In that and similar cases the camp mortality was bound +to be high, but it takes a free-tongued Britisher to assert that it +was the fault of the ever brutal British. In some camps there was an +epidemic of measles, which occasionally occurs even in the happy +homeland; but in the least sanitary refugee camp the mortality was +never so high as in some of our own military fever camps, where the +epidemic raged like a plague, and for many a weary week refused to be +stayed. It should be remembered also that all the healthy manhood of +the country was either still out on commando or in the oversea camps +provided for our prisoners of war. The men brought in as refugees were +only those who had no fight left in them--the halt, the maimed, the +blind, the sick of every sort, the bent by extreme old age, the dying. +I was startled by the specimens I saw. Here were gathered all the +frailnesses and infirmities of two Republics; and to test an +improvised camp of such a class by the standards which we rightly +apply to an average English town is as misleading as it is +mischievous. + +[Sidenote: _The Grit of the Guards._] + +When voyaging on _The Nubia_ with the Scots Guards they often +laughingly assured me it was the merest "walk over" that awaited us, +and so in due time we discovered it to be. But it was a walk over well +nigh the whole of South Africa, especially for these Scots. While +during the second year of the war the Grenadiers were doing excellent +work, chiefly in the northern part of Cape Colony, and the Coldstreams +were similarly employed mainly along the lines of communication in the +Orange River Colony, the Scots Guards trekked north, south, east and +west. As a mere matter of mileage but much more as a matter of +endurance they broke all previous records. + +I have more than once written so warmly in praise of the daring and +endurance of these men as to make me fear my words might for that very +reason be heavily discounted. I was therefore delighted to find in +Julian Ralph's "At Pretoria" a kindred eulogy: "When I passed through +the camps of the Grenadiers, Scots, and Coldstream Guards the other +day, I thought I never saw men more wretchedly and pitifully +circumstanced. The officers are the drawing-room pets of London +society, which in large measure they rule.... Well, there they were on +the veldt looking like a lot of half drowned rats, as indeed they had +been ever since the cold season and the rains had set in. You would +not like to see a vagabond dog fare as they were doing. They had no +tents. They could get no dry wood to make fires with. They were soaked +to the bone night and day, and they stood about in mud toe-deep. +Titled and untitled alike all were in the same scrape, and all were +stoutly insisting that it didn't matter; it was all in the game." + +[Sidenote: _The Irregulars._] + +During this second period of the war the staying powers of the +Irregulars was no less severely tested. Here and there there was a +momentary failure, but as a whole the men did superbly. Multitudes of +the Colonials, who on completing their first term of service, returned +to Australia, New Zealand, or Canada, actually re-enlisted for a +second term, and in several cases paid their own passage to the Cape +in order to rejoin. The Colonials are incomparably keener Imperialists +than we ourselves claim to be. Some of the officers of these Irregular +troops were themselves of a most irregular type, and in the case of +town, or mine, or cattle, Guards were occasionally chosen, not with +reference to any martial fitness they might possess, but because of +their knowledge of and influence over the men they now commanded, and +previously in civilian life had probably employed. One of these called +his men to "fall in--_two thick_!" and another, when he wanted to halt +his Guards, is reported to have thrown up his arms and said, "Whoa! +Stop!" None need wonder if troops so handled sometimes found +themselves in a tight corner. Yet of these newly recruited Irregulars, +as of the most staid Reservists, there was good reason to be proud; +and as concerning his own Irregulars in the Peninsular War Wellington +said that with them he could go anywhere or do anything, so were these +also as a whole entitled to similar confidence and to a similar +tribute. + +[Sidenote: _The Testimony of the Cemetery._] + +How fully these citizen soldiers hazarded their lives for the empire +every cemetery in South Africa bears sad and silent witness, including +the one I know so well in Pretoria. Indeed that particular +burial-place is to me the most pathetic spot on earth, and enshrines +in striking fashion the whole history of the Transvaal, whereof only +one or two illustrations can here be given. In a tiny walled +enclosure--a cemetery within a cemetery--filled with the soldier +victims of our earlier wars, I found a slab whereon was this +inscription:-- + + "To the memory of Corporal Henry Watson, + Who died at Pretoria 17th May 1877; aged 25 years. + He was the first British Soldier to give up his + life in the service of his Country, _on the annexation_ + of the Transvaal Republic!" + +Near by on another slab I read:-- + + "In loving memory of John Mitchell Elliott + Aged 37. Captain and Paymaster of the 94th Regiment, + Who was killed for Queen and Country + while crossing the Vaal River on the night of + Dec. 29th, 1880." + +There, too, I found one other slab which recorded in this strange +style the closing of a most ignoble chapter in our imperial history:-- + + "This Cemetery was planted, and the graves left in good repair by + the men of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, _prior to the evacuation_ + of Pretoria, 1881." + +Two brief decades rush away, and once again that same cemetery opens +wide its gates to welcome new battalions of British soldiers, each of +whom like his forerunner of 1877 "gave up his life in the service of +his country"; but these late-comers represent every province and +almost every hamlet of a far-reaching empire, as well as every branch +of the service; while over all and applicable to all alike is the +epitaph on the tomb of the Hampshire Volunteers, "We answered duty's +call!" + +[Sidenote: _Death and Life in Pretoria._] + +The Dutch section of that cemetery also witnessed some sensational +scenes during the period now referred to. + +On July 20th Mrs Kruger, the ex-President's wife, died, and as one of +a prodigious crowd I attended her homely funeral. She was herself +well-nigh the homeliest woman in Pretoria, and one of the most +illiterate; but precisely because she was content to be her simple +God-fearing self, put on no airs, and intermeddled not in matters +beyond her ken, she was universally respected and regretted. + +During this second period of the war the troops in Pretoria continued +to justify Lord Roberts' description of them as "the best-behaved army +in the world." The Sunday evening services in Wesley Church were +always crowded with them, and the nightly meetings held in the +S.A.G.M. marquees were not only wonderfully well attended but were +also marked by much spiritual power. Pretoria, after we took +possession of it, witnessed many a tear, and occasional tragedies; but +it was in Pretoria I heard a young Canadian soldier sing the following +song, which aptly illustrates the type of life to which many a trooper +has more or less fully attained during this South African campaign:-- + + I'm walking close to Jesus' side, + So close that I can hear + The softest whispers of His love + In fellowship so dear, + _And feel His great Almighty hand + Protects me in this hostile land_. + Oh wondrous bliss, oh joy sublime, + I've Jesus with me all the time! + + I'm leaning on His loving breast + Along life's weary way; + My path illumined by His smiles + Grows brighter day by day; + _No foes, no woes, my heart can fear + With my Almighty Friend so near_. + Oh wondrous bliss, oh joy sublime, + I've Jesus with me all the time! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +PRETORIA AND THE ROYAL FAMILY + + +During the next few months many events occurred in Pretoria of vital +interest to the whole empire, and especially to the various members of +the Royal Family. To these this seems the fittest place to refer, +though most of them took place during my various return visits to +Pretoria, and are therefore not precisely ranged in due chronologic +order. + +[Sidenote: _Suzerainty turned to Sovereignty._] + +It was an ever memorable scene I witnessed in the Kirk Square when the +Union Jack was once more formally hoisted in the midst of armed men, a +miscellaneous crowd of cheering civilians, and an important group of +Basuto chiefs who had been specially invited to witness the +ceremonious annexation of the conquered territory and to hear +proclaimed the Royal pleasure that the erstwhile "South African +Republic" should henceforth be known by the new, yet older, title of +"The Transvaal." + +So came to an end the Queen's Suzerainty;--an ill-omened term, which +had proved fruitful in all conceivable kinds of misinterpretation, and +made possible the misunderstandings and controversies that culminated +in this cruel and wasteful war. So was resumed the Queen's +Sovereignty, which as subsequent events proved, ought never to have +been renounced; and so too was made plain the way for that ultimate +federation of all South Africa, under one glorious flag, for which +Lord Carnarvon and Sir Bartle Frere long years before had laboured +apparently in vain. This fresh unfurling of that flag was a pledge of +equal liberties alike for Boer and Briton, as well as of fair play to +the natives. It was a guarantee that the Pax Britannica would +henceforth be maintained from the Zambesi to the Cape, and that in +this vast area, well nigh as large as all Europe, there would be +nursed into matureness and majestic strength, a new Anglo-Saxon +nation, essentially Christian, essentially liberty-loving, and +rivalling in wealth, in enterprise and prowess, the ripest promise of +united Canada, and newly federated Australia. + +In this Imperial conflict the heroic fashion in which both those +Commonwealths rallied for the defence of our Imperial flag is one of +the most hopeful facts in modern history. "Waterloo," said Wellington, +"did more than any other battle I know of toward the true object of +all battles--the peace of the world." A similar comment both by +victors and vanquished may possibly hereafter be made concerning this +deplorable Boer war. But that can come to pass only provided we as a +united people strive to cherish more fully the spirit embodied in +Kipling's Diamond Jubilee Recessional: + + God of our fathers, known of old,-- + Lord of our far-flung battle-line,-- + Beneath Whose awful Hand we hold + Dominion over palm and pine,-- + Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, + Lest we forget--lest we forget! + + * * * + + For heathen heart that puts her trust + In reeking tube and iron shard-- + All valiant dust that builds on dust, + And guarding calls not Thee to guard,-- + For frantic boast and foolish word, + Thy mercy on Thy people, Lord!--AMEN. + +[Sidenote: _Prince Christian Victor._] + +To Dr Macgregor the Queen is reported to have said at Balmoral in +November 1900, "My heart bleeds for these terrible losses. The war +lies heavy on my heart." And Lord Wantage assures us that her +Majesty's very last words, spoken only a few weeks later, were "Oh +that peace may come!" Both assertions may well find credence; so +characteristic are they of her whom all men revered and loved. As the +head and representative of the whole empire, every bereavement caused +by the war had in it for her a kind of personal element. But her +sympathies and sufferings were destined to become more than merely +vicarious. As in connection with one of our petty West African wars +she was compelled to mourn the death of Prince Henry of Battenberg, so +in the course of this South African war death again invaded her own +immediate circle. The griefs that hastened her end were strongly +personal as well as representative, and so made her all the more the +true representative of those she ruled. + +It was in the early days of that dull November, tidings reached her +and us of the dangerous illness of Prince Christian Victor. Not alone +in name was he Christian; and not alone in name was he Victor. On the +voyage out, in the _Braemar Castle_, through the absence of a +chaplain, the prince conducted divine worship with the troops. One of +our best appointed hospital trains was "The Princess Christian +Victor," so called presumably because provided by the bounty of his +and her princely hands and hearts. He was what Sir Ascelin declared +"The last of the English" to be--"A very perfect knight, beloved and +honoured of all men." + +It therefore alarmed both town and camp to learn that enteric, the +deadliest of all a soldier's foes, had claimed him, like so many a +lowlier man, for its prey, and that his life was in mortal peril. At +that time he was a patient in the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital which +consisted of Mr T. W. Beckett's beautiful mansion, and a formidable +array of tents that almost covered the whole of the extensive grounds. +Here prince and private alike reaped the fruit of the lavish +beneficence which provided and maintained this magnificent hospital. +All that wealth could procure was there of skill and tenderness, and +such appliances as the healing art requires. All was there, except the +power to command success. With what seemed startling suddenness the +prince's vital powers collapsed, and the half masting of flags, far +and wide, told to friend and foe the tidings of the Queen's +irreparable loss. + +[Illustration: _From a photograph by Mr Jones_ + +Part of I.Y. Hospital in the Grounds Surrounding Mr T. W. Beckett's +Mansion at Pretoria.] + +[Sidenote: _A Royal Funeral._] + +It was at first proposed that the body of the prince should be taken +to England for interment, and certain companies of the Grenadiers, to +which battalion I was still attached, were detailed for escort duty, +but finally it was decided all fittingly that he should be laid to +rest in the city where he fell, and among the comrades who like him +had laid down life in defence of Queen and duty. So Pretoria witnessed +a stately funeral, the like of which South Africa had never seen +before, as the Queen's own kinsman was borne, by the martial +representatives of the whole empire, to the quiet cemetery which this +war had so enlarged and so enriched. + +Disease and fatal woundings combined cost us in this strangely +protracted conflict, scarcely more lives than the one great fight at +Waterloo, where on the English side alone 15,000 fell,--for the most +part to rise no more. In this South African war, up to January 31st, +1901, about 7700 of our men had died of disease; 700 by accidents; and +4300 of wounds. But this Pretoria cemetery like that at Bloemfontein, +where 1500 interments took place in less than fifteen months, affords +striking testimony to the common loyalty of all classes throughout the +empire. Volunteers belonging to the Imperial Light Horse, raised +exclusively in South Africa here lie, side by side, with volunteers +belonging to the Imperial Yeomanry, raised exclusively in England. +Sons of the empire, from Canadian Vancouver and Australian Victoria, +here find a common sepulchre. The soldier prince whose dwelling was in +king's palaces here becomes, as in the conflict of the battlefield so +in the quiet of a hero's grave, a comrade of the private soldier whose +dwelling was a cottage; and be it noted, the death of the lowliest may +involve quite as much of heartbreak as the lordliest. + +[Sidenote: _A touching story._] + +At the close of a simple military funeral in this same cemetery, the +orderly in charge came to me and said, "I never felt so much over any +case. This grave means four orphans left to the care of an invalid +mother. I knew the man well, and he was always scheming what to do for +his family when he got back: but _this_ is the end of it!" That dead +soldier was merely a private. Not one of his own particular comrades +was present, but only the necessary fatigue party. No flag was flung +over his coffin, no bugle sounded "the last post." No tear was shed. +It was only a commonplace "casualty," one among thousands. But it was +a tragedy all the same. These tragedies in humble life seldom find a +trumpeter; but they are none the less terrible on that account; and if +half the truth were known and realised concerning the horrors and +heartbreak caused by war, all Christendom would clamour for its speedy +superseding by honest Courts of Arbitration. + +[Illustration: _From a photograph by Mr Jones_ + +Wesleyan Church and Manse, Pretoria.] + +[Sidenote: _The death of the Queen._] + +I was still in Pretoria when tidings arrived concerning the illness +and death of the Queen; and was present in that same Kirk Square when +King Edward VII. was proclaimed "Overlord of the Transvaal." In +connection with the former event a memorial service, at which the +military were largely represented, was held in Wesley Church on +Sunday, January 27th. The Rev. Geo. Weavind, as well as Rev. H. W. +Goodwin, took part in the proceedings, and I was privileged to deliver +the following address which may serve to illustrate, once for all, the +type of teaching given to the troops throughout this campaign:-- + + "I bowed down mourning as one that bewaileth his mother." + --Ps. xxxv. 14 (R.V.). + +As there is no relationship on earth so imperishably true and tender +as that between a mother and her children, so also there is no +mourning on earth so real and reverent as that beside a mother's +grave. This saying therefore of the Psalmist describes with exquisite +exactness our common attitude to-day; and voices, as scarcely any +other single sentence could, our profoundest thought and feeling. We +behold at this hour a many peopled empire bowed down mourning; and +almost all other nations sharing in our sorrows; but it is not over +the death of a mere monarch, however mighty, the whole earth thus +feels moved to unfeigned lamentation. + +I. _It is the death of the representative_ MOTHER _of our race and age +that bids us wrap our mourning robes around us._ For any record of +such another we ransack in vain the treasure stores of all history. +She is the only mother that ever reigned in her own right over any +potent realm; and certainly over our own. Queen Mary of unhappy +memory, died childless, and her more fortunate sister, "Good Queen +Bess," went down to her grave a maiden queen; but in the case of +Victoria, four sons and five daughters found their earliest cradle in +her queenly arms. She is said to have been in almost all respects as +capable as the ablest of her predecessors, and was even to extreme old +age unsparingly devoted to the discharge of her royal duties. Yet not +by reason of her laboriousness, her linguistic gifts, or gifts of +statesmanship will she be longest and most lovingly remembered. Put +it on record, as her chief glory, that in her own person she honoured +family life and kept it pure, when for generations such pureness had +seldom been suffered to show its face. Her most popular portraits +represent her as the centre of a group of her own children, +grandchildren and great-grandchildren--a chain of living royalties +reaching to the fourth generation. It was never so seen in Israel +before; and thus have been linked to the throne of England by potent +blood bonds almost all the Protestant royalties of Europe. The Queen +retained to the last a heart that was young, because to the last she +lived in tenderest relationship to the young. I cannot therefore even +imagine a more beautifully appropriate or suggestive message than that +by which the new King conveyed to the Lord Mayor of London, tidings of +the great Queen's death:-- + + "My beloved Mother passed peacefully away, at 6.30, _surrounded + by her children and grandchildren_." + +In the midst of her children she lived; and all fittingly in the midst +of her children she died! + +As her most signal virtues were of the domestic type, so also her +acutest sorrows were domestic. A father's strongly tender love, or +wisely-watchful care, she never knew. In one sad year there was taken +from her her long-widowed mother, and her almost idolized husband, +Albert the Good. + + "Who reverenced his conscience as his king; + Whose glory was redeeming human wrong; + Who spake no slander, no, nor listened to it; + ... thro' all the tract of years, + Wearing the white flower of a blameless life." + +Concerning that great sorrow, the Queen was wont in homely phrase to +say that it made so large a hole in her heart, all other sorrows +dropped lightly through. Nevertheless of other sorrows too she was +called to bear no common share. As you are all well aware, two of the +daughters of our widowed Queen have themselves long been widows. Two +of her sons perished in their ripening prime. Her favourite daughter, +the Princess Alice, and her favourite grandson, the heir-presumptive +to her throne, drooped beside her like flowers untimely touched by +frost; and within the last few weeks we ourselves have seen yet +another of her grandsons laid beneath the sod in this very city of +Pretoria. Nor is it with absolutely unqualified regret we call to mind +that notably sad event. Like many another of lowlier name he died in +the service of his queen--and ours; and perchance the Queen herself +rebelled, not as against an utterly unfitting thing, when thus called +in her own person to share the griefs of those among her own people, +whom recent events have made so desolate. + +Reverentially we may venture to say that in all afflictions she was +afflicted, and thus endeared herself to those she ruled as no other +monarch ever did. Because she was Queen of Sorrows she became also +Queen of Hearts. + +That of which we have just spoken was indeed her last sore +bereavement; and now that to her who shed such countless tears there +has come the end of all grief, we have therewith witnessed the full +and final prevailings of her Laureate's familiar prayer:-- + + "May all love + His love unseen, but felt, o'ershadow thee; + The love of all thy sons encompass thee, + The love of all thy daughters cherish thee, + The love of all thy people comfort thee: + _Till God's love set thee at his side again_." + +The day she ceased to breathe was to her as a new, a nobler bridal +day. The wife has found her long-lost consort; the mother is at home! + +II. Queen Victoria was not merely a model mother in the narrow circle +of her own household. _She was emphatically the mother of her +people_--a people multitudinous as the stars of the midnight sky. One +fourth of the inhabitants of the entire globe gladly submitted to her +gentle sway. The vastest sovereignties of the ancient world were mere +satrapies compared with the length and breadth of her domain, and +to-day east, west, north and south bow down beneath a common sorrow +beside her bier. In synagogue and mosque and temple, in kirk and +church of every class and creed, men render thanks for one "who +wrought her people lasting good," and humbly own before their God that + + "A thousand claims to reverence closed + In her, as mother, wife, and queen." + +Almost as a matter of course this monarch and mother of many nations +became more and more liberal-minded and large-hearted. For her to have +become a bigot would have been a very miracle of perverseness. She +rejoiced in all true progress in all places, and made the sorrows of +the whole world her own. Famine in the East Indies, or a desolating +hurricane in the West, called forth from her an instant telegram of +queenly sympathy or, it may be, a queenly gift. Every effort for the +betterment of her people awoke her liveliest interest. The east end of +London, only less well than the west, was known to her. From Windsor +to Woolwich she recently went in midwinter, that with her own hand she +might distribute flowers among her wounded soldiers, and with her own +lips speak to them words of solace. At that same inclement season she +crossed the Irish Channel to show her vulnerable face once more among +her Irish people, and I should not marvel if for such a queen some +would even dare to die! + +It was ever with the simplicity of a sister of the people rather than +with the symbolic splendours of a sovereign, she went in and out among +us. In the full pomp and pageantry of her high position she seemed to +find no special pleasure. Even on Jubilee Day, when her presence +crowned the superbest procession England ever saw, she looked +immeasurably more like a mighty mother of her martial sons than like a +majestic monarch in the midst of her exulting subjects. Filial love +and filial loyalty that day reached their climax. Till then the best +informed knew not how truly she was the mother of us all! + +III. _Her prodigious hold upon the hearts of her people was largely +due to the unexampled length of her reign._ + +That she ever reigned is one of the many marvels of divine mercy found +in the history of our native land. Note that her father was not the +first, but the fourth son of old King George III.; that the three +elder sons all died childless, and that her own father died within a +few months of her birth. Victoria seems to have been as truly a +special gift of God to England as Samuel was to Israel. This longest +of all reigns was unmarred by any break of any kind from first to +last. Had our princess come to the throne only a few months earlier a +regency must have been proclaimed, and had she lingered a few months +longer increasing infirmities might have forced that same calamity +upon us. But through God's mercy hers was a full orbed reign. There +was no abdication of her power for a single day. The first serious +illness of her life was also her last, and to her it was granted to +cease at once to work and live. + +So long ago as September 1852, when her devoted friend and adviser, +the famous Duke of Wellington, died, she pathetically said "I shall +soon stand sadly alone"; then naming one after another of her recent +intimates she added "They are all gone!" That of necessity became +increasingly true in the course of the remaining half century of her +life. Not one among the many friends of her youth remained at her side +amid the deepening shadows of her eventide. Surrounded by new +acquaintances and new kinships a loneliness was hers, which few of us +are ever likely in any similar measure to experience. + +Every throne in Europe except her own has witnessed repeated changes +in the course of her strangely eventful career, sometimes as the +result of appalling revolutions ans sometimes as the fruit of a +dastardly assassin's dagger; but amid all He who was Abraham's shield +and exceeding great reward deigned to compass our Queen with songs of +deliverance. Never was any monarch so much prayed for; and that she +may long reign over us is a petition that in special measure has +prevailed. Not three score years and ten, but four score years and +two, have been the days of the years of her life, and now that the +inevitable end has come, no voice of complaining is heard in our +streets. Such a death we commemorate with thankful song! + +IV. _The Queen's whole reign was frankly based on the fear of God_; +and to find such in English history I fear we shall have to travel +back a full thousand years to the days of Alfred the Great, who was +also Alfred the Good, and whose favourite saying was + + "Come what may come, + God's will be welcome!" + +When Victoria was still a girl of fifteen she was solemnly confirmed +in the Chapel Royal, and in her case that impressive service +manifestly meant--what alas, it does not always imply--a life +henceforth wholly given to God. + +At two o'clock in the morning of June 21st, 1837, she was roused from +her slumbers in old Kensington Palace, and hastily flinging a shawl +over her nightdress, she presently stood in the presence of the Lord +Chamberlain and the Archbishop of Canterbury, to learn from their lips +that her royal uncle had given up the ghost, and that she, a trembling +maid of just eighteen, was Queen. Thereupon, so we are told, her eyes +filled with tears, her lips quivered, and turning to the Archbishop +she said, "Pray for me!" So that instant all three lowly bowed +imploring heaven's help. The Queen began her reign upon her knees. +Her first act of conscious royalty was thus to render heartfelt homage +to "The Prince of the kings of the earth." Hence came it to pass + + "Her court was pure, her life sincere." + +Her favourite recreations were consequently not those provided by the +ballroom, the card-table, the racecourse, or even the theatre. Music, +the simple charms of country life, and, manifold ministries of mercy, +were the pastimes that became her best; and she never appeared in the +eyes of her people more truly royal than when seen sitting by the +bedside of a Highland cottager, reading to the sick out of God's own +Gospel the wonderful words of life. + +We are here at liberty to use a scriptural phrase and to add that she +"married in the Lord." Royal etiquette required that the Queen should +herself select the lover destined to share the pleasures and +responsibilities of her high position, and her choice fell not on one +renowned for gaiety, for wealth or wit, but on one in whom she +recognised the double gift of abounding good sense and the grace of +our Lord Jesus Christ. For a choice so supremely wise, and for a +marriage so supremely happy, all thoughtful Englishmen still render +thanks to God. + +Her piety was as broad as it was deep and practical. The head of the +Anglican Church, when in England she worshipped with Anglicans only; +but when in Scotland she no less regularly repaired to the +Presbyterian Kirk, and only a few months ago gave expression to her +warm appreciation of the work done for God and man by "The people +called Methodists." She would tolerate no intolerance in things +pertaining to godliness, and on her Jubilee Day insisted that all +creeds should be invited to join in one common act of worship. For +that reason among others the Queen required that historic service +should be held in the open air, on the steps, it is true, of our +stateliest cathedral; but none the less under God's own arching sky, +which makes the whole earth a temple. We owe not a little of our +religious liberty to the personal influence and example of our much +lamented Queen; and we, therefore, show ourselves worthy to have been +her subjects, only when we shun utterly all indifference concerning +things divine, yet give no place to bigotry; when we seek out not the +worst, but the best, in every man, and honestly strive to make the +best of that best. + +V. _With the new century we suddenly find ourselves subjects of a new +Sovereign_, and with equal sincerity, if not with equal fervour, we +say, "God save the King." May his reign also like that of his +predecessor bring blessing to many lands! We crave not for him, and +seek not in him, unexampled greatness. We desire chiefly that he may +"love mercy, do justly, and walk humbly with his God." His rich legacy +of newly-created loyalty he will thus assuredly retain and augment. + +It is commonly said that this new century, like the last, has begun +with a notable lack of notable men, but, nevertheless, never yet have +we been left without trusty leaders in the hour of national necessity; +and as it has been so will it be! + + "We thank Thee, Lord, when Thou hast need, + The man aye ripens for the deed!" + +Yet the new century clamours importunately, not so much for great men, +as for good men. All greatness perishes that is not broad based on +godliness. The best gift for this new era that God Himself can bestow +upon our people, is the grace of deep-toned repentance, an impassioned +love of righteousness, a never flinching resolve to walk in newness of +life; for then will the brightness of even the Victorian era be +splendidly outshone, and heaven itself will hasten to make all things +new. We who believe in Christ have learned to say:-- + + "Oh Thou bleeding Lamb + The true morality is love of Thee!" + +Along that same path of love divine lies also the truest patriotism +and the speediest perfecting of our national life. I pray you, +therefore, let the God of your late Queen be yet more completely your +God; her Saviour your Saviour; and make this Memorial Service doubly +memorable by bowing this moment at His feet, + + "In full and glad surrender." + +[Sidenote: _The King's Coronation._] + +On Saturday, March 22nd, 1902, Schalk Burger, late State-Secretary +Reitz, and General Lucas Meyer are reported to have appeared in +Pretoria, presumably with a view to the submission of those they +represent to the sovereign authority of our new King, whose +approaching Coronation, Pretoria, even while I write, is preparing to +celebrate with unexampled splendour. It is intended to break all +previous festival records, and some of the Guards may only too +probably still be there to share therein. But that is quite another +story, and must find for itself quite another historian. Meanwhile-- + + "*God send His people peace!*" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH THE GUARDS' BRIGADE FROM +BLOEMFONTEIN TO KOOMATI POORT AND BACK*** + + +******* This file should be named 25135-8.txt or 25135-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/1/3/25135 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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