Their Fire,
Or Rather The Covering Fire Of Those Who Had Not Joined In The
Charge, Had Caused Some Fifty Casualties, But Their Own Losses Were
Very Much More Severe.
The fierce Potgieter fell just in front of
the British guns.
'Thank goodness he is dead!' cried one of his
wounded burghers, 'for he sjamboked me into the firing line this
morning.' Fifty dead and a great number of wounded were left upon
the field of battle. Rawlinson's column came up on Kekewich's left,
and the Boer flight became a rout, for they were chased for twenty
miles, and their two guns were captured. It was a brisk and
decisive little engagement, and it closed the Western campaign,
leaving the last trick, as well as the game, to the credit of the
British. From this time until the end there was a gleaning of
prisoners but little fighting in De la Rey's country, the most
noteworthy event being a surprise visit to Schweizer-Renecke by
Rochfort, by which some sixty prisoners were taken, and afterwards
the drive of Ian Hamilton's forces against the Mafeking railway
line by which no fewer than 364 prisoners were secured. In this
difficult and well-managed operation the gaps between the British
columns were concealed by the lighting of long veld-fires and the
discharge of rifles by scattered scouts. The newly arrived
Australian Commonwealth Regiments gave a brilliant start to the
military history of their united country by the energy of their
marching and the thoroughness of their entrenching.
Upon May 29th, only two days before the final declaration of peace,
a raid was made by a few Boers upon the native cattle reserves near
Fredericstad. A handful of horsemen pursued them, and were ambushed
by a considerable body of the enemy in some hilly country ten miles
from the British lines. Most of the pursuers got away in safety,
but young Sutherland, second lieutenant of the Seaforths, and only
a few months from Eton, found himself separated from his horse and
in a hopeless position. Scorning to surrender, the lad actually
fought his way upon foot for over a mile before he was shot down by
the horsemen who circled round him. Well might the Boer commander
declare that in the whole course of the war he had seen no finer
example of British courage. It is indeed sad that at this last
instant a young life should be thrown away, but Sutherland died in
a noble fashion for a noble cause, and many inglorious years would
be a poor substitute for the example and tradition which such a
death will leave behind.
CHAPTER 39.
THE END.
It only remains in one short chapter to narrate the progress of the
peace negotiations, the ultimate settlement, and the final
consequences of this long-drawn war. However disheartening the
successive incidents may have been in which the Boers were able to
inflict heavy losses upon us and to renew their supplies of arms
and ammunition, it was none the less certain that their numbers
were waning and that the inevitable end was steadily approaching.
With mathematical precision the scientific soldier in Pretoria,
with his web of barbed wire radiating out over the whole country,
was week by week wearing them steadily down. And yet after the
recent victory of De la Rey and various braggadocio pronouncements
from the refugees at The Hague, it was somewhat of a surprise to
the British public when it was announced upon March 22nd that the
acting Government of the Transvaal, consisting of Messrs. Schalk
Burger, Lucas Meyer, Reitz, Jacoby, Krogh, and Van Velden had come
into Middelburg and requested to be forwarded by train to Pretoria
for the purpose of discussing terms of peace with Lord Kitchener. A
thrill of hope ran through the Empire at the news, but so doubtful
did the issue seem that none of the preparations were relaxed which
would ensure a vigorous campaign in the immediate future. In the
South African as in the Peninsular and in the Crimean wars, it may
truly be said that Great Britain was never so ready to fight as at
the dawning of peace. At least two years of failure and experience
are needed to turn a civilian and commercial nation into a military
power.
In spite of the optimistic pronouncements of Mr. Fischer and the
absurd forecasts of Dr. Leyds the power of the Boers was really
broken, and they had come in with the genuine intention of
surrender. In a race with such individuality it was not enough that
the government should form its conclusion. It was necessary for
them to persuade their burghers that the game was really up, and
that they had no choice but to throw down their well-worn rifles
and their ill-filled bandoliers. For this purpose a long series of
negotiations had to be entered into which put a strain upon the
complacency of the authorities in South Africa and upon the
patience of the attentive public at home. Their ultimate success
shows that this complacency and this patience were eminently the
right attitude to adopt.
On March 23rd the Transvaal representatives were despatched to
Kroonstad for the purpose of opening up the matter with Steyn and
De Wet. Messengers were sent to communicate with these two leaders,
but had they been British columns instead of fellow-countrymen they
could not have found greater difficulty in running them to earth.
At last, however, at the end of the month the message was conveyed,
and resulted in the appearance of De Wet, De la Rey, and Steyn at
the British outposts at Klerksdorp. The other delegates had come
north again from Kroonstad, and all were united in the same small
town, which, by a whimsical fate, had suddenly become the centre
both for the making of peace and for the prosecution of the war,
with the eyes of the whole world fixed upon its insignificant
litter of houses. On April 11th, after repeated conferences, both
parties moved on to Pretoria, and the most sceptical observers
began to confess that there was something in the negotiations after
all.
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