At Beira, A Portuguese Port Through Which We Have
Treaty Rights By Which We May Pass Troops, A Curious Mixed Force Of
Australians, New Zealanders And Others Was Being Disembarked And
Pushed Through To Rhodesia, So As To Cut Off Any Trek Which The
Boers Might Make In That Direction.
Carrington, a fierce old
soldier with a large experience of South African warfare, was in
command of this picturesque force, which moved amid tropical
forests over crocodile-haunted streams, while their comrades were
shivering in the cold southerly winds of a Cape winter.
Neither our
Government, our people, nor the world understood at the beginning
of this campaign how grave was the task which we had undertaken,
but, having once realised it, it must be acknowledged that it was
carried through in no half-hearted way. So vast was the scene of
operations that the Canadian might almost find his native climate
at one end of it and the Queenslander at the other.
To follow in close detail the movements of the Boers and the
counter movements of the British in the southeast portion of the
Free State during this period would tax the industry of the
historian and the patience of the reader. Let it be told with as
much general truth and as little geographical detail as possible.
The narrative which is interrupted by an eternal reference to the
map is a narrative spoiled.
The main force of the Freestaters had assembled in the
north-eastern corner of their State, and from this they made their
sally southwards, attacking or avoiding at their pleasure the
eastern line of British outposts. Their first engagement, that of
Sanna's Post, was a great and deserved success. Three days later
they secured the five companies at Reddersberg. Warned in time, the
other small British bodies closed in upon their supports, and the
railway line, that nourishing artery which was necessary for the
very existence of the army, was held too strongly for attack. The
Bethulie Bridge was a particularly important point; but though the
Boers approached it, and even went the length of announcing
officially that they had destroyed it, it was not actually
attacked. At Wepener, however, on the Basutoland border, they found
an isolated force, and proceeded at once, according to their
custom, to hem it in and to bombard it, until one of their three
great allies, want of food, want of water, or want of cartridges,
should compel a surrender.
On this occasion, however, the Boers had undertaken a task which
was beyond their strength. The troops at Wepener were one thousand
seven hundred in number, and formidable in quality. The place had
been occupied by part of Brabant's Colonial division, consisting of
hardy irregulars, men of the stuff of the defenders of Mafeking.
Such men are too shrewd to be herded into an untenable position and
too valiant to surrender a tenable one. The force was commanded by
a dashing soldier, Colonel Dalgety, of the Cape Mounted Rifles, as
tough a fighter as his famous namesake.
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