Inside the town were
chaos and confusion. The richest mines in the world lay for a day
or more at the mercy of a lawless rabble drawn from all nations.
The Boer officials were themselves divided in opinion, Krause
standing for law and order while Judge Koch advocated violence. A
spark would have set the town blazing, and the worst was feared
when a crowd of mercenaries assembled in front of the Robinson mine
with threats of violence. By the firmness and tact of Mr. Tucker,
the manager, and by the strong attitude of Commissioner Krause, the
situation was saved and the danger passed. Upon May 31st, without
violence to life or destruction to property, that great town which
British hands have done so much to build found itself at last under
the British flag. May it wave there so long as it covers just laws,
honest officials, and clean-handed administrators - so long and no
longer!
And now the last stage of the great journey had been reached. Two
days were spent at Johannesburg while supplies were brought up, and
then a move was made upon Pretoria thirty miles to the north. Here
was the Boer capital, the seat of government, the home of Kruger,
the centre of all that was anti-British, crouching amid its hills,
with costly forts guarding every face of it. Surely at last the
place had been found where that great battle should be fought which
should decide for all time whether it was with the Briton or with
the Dutchman that the future of South Africa lay.
On the last day of May two hundred Lancers under the command of
Major Hunter Weston, with Charles of the Sappers and Burnham the
scout, a man who has played the part of a hero throughout the
campaign, struck off from the main army and endeavoured to descend
upon the Pretoria to Delagoa railway line with the intention of
blowing up a bridge and cutting the Boer line of retreat. It was a
most dashing attempt; but the small party had the misfortune to
come into contact with a strong Boer commando, who headed them off.
After a skirmish they were compelled to make their way back with a
loss of five killed and fourteen wounded.
The cavalry under French had waited for the issue of this
enterprise at a point nine miles north of Johannesburg. On June 2nd
it began its advance with orders to make a wide sweep round to the
westward, and so skirt the capital, cutting the Pietersburg railway
to the north of it. The country in the direct line between
Johannesburg and Pretoria consists of a series of rolling downs
which are admirably adapted for cavalry work, but the detour which
French had to make carried him into the wild and broken district
which lies to the north of the Little Crocodile River.
