The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-12-20
In South Africa.

South Africa is very dark part OF
the dark continent for the worlds peo-
pie who are peering into the gloom for
news, ana for the homes of Britons who
seek the name of some member killed,
wounded or prisoner, after one of those
fierce encounters with the sturdy
burgners in whose fatal aim there is
death or manning. Dundee, Glencoe,
Eandsaagte and Ladysmith in Natal,
Belmont, Gras Pan and Modder River
in the west, and Stormberg in the CEN
tral of the divisions that had been
launched against the Boer borders,
have cost the English some 5000 brave
men, and have filed the distant house
holds with mourning-and the end is
not vet. No British force has yet
reached the gateways of the defiant re
pnblcs.
Armies aggregatiDg over 100 GOO
men are trying to find doorways TO
their enemy's territories. These
forces have been broken, crippled,
their effectiveness for aggressive oper-
ations weakened or destroyed, long
before they have reached the territory
of the Transvaal or the Orange Free
Stale. Methuen has been compelled
to pause in his advance in the west and
await the arrival of reinforcements.
Meantime his enemy is as active as
nest of aroused hornets, and the prob
lem with him is not how shall he re-
move the obstacle to his advance to
the relief OF Kimberly, but how shall he
save himself from annihilation till re-
lief comes up.
Gatacre, commanding the forces in
the north of Cape Colony, fronting the
Orange Free State boundaries, sets out
to surprise the burghers at Stormberg
and is himself surprised, beats a hasty
retreat with the loss of some six hun
dred men. This defeat is greater in
the effect il may have upon the Cape
Colony Dutch, the kinsmen of the pee
pie beyond the Orange and the Wal,
than in the losses of men and military
sertions of Beers who are British sub.
jects. How many cannot be definitely
known, but the armies of the Trans
wal and Orange Free State in theil
size and efficiency have wonderful
power of defying the statistics of 1hei
numerical strength gwen out while thu
war was impending. 1t seems clea
that their ranks have been recruited
from the British colonies, and the dis
aster 20 Gatacre will naturally give al
impetus to this Dutch dssffection
England's ability to strike the warrinl
republics blow from the north of Cap
Colony has been destroyed, and Incl
dentally Methuen's advance on tn
west endangered, if not effectual
checked for the present.
What will be England's success j
the ad ance to the Transvaal's border
through Natal? Coming events wi
answer this query. Butler may fore
Joubert back to the mountain borders
but when the British reach those ran
parts and their passes, the really de-
perate fighting will begin. The Boo
will then be within his native fastnes
es and the British understand that con
pared with him then McGregor on b
native heath was an infant in capaci
for mischief. Methuen and Gatac
placed horS du combat, Buffers diff
culties will be greatly enharc ed. IT
situation is becoming interesting TT
British are meeting foemen worthy
their steel, the first in half centur
They are not fighting the tribesmen
India or the Dervishes of the upp