The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-12-14
WAR NEARLY OVER
CONTINUED from Page L.

der river, would dispute our passage 10
| the last extremity.
We rested we'll on Monday night. a
few miles from the river. but the en-
tire force was on the march again be-
fore dawn yesterday, one brigade far
on the right, another we'll on the left
Soon after > o'clock we came in touch
with the enemy. Our artillery opened
fire. After an hour and half of she'll
ing, the Ninth Lancers and mounted
infantry went forward and found Be-
ers in farm hotel grounds and pleas
ure gardens, but apparently no in
force. All the buildings We're sur
rounded by low walls, behind which
hundreds of Boer marksmen could be
| concealed.
General POle-Carew's brigade, on
the left, was sent forward to make a
feint attack in the hope that they
would draw the enemy away, while the
Guards brigade forced passage of the
river. All this time terrific artillery
and rifle fire was in progress. About
9 o'clock the Lancers became engaged
with the enemy. AS they retired the i
Guards were pushed forward to the |
buildings mentioned Little sign of |
| life could be seen until the Guards cot |
| within 100 yards of the low walls. then
a murderous, appalling fire opened up
on our men. The walls of the farm
| outbuildings vCmited continuous tor
| rents Of lead. 1t was almost an am
bush. The Grenadiers the leading re-
giment, appeared almost to be cleared |
off the ground by the storm of bullets.
The Guards fell back and took what
cover they could. All the time the
Beers played upon them with several
Hotchkiss guns, which, however. were
for INN arAlNr fro h /
execution. The fire from one Of the
Boer machine guns split and disabled
Maxim belonging 10 the Scots
Guards.
British troops seldom faced such a
rifle fusillade. They never once saw
the enemy and were unable to raise
head or foot from the ground without
being riddled. The infantry utterly
failed 70 advance a yard in the face of
such fire. BY series of short rushas
our men at last sought to get to closer =
quarters with the enemy. The British
strove TO press forward, pouring volley
after volley into the enemy's works
and the ground was strewn with our
dead. The British officers set the ex- Il
ample to their men. sacrificing them q
selves unhesitatingly. Thus fell Col
onel Stopford OF the Coldstream
Guards.
At length the Scots Guards reached e
the bed of a dried-up water course and :
dashed into it while the enemys oul-
lets swept over our heads Up the :
slope to the opposite bank they climb z
e. and stood on level ground, exposed e
to the enemy's fire. The cover afford i
ed by the water course was gone. They
were asSailed by murderOus fire and ::
the Beers simply rained bullets on our e
forces. No one could live under this q
fire and the losses were heavy !
Meanwhile the Grenadiers, Cold
streams, Northum and High p
landers were pushing forward on both
sides of the railway line, which is high
er than the surrounding plain. Every
one who tried to advance along it was
hit. The whole line was now about
500 yards from the south bank OF the
river. taking advantage of the littleI
cover procurable. The infantry lay for
hours returning the Boer fire, still not
one of the enemy could be seen. By
this time artillery had been brought to
bear against the farm buildings; scores
of shells went through them and the
walls were soon riddIed. Once the
farmhouse was on fire, but through all
the storm of shot and shell the Beers
held their position with a grim ten
acity which was li,ole less than marve-
lous. 4
Late in the afternoon part of POle-I
Carew's brigade managed to get across
the river. far down to the left and I
maintained their foothold We lay on
our arms that night the Beors quietly ,
withdrew across the river into their
intrenchments on the north side, car
rying most of their deadand wounded
Thus we gained the field, but at enor- !
nous cost, nearly 500 of ours being
dead or wounded The list you already
have. J
ROBERTS TO SUPERSEDE BUTLER.
LONDON. Dec. 4.-Field Marshal
Lord Roberts will be ordered to Uapel I
Town to take chief command of all the I
British forces in South Africa. accord
ing to a report prevalent tonight, SUI
perseding General Butler. Lord Ro- 4
berts ranks next to Lord WOlseley.
Commander-in-Chief of the British
army, and was long Commander-in- 4
Chief in India.
This news caused decided cOnmO-
ton in military quarters, which were .
already greatly agitated by the order 4
ing out of 10000 fresh men, under Ma
jor-General Thomas Kelly-Kenny. In
spector General of the auxiliary forces 4
and recruiting. Military experts think
General Butler has enough to do TO
look after Natal. while Generals CAT
acre. French and Methuen are operat-
ing almost as independent command
ers.
Continental critics insist that the I
Boer tactics will land General Methu-
en- at Kimberley so weakened That he
will not be able to move toward Bio I
emfontein or Pretoria because his lines
behind will be cut by raiders.
MAY BE IN KIMBERLEY.
LONDON, Dec 4.-The Evening
News says it learns that cable dis
patch was received today from an Off
Ger of the Guards, saying simply, I'm ,
Kimberley which it is added, may I
mean that General Methuen's van
guard has entered Kimberley. ,
BOERS RETIRE FROM MAFEKING.
CAPE TOWN, Thursday. Nov 30 ,