The times., 1899-07-04
fFrom colller,s Magazine !


Most of us remember only too well the
short-lived English domination in the
Transvaal during the latter part of the
seventies, as well as the way in which
misfortune seemed to dog the steps OF
those on whose shoulders fell the burden
of upholding it there. We had found the
country in a bankrupt condition and had
restored its finances; we had found it
threatened by the formidable Zulu mon
arch. with his army of $4,000 fighting saw
ages thoroughly drilled and in a state OF
high military efficiency. After desperate
struggle, in which We suffered some very
severe losses, including the battle of Isan-
dula, where our camp was taken and the
whole of its defenders slaughtered, the
British arms finally achieved a complete
but hard-won triumph. We had broken
the power of Cetewayo and dispersed his
regiments of "celibate, man-destroying
gladiators, to use the phrase in which
Sir Bartle Frere once described his justly
dreaded impis Subsequently, in the Trans
yaal itself, we had overthrown Secocoeni,
q powerful native chief who had success
fully defied the Boer Government; while
enterprising British traders had supplied
an abundance of excellent sporting rifles
not little money by shooting down the
game with them. In brief, we had re-
moved, one by one, every obstacle to
revolt on the part of the emigrant farm
ers who made up the bulk of the popula-
ton of the Transvaal outside the towns.
The revolt followed, as might have been
expected. 1t broke out in the month of
December, 1880, during the warm summer
of the Southern Hemisphere, and 1t came
n N
cluded after the disastrous battle of Ma
juba Mountain on February 26, 1881. The
tale of misfortune begins with the affair
OF Bronkerspruit in December. The Nine
ty-fourth Regiment forming part of the
British garrison OF the Transvaal, had
been ordered TO concentrate at Pretoria,
and was on the march thither No actual
fighting had as yet taken place, but the
Beers had held mass meeting, proclaimed
republic, and announced that they were
going to begin. At Bronkerspruit they
laid carefully prepared ambush along
the road by which the Ninety-fourth were
advancing, and awaited their victims.
Caught In Trap.
The British colonel had been warned
to look out for traps, but, as far as can
now be known, he had no idea that these
sharpshooting farmers were really in ear
ing. The Ninety-fourth were strung out
for half mile along the road; the weather
was hot and many of the. soldiers had put
their rifles in the wagons: in short the
march was conducted as if in a time of
profound peace. AT a certain spot the
long column was halted by Boer patrol
There was a brief colloquy between the
colonel and the Beers; they ordered him
to go back, and he refused. Nobody seems
n have ha htts cd riN
to have observed the little heaps of stones
with which these skilled hunters Of wild
game, old hands at shooting over the bare
yeldt, had thoughtfully marked out be-
forehand at one hundred, one hundred and
fifty. and two hundred yards their exact
distance from their intended targets
The Boer rifles cracked and in twenty
minutes all the officers and half the British
troops were shot down, and the rest were
made prisoners; the loss on the side OF
the farmers was almost nil AS a West
ern American crudely observed, it was a
case of lot Of first-class frontiersmen
taking in a crowd of tenderfeet out of the
wet. 1t was a terribly severe lesson that
in the face of a possible enemy soldier
must never be off his guard.
After the Bronkerspruit disaster the
whole country was up All the British
garrisons in the Transvaal were beleaguer-
ed by the Beers, and one garrison, Potch-
efstroom, was known both by them and
by Sir George Pomeroy Colley, the general
in command in Natal, to be short of pro-
visions. Colley gallantly determined to
cut his way in, If possible, and relieve it.
He knew well enough that ere long an
army from overseas must be sent to re-
trieve the honor of the British arms; but
he was also aware that 1t must inevitably
arrive too late to save Potchefstroom. The
Beers had occupied Laing's Kek, the pass
| leading into the Transvaal from Natal:
and with the small British force he had
at his command he hoped to be able to dis
lodge them and clear the road. General
Colley was considered to be one of the
very best officers In the British army. He
had had some experience in actual fighting
in China, and he had exhibited extraordi-
nayr skill and courage and resource in the
difficult task of organizing the transport
| in the Ashanti campaign. He certainly
could not be called a novice in war. But,
| unfortunately. there was one thing of
which all his previous experience had
| taught him nothing, and that was how to
| fight against good shots armed with mod
| ern breechloaders.
On January q, 1881, Colley moved upon
| Laings Mex with about 1.100 men and
| six guns. The force of Beers opposed to
him is said by Alfred Aylward, who ap-
pears TO have acted as their military sec
retary, to have numbered 1.437 under
| Generals Joubert and Smidt. The Beers
| had no guns and dreaded artillery fire
| more than anything else. accordingly,
they dug some dummy trenches in soft
ground on & conspicuous part of the Mex
and then judiciously disposed themselves
In safety elsewhere. Coley's guns opened
| fire at mile and a half, and appear to have
| principally occupied themselves in shelling
| the empty trenches, as, according to Alfred
| Alyward, no one was hurt or even fright
| ened by the cannonade. Ii may be noted
| that Alfred Aylward's figures are not con-
| tradieted by Sir William Butler in the
Life of Sir George Colley." which he
has recently published; and, indeed with
reference to this particular action Gener-
al Colley himself deplores the Ineffective
ness of his artillery practice in one OF the
letters printed by his biographer.
Magnificent, hut Not War.
Posting the naval brigade, with the
rocket apparatus and some of the Sixtieth
Rifles, in an enclosed ground where they
were under cover. and keeping about half
his force in reserve Colley despatched five
| companies of the Fifth-eighth Regiment
numbering 4S0 bayonets. together with
( about a hundred mounted men, to assault
the left of the Boer line. In broad day
| light, the foot advanced in column of
companies across the open ground and up
the hill. against nearly thrice their own
number of the best shots in the world,
who were under cover and armed with
good modern rifles The charge of the
Dervisher host at Omdurman was not so
gallant or so futile. In a few minutes
the handful of mounted men were scat
tered, and one-third of the Fifty eighth
lay dead or wounded on that bloody slope.
| The survivors drew off, reformed their
shattered lines behind the Sixtieth Rifles
| and in, I,-