The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-20

or BoerS opposed to him is said by Alfred
 AylWard, who appears to have acted as
 their military secretary, to have num-
 bered 1,437, under Generals Joubert and
 Smidt. The Boers had no guns, and
 dreaded artillery fire more than any
 thing else, accordingly, they dug some
 dummy trenches in soft ground on a
 conspicuous part of the Nek, and then
 judiciously disposed themselves in safe
 ty elsewhere. Colley's guns opened fire
 at mile and half, and appear to have
 principally occupied themselves in she'll ing the empty trenches. as, according to Alfred Aylward no one was hurt or
 even frightened by the cannonade. it
 may be noted that Alfred Aylward's s
 figures are not contradicted by Sir Will
 liam Butler in the Life of Sir George
 Colley" which he has recently pubished
 and, indeed, with reference to this par
 tieular action, General Coley himself
 deplores the ineffectiveness of his artil-
 iery practice inc one of the letters printed
 by his biographer.
 Posting the naval brigade, with the
 rocket apparatus and some of the Six tieth Rifles, in an inclosed ground where ] they were under cover, and keeping
 about half his force in reserve, Colley
 dispatched five companies of the Fifty l eighth regiment, numbering four hun dred and eighty bayonets, together with about a hundred mounted men, to as-
 sault the left of the Boer line. In broad daylight, the foot advanced in column of
 companies across the open ground up
 the hill, against nearly thrice their own of 11n hoe ch otc ;y, bn who were under cover and armed with
 good modern rifles. The charge of the
 Dervish 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 retired in good order. The Boer loss Is said to have been two. It was magnificent, but it was not war. It
 proved, if any proof were needed that for infantry in column to charge in
 broad daylight works thus strongly held by resolute men who can handle breech- loaders is to court ruin and disaster.
 After Laings Nek the exultant Boers threatened Colley's communications, and on February he sallied out from his camp at Mount Prospect to clear the road in his rear This time he took with him five companies of the Slxtieth Rifles
 who, being in reserve, had not been cut up at Laing's Nek-and four guns, to- gether with thrty-eight mounted men. A few miles from camp he left half company and two guns to guard the drifts of the flooded Ingog river, and a mile or two further on he encountered strong party of Boers. With a confi- dence begotten of their easy victory at Laing's Nek, the Boers did not wait to eb attacked, but without hesitation, as- sumed the offensive Colley took up a position on tlat-topped hill and stood on his defence having now about three hundred men and two guns with him. According to Alfred Awkward, the Boer | patrol numbered 167 The Boers took | cover all round the hill, and prolonged | rife duel ensued between the two forces.
 Avoiding the British tactics al Laing's Nek, the conditions of which were ex actly reversed upon this occasion, the Boers refrained from any attempt to take the hill by direct assault in body, but as independent sharpshoters they kept up an incesFant rifle fire until nightfall. In accuracy of shooting and in the skill with which they sheltered themselves they proved to be superior to the defenders of the hill They drew off at last with loss of twelve killed and fourteen wounded, but the defend CTS had actually lost six times as many The sharpshooting skirmshers had put no less than half the force they were at -acking hors de combat. After the with lrawal of the Boers, Coley, whose horses were nearly all killed,with great difficulty In saving the guns. dotted all over as they were with the splashes of the Boer bullets, and by a desperate night march he regained his camp un- fer cover of darkness with the remnant ,f his forces. England had to learn by bitter experience that valor without good shooting is but waste of the lives If her bravest sons. The spirit and tanchness of the British troops were ad- nirable; and Colley's own letters warm y acknowledge the fact. But as shots hey were completely outcassed.
 Achievements now began to arrive! Colley's force at the front, which had uffered so heavily in these two en- cagements, was strengthened by the ar- ival of the Ninety-second Highlanders resh from their victories in Afghanis- | an; and with them he resumed the of ensive. This time he decided to avoid :. making a direct attempt on Laing's Jek, and aimed at turning that position y occupying the Majuba Mountain, which overhung the pass on the south vest. After Laing's Nek Colley had romised the survivors of the Fifty ighth to give them another chance of wing conclusions with their opponents; , nd to seize Majuba he took with him e force composed of three companies of c he Ninety-second, two of the Fifty ghth, and two of the Sixtieth supple tented as before by a naval contin- ent. By a skilful and daring march, e n the night of February, he occupied f, ithout opposition this post of vantage, O hich appeared to him impregnable. q But, unfortunately for Collay the posi- U on he had seized was not so strong as q 2 had imagined. The Majuba Moun- n in was what western Americans would d. Ill a belted mesa; it was a flat-topped, o : rather saucer-topped, height, with
 belt of perpendicular cliff running Vt ,und it a little below the summit, ol ,oken only here and there by a few tf