Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1900-12-15
THE BRITISH AND THE B0ERS.


Notwithstanding the absence Of Pres
ident Kruger in Europe, and the return
of General Roberts to England, the
war between the British and the Beers
in the Transvaal continues to wag mer-
rily on, with no especially strong indi-
cations in sight upon which to base an
idea as to when hostilities will proba-
bly, cease.
The fighting is probably not so fierce
as it was a year ago. There have been
no really big events since the relief of
Ladysmith by Butler and the capture
of Cronje by Roberts; but still the i'm
mense British army of some 100000 men
has been busy nearly the whole year
and it is busy yet.
Under the lead of Generals Louis Bo-
tha, Christian DeWet and President
Stein, there are struggling forces of
Beers that are still giving lots of trou-
BILE. At times the respective armies
Of these leaders are reduced to less
than a thousand men each, and at 9TH
er times they are swelled to three or
four thousand men. Under circumstan-
ces especially favorable, the three gen.
erals can muster an aggregate of some
Is, 900 fighting men, and it is with these
that they continue to harass the Brit
ish.
The dispatches of the past week have
been dealing principally with the eff
forts of the British General Knox, to
capture General DeWet. During the
first few days they described DeWet as
being hemmed in on two sides by
swollen rivers and on the other two
sides by large forces Of British. Lon
don had every reason to believe that
the elusive Boer was pretty nearly at
the end Of his row; but for several days
past there have been brief statements
of firing between the two hostile forces,
resulting in a few British killed with
nothing definite as to what has happen
ed to the Beers, and there is every rea-
son to believe, of course, that DeWet
has gotten away as usual.
DeWet first came into prominence
during the march of Lord Roberts to-
ward Pretoria, after the capture of
Cronje near Blomfontein. He won his
reputation by an incident that required
GOODNESS and courage. The long British
wagon train was winding over the
road through the hills to Pretoria. At
a point where the train disappeared in
the hills there developed suspicious that
all was not right. The rear guard
could see the wagons enter ravine be-
tween two hills; but could not see the
long string stretching out from the
other side. A captain, with 80 men,
went forward to investigate. The
squadron turned behind the hill after
the wagons, and the captain was sud-
denly confronted by lone Boer who
covered him with a rifle The Boer
was DeWet. He announced to the cap
tain, "all of your men are covered with
the rifles of my men from behind the
rocks. Throw up your hands and Or
der your men to throw down their
arms. If you attempt to escape, you
will be fired upon" The British captain
wheeled his horse and ordered his men
20 run. DeWet fired and killed the
captain with a bullet through the
shoulder. The Beers behind the rocks
fired at the same instant and about 40
of the Britishers were killed. 1t seems
that as the teamsters had entered the
ravine, DeWet mad ordered them to
go on in a certain direction, and they
obeyed orders, with the result that a
large portion of the wagon train fell
into the hands of the Beers.
This is only one of many similar
achievements of DeWet, and Botha is
of the same general makeup. Sucn
men are we'll calculated to keep the
British guessing.
AS indicating what the British house
of commons thinks Of the situation, 1t
was decided on Tuesday to add $50, O,OOO,-
900 to previous estimates as to the prob
able cost of the war between now and
next March, and the chancellor of the
exchequer was authorized to borrow
s55, 900, 900 more in the event that su
a sum should be necessary.
All indications are to the effect that
the Beers are hopeless of possible sue
cess; but still they are not inclined to
surrender so long as they can see an
opportunity to annoy their enemies.
MERE-MENTION.