The age-herald., 1900-05-18
Seventeen Killed and Kruger's
 Grandson Captured
THE TOWN STILL HOLDS OUT
Brother of Preside mt Stein Says the Free Staters Will Accept Anne xation Five Hundred R.fes Have Been
 Surrendered

l@ohboii, way To- o'oV d' iii'-A1hSihhN SeiiA waits with intense and almost breathless interest for news of the relief of Mafe- king crowd remarkable TOT the number of men in evening dress and including many ladies, fingered around the war off
 flee even after midnight, hoping for some announcement. Only reluctantly did the people disperse when the Hobbies of tho war office were finally cleared with the word that nothing had been received.
 One thing seems clear. The town still holds out. Were it otherwise the Boer wires laid to the camps of the beleaguers would have flashed the news.
 Skeleton messages from Lourenzo Mar ques based information, leaked at the Pretoria war office, show that the storm- CTS Saturday fell into trap Colonel Ba- den-Powell permitted them to seize one fort, and he then surrounded and oVerpore them before the large forces near at hand perceived the stratagem. It was thus that Sareloff, President Kruger's grandson, and part of his commando were taken and o0 Boers killed.
 The Canadian artillery contingent of the Rhodesian force is now reported to have reached Buluwayo May ?. The distance from Buluwayo to Mafeking is 490 miles. As the railway is open all the way to Pitt sani 2S miles from Mafeking, where Col- ! onel Plumer is, the Canadians may yet take part in the relief
 General French scouting northward, found the Boers in strong force at Rhen- oster Spruit, 30 miles from kroonstad. Generals Botha, DeLarey and Oliver, with artillery, were holding the position.
 President Steyn, according to one dis patch, has gone to Pretoria. Another says he Is a fugitive at Lindley. The Free Staters are surrendering on all sides. A dispatch from Cape Town says that proc lamations are being printed there to be published the queens birthday, May 24 annexing the Free State.
 Wi. Accept Annexation
 One of President Steyn's brothers, who is a prisoner of Gen. Brabants, says the Free Staters will accept annexation Those who took up arms the second time, he explains, had to do so under threats or instant death.
 | Five hundred rifles have been surrendered at Kroonstad in excess of the number of Boers who have taken the oath of alle- glance. Lord Roberts has directed the British commanders to receive all comers in good spirit and to issue to them passes to go to their farms
 Gen. Butler is pushing straight ahead without opposition. He has only lost five wounded during the movement. Apparent- y he is aiming at Laings Mex, which Is the direct road to the Transyaal, although he may diverge to Bothas Pass. Gen. Hunters movements in the western Transvaal are rather puzzling. He has re- i turned to Fourteen Streams with one bri- | gade, leaving another, Gen. Barton's, at 1 Christiana. Lord Methuen is said to be ! advancing along the south bank of the l Vaal
 1 Col Kekewich is with him. The loop 1 railway line across the Vaal is fast near l ing completion. The probability is that 1 Gen. Hunter took back brigade to Four- l teen Streams owing to scarcity of trans- port.
 Gen. Rundle has captured 10000 bags of corn. He is marching slowly through a district which is described as literally teeming with cattle sheep and horses" Must Hold Out Michael Davitt according to dispatch | from Lorenzo Marques is said to have ad- | vised the Boers while he was in Pretoria | that if they could hold out until the presi- | dential election in the United States they | might feel pretty sure of intervention" | At Johannesburg the women are forming a police corps, so to release every man | for fighting purposes at the front | pr. Archer, who was at Dundee during | the Boer occupation, asserts that there arc several hundred Englishmen serving in the Boer ranks who would desert if assured oE pardon from the British. The Pretoria official list of foreigners shows 160 EnglshY men who are not fighting but hold theiE residence in the Transvaal by special perl mission. They are bank clerks engineers and shopkeepers.
 Durban reports the receipt of a teleS gram from Lourenzo Marques saying that the Boer plot to blow up the British cruiseE Forte was discovered and that in conse, quence the warship steams out several miles nightly.
 President Steyn witnessed the fight at Zand river. The impression he got therS was that his burghers could not face Lord Roberts in a pitched battle, and this re- suited, according to advicos from Lourenzo Marques in his decision to evacuate thd Kroonstad works without battle.
 The Standard says:
 From pro-Boer sources we learn that the first great stand by the federals will be on the ridges near Johannesburg. This position has been strongly entrenched ana the burghers believe they can hold 1t fog some time If driven from that point part of the force will be thrown into Pretoria to withstand siege. while the main body will retreat to the Lydenburg district with the intention of keeping up a guerilla war>