The Irish standard., 1900-02-10
THE BRAVE BoER BOYS
Eight Of Them Fight Hundreds O.
British Soldiers,

British Soldiers. A,
From Pretoria the Daily News has
secured an interesting translation of a
letter written by Denys Reitz to his
father, the Transvaal state secretary.
The writer is with the Boer forces be-
fore Ladysmith. He is II years old.
Joubert is a younger brother and
Hjamer is an elder brother just returned
from Europe,
Before Ladysmith, Dec. 12, $780,
Dear Father: Joubert and I are still
safe and WE'LL l see in the Standard
and Diggers News that the English had
stormed Lomards Kop, but it is not
stated that they damaged two of their
guns. On the following morning they
came past us, but were soon driven
back. But now comes the worst. We
were on our outskirt duty last night,
about GOO yards on hill on which stood
Howitzers. Below this hill lay outposts,
which, either through treachery or care
lessness, allowed the English to pass.
About o'clock we heard the English
on the top OF the hill crying 'Hurrah!
We sent word to Zederberg, the field
cornet, but before he could arrive the
Howitzer was damaged. The English
again cheered and we were so enraged
that we Immediately ran through the
bushes to stop them when they should
come down again. There were only
eight of us.
1T was, OF course, pitch dark. When
we had run short distance we heard,
Halt! who goes tllere? from the sentry
OF body OF English who had remained
i'll the bushes. We fired volley in their
direction and ran as fast as we could to
a ditch behind u.s. After waiting some
minutes we again advanced among the
bushes and after having marched about
a mile we reached the creek which runs
below the hill.
Here body of English who had re-
manned behind, fired a volley at us. We
lay against the bank of the creek and
replied to their fire. 1t became so hot.
however, that we retired around the
corner of the bank. Here Sample Van
Zyl was shot. He was about a yard
ahead of me- He was struck by two
bullets, one in the throat and the other
through the lung. We are very sad to-
day on account of his death, for he was
the life and soul of our camp. He did
not die Immediately. We placed him
against the bank and gave him water
We were then obliged to leave him, for
some of the English were behind us,
while those who had been on the top of
the hill were in front of us.
eve ran to the opposite bank, and
then an Englishnan rushed down to-
ward me and was going to stab me with
his bayonet, but he was little too high
up, so that he could not do it. He said:
Throw down your gun and I won't
shoot But I said: Throw down
yours or shall shoot And so I would,
but he threw down his gun. Then he
fumbled with his hands in his breast,
probably to loosen his cartridge pouch,
but l thought he meant to take out a
revolver. My comrades shouted out,
Shoot him, Reitz, shoot him! But I
had not the heart to shoot man at
two PAGES, SO I said: Put up your
hands or I'll shoot which he accord
ingly did. | then took his gun and shall
send you the bayonet.
"The English we're appearing and we
could hear what they said. They were
in high spirits and they were quite una
ware of our being in front of them. We
waited till we could see them. They
marched in close order, about 800 in
number. They were about ten yards
from u.s. We then fired among them.
They stopped and all called out, Rifle
brigade They may have supposed that
we belonged to their people. Then one
of them said, Let us charge One Of
fcer, Captain Paley q am writing this
letter with his silver pencil case), ad
vanccd, though he had two bullet
wounds already Joubert gave him an
other shot and he fell on top of US.
Four Englishmen got hold of Jan Lau-
tig and struck him on the head with
their rifles and stabbed him in the stom-
ach with bayonet. He seized two Of
them by the throat and shouted, Help,
boys! His two nearest comrades shot
two OF the nearest soldiers and the other
two boltcd. But then the English came
up in such numbers that we all lay down
as quiet as mice along the bank. They
came in single file about 300 along the
foot path, only about six yards from
where we lay. Had there been more Of
us we would have continued firing, but
the English would simply have tram
pied lis down.
eve could, of course, see them we'll
and ovcrhear all they said One of them
said Who knows the way" Another
replied, Keep to the right and as I
was sitting few yards to the right I
felt somewhat uneasy, but they just then
fortunately found the footpath again
and did not see me- Whilst they we're
crossing the ditch one of the English
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