New-York tribune., 1900-05-18
northeast and took possession of Maquatling's g
Mex Prisoners continue to be taken daily.
BOERS TRAPPED BY BADEN-POWELL
THE CAPTURE OF ELOFF AND HIS MEN
THE REsUL. OF STRATAGEM.

London, May 1s.-England still waits with
intense and almost breathless interest for news
of the relief of Mafeking. crowd remarkable
for the number of men in evening dress, and in
Guiding many women, fingered around the War
Office even after midnight. hoping for some
nouncement. Only reluctantly did the people
disperse when the lobbies of the War Office were
finally cleared with the word that nothing had
been received.
One thing seers clear. The town still holds
out. Were it otherwise the Boer wires laid to
the camps of the beleaguers would have flashed
the new
Skeleton messages from Lourenco Marques
based upon information that leaked out at the
Pretoria War Office show that the Boer storm
ers Saturday fell into trap. Colonel Baden
Powell permitted them to seize one fort and he
then surrounded and overbore them before the
large forces at hand perceived the STRATA
gem. 1t thus that Sarel Eloff President
Krtiger's grandson. and part of his commando
were taken and fifty Beers killed.
The Canadian artillery contingent Of the Rho
desian force is reported to have reached
Bulawayo May .. The distance from Bulawayo
to Mafeking is 400 miles AS the railway is
open all the way to Pitsan. twenty-eight miles
from Mafeking, where Colonel Plumer is the
Canadians may yet take part in the relief
General French. scouting northward found
thirty miles from Kroonstad Generals Botha
Delarey and Olivier, with artillery were hold
ing the position.
President Steyn, according to one dispatch
has gone to Pretoria. Another says he is
fugitive at Lindley. The Free Staters are sur
rendering on all sides. dispatch from Cape
Town says that proclamations are being print
ed there, to be published on the Queens birth
day. May "a, annexing the Free State
One of President Steyn's brothers. who is a
prisoner of General Brabant, says that the
Free Staters will accept annexation. Those who
took up arms the second time, he explains had
to do under threats of instant death if they
refused.
Five hundred rifles have been surrendered at
Kroonstad in excess of the number of Beers
who have taken the oath of allegiance. Lord
Roberts has directed the British commanders
to receive all comers in a good spirit. and to
issue to them passes TO go to their farms
General Butler is pushing straight ahead with
out opposition. He has only lost five wounded
during the movement. Apparently he is aim
ing at Laing's Mex, which is the direct road to
the Transvaal, although he may diverge to
Bothas Pass.
General Hunters movements in the Western
Transvaal are rather puZzling. He has re-
turned TO Fourteen Streams with one brigade
leaving another, General Barton's al Christiana
Lord Methuen is said to be advancing along the
south bank of the Vaal Colonel Kekewich is
with him. The loop railway line across the Vaal
is fast nearing completion. The probability is
that General Hunter took back a brigade to
Fourteen Streams owing TO the scarcity of
transport.
General Rumble has captured 10000 bags of
corn. He IS marching slowly through a district
which is described literally teeming with
cattle, sheep and horses
Michael Davtt, according to a dispatch from
Lourenco Marques, is said to have advised the
Beers while he was in Pretoria that if they could
hold out until the Presidential election in the
United States they might feel pretty sure of in
tervention.'
At Johannesburg the women are forming a
police corps, to release every for fight
ing purposes at the front.
DR.. Archer. who was at Dundee during the
Boer occupation, asserts that there several
hundred Englishmen serving in the Boer forces
who would desert if assured pardon from the
British. The Pretoria official list of foreigners
shows 100 Enghshmen who are not lighting, but
hold their residence in the Transvaal by special
permission. They are bank clerks, engineers
and shopkeepers
Durham reports the receipt of a telegram from
Lourenco Marques saying that Boer plot TO
blow UP the British cruiser Forte was discov-
cred, and that, in consequence, the warshp
steams out seven miles nightly.
President Steyn saw the fight at the Zand
River. The impression he got there was that his
burghers could not face Lord Roberts in a
advices from Lourenco Marques, in his decision
TO evaCuate the Kroonstad works without
battle.
The Standard" says: From pro- Boer sources
we learn that the first great stand by theFederals
will be on the ridges near Johannesburg This
position has been strongly intrenched and the
burghers believe they can hold it for some time
If driven from that point, part of the force will
be thrown into Pretoria to withstand a siege
while the main body will retreat to the Lyden-
burg district. with the intention of keeping UP
guerilla warfare from that mountainous region
They believe they can indefinitely postpone a
pacif1cation of the country"