The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-09-27
Bridges Burned, Stores and Home
stcads Looted and Gums and
Ammunition Ruined.
HUNDREDS OF LOCOMOTIVES
AND RAILWAY CARS SEIZED BY
BRITISH COMMANDERS.
How the War Was Terminated by
DiplOmacy-Many Beers Now
mt Lourcpxo Marques.

LONDON, Sept. 26.-Lord Roberts reports
that Gen. Ian Hamilton found at the Croc-
cdile river. near Hector spruit, thirteen
guns, including several lost by the Brit
ish. They were mostly destroyed.
A dispatch from Lourenzo Marques says:
by dint of hard riding from Barberton
your correspondent overlook first, General
Ian Hamiton's division, then that Of Gen.
Pole-Carew and finally entered Komati-
poort Not a shot was fired nor was Boer
seen during the march. Evidence of the
enemy's destructiveness was everywhere
to be seen. The bridges had been dyna-
mited, the stores, buildings and home
steads looted and burned, as had been
also the railway property, all the chief
stations being mere masses OF smoking
ruins, among them Kaap Muriden, Hector
spruit and Komatipoort. AT the last place
there is an enormous area over which the
Beers have wrought destruction. The de-
vastation includes hundreds of wagons,
trucks and carriages which, have been
burned, together with all kinds of stores
of clothing. ammunition, forage and pro-
visions, such as sugar. coffee. rice. flour
and stationery. Thousands of tons, in
deed, are still burning.
General Pole-Carew has secured hun
dreds of locomotives. The whole of the
Selatie Railway line is simply blocked with
rolling stock. On my way from Barberton
l saw at Hector spruit the burst Boer
guns and the destroyed stores. In the
Crocodile river there were visible acres of
damaged guns, ammunition, wagons, dyna-
mite decorators and war stores of every
description. AT Komatipoort there were.
besides the burning stores, hundreds of
tons of ammunition-all kinds of caps, gun
powder and other explosives, and ready
fused shells for guns, from the pompom
to the six-inch rifle and cannon. The en-
envy had left standing many tents
1.-The great waste in the effects Of the
Beers was evident. Trunks. furniture, pro-
visions, clothing and other articles were
lying about in every direction. In the
rocky bed of the tumbling, foaming river
were yet more enormous quantities Of
stores, ammunition, rifles, cannon and food
stuffs.
IF General Butler and the others move
on to seize the passes neither General
Viljoan, the new commandant general with
Steyn and Schalkburger, nor koetze, with
the rest of the derelicts from Komatipoort
can escape through the mountains towards
Lyndenburg and Petersburg, while to re-
main in the low veldt at this season of the
year means death for men and cattle.
THE Portuguese have diSarmed all the
Boer refugees taken. Fifty truck loads.
with nearly 300 tons, have been dumped
down on the Island of Sheffeen off Louren-
20 Marques. The Irish-American mercen-
aries are clamoring for pay and threaten
ing the Boer officials.
1.-The final collapse of the Boer army may
be summarized follows: When the
Beers, numbering 1000, evacuated Komati-
poort they took up positions between the
Lobombo range and the river. They had
good positions and could have made a
ization and lack of discipline. that were
prevalent they were only half-hearted.
Wishing to avoid conflict and unneces-
sary bloodshed, the British consul general
consulted the Portuguese Governor Gen.
eral, Senior Machado, as to the best course
to be pursued to attain this end. He asked
that emissaries should be sent up with an
address to the Beers pointing out the
uselessness of continuing their resistance
and the absolute needlessneSs of going on
farther. BESIDES, If they continued to
fight, there was fear of the natives ris-
ing. Owing to the fact that the Portu-
guese had been most kind to the Beers, and
as they had guaranteed their maintenance
and repatriation and promised to send
them back to that country free of charge,
the scheme succeeded beyond the widest
hopes of its originator Instead of dozens
coming down to Lourenzo Marques, TWEEN
ty-five hundred arrived in this wise.
Diplomacy therefore triumphed by bringing
the war to a speedy and bloodless close. .