The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-05-29

out. Considerable reinforcementS are
approaching. AS soon as they have ar
rived, we shall attack early in the morn
| ing from the north. Psalm Xiv. Z. (bui
God shall shoot at them with an arrow
suddenly shall they be woundedD
| February %. Ais, afternoon.-CronJe TO
De Wet: My provisions are becomlng
! scarce: for the rest l do not doubt with
Gods help / shall be able to drive off the
enemy to the north. Psalm XXX, T. (Some
| trust in chariots and some in horses; but
we will remember the name of the LORD
our God)
Wet to Cronje: Reinforcements, it is to
morrow evening; Are sending PROVISIONS
as soon as possible. Psalm lix, Is Get
! them wander up and down for meat and
grudge if they be not Satisted.)
February 26 $50 in morning.-Cronje to
De Wet: The enemy has received ire
mendous reinforcements. l am hard
| pressed Psalm iii, II Uord, how are
| they increased that trouble me! Many
are they that rise up against me)
February 26-De Wet to Cronje: The
reinforcements are already visible in the
superior hostile forces. Psalm TX, l. 20
Cod Thou hast cast US off, Thou hast
scattered us, Thou hast been dispieased
! O turn Thyself to us again)
February 26. 4:10 afternoon.-Cronje to
! De Wet: The bombardment is over
whelming. Heavy losses. The majority
! OF the Bu1S0efS want me TO SURRENDER
! Psalm TX, H. GIVE US help from tfou-
| bic, for vain is the help of man.
| 1his last-quoted hehogram is said to
have been read by the British, who there
! upon photographed to both Generals: "All
! further opposition on Cronje's side is use
less bloodshed. He is surrounded by co.
Geo men with 120 guns. and not single
man of his troops will escape alive if he
does not surrender at once. Psalm xiii,
TO-" Crhey shall fall by the sword: they
shall be portion for foxes.)
! Mr.. a. q. Hales, whose graphic letters
have often been quoted here, writes this
week OF how the burghers took Cronje' 8
| surrender ''On the very morning., he
writes, that General Cronje surrendered
LETT Bloemfontein a prisoner under eS-
cort. left the capital of the Free State
at about s o'clock in the morning of Ma
juba Day. which. strangely enough. prov
ed to be the day of Cronje's downfall. All
along the railway line the Beers swarm
ed, and every armed man seemed strange
ly confident that the day of British rule
in South Africa was over. Cronje will
| burst through the circle of steel by which
he is surrounded like wounded lion, said
one young Boer to me; he will leap
that will suit him. And there he will
turn, and God help Roberts when Cronje
sweeps down upon him! 1. who knew
Roberts and the who were with
him, smiled, not that / for one moment
underestimate Cronje and his stubborn
courage, his dauntless daring, or his iron
will. l had seen him al Magersfontein,
"
stern-browed old farmer of the veldt a
leader capable of great things. But /
knew also that with Lord Roberts one
side of him, and that mighty military
genius, the man of ice and iron, Lord
Kitchener. on the other, Cronje had a
task in front of him which might have
appalled, the soul of the first Napoleon
himself
Later on, when a prisoner at Burg
hersdorp, when the news came through
that Cronje had surrendered in order to
To rio hn foil la
not believe it. They laughed and poked
one another in the ribs with the thumb,
for they would just soon have believ-
ed that the sun could fall from the heav-
ems and leave the earth in darkness as
that Cronje, the ron-willed, tiger hearted
/ CronJe, could throw down his arms. Had
the news come that he had made a mad
rush at cur guns and persisted with all
his men around him. they might have be-
Ieved it-believed it and wept, and even
avenge him. But they would not. they
could not, and they did not, believe that
ne, the man in whom they had placed
| thelf 1aith. had surrendered with thou
sands of his men.
But at last the truth became known
some who had escaped from Cronje's
| lager brought in the fateful news, and
then the stolid-looking fighting men broke
| down. They wept like boys. Great rug
| ged bearded men dashed their rifles on
| the ground and spurned them with their
| boots, whilst down their sun and wind
| tanned faces the tears poured readily
| others took the news sadly, with chins
| dropping on their chests, with hard SET
races, white with passionate pain too
deep for words; they stood leaning unon
their rifles with hands hard gripped until
one would think the frightened muscles
| would leave the impress of the straining
myers upon the cold steel Others again
crowded together and looked dumbly
from face to face, like cattle foregathered
10 the shambleS. The blow had stunned
| them. To them Cronje was something
more than man: he was an idol: what
| the great Corsican was to the >F'reDch
sold1ery after the battle of AusterlitZ SO
! CronJe was to these rude farmers He
| was their brain centre, their ralIying
| point. Had Paul Kruger BETRAYED them
10 their foes for the sake of British gold
| they would not have felt the shock as
they felt this one mans surrender If
| CronJe had loved his country half as we'll
as MS country loved him, he would have
narched right on to the point of a Brit
ish payonet on that morning, so disas-
| trouS TO the Boer arms, and have Welded
! up MS life in order that the memory of
| ms name might have remained as q
Watchword on the lips and in the hearts
OF ms gallant yeoman soldiery When the
crash came, when the Beers knew for a
| certainty that Cronje had yielded. they
| 1elt that their idol was shattered They
could not put their feelings into words
| put to an onlooker those words addressed
| by the passionate Lord Byron to Nano-
| leon app
Weighed in the balance hero dust
is vile as vulgar clay.
came readily to memory