The Portland daily press., 1900-02-02
COMMANDEERING In NATAL.
Lady's Interesting story-Lively Ac-
count of Military "BurgIing."

An Interesting narrative has been sent
home to friends In England BY an Eng
i,sh lady who was oslied upon to hold the
family roof.trse against the Beers while
her father was detained a. q prisoner In
their camp In the nsighborhood Of
Estoourt,
::Ths road to Moot River was alive with
. crowd Of horremen, wagons spiders. stc.
I cannot compare IL 10 anything but
swarm Of black ants; they were always
on the move. coming and going. just -
II o'clock the Beers opsned the ball py
four of them riding up to the gate and
asking II we had any horses to sell.
will tell you, to start with, every one
carried loaded Maussr across his knee,
and his hand on the trigger. with two
bandolisrs full Of cartridges, got used to
looking down rifle barrslsl We said "
did not want to sell any horses. % this
man said they must have them, as they
wanted horses badly. and he would give
us receipt for them. OF course. there
was nothing tn be done, 80 they took my
trap horses and fathers pony. From ths
house We saw the wretohes budding mp
our uether flock and catching and kill
ing them by dozensi
Parties kept ON coming, asking for
horses; they were civil. certainly; but we
always kept the back gate shut, and did
not allow them inside. About II O'Clock
three Free Skaters rode up. One called
Bester spoke English perfectly, and looked
quite q gentleman. They wanted yoke
and gear for fourteen oxen. We told
them that they could not have 1t. In the
meantime the oxen had been driven up
ths hills. and to our disgust thirteen OF
them were our owni Father remonstrat-
cd, and said we had been told that II
people staid quietly on their farms they
would not be molessed, and yet our stock
was being loot ID and killed. 30 Bsster
said, "wby did not father so and see the
General, and represent 1t 20 him, and he
was quite sure the stock would be re-
turned, and he (Bester) would guarantees
his safety" 1t seemed u chance to ave
our pro perty. 30 father saddled up
at the foot OF this cutting. l began to
suspect something after q bit and about
shutdown very civil young Dutchman
came from the camp with n note from
father, saying "bes.er had taken him
into the camp and he had seen the guns,
etc., they must detain him until the camp
moved on. They seemed very kind, and
he was all right"
All this time parties OF Beers, always
In threes aud fours. had been tinually
oming, wanting bread, butter. eggs. and
milk. never knew anything like the
length Of those days; they were ike
dark came. We isft lights burning all
night not to give any excuse for thinking
there was no one In the house.
Wednesday we were up ny i've, and
after breakfast our visitors began TO
appear. and we had another day on the
rack. About midday Capt. Blskslsy and
his assistants from the Johann ssburg
Ambulance came. They wanted to buy
| bread, stn. Some was cooking. so they
| waiten for 1t. He was evidently big
swell, and gentlemanly, SO We thought is
polite to ask him to wait In the front
veranda, and brought them out tea and
| cake. which was much appreciated. Capt
Bleksley asked my name, and said he
WAS very glad to find We had remained
| on our farm, AZ the ruin and desolatfon
| In these deserted homestesGs WAS past de-
| soription and most piteous and terrible.
| He said he hoped 1 bad not been molested
| In any way. l said: mo; personally
his people had been civil enough. but
their request were always urged with
| loaded rifles across their knees, and
| fingers on the trigger, which was not ex-
aotly pleasant. He regretted IL should
bs necessary, but In some cases their
psople had been fired at, and they were
hound to guard against SURPRISE. told
him my fRther had been taken into their
camp on a guarantee OF safety, to try and
protsct our stock from further molesta-
ton, and had been detained prisoner, at
which he profsssed himsslf much grieysd.
On sunday evening all our kafirs came
back. They left here without pass. and
were detainsf at Mooi River by the police.
Mondsy, In the evening. as we were at
dinner, the door opened and father
walked In. You may imagine my relief.
They released him the previous night,
and he left at 10 the morning with q
pass from "Slim Piet."
Father and uncle have besn going
through the stock today and they havs
tsksn Is head OF castle and nearly 100
head OF sheep. We do MOI quite know
what horses have gone yet; thsy have
left Us ten young broksn-in oxen, and
as the msalies are well up and a little
forage also, things might have been
worse. 1he sheep. too, were shorn. and
he money for the wool safely In the
bank.