, 1900-01-04
HOW THE WAR BEGAN
BoERs WERE ALL READY.
Before Marching to Battle 10000 soidiers
Knelt In Prnyer.-How They Hauled n
Cannon to the Top of n fountain,

A correspondent of the Chicago
Record, writing from Pretoria in DC
tober, tells how the war commenced
with the Beers.
On Monday afternoon. October 9th.
at 5 o'clock, that fateful document
which left h world agape was handed
to Mr.. Conyngham Greene, her
majesty's agent at Pretoria, by the
state secretary. An hour later one
word was flashed through the South
African Republic on the telegraph
wires, and that word was "Oorlog.'
WAR.
The burghers on the Natal border
expected to cross into Natal the next
day. The same afternoon Poiweni
mountain. near Majuba, was fortified
by the %burghers. The fertilization was
of a nature which will cause astonish-
ment all over the world when il he
comes known. Pojweni is a very steep
hill. about 1000 feet high, and on ac-
count of the tremendous cliffs, practi-
cally inaccessible. The Beers have
brought an enormous six-ton siege eun
down from Pretoria, but the French
n German engineers employed
laughed the idea of mounting the gun
on Pojweni TO scorn. They declared
that it was absolutely impossible, even
WIN lh' hiOSl up-tO-thlt HNuTHullc HD-
paratus. to get the enormou thing
mounted. The Beers, however, thought
differently, n declared their inten-
ton of mounting the gun without any
hydraulic apparatus whatsoever. First
tive or six span of the best oxen ii the
"laager" were yoked to the huge en-
CINE Of destruction; but the incline was
too steep for them to obtain foothold.
they failed to move the gun.
Nothing daunted, General Joubert
called up 800 picked men of the WAX
kerstroom commando and bid them
plant the gun on Pojweni. The men
tackled the job with fervor, and. at
taching a huge iron cable to the gun.
attempted to drag it III by sheer
strength of muscle. The cable. how
ever, snapped, with the laughable re-
suit that 300 burghers went sprawling
on their backs. Once more, however.
the cable was attached, and, aided by
strongly plated hide ropes, the tug of
war again began.
To-day that huge gun stands mount
ed on a hill 1000 feet high, and mount
ed by human muscle alone.
On the morning of October 18th the
news was received that General Pet
CrOnje had crossed the border into
British Bechuanaland at Ridigrand
n was marching on Mafeking. On
the same day Il forces on the Natal
border made a forward move into
Natal. Those who We're present de
scribe the sight as one never to be
forgotten. From daybreak there was
hustle and stir in the great Boer
camp, where close on 10000 men were
preparing TO march into the enemy's
country. When they were all ready
the minister a wagon and
called upon all the men to pray 10 God
to guard them during the coming
struggle. To see 10000 rugged men
kneeling on the veldt there. with the
sunlight just touching here and there,
was Il sight to be remembered by all
who were present. After n most i'm
pressive prayer by the minister pres
ent the whole commando stood up and
sung one of the solemn songs the Beers
are so proud of. Verify a Cromwells
camp on u huge scale! No wonder,
with such Il fervent belief in the right
Ousne of their cause, the burghers
are confident of success.
After the hymn all was hurry and
hustle as one bullock train after the
other rolled into the road md away
over the border into Natal. That night
after shutdown the wagons We're still
moving out of the camp, so n can
imagine what a huge rail- there must
have been. Once having crossed the
border the Beers moved forward
rapidly, and the mex day their van
guard, under General Kock, vas in
Newcastle.