Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-13
British Position at Oolenso Soon Be-
came Wholly Untenable.
TEE ENEMY ALWAYS UNDER COVER
Rarest Chance That One is Seen
During the Fighting.
LETTER FROM AN OFFICER

VICTORIA, B. c., February IA letter
received by Mrs. A. A. HUMPHREYS Of this
city from a captain Of border regiment,
since wounded at Spion Kop, gives a
graphic description of the loss of the Brit
ish guns at the Tugela river. The letter
was dated at ,Frere, December p, and in
part. says:
People hardly realize yet what a big I'M
dertaking this is turning out to be- Every
thing points to the Beers having not less
than $4,000 men in the field, with guns SUI
perior to ours in range and little behind us
in craftsmanship, and until we get out a
lot more troops there is no likelihood of
our doing much more than hold them in
check
''They are undoubtedly following out a
plan of campaign which they have worked
out in all details in peace times, and they
| are carrying it out most perfectly. They
have spies everywhere and are always pre-
pared to meet any move on our part al
most before we have begun. We are exact
ly the reverse, and never seem to know
what they are doing nor how many there
are of them in any direction. We won't
trust single colonial (Cape ColonisD.
Scarcity of serviceable Maps.
I've have a frst-class typographical map
of the frontier of the Transvaal, but no
military map of these parts, and no one
knows which hill commands another, or
what kind of positions there are on the
other side of the mountains facing us. We
are exactly like the French in the Franco
German war, with excellent maps of the
enemy's country, but with none of our own.
The Boer positions are on all the high
ridges and hills. They extend for miles
and command every bit of ground in front
THE hills behind are prepared for de-
Tense. If they are driven back from one
to get behind a new line of resistance.
Water is far from plentiful and the trans
ports scarce, so we have to stick pretty
well to the railway. Butler has a hard
nut to crack in the Boer position in front
OF us-Colenso hills defending the River
Tugela, which We must cross and which is
only forbade in places few and far be-
tween.
I'VE tried to do so last Friday and had
a battle. We were 10000 strong, and the
Beers between 10000 and 14G0O. Our bril-
-5th-attacked on the left, but our
brigadier made an awful mess of it. and
We did after 523 were killed and wounded.
Something went wrong with the right bril-
gade and the officer commanding the Royal
Artillery advanced his guns up to within
100 yards of the Boer position and trenches
long before the infantry were at hand to
support him.
Beers Bide Their Time.
'"The Beers allowed the guns to be UNI
limbered and then poured such hail of
bullets that the teams of two batteries
were killed in a very short time. When
the gunners were shot down the attack
could not be carried out and Butler had
to give the order to retire and ten guns
had to be abandoned. Our total loss was
], 147, and all for nothing.
Butler almost wept and was heard to
exclaim: My brigadiers have sold me-
I'VE shall have another division here
shortly, and will then have 10000 men,
and as the Beers have been receiving re-
Inducements they will number not far
from 10000 and all in splendid positions.
The shrieking and bursting of shells and
the roar of battle and the thousands of
Mausers, Lee-Metfords and Maxims last
Friday was something awful. The heat,
too, was dreadful, but the men behaved
SDlendidly''