New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-01-07
WAR STORIES FROM AFRICA
SKETCHES BY CORRESPONDENTS IN THE
LONDON PRESS


writes follows:
The men crowding round the engines on
the line Offering the drivers fabulous prices for
a cup of water but 1t was useless The drivers
had been threatened with court martial If they
supplied any, as there great difficulty in
keeping sufficient supply for the engines. l saw
soldier lying fiat the line under an
engine, catching few drops in his mouth from
q steam pipe
Such extracts as this from the mailed descrip-
lions of the fighting in South Africa give some
faint idea of the conditions under which it is
being carried on. Belated as these letters are
by the time they appear in English papers. they
throw much needed light upon the campaign. so
barrenly reported over the censored cables. The
heat that drove British soldiers to drink CRATE
fully from the exhaust pipe of an engine after
seven hours fighting at Ensn-where they lost
119 killed and wounded-has proved serious
factor in the care of the wounded. In THE
British Medical Journal Surgeon Makins. for
merly of st. Thomas's Hospital. writes under
date of the field hospital at Orange River
During an eight days stay some six hundred
wounded men have passed through the hands
of the Royal Army Medical Corps here. In one
night alone three hundred patients arrived from
the fight at Modder River. Yesterday the Their
mOmeter registered 115 degrees Fahrenheit, in
some of the tents The fact that the journey
from here to the base hospital at Wynberg takes
twenty-eight hours emphasizes the difficulties
due to the immense length of the line of COM
munication
The immense majority of the wounds have
been inflicted by Mauser Lee-Metford
bullets, and small proportion by Martini bull
let's and large projectiles. A wounded Boer
ferred to the e-Metford a "gentlemanly
bullet" and this remark is equally applicable to
the Mauser. The wounds made by them are
small, clean, and little disposed to suppurate.
Those bullets met with have been little deformed
unless they have struck stones before entering.
and have seen no single instance which would
suggest the use of either hattened or so-calleu
explosive bullets among the wounded here.
A NIGHT ATTACK AT MARKETING.
From Mafeking, under date of October 20,
1.-THE Times's" correspondent In that beeaguered
place wildly describes night sortie by Cap
tain Fitzclarence with ffty-fve men of the
Protectorate Regiment and Lieutenant Muir
ray with twenty-five men of the Cape Police.
He says:
Shortly after II o'clock Captain Fitzclarence
and his men started on their perilous undertake
ing. In the faint light of the night we could
see thelr hgures from our own reoans, sllently
hurrying the veldt. In the blue haze of
the distance black blur betokened the position
OF the enemy and It seemed that at any mo-
ment the hoarse challenge of the Boer outpost
would give the alarm The men crept on in
slightly extended order holding themselves IN
readiness for the supreme moment. Nearer and
yet nearer they drew to, the Boer intrenchments.
The silence was intense. The heavy gloom the
wistful noises of the veldt at night the shadowy
patches in the BUSH all seemed to heighten the
tension of ones nerves. In little while our
d ,
then furtvely each fixed his bayonet to his
rifle, and as the blades sank home upon their
sockets the gallant band raised ringing cheer.
Instantly the Roer position was galvanized
into activity. Figures showed everywhere,
shots rang out. men shouted horses stampeded.
and the confusion which reigned supreme gave
to our men one vital moment in which to hurl
themselves across the intervening space. Then
there loud crash, for, as it happened.
many of our men were nearer the lntrenchments
than had been anticipated and their eager
charge had precptated them upon some sheets
of corrugated iron which the Beers had torn
from the grandstand of the racecourse for pro-
lection from the rain. With our men upon the
parapet of the trench, a few rapid volleys were
fired into the enemy, who taken completely by
surprise, were altogether demoralized. Those
in the first trenches seemed to have been petri-
fed by fright. Where they We're there they
remained, stabbed with bayonet, knocked sense
less with the rifles butt shot dead Captain
Fitzclarence himself, with magnificent gallantry
and workmanship, killed four Of the enemy
with his sword his men plying their bayOnets
strenuously the while. This was the first
memory Of their earlier boasts inspired the
Beers to make stand. They fought; they
fought we'll. Commandant Botha told Lieu
tenant Moncrien, who had charge of the flag
party that arranged for armistice this morn
ing, that he thought that at least a thousand
men had been moved against his position
After the first fury had been expended our
men charged at the bayonet point right across
the line of trenches. 1t was in this charge that
squadron reached the extremity of the Boer
position they retreated independently, their
movement covered by the Ranking nre of the
Cape Police, which added stin further to the
perplexities of the enemy. The CALLING fire of
the Cape Police disturbed them for some time
longer than was required IN the actual retire
ment of the force. D.,
The Beers had been completely unnerved by
the onslaught of the Protectorate men, and a
feature of the hours which elapsed between the
final withdrawal of force from the scene of
conflict and the advent of dawn the heavy
firing of the enemy, who still continued dis
charging useless volleys into space. The loss TO
us in the encounter had been six killed. ten
wounded and two of our men taken prisoners
but the gravity of the loss which the enemy
sustained be most surely measured by the
fact that until late hour this afternoon they
could not find the spirit to resume the bonn
bardment. 1t is said In camp here that some
two hundred Beers will have reason to remem-
Der the charge of the Protectorate regiment.
CAVE JEWELLERS AT LADYsMITH. .
The doings of the besieged people at Lady
smith have been fully described by recent let
ters. If the Beers continue closely to hem In
and continuously lombard Whites force the
besieged promise to become full fedged cave
dwellers for. according to The Daily News's''
correspondent at Ladysmith, the prevalent
tendency there is to burrow. This authority
writes:
Some people, having spent much time and
patient labor in making burrows for themselves.
find life there intoleraby monotonous that
they prefer to take the chances above ground
or in solitary misery, where there is not light
enough to read work scarcely showing a
head outside from sunrise to sunset They
may be seen trooping away from fragile tin
carrying children In their arms, or a cat or
monkey or mongoose or cage Of pet birds.
and they come back similarly laden when the
night gets too dim for gunners to go on shooting.
There would be a touch of humor In all this il
1t were not so deeply pathetic in Its close asso-=
citation with possible tragedies. One never
knows where a a