The Irish standard., 1903-01-17
BLAKE ON THE BOERS.
An Address by the Commander Of the
Irish Brigade.

lllc 1llSll III III liz DUEL wal,
graduate of West Point of the class of
1880, and Il soldier who has earned a
reputation in America in his cam
paigns against the Indians in the early
sos, gave an eloquent address on his
experiences in the Boer war, before an
audience that filled Hibernian Hall,
Worcester, Mass, on Jan. 4.
Colonel Blake was warmly greeted
when he arose to speak, and thanked
the audience. He said he was not
much ut speaking, and hardly clever
at anything other than hunting trou.
bic, and at various times in his lite
he bumped up against it good and
hard. His address in part follows:
"The great struggle for independence
waged against England by the Beers
began in Rhodcsia, a country once
governed by Zulu chief, who was
friendly to all white men. Cecil
Rhodes entered that country with q
band of marauders, and, in addition to
reducing the land to absolute poverty,
they killed the chief. A chartered
company was formed to develop the
country, but the plans of Rhodes and
others failed, and many persons were
swindled out of their money.
Rhodes, not wishing to lose, formu-
lated Il plan to get possession of the
Rand gold fields, the richest in the
world. The Jameson raid was organ
lied to get England into trouble, but
the raid failed, and Rhodes says we
must look to constitutional laws. All
papers in the country, with the excep-
tion Of two. were owned by Rhodes
and the English people, and the only
news we could get about the
doings of Rhodes was from the Lon
don Times.
'The English Government gradual. :
made way for the war and had $4,000
II oops in Natal, although under the en-
listing treaty they could have but 5000
The Dutch had absolutely no military
organization other than the artillery
corps which had for equipment, count
ing that ruled by the Free State, about
30 cannon and 104 Maxims of all kinds
and types. This was the state of the
Bocr army ten days before the war be-
gan. When the men were called into
the field they came with their little
piece of dried meat tied on one side
of the horses saddle they rode and a
little spare quantity of meal tied to the
other side. A certain number of men
are under Il veldt cornct, but they rode
for themselves, in no formation but at
the given order they assembled on the
border.
1.-The war began when Gen. .JOubert
ordered theEnglish to take their troops
out Of the country. The order was in
the form of an ultimatum. On Oct 1S
war really started, and - Bocr sol
dcrs or farmers, as you call them, cap
tured 200 members of the Eighteenth
Hussars. The Hussars thought they
would surely be killed when they
were first captured, but later IS of
those men pctitioncd me for permission
to join our army, but Gen. Joubert
did not think it right.
AT Dundee the sport really began,
to my mind, and it was sport The
country was shroudcd i'm darkness, and
Gen. Lucas Meyer, who was on the
cast side of the ROer forces, had been
beaten back and later Gen. Penn Sy.
mons was killed.
at was at Dundee that l witnessed
for the first time what is called true
English steel The lancers. with their
pig stickcrs, showed up mt that battle
and we watched them from behind u
kopic ride along and stick their lanccs
into the poor dying and wounded 30
ers as they lay OH the field of battle
One man I know, and who is still
alive. was prodded.
"At Ladysmith, Gen. White had 81
cannon and occupied all but one of the
hills around the city. Gen. DeWe
with Il force of 200 men captured 81
English soldiers. On the left we xii
led about 200 and captured 2 cannons
The English fled precipitately before
us. Many Of the English soldier
threw away their weapons and thei
other equipment. and we went out in
to the veldt and collected that col,
English steel, as it was proven in tina
war it was only good for killing of
the wounded.
"At Colenso we had 5000 men ex
tending distance of 80 miles, an
Gen. Butler on the other side of til
Tugela had 10000 men. He advance
in battle attack with three distinc
lines. Butler was given severe beat
ing and later tried to move his gun
to point of vantage by hiding the1
behind an ambulance train.
"Major Pretorius, Of the Boer arti
lery, the greatest artillerist the worl
has ever known, discovered the gun
and by clever use of the men at hi
disposal completely routed the fore
The English fought hard to regain tt
guns, and it was at this point that tt
son of Lord Roberts, brave fellow
lost his life trying to recapture IL
guns.
"The battle Of Spion Kop was fougl
| q short time afterw0rd The Roe