Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-08

hundred to two thousand soldiers They
virtually encircled us.
Il don't see just how we are going to
get out of this" l remarked to Pretorius,
"but think we had better try to get be-
tween their lines at about an hour before
sunrise. If we stay here on the open
veldt they will eat us up tomorrow.
The Major agreed with me, and we or
dered the men to be ready to move at
three in the morning. AT the appointed
time, encompassed in the oppressive
single file, we began our march.
The Beers, of course, knew the country
we'll, and those who were acting as our
guides led us, when we neared the English
camps, along the sloping bank of sprult,
or dried creek bed, which in the rainy sea-
son conducted torrent OF water through
the hills toward the west. Under the shell
ter of the bank we followed this course
stealthily, passing within two hundred
yards of sleepy sentries. When, in the
early morning, we mounted high kople
beyond the lines, we saw that the enemy
were swarming over our camping place of
the night before
Stopping only long enough to give our
horses brief rest, we pushed on and
came in a couple of hours upon a wagon
train of Boer women and children and old
men. There were about a hundred big trek
carts drawn by oxen which were driven by
the women, who walked beside them. The
children were very young and the men very
old, because all were fighting who were be-
tween the ages of ten and seventy. The
homes of these people had been burned.
They were wanderers on the veldt, obtain
ing the necessities of life where they could,
and travelling in any direction that seemed
most likely to keep them out of the
clutches of the English. This long pro-
cession of the homeless moving slowly
over the great reaches of the barren veldt
to nowhere impressed me as mournful
spectacle,-a sad symbol of the cruelty
of war, and of this war in particular
For long time we rode with the wagon
train, telling the calm and capable woman
and the eager old men news of those they
knew, and in some cases of those they
loved. But early in the afternoon the
inevitable troopers appeared on the no.
rizon. We knew they were looking for
us and that it was high time to strike a
faster gait. So we said goodby to our
friends and forged ahead. We could still
see the creeping line of wagons when the
English, dashing up with great spirit,
now that there were no men to fight, took
possession of the train.
duct the captives into Pretoria and then,
not being able to reach us, retired toward
fort several miles away. The wagons,
with the cavalcade of guards between
them and us, toiled on. From an eleva-
ton about two miles to the east we
watched them sympathetically, knowing
that these people would be taken to one
of the big detention camps, where great
numbers of the wives and mothers and
children of the Boer fighting men We're
penned up, and where the food provided
by the English was SO poor, and the con-
ditions in general SO unhealthful, that the
helpless victims of the war were dying
by thousands.
1t was indeed this heart wringing state
of things that finally ended the resistance
of the Beers When the delegates from
the commands met at Vereeninging, on
the Vaal River, to discuss the question
of the continuance of hostilities, they
were all pledged to independence or war;
but when word was brought to the con-
vention that twenty eight thousand Boer
women and children had died in the Eng
1ish detention camps, the situation was
completely changed. There is nothing
in the world that the Boer loves so much
as his family and his home. The attack
on. these was an attack in a vital spot