On Commando

men in all. The little commando consisted of carts, a few trolleys, and horsemen on strong, well-conditioned horses. The Free Staters nearly all had one or two spare horses. Our own comma

ey stood behind a kopje, and not at Zoutpan, and I warned the Commandant against them. He became very anxious, and made us move on as rapidly as possible, for once we had crossed the Pienaars River all danger from khaki would be past. It was a good thing that the Commandant made us travel so fast, for we had only just outspanned at Pie

sh khaki if only the burghers would fight. He is the exception to the rule that all braggarts are cowards. Most of the b

eat a start, and had besides taken a short-cut of which they knew nothing. It would not h

outpan were the informers. Whenever we, as the attacking party, made prisoners, they always declared that they had known all about our plan o

afely at Waterval-Boven (President Kruger having already retreated from Machadodorp), where we stayed a few da

assed the time fishing and hunting. We were content there, as we got plenty to eat, and our horses, too, were well fed-an important matte

often in our wanderings we longed for good literature during our long, tiring, monotonous rides! And how terrible was the thought of the moral hurt we were suffering-voluntarily in a way, yet forced to it by a sense of honour and duty. For in this lay the grievousness of the war, that a powerful natio

forts he demanded as his right, but who, as soon as things went wrong, and he saw nothing but misery in the future, left for his own country-there to sit in judgment on our peasant-nation. How I long for the gift

isorder that reigned everywhere I had to wait nearly three days before I could start. I was pretty nearly famished on my arrival at Hectorspruit, and ate greedily of the remains of the porridge le

olland, but had returned before finishing their studies on account of the war. The commando was well supplied with weapons and ammunition, as the Delagoa

deep into the sand. We harnessed a double span of oxen to the waggons, undressed ourselves, and had to swim alongside the animals to get them through. Occasionally something dropped from one of the waggons and ha

crocodiles, who showed themselves occasionally. There was game in abundance. It seemed

rge commando. A man called Bester was our guide. Some two years before he had made the same journey on a hunting expedition, and now he was able to follow the ruts which the wheels of his waggon had made