facilitate the advance of the British troops.
This offer was at once accepted, and it was arranged that on the 26ththe carts still on the farm should go down to Pieter-Maritzburg, and MrHumphreys wrote a letter to Mr Harvey, telling him that he was, uponhis arrival, after clearing the waggons of the goods that he had broughtdown from the interior, to place them at once at the disposal of theauthorities for the transport of military stores to Newcastle. BillHarrison was to go down with the carts, and to be in charge of them andthe waggons on their upward march.
Christmas was held with great festivity, to celebrate the return of thelads. Mr and Mrs Jackson and Tom, and four or five young settlers inneighbouring farms were invited by Mr Humphreys to spend the day withhim. At his request they came early, and after the service of thechurch had been read by him the day was spent in festivity. The youngmen rode races on their horses, shot at marks for prizes of usefularticles, presented by Mr Humphreys, and at five o'clock sat down to aChristmas dinner.
The holly, the mistletoe, and above all the roaring fire were absent,but the great kitchen was decked with boughs. The roast beef,plum-pudding, and mince-pies were equal to the best at home, and nopains were spared to recall home customs on the occasion.
At one o'clock there had been an equally good dinner given to thelabourers and their families belonging to the farms of Mr Humphreys andhis guests, and in the evening all assembled in the great kitchen, andto the tunes of a violin, played by one of the young colonists, a merrydance was kept up for some hours. The next morning Harrison startedwith the remaining waggon and several carts for Pieter-Maritzburg, andthe lads were supposed to resume regular work on the farms.
CHAPTER NINETEEN.
THE GARRISONS IN THE TRANSVAAL.
The excitement of the time was, however, too great to permit the lads tosettle down quietly, and every day they rode over to Newcastle to gatherthe latest news. The towns which held out in the Transvaal werePretoria, Potchefstroom, Standerton, Wackerstroom, Leydenberg,Rustenberg, and Marabastadt. At Pretoria, the capital, Mr Edgerton andSergeant Bradley of the 94th Regiment, who escaped from the massacre,brought in the news, and on the following day the authorities proclaimedmartial law. Colonel Bellairs, C.B., was commandant, and the militaryauthorities at once decided that the town must be abandoned, as, withits gardens and scattered houses, the extent was too large to bedefended. A military camp was therefore formed outside the town, and tothis the whole of the loyal inhabitants moved out. The civiliansconsisted of 975 men, 676 women, 718 children, 1331 servants andnatives,--total 3700. In addition to these were the British troops.All horses were at once taken for the volunteers, among whom most of thewhite residents were numbered. The effective fighting force was about1000--made up of four companies of the 2nd battalion, 21st Fusiliers;three companies of the 94th; 140 mounted volunteers, known as thePretoria Horse; 100 mounted volunteers, known as Norris's Horse, and thePretoria Rifles, an infantry volunteer corps, 500 strong. For thereception of the women and children intrenchments were thrown up,connecting the jail and loretto convent, and the defence of this pointwas intrusted to six companies of the Pretoria Rifles, under Major LeMesurier. The camp was distant about a third of a mile from the jailand convent, and the approaches were commanded by three little fortserected on eminences around.
Several skirmishes took place in the last fortnight in December, but thefirst sharp engagement occurred on the 6th of January. Colonel Gildeatook out a force of twenty officers, 450 men, a gun, and fifteen waggonsto bring in some forage and attack a Boer position at Pienness River,about twelve miles off. Norris's Horse scouted in front, and thePretoria Pioneers were detached to cut off the retreat of the Boers.The Boers were easily turned out of their position. Their defence wasfeeble; but several English were killed, owing to the Boerstreacherously hoisting a flag of truce, upon which the Englishskirmishers, who were creeping forward, stood up, thinking that theBoers surrendered; they then fired, and several of our men were killedor wounded. The Boers being largely reinforced came forward to theattack, but were smartly repulsed. Our loss was four men killed and oneofficer (Captain Sampson); fourteen men were wounded. On the 15thanother force started to attack a Boer laager, but found the enemy insuch strength that they retired without serious fighting.
On the 12th of February an ineffective attempt was made to take the RedHorse Kraal, seven miles from Pretoria, on the road towards Rustenberg.The force consisted of twenty-two officers and 533 men. The carabineersunder Captain Sanctuary advanced and attacked a large stone building,1000 yards from the kraal. They were received by a very heavy fire fromthe Boers, who advanced in such strength that Colonel Gildea thought itprudent to fall back. This movement, covered by the horse, waseffected, the infantry taking no part in the fight. Captain Sanctuaryand eight men were killed; Colonel Gildea and eight others severelywounded. No further sortie was made during the continuance of the war,but the Boers did not venture to attack the British position.
The town of Potchefstroom stood in the district most thickly inhabitedby the Boers. On the 14th of December, when it was reported that alarge number of Boers were approaching, Colonel Winsloe, who commanded,sent Captain Falls with twenty men of the 21st Fusiliers, twenty-six menof a corps commanded by Commandant Raaff, and sixteen civilianvolunteers to hold the court-house. The jail was garrisoned by twentyfusiliers, and the fort and earthwork, of some thirty yards square,situated about 1000 yards from the court-house, was held by 140 men ofthe fusiliers and a detachment of artillerymen, with two 9-pounders,under Major Thornhill. The three posts were provisioned as well ascircumstances permitted.
On the 15th 500 mounted Boers entered the town. On the 16th fightingbegan in earnest, and the firing was hot on both sides. A very heavyfire was kept up on the prison and court-house. Half an hour after itcommenced Captain Falls was killed. For the next sixty hours the firingcontinued, night and day, and one of the little garrison was killed andnine wounded. During the night the Boers broke into a stable close tothe court-house, and from a distance of eight yards a heavy fire waskept up. During this time Colonel Winsloe in the fort had given whataid he could to the garrison of the courthouse by shelling the buildingfrom which the Dutch were firing upon it. On the evening of the 17th hesignalled to the garrison to retire on the fort; but, being completelysurrounded, they were unable to do this. On the morning of the 18th theBoers attempted to set fire to the thatch roof of the court-house; andas nothing in that case could have saved the garrison, Major Clarke andCommandant Raaff agreed to surrender on the terms that the lives of allthose in the court-house should be spared. This was agreed to; but twoloyal Boers, who had been captured at an outpost, were tried, condemnedto death, and shot. On the 21st of December the garrison of the prison,falling short of provisions, evacuated it, and succeeded in gaining thefort without loss. The Boers occupied the post, but were driven out bythe shell-fire from the fort. Mr Nelson, the magistrate, was takenprisoner in the town by the Boers, and kept in close confinement. Threeof his sons got into the fort, and took part in its defence. Two ofthem, on a dark night, on the 19th of February, got through the Boerlines, and carried despatches from Colonel Winsloe to Newcastle,arriving there on the 5th of March, after many perils, not the least ofwhich was swimming the Vaal River when in full flood.
In the meantime the attack on the fort itself had been uninterrupted.The very first evening the watercourse from which the supply of water tothe camp was taken was cut. A well had already been commenced and sunkto a depth of twenty feet, but no water had been obtained. Fortunatelythe water-barrels had been filled an hour or two before the supply wascut, but these only contained two quarts of water per man. The weatherwas terribly hot, and the work of the men in the intrenchments was verysevere.
On the night of the 17th Lieutenant Lindsell, with some of the driversof the Royal Artillery, acting as cavalry, and a company of the 21st,went out to fill the water-casks from a stream half a mile away from thecamp, and fortunately succeeded in
doing so, the Boers not being on thelook-out in that direction. This gave a further supply of two quartsper man.
The work of sinking the well had been continued without intermission,and a depth of thirty-six feet had been attained, but still no water wasmet with. A reward of 5 pounds was offered to the first party whostruck water, and the soldiers off duty commenced digging in severalplaces. At last, to the intense relief of the garrison, a party ofRoyal Artillery men found water at a depth of nine feet. The well soonfilled, and yielded plenty of water during the remainder of the siege.
A desultory fire was kept up until the 1st of January, when, the Boersbeing strongly reinforced, 2000 men surrounded the fort at a distance of500 yards, and opened a heavy fire upon it. They did not, however,venture to attack the little garrison. On the 5th they occupied thecemetery, 300 yards from the fort, but Lieutenant Lindsell with a partyof volunteers went out by moonlight and drove them out. The Boers thencommenced