or frightened women holding their crying children by the hand, and
seeking a hiding-place near their houses during a battle. It is indeed a
tragic sight!--we men, with our weapons in our hands, not able to defend
them at such a time. And then a great feeling of shame came upon us.
These same women had only the day before called down God's blessing upon
us, and now they cried to us to hurry, or we would be surrounded.

We rode at a flying gallop for fully half an hour--along the Magalies
Mountains, between the Witwatersranden and the many smaller banks, while
to the left the enemy were descending and firing at us. The Waterbergers
and Zoutpansbergers, who learnt later than we did that the enemy were
surrounding us, would all have been taken prisoners had they not forced
their way bravely through thick and thin. As far as we can tell, our
loss was, fortunately, only one killed.

At the Manharen, a peculiar kind of kopje, we halted, but had to
retreat further towards evening.

Beyers' commando moved in the direction of Gatsrand, but had to turn to
Zwartruggens, near Rustenburg, when it reached the farm Modderfontein,
where we celebrated Christmas. The enemy was constantly at our heels,
and made things hot for us; we often had to hurry most inconveniently
not to be surrounded or cut off. We got a few days' rest on the farm
Vlakhoek. We were camped near a small stream, and went from there to the
different farms in search of the first fruit of the season.

On New Year's Eve General Beyers' commando moved on the wide hard
Krugersdorp road. The bullock waggon lager had been left behind, as it
prevented us from moving as quickly as was sometimes necessary. The
burghers still longed to attack Krugersdorp, and on New Year's Eve, as
we moved fast in the direction of the town, our hearts were cheered by
the thought of Jameson's failure, when five years ago he passed along
the same road in his notorious Raid. We all hoped to add an immortal
page to the annals of our history on the following New Year's Day. But
we were sadly disappointed in our expectations. The Jameson Raid was not
avenged, and we celebrated New Year's Day calmly and peacefully at
Cyferbult, on Pretorius' farm, with milie-pap (maize meal porridge) and
beef and--green fruit!

Whenever we came to a farm we ate as much green fruit as possible by way
of a change in our diet. On other occasions it would have been very bad
for us, but now it seemed to have a very whole