n firing on the
enemy's position towards dawn. Distinct orders were given that our
Veld-Cornet was to be at the foot of Rooirandjes with his men before
daybreak. But something went wrong again, and it was already quite light
when we reached the donga. We found ourselves at a distance of about 700
paces from the Rooirandjes, and we had to cross an open space if we
still wished to storm the position. The enemy's watch already began
shooting at us.

The corporals let their men advance in groups of four from the donga to
the kopje, using the ant-hills as cover when they lay down. Our turn
came last, but meanwhile the enemy had received reinforcements, and the
nearest ant-hills were nearly all occupied, so that only three men could
go at a time. Such a shower of bullets fell that it was a miracle that
we came out of it alive. Fortunately I found a free ant-hill. My brother
had to share one with a comrade.

At last the cannon from the mountain fired a few shots, but stopped
again almost immediately--why, I do not yet know. So we were obliged to
lie in our positions. It was terribly hot, and not a cloud in the sky.
We suffered horribly from thirst, and scarcely dared move to get at our
water-bags. One of our comrades lay groaning behind me. He was shot
through both legs. The bullets kept flying over our heads to the kopje
behind us, where some of our burghers lay firing at the enemy. Every now
and again a bullet exploded in our neighbourhood with the noise of a
pistol-shot. I fancy only Dum-Dums make that peculiar noise. We had
already seen many such bullets taken from the enemy by our burghers in
the Battle of Modderspruit. Another burgher, Mulder, ran past me with a
smile on his lips, threw himself behind an ant-hill, immediately rose
again with the intention of joining some of our burghers in the front
ranks, who sat calmly smoking behind some rocks under a tree, but had
not gone two paces when he was shot in the thigh. There he had to lie
groaning until our brave Reineke, who was killed later on at Spion Kop,
saw a chance of carrying him away.

Some of us fell asleep from fatigue. One of our men on waking heard the
hiss of a bullet over his head at regular intervals, and thought that a
khaki had got closer up to him, and was firing at him from the side.
When he lifted his head he found that he had rolled away from all cover.
One, two, three, back he was again behind his ant-hill, and the
scoundrel stopped firing at him.