ent
occurrence at that period.

I took careful note of our numbers when the battle was over, and I can
state with certainty that there were not more than two hundred burghers
actually engaged.

Our losses amounted to four killed and five wounded. As to the losses of
the English, I myself counted two hundred and three dead and wounded,
and there may have been many whom I did not see. In regard to our
prisoners, as they marched past me four deep I counted eight hundred and
seventeen.

In addition to the prisoners we also captured two Maxim and two mountain
guns. They, however, were out of order, and had not been used by the
English. The prisoners told us that parts of their big guns had been
lost in the night, owing to a stampede of the mules which carried them,
and consequently that the guns were incomplete when they reached the
mountain. Shortly afterwards we found the mules with the missing parts
of the guns.

It was very lucky for us that the English were deprived of the use of
their guns, for it placed them on the same footing as ourselves, as it
compelled them to rely entirely on their rifles. Still they had the
advantage of position, not to mention the fact that they out-numbered us
by four to one.

The guns did not comprise the whole of our capture: we also seized a
thousand Lee-Metford rifles, twenty cases of cartridges, and some
baggage mules and horses.

The fighting had continued without intermission from nine o'clock in the
morning until two in the afternoon. The day was exceedingly hot, and as
there was no water to be obtained nearer than a mile from the berg,[12]
we suffered greatly from thirst. The condition of the wounded touched my
heart deeply. It was pitiable to hear them cry, "Water! water!"

I ordered my burghers to carry these unfortunate creatures to some
thorn-bushes, which afforded shelter from the scorching rays of the sun,
and where their doctors could attend to them. Other burghers I told off
to fetch water from our prisoners' canteens, to supply our own wounded.

As soon as the wounded were safe under the shelter of the trees I
despatched a message to Sir George White asking him to send his
ambulance to fetch them, and also to make arrangements for the burial of
his dead. For some unexplained reason, the English ambulance did not
arrive till the following morning.

We stayed on the mountain until sunset, and then went down to the
laager. I ordered my brother, Piet de Wet, with fif