and saw ahead of them two or three hundred burghers they would halt and
bring their guns (which were usually placed in the middle of the column)
to the front. When they had got the guns in position, they would bombard
the ridge behind which the burghers were stationed. But as our men had
no wish to remain under fire, they would then quietly withdraw out of
sight. But the English would continue bombarding the hill, and would
send flanking parties to the right and left. Sometimes it would take the
English several hours before they could make sure that there were no
Boers behind the rise.

It was tactics such as the above that gave my burghers who were
handicapped by the condition of their horses, time to retreat.

It sometimes happened, in these rearguard actions, when the position was
favourable, that the enemy were led into an ambush, and then they were
either captured or sent racing back under our fire to bring up their
guns and main force. Had we not acted in some such way as this, all my
men would have been taken prisoner in this and in many other marches.

The large forces which the English on all occasions concentrated round
me deprived me of any chance of fighting a great battle; and I could
only act in the way I did.

If the reader is eager to know how it was that I kept out of the enemy's
hands until the end of the war, I can only answer, although I may not
be understood, that I ascribed it to nothing else than this:--It was not
God's will that I should fall into their hands.

Let those who rejoice at my miraculous escapes give all the praise to
God.

[Footnote 81: Our forethought proved later on to have been of little
avail. For notwithstanding the bountiful rains which had fallen at the
end of November and the beginning of January in the southern and western
parts of the State we found, when we arrived there, that the grass had
been entirely destroyed by the locusts. Neither could we obtain any
fodder; and so the difficulty of providing for our horses was as great
as ever.]

[Footnote 82: At this date the English had not re-garrisoned the town.]

[Footnote 83: Barend.]

[Footnote 84: Stellenbosched: this was the word the English applied to
officers, who, on account of inefficiency, or for other reasons, had to
be dismissed. Stellenbosch was a place where only very unimportant work
was performed.]

[Footnote 85: I must give a short account of Willem Pretorius, for he
was a dear friend of mine. He ha