policy of the
_blockhead_.

On the 27th of February, 1902, the English made one of their biggest
"catches" in the Free State. They had made a great "kraal"--what they
themselves call a "drive"--and stood, "hand in hand," one might almost
say, in a ring around us, coming from Heilbron, Frankfort, Bethlehem,
and Harrismith, and stretching, on the Transvaal side, from Vrede to the
Drakensberg.

Narrower and narrower did the circle become, hemming us in more closely
at every moment. The result was that they "bagged" an enormous number of
men and cattle, without a solitary burgher (or, for the matter of that,
a solitary ox) having been captured by means of their famous blockhouse
system.

The English have been constantly boasting in the newspapers about the
advantages of their blockhouses, but they have never been able to give
an instance of a capture effected by them. On the contrary, when during
the last stages of the war it happened, as it often did, that they drove
some of our men against one or other of the great blockhouse lines which
then intersected the country, and it became necessary for us to fight
our way through, we generally succeeded in doing so. And that, with
fewer casualties than when, as in the instance I have just given, they
concentrated their forces, and formed a circle around us.

The English then were busy when I returned from the south in building a
blockhouse line from Heilbron to Frankfort. They accomplished this
speedily, and then proceeded to the construction of other similar lines,
not being contented until they had "pegged out" the country as
follows:--

On the Natal frontier there was a line from Vrede to Bothaspas,
continued westward by a series of forts to Harrismith, whence the line
went on, still westward, to Bethlehem, and thence down to the Basutoland
border at Fouriesburg.

Kroonstad was made, so to speak, the "axle," whence a series of "spokes"
proceeded; one to the north-east, to Vrede; a second to the north-west,
through Driekopjes Diamond Mine, to Winkledrift, and thence down the
Rhenoster River to its confluence with the Vaal; a third, to the
south-east, to Lindley; and a fourth, to the south-west, along the
railway line, to the frontier of Cape Colony.

In the western districts there was a line along the left bank of the
Valsch River to the point where it joins the Vaal, and another (also
terminating at the Vaal River) starting from Zand River railway bridge,
and runnin