n Rietfontein, where the Transvaalers
and a part of the Free State commandos, under General De la Rey, were
posted. The attack upon these positions was fierce and determined; but
De la Rey's burghers, though they lost heavily, repulsed it with
splendid courage. I will not say more of this. It is understood that
General De la Rey will himself describe what he and his men succeeded in
accomplishing on that occasion.

From ten in the morning until sunset the fight continued, and still the
burghers held their positions. They had offered a magnificent
resistance. Their conduct had been beyond all praise, and it was hard to
believe that these were the same men who had fled panic-stricken from
Poplar Grove. But with the setting of the sun a change came over them.
Once more panic seized them; leaving their positions, they retreated in
all haste towards Bloemfontein. And now they were only a disorderly
crowd of terrified men blindly flying before the enemy.

But it was Bloemfontein that lay before them, and the thought that his
capital was in peril might well restore courage in the most disheartened
of our burghers. I felt that this would be the case, and a picture arose
before me of our men holding out, as they had never done before.

Before going further I must say a few words about the peace proposals
which our Presidents made to the English Government on the 5th of March.
They called God to witness that it was for the independence of the two
Republics, and for that alone, that they fought, and suggested that
negotiations might be opened with the recognition of that independence
as their basis.

Lord Salisbury replied that the only terms he would accept were
unconditional surrender. He asserted, as he did also on many subsequent
occasions, that it was our ultimatum that had caused the war. We have
always maintained that in making this assertion he misrepresented the
facts, to use no stronger term.[24]

Naturally our Government would not consent to such terms, and so the war
had to proceed.

It was decided to send a deputation to Europe. This deputation,
consisting of Abraham Fissher,[25] Cornelius H. Wessels,[26] and Daniel
Wolmarans,[27] sailed from Delagoa Bay.[28]

The reader may ask the object which this deputation had in view. Was it
that our Governments relied on foreign intervention? Emphatically, no!
They never thought of such a thing. Neither in his harangue to the
burghers at Poplar Grove, nor in any of his