, while the Ninth Brigade was to engage the enemy. This
body was defeated by the Germans with severe loss. They took some
seventy prisoners and forced the Ninth Brigade to fall back on the
main body.

On the morning of April 28, 1915, Mackenzie led his whole force
against the Germans in a dashing attack that drove them from the
field, and his cavalry continued to pursue them over twenty miles of
country. The rocky and irregular character of the ground in this
neighborhood made it difficult for cavalry operations, and the Germans
made good their escape. The British lost three officers and twenty men
killed; the wounded numbered fifty-five, of whom eight were officers.
Among the killed was Major J. H. Watt of the Natal Light Horse. The
British captured from the enemy seven officers, and about 200 men.
They also released seventy of their own soldiers who had been made
prisoners by the Germans on the previous day.

The booty that fell to the victors included field guns and Maxims,
transport wagons, and large numbers of live stock. It was at Gibeon,
where this battle was fought, that Sir George Farrar was killed in a
railroad accident on May 18, 1915. His important services in the
Commissariat Department during the invasion of the colony had
contributed to making the successes of the Union forces possible. His
career had been full of adventure. He was sentenced to death for the
part he had taken in the Jamieson raid, and had fought against the
Boers in 1899-02.

While General Mackenzie was successfully operating around Gibeon,
General Botha's troops were active in the north; but nothing of
importance occurred until May 1, 1915, when Kubas was hurriedly
evacuated by the Germans and occupied by General Brits. Here, it was
discovered that the Germans had made elaborate preparations for
resistance, but--became panic-stricken by the sudden and unexpected
arrival of Union forces. Miles of intrenchments surrounded the place,
and a hundred contact mines were discovered and removed. From this
point Colonel Brits continued his advance, and encountered the enemy
at Otyimbigue, sixty-one miles from the capital of Windhoek. After a
spirited skirmish the place was taken, the Germans losing twenty-eight
men as prisoners. Continuing their victorious advance the Union forces
captured Karibib, an important railroad junction, and Johann
Albrechtshoehe and Wilhelmstal were next occupied.

With General Botha threatening the capital from the