dressing stone are so very
scarce as here. The ends achieved are small--simply an exhibition of
power, and punishment which (if it be really necessary) could be
otherwise inflicted; and the evils, as one sees them on the spot, are
many and great. If I described one-half of the little things which I saw
in the process of destruction I should be accused of sentimentalising;
but the principle of the thing seems clear enough. If one could only
hope that with the conflagration would die down those hotter fires that
burn in the heart of this country, one might accept the manifest
disadvantages. But good feeling will never spring from ashes like these;
every charred spot is the grave of that which neither time nor laws can
revive.

BRAKFONTEIN, _Wednesday, May 9th._

We are not far from Vryburg now, and expect to enter it to-day without
opposition. From several prisoners taken on the way (there are twenty of
them now) we heard that the Boer police in Vryburg knew of our presence
at two o'clock on Sunday, and that they all fled. Another farm was
burned this morning, and much ammunition destroyed. We have now got over
a great and critical part of our journey, which has been admirably made
through very difficult country, and we do not expect opposition until we
approach Mafeking. Cronje, who was reported on Sunday to be moving
westwards with a force to cut us off, has apparently missed us, and he
will hardly attempt a rear-guard action without guns. We have two
pom-poms, and everyone--even the most peaceful of us--who has once been
shot at by these infernal machines is eager to watch them at work from
the right end.

VRYBURG, _Thursday, May 10th._

We occupied Vryburg yesterday at about three o'clock. We made a very
easy march, with a long rest at midday, and as the column wound up to
the summit of a high ridge we saw Vryburg lying green and white on the
farther slope. Half our journey done, and the most dangerous half; it
was a pleasant sight. The Boers had all left the little town, and the
English residents--chiefly women of the artisan and shopkeeper
class--swarmed out to meet us, waving spurious Union Jacks, and
exhibiting all the loyalty that can be displayed by means of dyes and
pigments. It was like Bloemfontein on a smaller scale.

The people here have been in rather a bad way. There has been a great
deal of sickness; the supplies have been very scanty, and meal seems to
be the only thing of which they have ple