to avoid and have shown them that they shoot at least
as well as the Boers. We may, therefore, hope for victory even against
numbers.

But even if Sir Redvers Buller finds positions as strong as that at
Colenso, the Boers will probably be baulked of their prey, the garrison
of Ladysmith. Sir George White has with him the flower of the British
Army, and he does not mean to be reduced by degrees to the extremity of
famine and helplessness. During Sir Redvers Buller's attack the
Ladysmith's force will not be idle, but will attack the Boers who are
investing the place. Signals must have been prearranged between the two
commanders, and it can hardly be doubted that if and when Sir George
White should have reason to believe that Sir Redvers Buller may be
unable to force his way through the Boer positions he would himself set
out to cut his way through the investing lines, and at whatever
sacrifice to carry the remnant of his force into Sir Redvers Buller's
camp, and thus to vindicate the honour of the British arms and the
character of the British soldier.

SUBSTANTIAL PROGRESS

_January 25th_, 1900

The decisive operation is proceeding slowly but surely. On Wednesday,
the 10th, Lord Dundonald reached the south bank of the Tugela at
Potgieter's Drift, and on Thursday a brigade of infantry was up with
him. A week later, on Wednesday, the 17th, Lyttelton's brigade crossed
by the drift, and Warren's wing of the Army began the passage by a
pontoon bridge at Trichardt's or Wagon Drift. On Thursday, the 18th,
Dundonald was on the high road west of Acton Homes, and drove away a
party of Boers.

North of the Tugela there is a great crescent-shaped plateau three or
four miles across at the widest part. The crescent has its convex side
to the south-west. One of its horns touches the Acton Homes--Ladysmith
road; its broadest part bulges south towards the river bank between
Wagon Drift and the loop near Potgieter's Drift; its other limb is
broken into irregular heights, Brakfontein kopje apparently marking its
south-eastern apex. On the concave north-eastern side Spion Kop is about
at the centre, and is four miles north of Wagon Drift. The plateau is
three or four hundred feet above the river and Spion Kop about the same
height above the plateau. Near the northern apex rises the Blaauwbank
River, which flows eastward towards Ladysmith along the foot of an east
and west range, a spur from the Drakensberg mountains jutting ou