nvoy on the Riet River. He has also
brought up the Guards Brigade as a reinforcement. A few days ago the
camp was moved forward from Paardeberg to Osfontein, and beyond
Osfontein the Boers were observed collecting their troops from day to
day and extending their position, which ran roughly north and south
across the Modder. Yesterday Lord Roberts advanced to the attack with
three and a half infantry divisions, a cavalry division and a brigade of
mounted infantry. The cavalry, followed by an infantry division, turned
the enemy's left flank, and by noon the enemy's army was in full retreat
towards the north and east, pursued by the British. The Boers have this
time not ventured to stand to fight. They have seen themselves assailed
in front by a force which must have greatly outnumbered them at the same
time that their flank was turned by a force as mobile as their own.
Their precipitate retreat coming after their late defeats must increase
their demoralisation, and it will hardly be practicable for them to make
a fresh stand east of the Free State Railway. Lord Roberts will be on
the railway with the bulk of his force by Saturday or Sunday, and his
presence there will complete the break up of the Boer defences of the
Orange River.

The situation of the Boers is now, as far as it depends on themselves,
desperate. They can hardly collect forty thousand men for a decisive
battle, and are confronted by two armies, each of which has that
strength, the one nearing Bloemfontein, the other at Ladysmith. Lord
Roberts, when he reaches the railway, will probably call up from the
Orange River such additional forces as are not required as garrisons in
Cape Colony. His numbers can be fed by constant small reinforcements,
while the Boers have no means of increasing their numbers. With each
succeeding week, therefore, the British will grow stronger and the Boers
fewer. The utmost that the Boer commander-in-chief can expect to
accomplish is to delay that advance to Pretoria which he cannot prevent.

He may perhaps bring about the fall of Mafeking, if he chooses to
dispense for a few weeks longer with the reinforcements which Commandant
Snyman by raising the siege could bring to his main army. There was
indeed some days ago an unofficial report that a strong column was
moving north from Kimberley. If that were true the destination of the
column must have been Mafeking, but it is not clear what its composition
could be. The Guards Brigade