o places where
they could be both fed and protected. And, when this had been
done--or, more correctly, while it was in process of being done--he
had to capture the small, mobile bodies of burghers operating over the
whole of the unprotected area of the late Republics and the Cape
Colony, and to collect gradually the fighting Boers, captured or
surrendered, into the colonial or over-sea prisoners' camps.

Certain districts, of which those surrounding the towns of Kimberley,
Bloemfontein, Pretoria, and Johannesburg were the more important, had
from the first been effectively occupied and securely held. All the
troops at Lord Kitchener's disposal, that were not absorbed in the
work of garrisoning these districts and maintaining the lines of
communication, were organised into mobile columns, which were
distributed among General Officers respectively attached to a
particular area. In a despatch of July 8th, 1901, Lord Kitchener was
able to report that, as the result of the recent work of these mobile
columns, the Boers, although "still able, in case of emergency, to
concentrate a considerable number of men," were, in his opinion,
"unable to undertake any large scheme of operations." Apart from the
heavy drain from prisoners captured and deaths in the field, the loss
of their ox-waggons had seriously affected their mobility and supply
arrangements.

"Divided up into small parties of three to four hundred men," he
writes, "they are scattered all over the country without plans
and without hope, and on the approach of our troops they
disperse, to reassemble in the same neighbourhood when our men
pass on. In this way they continue an obstinate resistance
without retaining anything, or defending the smallest portion of
this vast country."

He estimates that there are not more than 13,500[256] Boers in the
field in the Transvaal, the Orange River Colony, and the Cape Colony.
But he adds that--

[Footnote 256: This estimate was very much too small: at the
Vereeniging surrender, when many thousands more of Boers had
been captured or killed 21,256 burghers and rebels laid down
their arms. Cd. 988.]

"with long lines of railway to hold, every yard of which has to
be defended, both to secure our own civil and military supplies,
and, what is more important, to prevent the enemy from obtaining
necessaries from the capture of our trains, the e