e might speedily have reached healthier
veldt and better climatic conditions. President Steyn had passed there
three days previously, but when our advance guard reached the foot of
the high mountains, near Mac Mac, the late General Gravett sent word
that General Buller with his force was marching from Spitskop along
the mountain plateau and that it would be difficult for us to get
ahead of him and into the mountains. The road, which was washed away,
was very steep and difficult and contained abrupt deviations so that
we could only proceed at a snail's pace.

Commandant-General Botha then sent instructions to me to take my
commando along the foot of the mountains, via Leydsdorp, while he with
his staff and the members of the Government would proceed across the
mountains near Mac Mac. General Gravett was detailed to keep Buller's
advance guard busy, and he succeeded admirably.

I think it was here that the British lost a fine chance of making a
big haul. General Buller could have blocked us at any of the mountain
roads near Mac Mac, and could also have swooped down upon us near
Gowyn's Pass and Belvedere. At the time of which I write Buller was
lying not 14 miles away at Spitskop. Two days after he actually
occupied the passes, but just too late to turn the two Governments and
the Commandant-General. It might be said that they could in any case
have, like myself, escaped along the foot of the mountains via
Leydsdorp to Tabina and Pietersburg, but had the way out been blocked
to them near Mac Mac, our Government and generalissimo would have been
compelled to trek for at least three weeks in the low veldt before
they could have reached Pietersburg, during which time all the other
commandos would have been out of touch with the chief Boer military
strategists and commanders, and would not have known what had become
of their military leaders or of their Government. This would have been
a very undesirable state of affairs, and would very likely have borne
the most serious consequences to us. The British, moreover, could have
occupied Pietersburg without much trouble by cutting off our progress
in the low veldt, and barring our way across the Sabini and at Agatha.
This coup could indeed have been effected by a small British force. In
the mountains they would, moreover, have found a healthy climate,
while we should have been left in the sickly districts of the low
veldt. And had we been compelled to stay there for two months we