recovered their spirits and
their courage. No doubt the scorn and derision to which they would be
subjected by their wives and sisters would soon induce them to take up
arms again and to fulfil the duties their country required. I
therefore requested those who had neither the courage nor the
inclination to return to the front to fall out, and about thirty men
fell back, bowing their heads in shame. They were jeered at and
chaffed by their fellows, the majority of whom had elected to proceed.
But the shock of Elandslaagte had been too much for the weaker
brethren, who seemed deaf to every argument, and only wanted to go
home. I gave each of these a pass to proceed by rail to Johannesburg,
which read as follows:--

"Permit..................................... to go to
Johannesburg on account of cowardice, at Government's
expense."

They put the permit in their pockets without suspecting its contents,
and departed with their kit to the station to catch the first
available train.

The reader will now have formed an idea of the disastrous moral effect
of this defeat, and the subsequent difficulty of getting a commando up
to its original fighting strength. But in spite of this I am proud to
say that by far the greater number of the Johannesburgers were
gathered round me and prepared to march to meet the enemy once more.

My trap and all its contents had been captured by the enemy at
Elandslaagte, and I found it necessary to obtain new outfits, &c., at
Newcastle. This was no easy matter, as some of the storekeepers had
moved the greater part of their goods to a safer place, while some
commandos had appropriated most of the remainder. What was left had
been commandeered by Mr. J. Moodie, a favourite of General Joubert,
who was posing there as Resident Justice of the Peace; and he did not
feel inclined to let any of these goods out of his possession. By
alternately buying and looting, or in other words stealing, I managed
to get an outfit by the next morning, and at break of day we left for
Dannhauser Station, arriving there the same evening without further
noteworthy incident.

Next day, when the Johannesburg corps turned out, we numbered 485
mounted men, all fully equipped. On arrival at Glencoe Station I
received a telegram from General Joubert informing me that he had
defeated the enemy at Nicholson's Nek near Ladysmith that day (October
30, 1899) taking 1,300 prisoners, who would arrive at Glencoe the