evacuated both the Berg and Painter's Drift.

[Footnote 318: O. and R. batteries R.H.A., composite regiment
of Household cavalry, 16th Lancers, one squadron 10th
Hussars, one squadron 12th Lancers, and two troops of the
Scots Greys.]

[Sidenote: Results of demonstration.]

The British losses during this action were two officers and four men
killed, and five officers and forty-two men wounded. The Boers
admitted a loss of five killed and six wounded. Locally the results of
the engagement were hardly satisfactory, but nevertheless its effect
was exactly what had been hoped for, as General Cronje at once began
to reinforce his right and further strengthen his entrenchments on
that side. A simultaneous demonstration, also made to the westward, by
a body of 1,500 men under Brig.-Gen. Broadwood, helped to confirm the
Boer leaders' assumption that the relief of Kimberley would be
attempted by the west route. Broadwood reached Sunnyside on the 7th,
hoping to strike a blow at Liebenberg's commando at Douglas; but it
had already fallen back across the river, and the British, unable to
spare the time to pursue, retired on the 8th to Richmond, a farm
thirteen miles west of Graspan.

[Sidenote: Numbers in South Africa, 4th Feb. 1900.]

The Commander-in-Chief had at first intended to leave Cape Town for
the north on 30th January, but postponed his departure, as he found
that a little more time was required to collect between the Modder and
Orange rivers the troops he designed to employ. On the 4th February,
"to correct any misapprehension which may exist at the War Office as
to the total force at my disposal," the Field-Marshal informed the
Secretary of State by telegram that the effective strength of fighting
men in Cape Colony, exclusive of seven militia battalions and of the
garrisons of Kimberley and Mafeking, was 51,900, and that the entire
fighting strength of the force in Natal was estimated at 34,830, of
whom 9,780 were invested in Ladysmith. Under these circumstances Lord
Roberts recommended that the number of militia battalions in the
country should be increased to thirty, and that, if possible, two more
regular battalions should be sent, one from Malta and the other from
Egypt. Four days later Lord Roberts informed the War Office that he
would be glad if the whole of the 8,000 Imperial Yeomanry originally
asked for by Sir R. Buller could be sent out, and more, if available.
He sugg