organised, could operate thence towards Kimberley or on some point in
the Free State. The energy of Lieut.-Colonel R. G. Kekewich, Loyal
North Lancashire regiment, who had been despatched to Kimberley to
take command, assisted by Mr. Cecil Rhodes and the officials of the De
Beers Company, had placed that town in a fair state of defence. At
Mafeking it was realised that Colonel Baden-Powell's troops would be
unable to do more than protect the large quantities of stores
accumulated by merchants at that station against the formidable Boer
force which was concentrating for attack upon it. Nevertheless, by so
doing, Baden-Powell would fulfil the role assigned to him, since he
would prevent large numbers of the enemy from engaging in the serious
invasion of the exposed frontier territories of Cape Colony. The
actual distribution of troops in the Colony at the outbreak of war is
shown in Appendix 2.

[Sidenote: Natal defence--Generals Cox and Goodenough, 96/97.]

Reports on the frontier defence of Natal had been submitted during the
years 1896-7, by Major-General G. Cox, who was then holding the
sub-command of that colony, and by Lieut.-General Goodenough. After a
careful examination of the question whether the tunnel under Laing's
Nek, the Dundee coalfields to the south, and Van Reenen's Pass could
be protected with the troops available, General Goodenough decided
that none of these could be guarded. Having then only one regiment of
cavalry, one mountain battery, and one infantry battalion, he thought
it better to concentrate nearly all of them at Ladysmith, the point of
junction of the branch railway to Harrismith with the main line to the
Transvaal, sending only small detachments to Colenso and Estcourt. On
the despatch to Natal, in the second quarter of 1897, of
reinforcements, consisting of another cavalry regiment, a second
battalion of infantry, and a brigade division of artillery, temporary
quarters were erected at Ladysmith for this increase to the garrison
of the colony, and Sir William Goodenough informed the War Office that
in case of emergency he proposed to watch the whole frontier with the
Natal Police, to hold Newcastle with colonial troops and to despatch
most of the cavalry, one field battery, and half a battalion of
infantry to Glencoe to cover the Dundee coalfields. The remainder of
the regular troops, consisting of a battalion and a half, a few
cavalry, and two batteries, would be placed at Ladysmith, wh