mall Irish, Hollander and German corps of
adventurers; the total strength of this force was about 11,300 men.
Its armament included 16 field guns and three 6-inch Creusots. On the
eastern border of Natal, facing the British force at Dundee, lay the
Utrecht, Vryheid, Piet Retief and Wakkerstroom commandos, under the
leadership of General Lukas Meyer; this detachment numbered about
2,870 men. Westward, a Free State contingent, amounting to some 9,500
burghers, and consisting of the Vrede, Heilbron, Kroonstad, Winburg,
Bethlehem and Harrismith commandos, occupied Botha's, Bezuidenhout,
Tintwa, Van Reenen's, and Olivier's Hoek passes. The republican
forces, to whom the task of conquering Natal had been assigned,
amounted therefore at the outset of war to about 23,500 men.[59]

[Footnote 58: This statement is based on information obtained
from Boer sources during and since the war, but the numbers
must only be taken as approximately accurate.]

[Footnote 59: Reinforcements, amounting in all to about 3,240
men, joined the Boer Natal army during the months
November-December; these were made up of 1,300 Johannesburg
police and burghers, 290 Swaziland police and burghers and
the Lydenburg and Carolina commandos. These reinforcements
were, however, counterbalanced by the transfer of detachments
of the Free State commandos to the western theatre of war.]

[Sidenote: For Mafeking.]

For the attack on Colonel Baden-Powell's small garrison at Mafeking, a
body, in strength about 7,000, consisting of the Potchefstroom,
Lichtenburg, Marico, Wolmaranstad and Rustenburg commandos, with a
company of Scandinavian adventurers, had been concentrated close to
the western border. General Piet Cronje was in supreme command on this
side, his two principal subordinates being Generals Snyman and J. H.
De la Rey.

[Sidenote: For Kimberley.]

The capture of Kimberley and the duty of holding in check the British
troops at the Orange River station were assigned to Free State levies
composed of the Fauresmith, Jacobsdal, Bloemfontein, Ladybrand, Boshof
and Hoopstad commandos, the first two of these corps being assembled
at Boshof and the remainder at Jacobsdal. Their total strength was
probably about 7,500; a Transvaal detachment, about 1,700 strong,
composed of the Fordsburg and Bloemhof commandos, was concentrated at
Fourteen Streams, ready to join hands w