of the leaders detracts nothing from the
unwearied cunning of their men.

[Sidenote: Use of ground.]

The combinations of scattered bands at a given rendezvous for a common
purpose were not seldom marvellous, effected as they often were by
rides of extraordinary speed and directness by night, when the men had
to feel with their hands for the goat and Kaffir tracks if astray, but
rarely astray, even in the most tangled maze of kopjes, or, still more
wonderful, on the broadest savannah of featureless grass. With the
Boer, direction had become a sense; not only were topographical
features, once seen, engraved indelibly on his memory, but many which
would be utterly invisible to untrained eyes were often detected at
once by inference so unconscious as to verge on instinct. He knew
"ground" and its secrets as intimately as the seaman knows the sea,
and his memory for locality was that of the Red Indian scout.

[Sidenote: Mixed qualities.]

Thus the Boer riflemen possessed many of the characteristics of the
same formidable type of irregular soldier as the backwoodsmen of
America or the picked warriors of the Hindustan border. Yet an exact
prototype of qualities so contradictory as those which composed this
military temperament is not to be recalled. No fighting men have been
more ready for war, yet so indifferent to military glory, more imbued
with patriotism, yet so prone to fight for themselves alone, more
courageous, yet so careful of their lives, more lethargic, or even
languid by nature, and yet so capable of the most strenuous activity.
Such were the Boers of the veld. In one particular they had never been
surpassed by any troops. No Boer but was a bold horseman and a skilled
horsemaster, who kept his mount ready at any moment for the longest
march or the swiftest gallop, in darkness, or over the roughest
ground. In camp the ponies grazed each one within reach of its master;
in action every burgher took care that his perfectly trained animal
stood, saddled and bridled, under cover within a short run to the
rear. In remote valleys great herds of ponies, some fresh, some
recouping their strength after the fatigues of a campaign, roamed at
pasture until they should be driven to the front as remounts.

[Sidenote: Mobility.]

The unrivalled mobility of the Boer armies, therefore, and the
vastness of its theatre of action, gave to them strength out of all
proportion to their numbers. A muster roll is little indication