ord Methuen did not
propose to force a crossing at Bosman's Drift, and that his line of
attack was to be roughly parallel to the railway. But there is no
doubt that the fear of being outflanked caused the burghers to take up
a very wide front, and that the manoeuvres of the mounted troops near
Bosman's Drift, and of the 9th brigade at Rosmead, forced them still
further to extend it on both flanks. When the whole position was taken
up, Free Staters under Prinsloo were posted on the right; the centre,
through which ran the railway line, was defended by De la Rey with
part of the Transvaal commandos; to the left stood another contingent
of Transvaalers, composed of some of the men who, two days earlier,
had arrived at Edenburg, weary with the forced march and long railway
journey by which P. Cronje had brought them from the siege of Mafeking
to protect the Riet. In all, between three and four thousand burghers
were in array.

[Sidenote: Cronje fears for Bosman's Drift, which is unknown to
British.]

[Sidenote: Mounted infantry seize farm a mile above this drift, on
Riet.]

Noticing the direction of the British advance towards Modder River
village, Cronje at first believed that Lord Methuen was about to cross
the Riet at Bosman's Drift. He therefore hurriedly despatched a gun
and a pom-pom from the delta formed by the junction of the two rivers,
to support the outlying detachments of riflemen, already posted in the
neighbourhood of the ford and of a farmhouse a mile further up the
river. The 18th battery drove back the pom-pom and gun, and then, at
about 7.15 a.m. supported the mounted infantry who had been despatched
to capture the farm. Aided by the well-placed shells of the artillery,
the mounted infantry carried it, and established themselves so solidly
under cover of the mud walls of its kraal that a Boer gun, which later
in the day played upon them for several hours, failed to dislodge
them. The duty of watching the right rear was entrusted to the 9th
Lancers. By their repeated attempts to cross the Riet they prevented
the men who guarded it from reinforcing the main Boer positions; and
they warded off the threatened attack of detachments of the enemy who,
based on Jacobsdal, hovered on the right flank. Rimington's Guides at
the beginning of the action were sent to the west, where they
similarly covered the left flank. Among the first to cross the river
was a party of the Guides, and these did good service during