eutenant-General received a telegram from the
Chief of the Staff ordering the 12th Lancers to join Lord Methuen on
the Modder river. The squadrons were, therefore, recalled from Arundel
and the regiment entrained for the Modder on the following day, as
soon as sufficient rolling-stock could be obtained. Its departure left
French for the moment with insufficient mounted men to keep touch with
the enemy, but the arrival of the New Zealanders on the 2nd December
enabled active operations to be renewed, and on the 5th the
Carabiniers, commanded by Colonel T. C. Porter, increased the
Naauwpoort force sufficiently to warrant the adoption of the "policy
of worry" suggested by Sir R. Buller. Moreover, arrangements had now
been completed for the protection of the railway line from Cradock to
Rosmead by part of the Port Elizabeth Volunteer Corps. The details of
the Suffolk regiment and M.I., which had been guarding these
localities, were thereupon recalled to Naauwpoort and rejoined on the
afternoon of 5th December. On the 6th orders were issued for the
occupation on the following day of a position near Arundel with
mounted troops "with the object of pushing forward detachments to
observe the enemy, and clear up the situation near Colesberg next
day." In pursuance of these orders the New Zealand Mounted Rifles
moved out to the ridge to the south of Arundel early on the morning of
the 7th, and later in the day the Carabiniers, mounted infantry (less
a detachment holding Hanover Road station), the N.S.W. Lancers, a
detachment of the R.E. company, and Field Telegraph section were
brought out by train from Naauwpoort under the command of Colonel
Porter; and, having detrained at Hartebeestfontein farm, covered by
the New Zealand Mounted Rifles, advanced with that regiment to Arundel
without meeting any opposition. There the force bivouacked for the
night, the enemy's piquets watching them from a ridge three miles
north of the station.

[Sidenote: Dec. 8th to Dec. 11th, 1899. Schoeman's strength
ascertained. French seizes hill north of Arundel.]

At dawn on the 8th, Colonel Porter sent forward his mounted infantry,
with some cavalry, and seized a hill three miles north of Arundel.
General French, accompanied by his staff and two Berkshire companies,
arrived at Arundel by train from Naauwpoort at 6 a.m., and by his
orders the reconnaissance was then pushed home. The Boers were found
to be now occupying a series of kopjes called Taaibo