mobile force at his disposal General
Cronje might have struck at the British communications, the Boer
commander remained passive, and devoted himself to the improvement and
extension of his defences. He was indifferent to the fact that his
line of supply to the eastward was exposed and almost entirely
unguarded. Enterprises proposed by De Wet and others of his
subordinates against the British connection with the sea he sternly
forbad.

[Sidenote: Activity in the west.]

[Sidenote: Pilcher's raid on Douglas.]

[Sidenote: Alderson threatens Prieska.]

In the more western theatre of war, on the contrary, the Boers made
some attempt to take advantage of the situation. Recruiting parties
were sent across the Orange river, and visited Prieska. The village of
Douglas, lying south of the Vaal, a little below its junction with the
Riet, and commanding the road from Griqualand West to Belmont, was
also occupied by a small commando. The section of Lord Methuen's line
of supply from De Aar to Honey Nest Kloof was at this time held by
some 11,000 men under the command of Major-General E. Wood.[258] The
greater part of this force was distributed in strong posts at Honey
Nest Kloof, Enslin, Belmont, Witteputs, Orange River bridge, and De
Aar. The garrison of Belmont was under command of Lt.-Colonel T. D.
Pilcher, and consisted of two guns of P. battery, R.H.A., a half
company of the Munster Fusiliers mounted infantry, 250 Queensland
M.I., two companies of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, and the
Royal Canadian regiment, amounting in all to about 1,600 men. General
Wood determined to use a portion of this garrison to brush away the
hostile gathering on the left flank. With this object, Colonel Pilcher
was directed to move out from Belmont on the afternoon of the 31st
December with a flying column, composed of the two guns of P. battery,
42 officers and men of the Munster Fusiliers M.I., 12 officers and 187
men of the Queensland M.I. under command of Lt.-Colonel P. R. Ricardo,
and a company of the Canadian regiment, the last-named unit being
carried in ten buck wagons with mule transport. The two companies
D.C.L.I. formed a supporting column and followed later. In order to
deceive the enemy, Pilcher on the previous day had made a feint from
Belmont towards the Free State, returning ostensibly on the ground
that a mistake had been made as to supply arrangements; the real
object of the column was Douglas, and it had been arran