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THE GREAT BOER WAR
caped scatheless, sometimes the garrison found itself the poorer by
the loss of Captain Girdwood or Trooper Webb or some other gallant soldier. Occasionally they had their little triumph when a too
curious Dutchman, peering for an instant from his cover to see the
effect of his shot, was carried back in the ambulance to the laager.
On Sunday a truce was usually observed, and the snipers who had
exchanged rifl e-shots all the week met occasionally on that day with
good-humoured chaff. Snyman, the Boer General, showed none of
that chivalry at Mafeking which distinguished the gallant old Joubert at Ladysmith. Not only was there no neutral camp for women
or sick, but it is beyond all doubt or question that the Boer guns
were deliberately turned upon the women’s quarters inside Mafeking in order to bring pressure upon the inhabitants. Many women
and children were sacrifi ced to this brutal policy, which must in
fairness be set to the account of the savage leader, and not of the
rough but kindly folk with whom we were fi ghting. In every race
there are individual ruffi ans, and it would be a political mistake to
allow our action to be infl uenced or our feelings permanently embittered by their crimes. It is from the man himself, and not from his
country, that an account should be exacted.
The garrison, in the face of increasing losses and decreasing food,
lost none of the high spirits which it refl ected from its commander.
The programme of a single day of jubilee – Heaven only knows what
they had to hold jubilee over – shows a cricket match in the morning, sports in the afternoon, a concert in the evening, and a dance,
given by the bachelor offi cers, to wind up. Baden-Powell himself
seems to have descended from the eyrie from which, like a captain on
the bridge, he rang bells and telephoned orders, to bring the house
down with a comic song and a humorous recitation. The ball went
admirably, save that there was an interval to repel an attack which
disarranged the programme. Sports were zealously cultivated, and
381
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
the grimy inhabitants of casemates and trenches were pitted against
12
each other at cricket or football.
occasional visits of a postman, who appeared or vanished from the
vast barren lands to the west of the town, which could not all be
guarded by the besiegers. Sometimes a few words from home came to
cheer the hearts of the exiles, and could be returned by the same uncertain and expensive means. The documents which found their way
up were not always of an essential or even of a welcome character.
At least one man received an unpaid bill from an angry tailor.
In one particular Mafeking had, with much smaller resources,
rivalled Kimberley. An ordnance factory had been started, formed
in the railway workshops, and conducted by Connely and Cloughlan, of the Locomotive Department. Daniels, of the police, supplemented their efforts by making both powder and fuses. The factory
turned out shells, and eventually constructed a 5.5-inch smoothbore gun, which threw a round shell with great accuracy to a considerable range. April found the garrison, in spite of all losses, as
effi cient and as resolute as it had been in October. So close were the
advanced trenches upon either side that both parties had recourse to
the old-fashioned hand grenades, thrown by the Boers, and cast on
a fi shing-line by ingenious Sergeant Page, of the Protectorate Regiment. Sometimes the besiegers and the number of guns diminished,
forces being detached to prevent the advance of Plumer’s relieving
column from the north; but as those who remained held their forts,
which it was beyond the power of the British to storm, the garrison
was now much the better for the alleviation. Putting Mafeking for
Ladysmith and Plumer for Buller, the situation was not unlike that
which had existed in Natal.
The monotony was broken by the
12
Sunday cricket so shocked Snyman that he threatened to fi re upon
it if it were continued.
382
THE GREAT BOER WAR
At this point some account might be given of the doings of that
northern force whose situation was so remote that even the ubiquitous correspondent hardly appears to have reached it. No doubt
the book will eventually make up for the neglect of the journal, but
some short facts may be given here of the Rhodesian column. Their
action did not affect the course of the war, but they clung like bulldogs to a most diffi cult task, and eventually, when strengthened by
the relieving column, made their way to Mafeking.
The force was originally raised for the purpose of defending
Rhodesia, and it consisted of fi ne material pioneers, farmers, and
miners from the great new land which had been added through
the energy of Mr. Rhodes to the British Empire. Many of the men
were veterans of the native wars, and all were imbued with a hardy
and adventurous spirit. On the other hand, the men of the northern and western Transvaal, whom they were called upon to face the
burghers of Watersberg and Zoutpansberg, were tough frontiersmen living in a land where a dinner was shot, not bought. Shaggy,
hairy, half-savage men, handling a rifl e as a mediaeval Englishman
handled a bow, and skilled in every wile of veld craft, they were as
formidable opponents as the world could show.
On the war breaking out the fi rst thought of the leaders in Rhodesia was to save as much of the line which was their connection
through Mafeking with the south as was possible. For this purpose
an armoured train was despatched only three days after the expiration of the ultimatum to the point four hundred miles south of Bulawayo, where the frontiers of the Transvaal and of Bechuanaland
join. Colonel Holdsworth commanded the small British force. The
Boers, a thousand or so in number, had descended upon the railway,
and an action followed in which the train appears to have had better luck than has usually attended these ill-fated contrivances. The
Boer commando was driven back and a number were killed. It was
383
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
probably news of this affair, and not anything which had occurred
at Mafeking, which caused those rumours of gloom at Pretoria very
shortly after the outbreak of hostilities. An agency telegraphed that
women were weeping in the streets of the Boer capital. We had not
then realised how soon and how often we should see the same sight
in Pall Mall.
The adventurous armoured train pressed on as far as Lobatsi,
where it found the bridges destroyed; so it returned to its original
position, having another brush with the Boer commandos, and
again, in some marvellous way, escaping its obvious fate. From then
until the new year the line was kept open by an admirable system
of patrolling to within a hundred miles or so of Mafeking. An aggressive spirit and a power of dashing initiative were shown in the
British operations at this side of the scene of war such as have too
often been absent elsewhere. At Sekwani, on November 24th, a considerable success was gained by a surprise planned and carried out
by Colonel Holdsworth. The Boer laager was approached and attacked in the early morning by a force of one hundred and twenty
frontiersmen, and so effective was their fi re that the Boers estimated their numbers at several thousand. Thirty Boers were killed or
wounded, and the rest scattered.
While the railway line was held in this way there had been some
skirmishing also on the northern frontier of the Transvaal. Shortly
after the outbreak of the war the gallant Blackburn, scouting with
six comrades in thick bush, found himself in the presence of a considerable commando. The British concealed themselves by the path,
but Blackburn’s foot was seen by a keen-eyed Kaffi r, who pointed it
out to his masters. A sudden volley riddled Blackburn with bullets;
but his men stayed by him and drove off the enemy. Blackburn dictated an offi cial report of the action, and then died.
384
THE GREAT BOER WAR
In the same region a small force under Captain Hare was cut
off by a body of Boers. Of the twenty men most got away, but the
chaplain J.W. Leary, Lieutenant Haserick (who behaved with admirable gallantry), and six men were taken.
attacked this party, and on the same day Colonel Spreckley’s force,
was a powerful one, with several guns. No doubt it was organised because there were fears among the Boers that they would be invaded
from the north. When it was understood that the British intended
no large aggressive movement in that quarter, these burghers joined
other commandos. Sarel Eloff, who was one of the leaders of this
northern force, was afterwards taken at Mafeking.
Colonel Plumer had taken command of the small army which
was now operating from the north along the railway line with
Mafeking for its objective. Plumer is an offi cer of considerable experience in African warfare, a small, quiet, resolute man, with a knack
of gently enforcing discipline upon the very rough material with
which he had to deal. With his weak force – which never exceeded
a thousand men, and was usually from six to seven hundred – he
had to keep the long line behind him open, build up the ruined
railway in front of him, and gradually creep onwards in face of a formidable and enterprising enemy. For a long time Gaberones, which
is eighty miles north of Mafeking, remained his headquarters, and
thence he kept up precarious communications with the besieged
garrison. In the middle of March he advanced as far south as Lobatsi, which is less than fi fty miles from Mafeking; but the enemy
proved to be too strong, and Plumer had to drop back again with
some loss to his original position at Gaberones. Sticking doggedly to
13
The commando which
13
Mr. Leary was wounded in the foot by a shell. The German artillerist entered the hut in which he lay. 'Here's a bit of your work!' said Leary
good-humouredly. 'I wish it had been worse,' said the amiable German
gunner.
385
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
his task, Plumer again came south, and this time made his way as far
as Ramathlabama, within a day’s march of Mafeking. He had with
him, however, only three hundred and fi fty men, and had he pushed
through the effect might have been an addition of hungry men to
the garrison. The relieving force was fi ercely attacked, however, by
the Boers and driven back on to their camp with a loss of twelve
killed, twenty-six wounded, and fourteen missing. Some of the British were dismounted men, and it says much for Plumer’s conduct
of the fi ght that he was able to extricate these safely from the midst
of an aggressive mounted enemy. Personally he set an admirable example, sending away his own horse, and walking with his rearmost
soldiers. Captain Crewe Robertson and Lieutenant Milligan, the famous Yorkshire cricketer, were killed, and Rolt, Jarvis, Maclaren,
and Plumer himself were wounded. The Rhodesian force withdrew
again to near Lobatsi, and collected itself for yet another effort.
In the meantime Mafeking – abandoned, as it seemed, to its
fate – was still as formidable as a wounded lion. Far from weakening in its defence it became more aggressive, and so persistent
and skilful were its rifl emen that the big Boer gun had again and
again to be moved further from the town. Six months of trenches
and rifl e-pits had turned every inhabitant into a veteran. Now and
then words of praise and encouragement came to them from without. Once it was a special message from the Queen, once a promise
of relief from Lord Roberts. But the rails which led to England were
overgrown with grass, and their brave hearts yearned for the sight
of their countrymen and for the sound of their voices. ‘How long,
O Lord, how long?’ was the cry which was wrung from them in their
solitude. But the fl ag was still held high.
April was a trying month for the defence. They knew that
Methuen, who had advanced as far as Fourteen Streams upon the
Vaal River, had retired again upon Kimberley. They knew also that
386
THE GREAT BOER WAR
Plumer’s force had been weakened by the repulse at Ramathlabama,
and that many of his men were down with fever. Six weary months
had this village withstood the pitiless pelt of rifl e bullet and shell.
Help seemed as far away from them as ever. But if troubles may be
allayed by sympathy, then theirs should have lain lightly. The attention of the whole empire had centred upon them, and even the advance of Roberts’s army became secondary to the fate of this gallant
struggling handful of men who had upheld the fl ag so long. On the
Continent also their resistance attracted the utmost interest, and the
numerous journals there who fi nd the imaginative writer cheaper
than the war correspondent announced their capture periodically as
they had once done that of Ladysmith. From a mere tin-roofed village
Mafeking had become a prize of victory, a stake which should be the
visible sign of the predominating manhood of one or other of the
great white races of South Africa. Unconscious of the keenness of the
emotions which they had aroused, the garrison manufactured brawn
from horsehide, and captured locusts as a relish for their luncheons,
while in the shot-torn billiard-room of the club an open tournament
was started to fi ll in their hours off duty. But their vigilance, and that
of the hawk-eyed man up in the Conning Tower, never relaxed. The
besiegers had increased in number, and their guns were more numerous than before. A less acute man than Baden-Powell might have
reasoned that at least one desperate effort would be made by them to
carry the town before relief could come.
On Saturday, May 12th, the attack was made at the favourite
hour of the Boer – the fi rst grey of the morning. It was gallantly
delivered by about three hundred volunteers under the command
of Eloff, who had crept round to the west of the town – the side
furthest from the lines of the besiegers. At the fi rst rush they penetrated into the native quarter, which was at once set on fi re by them.
The fi rst building of any size upon that side is the barracks of the
387
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
Protectorate Regiment, which was held by Colonel Hore and about
twenty of his offi cers and men. This was carried by the enemy, who
sent an exultant message along the telephone to Baden-Powell to
tell him that they had got it. Two other positions within the lines,
one a stone kraal and the other a hill, were held by the Boers, but
their supports were slow in coming on, and the movements of the
defenders were so prompt and energetic that all three found themselves isolated and cut off from their own lines. They had penetrated
the town, but they were as far as ever from having taken it. All day
the British forces drew their cordon closer and closer round the
Boer positions, making no attempt to rush them, but ringing them
round in such a way that there could be no escape for them. A few
burghers slipped away in twos and threes, but the main body found
that they had rushed into a prison from which the only egress was
swept with rifl e fi re. At seven o’clock in the evening they recognised
that their position was hopeless, and Eloff with 117 men laid down
their arms. Their losses had been ten killed and nineteen wounded.
For some reason, either of lethargy, cowardice, or treachery, Snyman
had not brought up the supports which might conceivably have altered the result. It was a gallant attack gallantly met, and for once
the greater wiliness in fi ght was shown by the British. The end was
characteristic. ‘Good evening, Commandant,’ said Powell to Eloff;
‘won’t you come in and have some dinner?’ The prisoners – burghers, Hollanders, Germans, and Frenchmen – were treated to as
good a supper as the destitute larders of the town could furnish.
So in a small blaze of glory ended the historic siege of Mafeking,
for Eloff’s attack was the last, though by no means the worst of the
trials which the garrison had to face. Six killed and ten wounded
were the British losses in this admirably managed affair. On May
17th, fi ve days after the fi ght, the relieving force arrived, the besiegers were scattered, and the long-imprisoned garrison were free men
388
THE GREAT BOER WAR
once more. Many who had looked at their maps and saw this post
isolated in the very heart of Africa had despaired of ever reaching
their heroic fellow-countrymen, and now one universal outbreak of
joybells and bonfi res from Toronto to Melbourne proclaimed that
there is no spot so inaccessible that the long arm of the empire cannot reach it when her children are in peril.
Colonel Mahon, a young Irish offi cer who had made his reputation as a cavalry leader in Egypt, had started early in May from Kimberley with a small but mobile force consisting of the Imperial Light
Horse (brought round from Natal for the purpose), the Kimberley
Mounted Corps, the Diamond Fields Horse, some Imperial Yeomanry, a detachment of the Cape Police, and 100 volunteers from
the Fusilier brigade, with M battery R.H.A. and pom-poms, twelve
hundred men in all. Whilst Hunter was fi ghting his action at Rooidam on May 4th, Mahon with his men struck round the western
fl ank of the Boers and moved rapidly to the northwards. On May
11th they had left Vryburg, the halfway house, behind them, having done one hundred and twenty miles in fi ve days. They pushed
on, encountering no opposition save that of nature, though they
knew that they were being closely watched by the enemy. At Koodoosrand it was found that a Boer force was in position in front,
but Mahon avoided them by turning somewhat to the westward.
His detour took him, however, into a bushy country, and here the
enemy headed him off, opening fi re at short range upon the ubiquitous Imperial Light Horse, who led the column. A short engagement ensued, in which the casualties amounted to thirty killed and
wounded, but which ended in the defeat and dispersal of the Boers,
whose force was certainly very much weaker than the British. On
May 15th the relieving column arrived without further opposition
at MasibI Stadt, twenty miles to the west of Mafeking.
389
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
In the meantime Plumer’s force upon the north had been
strengthened by the addition of C battery of four 12-pounder
guns of the Canadian Artillery under Major Eudon and a body of
Queenslanders. These forces had been part of the small army which
had come with General Carrington through Beira, and after a detour of thousands of miles, through their own wonderful energy
they had arrived in time to form portion of the relieving column.
Foreign military critics, whose experience of warfare is to move
troops across a frontier, should think of what the Empire has to do
before her men go into battle. These contingents had been assembled by long railway journeys, conveyed across thousands of miles
of ocean to Cape Town, brought round another two thousand or so
to Beira, transferred by a narrow-gauge railway to Bamboo Creek,
changed to a broader gauge to Marandellas, sent on in coaches for
hundreds of miles to Bulawayo, transferred to trains for another
four or fi ve hundred miles to Ootsi, and had fi nally a forced march
of a hundred miles, which brought them up a few hours before their
presence was urgently needed upon the fi eld. Their advance, which
averaged twenty-fi ve miles a day on foot for four consecutive days
over deplorable roads, was one of the fi nest performances of the war.
With these high-spirited reinforcements and with his own hardy
Rhodesians Plumer pushed on, and the two columns reached the
hamlet of MasibI Stadt within an hour of each other. Their united
strength was far superior to anything which Snyman’s force could
place against them.
But the gallant and tenacious Boers would not abandon their
prey without a last effort. As the little army advanced upon Mafeking they found the enemy waiting in a strong position. For some
hours the Boers gallantly held their ground, and their artillery fi re
was, as usual, most accurate. But our own guns were more numerous
and equally well served, and the position was soon made untenable.
390
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