United States or Macao ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
There is no sign as yet of any strong leadership such as could to some extent restore the fortunes of the Boer army. The retreat beyond the Orange River has been gradual; the siege of Mafeking has not been abandoned, and there is no sign of a determined concentration of forces to oppose Lord Roberts.
In a very old ninth-century illumination which I have seen, depicting the war of the rebel angels in heaven, Satan is represented as distributing to his followers peacock feathers the symbols of an evil pride. Satan also distributed peacock feathers to his followers on Mafeking Night...
Since Mafeking night he had become aware that a 'young fool of a doctor' was hanging round Annette. Twice he had come across him a cheerful young fool, not more than thirty. Nothing annoyed Soames so much as cheerfulness an indecent, extravagant sort of quality, which had no relation to facts.
Five years later, having thrown aside his sword, he became a controller of ploughshares as Minister of Agriculture in the Government of the Orange River Colony, and the father-in-law of a British officer who had fought against him. This responsibility had been laid by Napoleon upon his officers nearly a century before. Baden-Powell and the Siege of Mafeking
Every moment it grew lighter a beautiful morning, cool and bright, with a gentle breeze. In Mr. Wiel's service was a waiter named Mitchell, a Cockney to the backbone, and a great character in his way. What had brought him to South Africa, or how he came to be in Mafeking, I never discovered; but he was a cheerful individual, absolutely fearless of shells and bullets.
Unavoidable as the delay in despatching a column to the relief of Mafeking seems to have been, I think that there was one moment at which, if Lord Methuen had had a slightly stronger force under his command, the course of the campaign on the north-west frontier might have been changed, and Mafeking relieved by pressure from the south.
'His bread shall be given him, and his water shall be sure. In ancient warfare sieges were usually blockades; and strong fortresses were reduced by famine much more frequently than by assault. Mafeking and Ladysmith and Port Arthur were in most danger from that cause. The promise here assures us that we shall have all supplies in our abode, if God is our abode.
The course of the war was followed with intense interest in Canada. Alike in the anxious days of December, the black week of Stormberg, Magersfontein, and Tugela, and in the joyful reaction of the relief of Kimberley and Ladysmith and Mafeking and the victory of Paardeberg, Canadians felt themselves a part of the moving scene.
Captain Chappell Hodge, late 12th Lancers, was given command, and under him were Lieutenants J. Gilmour and J. Simpson. They embarked on 27th February for Cape Town where they were given their horses, and proceeded to join General Sir A. Hunter's Division for the relief of Mafeking.
Word Of The Day