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The enemy could see us clearly, as it was open veldt, with only a few bushes cropping up here and there. We now rode on in the direction of Wolhuterskop, which is close to the Magalies Mountains. I thought I should thus be able to reach the great road from Rustenburg to Pretoria, which was eight or nine miles from the footpath across the Magaliesberg.
The bitter feeling that was roused in us in our helplessness is not to be described. General Baden-Powell was in Rustenburg, and Magatonek was also in possession of the enemy. It was a most interesting and adventurous time that we spent near the Magalies Mountains.
I took with me General Philip Botha and Commandant Prinsloo, and 200 men, and also Captain Scheepers with his corps, which consisted of thirty men. With the addition of my staff we numbered altogether 246 men. Thus our ways parted the President going to the Government of the South African Republic, the laager to the north, and I back to the Free State. I had now to cross the Magalies Mountains.
We had enough to do, also, as we had to keep a sharp look-out, and we were in constant danger, but not at all afraid of the patrols of khakies, which, being small in number and without their guns, were pretty harmless. We advanced almost parallel to the Magalies Mountains, that stretch from Pretoria to Rustenburg, until we came to the neighbourhood of Selikatsnek.
Whilst I was still thinking the matter over, troops began to come out of the camps, about two miles to the west of us on the road between Wolhuterskop and Magaliesberg. The scout who had escaped might now be with that force. I had therefore to act at once. I decided on climbing the Magalies Mountains, without a path or road! Near by there was a Kaffir hut, and I rode up to it.
These same women had only the day before called down God's blessing upon us, and now they cried to us to hurry, or we would be surrounded. We rode at a flying gallop for fully half an hour along the Magalies Mountains, between the Witwatersranden and the many smaller banks, while to the left the enemy were descending and firing at us.
I think the khakies also must have been bored to death on those long, fruitless journeys. We left Bethany towards evening, and reached the Magalies Mountains the following morning after a tiring journey in the night past Sterkstroom, through the Kromriverskloof to the foot of Onuapadnek, or Boschfonteinnek.
We left quite three-quarters of an hour later than the fixed time in the early morning of December 13, 1900, and recrossed the steep, narrow neck, took a way to our right in the Kromriverskloof, making a sharp turn to Elandskrans, where a strong outpost had been placed by the enemy on the Magalies Mountains. That was the crust through which we had to bite to get at the dainties of the booty.
But the ambulance was there still, and all night long I led it in the direction the General had told me the lagers would take. Late the following morning I arrived at De Wet's lager, which had moved a few hours further on to Sterkstroom. The commando left there that afternoon, and went along the Magalies Mountains to Commandonek.
When I went back to the farm later on, I was told that one of the girls had clapped her hands with delight when the enemy fled past them. That must have been the reason why she and her family were so cruelly insulted and plundered by the khakies afterwards. We met with great kindness during our stay in the Magalies Mountains.
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