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She told me her father was one of the most valued artillerymen on the Boer side, and that he was also an adept in the art of making fireworks, his last triumph in this line having been at Mafeking on the occasion of the celebration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
We shall take Kimberley and Mafeking and give the English such a beating in Natal that they will sue for peace. Such were the extravagant ideas which caused them to push aside the olive-branch of peace. On September 18 the official reply of the Boer Government to the message sent from the Cabinet Council was published in London.
Thus the Boers have been able to overrun their western and southern borders in force sufficient to make a pretence of occupying a large extent of territory in which only the important posts specially prepared by the British for defence continue to hold out. Of these posts, however, Mafeking and Kimberley are as yet the only ones that have been attacked or threatened.
A voice from the darkness said, "Een gonyama-gonyama." "Invooboo," replied the sentry argumentatively "Yah bo! Yah bo! Invooboo." An indistinct figure moved forward. "Who goes there?" "A friend." "Advance, friend, and give the countersign." "Remember Mafeking, and death to Injuns." "Pass friend! All's well." The figure walked on into the firelight.
So far as military purpose can be inferred from military action, the effort of the Boers was concentrated or rather localised upon the occupation of unprotected and friendly districts in the east, where they took up scattered defensive positions, while for offensive operations they satisfied themselves with the investment of Kimberley and Mafeking.
The estimation in which Charterhouse holds Baden-Powell may be seen in the result of a "whip round" for the hero besieged in Mafeking nearly a hundred and forty cases of useful goods.
At the same time news came of a concentration at Malmani, upon the Bechuanaland border, threatening the railway line and the British town of Mafeking, a name destined before long to be familiar to the world.
Delpoort, who had originally expressed the wish to leave Mafeking, where she was residing with many other friends in the women's laager, had changed her mind, or her relatives did not encourage her to leave the shelter of the town; for the Staff had experienced some difficulty in persuading her to agree to the exchange, even if General Snyman allowed the same.
Methuen was established at Modder River; Mafeking and Kimberley were holding out, and the latter at least seemed to be in no immediate danger; French was in a good position before Colesberg; Gatacre was maintaining himself without difficulty at Sterkstroom; the garrison at Ladysmith, after sixteen hours' fighting, had recently warded off a determined attack; the disaffected districts in the Cape Colony had not risen; and the despondent Buller, quickened by reinforcements and stimulated by the approach of the Dunottar Castle, was about to make another attempt to relieve Ladysmith.
The Cape Ministry did what it could to prevent the Protectorate Regiment going to Mafeking, and the corps was in fact mustered outside the Cape Colony, and only entered the town a few days before war was declared. As at Kimberley, so also at Mafeking, the Schreiner sect set itself placidly to thwart the gentle and tentative early efforts of the British Government to deal with the situation.
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