Little good it would do them, but all those who claim they were forced by the British to take up arms against the Boers, should at least vindicate themselves to the extent of laying their complaints with the proper officials in Washington City. Those who confess that they were duly hired by the English to take up arms against the Boers should be made to feel the stigma of their disgrace by being disfranchised and deprived of the rights of American citizenship. I certainly feel that any republican who voluntarily assists a king or queen, or both, to kill or enslave other republicans, is not fit to live among republicans, for such a man in time of war is sure to commit treason if he gets an opportunity. Strange as it may seem, it is yet true, the English never once attacked the Boers in the month of January. They were forced to fight on the defensive and the Boers made them do plenty of fighting. Without horses and mules what could the English do but spend their time in throwing up earthworks to defend themselves against Boer attacks, and I tell you the English were kept pretty busy from morn till night. The Boers were having a first class picnic with them, and had not the English Government in Washington, D.C., lent a helping hand, the British army in South Africa would have been hopelessly lost in the struggle. Now the reader can understand what I meant when I said some time back that the two little Republics would have won their independence had not the devil and his angels been against them. It is significant, and it means something when 35,000 Boers put an English army 250,000 strong strictly on the defensive, and the Government of the United States did not fail to come promptly to the British Army's rescue. But I must go ahead and tell what happened in the various and widely separated parts of South Africa during the month of January, 1901. It may not interest the reader, but it was a month of great worry and excitement both to the British army and the British Government. Early in the month General Botha planned to attack Machadadorp, Dalmanutha, Belfast, Wonderfontein and Balmoral, all fortified stations of the Delagoa railway line. All the forts were well equipped both with men and guns, and the forts at each station were so placed that each could protect the other. It was during the dark and rainy night of January 8th, that a simultaneous attack on all the stations on the line was to be made. For a distance of seventy-five miles the midnight hour was made hideous by the singing of rifle bullets, whizzing grape shot, and the roar of cannon.