We were now about three miles from Nooitgedacht where General de la Rey and General Beyers had taken General Clement's camp and killed, wounded and taken prisoners 800 of his men. Ahead of us we could see a long line of English forts, so we knew that there must be Boers in the Magaliesburg just opposite to them. We moved cautiously and kept our eyes on the forts. When nearly opposite to them and about 5,000 yards distant, we found some Boers, and I tell you we felt much relieved. The English had spent the previous day trying to shell them out, but had signally failed. We could not learn just where General de la Rey was, but they knew he was somewhere near Mafeking on the western border. We remained here for the night and learned that the English had forts everywhere in front, and that we must be very careful. In the early morning we started to run the gauntlet and pass the forts. Each rode about two hundred yards behind the other for about an hour and a half and then we found ourselves out of danger. Not a shot was fired at us, yet we were directly under them and not 3,000 yards away. We crossed a small mountain and were then in a great, wide rolling prairie, with Ventersdorp about five hours' ride to the left. The many English graves we daily passed showed that heavy fighting had taken place along the whole line of the Magaliesburg. On reaching a tall ridge we could see immense forts on all high prominences in our front, and we were much puzzled as to how we could safely pass them. We would stop and use our glasses frequently, because we were on risky ground. There was one large fort that was directly in our way, and we could not see how we could possibly pass it without going at full speed, and our horses were too tired to do this. We slowly approached till within a thousand yards of this place, when we dismounted, sat down to rest and made the best possible use of our glasses. We had excellent glasses, and for one hour there was not a second passed without at least one of us having the glasses nailed on that fort. It was about noon time, and to save us we could not see the slightest sign of life about the fort. We concluded there was no one in it and we decided to take our chances and ride by it. We guessed right, and at a kraal near by the Kaffirs told us that the English had left the fort the day before.