Engagements also took place between Plumer and some 500 malcontents near De Wagen Drift, with the result that the enemy retired in confusion. At Tiger Kloof on the 23rd, when the Scots Guards routed the foe from a strong position, the Imperial Yeomanry did excellent work. Unfortunately Lieutenant Southey, while gallantly leading his men, was shot dead, and Major Hanbury was hit in three places. Near Springs in the Transvaal, on the 25th, General Bruce Hamilton surprised a Boer laager, and on the 27th, at Bullfontein, Colonel White achieved a success, and drove the enemy across the river, mainly through the dash and gallantry of the troops under Colonel Forbes, and the skilful handling of them by the commanding officer. General Settle, a day later, occupied Luckhoff, after fighting for five hours and defeating Herzog's commando at Kloof. General Paget, with Colonels Plumer and Hickman, with Queenslanders, New Zealanders, and Tasmanian Bushmen, York, Warwick, and Montgomery Yeomanry, some companies of West Riding and Munster Regiments, the 7th and 38th Batteries, two "pom-poms," one Colt, one Maxim, and two naval quick-firing 12-pounders, moved from the region north-east of Bronker's Spruit on the 29th with a view to giving battle to the enemy, the plan being for General Lyttelton to co-operate by sweeping up from Middelburg on the enemy's rear. The synchronal arrangements were imperfect, and the projected attacks did not proceed as intended. The enemy's lines were longer than those of the British, and General Paget's attempt to turn them was a failure, the enemy, some 2000 of them, being screened by boulders as big as houses, behind which they were completely safe. To left and right went Plumer and Hickman respectively, pushing on in a leaden blast from the hidden foe, while on Hickman's right the gallant West Ridings, led by their splendid Colonel--Colonel Lloyd--pressed to the attack. So close they came that the voices of the Dutchmen were to be heard in conversation, but these with Mausers and four guns and friendly boulders made themselves unassailable. Over seventeen hours of fighting cost the West Riding their colonel, and the brilliant New Zealanders some thirty killed and wounded, all the officers save one being hit. The wounded officers were: Lieutenants Townsend and Oakes, Captain Acworth and Lieutenant Harman, all of West Riding Regiment; Lieutenant Challis, Royal Army Medical Corps, severely, being hit in three places while gallantly attending wounded men under a heavy fire; Captain Crawshaw and Lieutenants Montgomerie, Somerville, and Tucker, and Surgeon-Captain Godfray, all of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles. The total loss was eighteen killed and fifty-eight wounded. At night the guns of General Lyttelton came to work, and by morning the Boers had disappeared. [Illustration: THE HARBOUR, BUFFALO RIVER, EAST LONDON Photo by Wilson, Aberdeen]