At Krugersdorp General Barton reconnoitered along the line to the station where the train was wrecked on the 19th, and replenished the supplies of Lord Methuen, who was moving on Potchefstroom, which place was reached at the end of the month. On the eighteen miles' march from Frederickstad, though the troops were engaged with the enemy the greater part of the day, the casualties were few; but the Dutchmen, revenging themselves, took up some of the rails on the Krugersdorp-Potchefstroom Railway, and threw a supply train escorted by a detachment of the Shropshire Light Infantry off the line, killing thirteen persons, including the engine-driver, and causing injuries to thirty-nine more. This made a bad termination for July, particularly disappointing, as General Smith-Dorrien had told off special patrols to prevent trains from passing over damaged parts of the rail, and a reason for the accidents was not forthcoming. The troops encamped near Frederickstad were set upon by Commandant Lieseberg and his hordes, who, having requested the commanding officer to surrender, had received the usual reply. The Dutchman was gallantly routed by Colonel M'Kinnon and his dashing C.I.V., assisted by the Suffolk and Bucks Yeomanry, before the arrival of Methuen's force, which had been signalled for. In the course of the fray Captain A. V. Poynter, 10th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry, was dangerously wounded. This somewhat inexplicable forward and backward march on the part of Lord Methuen was due to the necessity of acting in co-operation with the movement of troops on the north-west of Pretoria, and thus saving any particular portion of the position from affording loopholes for the junction of Boer commandos. FOOTNOTES: [8] See Map at p. 41. CHAPTER V IN THE WESTERN TRANSVAAL--CHASING DE WET--THE SIEGES OF RUSTENBURG AND ELANDS RIVER Before entering on the complications which occurred in the Western Transvaal immediately after the return of Lord Roberts and General Ian Hamilton from the Middelburg Campaign, it is necessary to remember that, while the Chief's back was turned and most of the army was moving to the east, and a certain portion was forced to guard Pretoria, Delarey's gang had been mustering round the Magaliesberg range. Here, as we know, the passes were but poorly, if at all, protected, owing to the disasters at Deerdepoort and Nitral's Nek, which thinned the already thin British forces. Therefore the direct road from Pretoria to Mafeking, the road past Rustenburg, Elands River, and Ottoshoop, which it was imperative to guard--and which was guarded by Colonel Hore at Elands River, General Baden-Powell at Rustenburg, and Sir Frederick Carrington further on--was seriously menaced by the hovering hordes of the enemy.