The various columns now left from this part of the theatre of war in the following order: Colonel Pulteney, being urgently needed by the Commander-in-Chief for use in the north of Middelburg, left Vryheid on the 1st, and entrained from Glencoe on the 4th. General Dartnell on the 12th, from Vryheid, marched _viâ_ Newcastle to Volkrust, there to rest and refit. General Alderson passed through Vryheid on the 13th, reaching the rail at Glencoe on the 16th, and General Smith-Dorrien with his own, Colonel Campbell's, and Colonel Allenby's columns, marched north from Piet Retief on the 14th towards the Delagoa Railway. The results of the prodigious energy of General French's force during the two and a half months, from the 27th of January to the 16th of April, were amazing. These zealous and untiring warriors had entirely swept the country between the Delagoa and Natal railway lines, from Johannesburg to the Swazi and Zulu frontiers, travelling across the most difficult country, rendered doubly so by tempest and flood, and living almost on starvation fare. Nevertheless 1332 Boers had been placed _hors de combat_ (369 killed and wounded, 233 taken prisoners, 730 surrendered), while an incalculable amount of supplies had been removed or destroyed, including 11 guns, 1280 rifles, 218,249 rounds of ammunition, 2281 waggons and carts, and 272,752 head of stock (7303 horses, 377 mules, 7653 trek oxen, 42,328 cattle, and 215,089 sheep). How much farther the work might have proved successful had it not been for the negotiations between Botha and the Commander-in-Chief which took place during the movement, cannot be stated. Certain it is that General French was much hampered by the palaver which ended in air, for Botha's ruse or so-called negotiations enabled the Boers to slip northwards unmolested. As the pacific nature of the negotiations has been the subject of much comment, it is as well to append the origin and substance of them. On February 23 a telegram was received by Sir Alfred Milner from the Commander-in-Chief, Pretoria, which stated, under date of the 22nd February, that Mrs. Botha had come back from meeting her husband, bringing from him an answer to a verbal message from the Commander-in-Chief, that if he desired it, he (General Botha) would meet him as to the means of bringing the war to an end, but on the express understanding that the question of the independence of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony should not be discussed in any way. The meeting would probably take place at Middelburg. This telegram was sent to Mr. Chamberlain, who replied, February 23:-- "I am glad to hear of Botha's desire to treat, and I hope that it is genuine. He will find us most anxious, in that case, to meet him on all points affecting individual position. We have already made clear the policy we intend to pursue as to future government." On March 1 Lord Kitchener telegraphed:--