each other and our children that we have never been beaten, and, as we increase in numbers, the tales of former prowess and invincibility will perpetuate a national feeling. If you allow burghers to carry rifles after surrender you will have petty revolts for the next ten years. There is no need of a Mauser or a Lee-Metford to defend the burgher against the native. Give him a shot-gun or a revolver, and no native will molest him. The demand for the retention of arms is nothing more nor less than the result of a determination on the part of the Boers to use them against you at the very slightest provocation. To give them rifles is suicidal.'" CHAPTER IV IN THE WESTERN TRANSVAAL--JANUARY TO MAY In the early part of the year we find Lord Methuen busily occupied in dealing with an incursion of the enemy from the south-western part of the Transvaal into Griqualand. Operating from Vryburg and Taungs, he, with his mobile columns, performed an incalculable amount of work. He withdrew the garrison from Schweitzer Reneke, routed the Boers that were surrounding Daniel's Knil, provisioned the garrison of Kuruman, and eventually hunted De Villiers' hordes into the Transvaal. That done, he marched in the beginning of February, _viâ_ Wolmaranstad, to Klerksdorp, following up and dispersing the aforesaid hordes as he went. At Hartebeestefontein he came very violently into collision with them, and though they made a stout effort to resist his advance, he forced them to give way. His captures during these proceedings amounted to forty prisoners and many thousand head of stock. Lord Methuen reached Klerksdorp on the 19th of February and went on to Potchefstroom, where he commenced co-operating with the sweeping movements of Generals Babington and Cunningham. These officers, on General French's departure from the western side of the Transvaal, held a line from Oliphant's Nek to Ventersdorp and Potchefstroom, and kept an eye on the machinations of Delarey and other malcontents in these regions. In spite of their vigilance a concentration was effected in the Gatsrand on the 31st, and a small force at Modderfontein was overwhelmed by superior numbers before General Cunningham could come to its relief. Two more small columns, the one under Colonel Shekleton, South Lancashire Regiment, the other under Colonel Benson, R.A., were now placed at the disposal of General Cunningham to help in the work of clearing the ground between the western railway line and the Vaal. * * * * *