Everywhere in the west there was unrest, owing to the damage created by the desperadoes. Belmont Station was attacked and the telegraph instruments damaged, and in the Montzani district Captain Tupper, Liverpool Regiment, and twelve men had an unpleasant time near Taaiboshpan, but gained the day after three hours' fighting. Elsewhere Lieutenant Barton (Bedfordshire Regiment) found himself surrounded in a farm. A day of tussle was spent there, but in the night the British escaped. Colonel Walford thereupon set himself to work to scour and purge the district. APRIL. ORANGE RIVER COLONY--OPERATIONS OF GENERAL BRUCE-HAMILTON AND GENERAL RUNDLE Now that the Boers, in small bands, were being forced northward from Cape Colony and from Kruitzinger's hunting-ground, preparations were made near Bethulie and along the Orange River for their reception. To this end General Lyttelton moved the troops of General Bruce-Hamilton and Colonel Hickman from Dewetsdorp and Wepener, and these--in conjunction with Colonel Haig's columns--were so ranged by the 5th April, as to defeat any great incursion of marauders into the Orange River Colony. But, save for the clever capture by Colonel Munro, with 150 Bethune's Mounted Infantry and a pom-pom, of a convoy and eighty-three prisoners (including Commandant Bester and Lieutenant Lindigne of the Staats Artillery), little took place, and General Bruce-Hamilton was enabled to return to his position at Dewetsdorp. On the 13th of April he succeeded General Lyttelton in his command, as that officer was leaving for England, and Colonel Haig moved to take charge of operations in Cape Colony. On both sides of the river the sweeping up of stores and capture of Boers proceeded apace, and the total result of General Bruce-Hamilton's April activities was the capture of ninety-five prisoners, 300 horses, and an abundance of live stock. The raiders, ragged and starving, were continually active. Kruitzinger made an ineffectual effort to cross on the 4th, but was frustrated by finding the troops of General Bruce-Hamilton in possession of the river banks. Colonel White and Colonel Munro so actively scoured round and about Springfontein that such Boers as there were quickly vanished till a more opportune period. Others tried to sneak across at Oudefontein Drift, but Major Murray's men discovered them in the act and disposed of them. From the region of Brandford came the news of the capture of a laager on the 2nd by the prowess of Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry, who, by night, had surrounded the camp of Bester and caught him napping. On the 7th of April, Colonel Thorneycroft moved towards Winburg to deal with a minor concentration of the enemy in that neighbourhood. The rumour of his approach served to defeat the Boers' object and disperse them, and he consequently returned to Brandfort. * * * * *