We have been cut off from our mails for more than a month, and are very anxious to see the letters that have accumulated somewhere for us. Our doings, I expect, have been telegraphed to India as they occurred, for there is a plethora of newspaper correspondents following in the wake of the army and with Headquarters—Lionel James represents the ‘Times,’ and has been to see his Indian friends. The Kaffir we have come in contact with here is a bad lot, and he has harassed the Boer farmers terribly during the war, being a perfect Pindaree in his depredations. He loots anything and everything he can lay hands on, and shifts his allegiance from Boer to British directly our troops enter his province. In this respect the excuse he makes is that since the outbreak of the war the Boers have not troubled to pay their native servants any wages, while keeping them at work as usual. All the Volunteers (Colonial and Imperial) receive 5_s._ and as much as 7_s._ 6_d._ per day, while Kaffirs earn on an average 4_l._ 10_s._ per mensem in our employ. It comes a bit rough on us to find our remuneration fixed at 1_s._ 2_d._ _plus_ 3_d._ for rations per diem. Considering that we mainly exist on private purchases of stores, the want of ready money is a great hardship. Some of our troopers have spent from 10_l._ to 20_l._ a month on groceries and smokes since our arrival in Africa. Ten shillings for a packet of cigarettes has often been willingly given, while nobody would think two shillings for a loaf of bread exorbitant. The reason for these prices is always that the Boers have commandeered all they could lay hands on in their retreat. Since our departure from Bloemfontein we have not seen our tents. Our nightly shelter has been the frosty canopy of heaven, and our couch the African veldt (pronounced ‘felt’). A letter to the ‘Indian Daily News’ gives some interesting personal details: