sent out being complete, the order to retire was given, Lumsden’s Horse being instructed to act as rearguard, and occupy the kopjes where they were posted, till the guns and the rest of the troops had got away. This we did, and we heard afterwards from the men in charge of the ambulance which was left behind to bring in the wounded that we had hardly left the kopjes we had been on all day when the Boers occupied them. We got back to our camp at Commando Nek late in the afternoon, and stayed there for the night. This was the most irritating action we have yet been in, for the Boer convoy was at our mercy, but we were not numerically strong enough to attack it. It thus slipped away under our very noses. Baden-Powell was at Commando Nek and Ian Hamilton a day’s march in rear. It was arranged that next day General Mahon’s brigade should make an attack on the position reconnoitred that morning, supported by Ian Hamilton, who was to join us again with the rest of his division. Lumsden’s Horse were to take up the same position as they had done the day before. The brigade marched out at 6.30 A.M. and were soon on the scene of the previous action. As instructed, we posted ourselves on the kopjes occupied by us the day before, and in the meantime scouts were sent out to discover whether or not the Boers were still about. The crack of Mausers soon decided this question, and the kopjes in front and on both flanks were then shelled for several hours. We were then ordered to leave our rocky perches and advance in skirmishing order to the attack. We soon arrived on the kopjes previously held by the Boers, but found no trace of these gentry, who had evidently played their usual game of leaving a few snipers behind to hinder our advance while their main body got away in safety. This effected, the snipers themselves vanished into space. There were no casualties on our side that morning, and I do not fancy our shells did much damage, as I did not hear of any dead or wounded Boers being found. It was about here that De Wet was supposed to have broken up his commando, leaving some 1,500 dismounted men to take refuge in the bushveldt, while he went off south with only 200 men. Meantime General Ian Hamilton came up with his troops, and the whole of us then advanced north, the direction taken by the fleeing Boers into the bushveldt, expecting a fight at any time, which did not come off. The going was extremely difficult, the soil being impalpable sand with thorny bushes growing so close together that at twenty yards objects could not be discerned. Water was only encountered at one spot, a farm in a valley. The occupants of the farm were a Boer woman and two little children; she weepingly informed us that the Boers had commandeered her husband the day before, and, as he had objected, they had taken him away in handcuffs. We made Zoutpans by sundown, completely jaded and worn out.