'The Pochefstroom column started from Krugersdorp on the 29th August, and returned on 30th September. The task of the column is to assist in stamping out the resistance of the remaining scattered forces of the enemy by hunting them, and depriving them of their supplies of food and transport, with a view to bringing the war to an end. In the first cruise of 33 days the column has marched 310 miles--the length of England from Portsmouth to Scotland--and was in action with the enemy on 29 days, putting them to flight on each occasion. The column's casualties were only 3 killed, 24 wounded, and 3 missing. The Boers lost considerably according to accounts of Kaffirs present; we found some of their dead, including General Theron. In prisoners of war and important arrests, the column took 96 of the enemy. Loyal inhabitants, numbering 316 men, women, and children, were rescued from Pochefstroom, and safely conveyed to Wolverdiend. General Liebenburg ordered General Douthwaite to attack this convoy, but Douthwaite thought it dangerous, and was arrested by Liebenburg for suggesting that he, Liebenburg, "had better do it himself." The convoy was not attacked. The column took from the enemy the following cattle: 2720 sheep and 3281 goats; 1066 sacks of mealies, 104 sacks of meal, 2 waggon-loads of mealie cobs, 12 sacks of wheat, 847 loaves of bread, 162 sacks of potatoes, 68 sacks of oats, 33 sacks of bran, 36,000 bundles of oat-hay, 299 bales of chaff, 400 bundles of manna-hay, 90 horses, 28 ponies, 11 mules, 36 waggons, 31 carts, and destroyed 45 waggons and carts that could not be taken away. '(Signed) A. HART (Captain), '_C.S.O. Pochefstroom Column._ '_Krugersdorp, 2nd October, 1900._' [Illustration: 'Come to the Cook-House Door, Boys!'] 'We looked for peace, but no good came.'--_Jer._ viii. 15. CHAPTER V. FREDERICKSTADT--KLIP RIVER--THE LOSBERG. 'Have I not heard great ordnance in the field, And Heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?' _Taming of the Shrew._