At the commencement of December, when we expected the Boers would make an attack on the town, all the males in the four wards of the city volunteered to protect the women and children in each ward, and as my waggon was outspanned in Number 4, I joined with the rest; but when the news came into Pretoria that the Boers, to the number of 1000, had been in ambush at Bronkhurst spruit for two days, waiting for the advance of a portion of the 94th Regiment from Lydenburg, which had been murdered by the Boers, a council was held, and on the 20th of December martial law was proclaimed, and all those who had formed themselves into volunteers to protect women and children were marched up to the barracks as regular volunteers. My waggon was drawn up to camp, and placed under the charge of the authorities during my soldiering. The history of this rebellion has been so ably and graphically described by others, it will be useless for me to go more into the subject. I can merely state the first news of the British surrender that reached camp, of the war being concluded, and the retrocession of the Transvaal to the Boers, arrived on the 28th of March, 1881. The principal portion of the Transvaal, north of Pretoria in the Zoutpansberg and Waterberg districts, is called the bush veldt, where most of the farmers living on the high veldt, between Potchefstroom and Pretoria, trek at the close of the autumn with all their family and stock, and remain the winter, where the cattle and sheep find warm shelter in the thorn forests; and return to their farms when the spring grass is sufficiently high for the stock to feed. The Boers make this trek a kind of picnic, and it is the only kind of life they enjoy. This high land is also called Witwater rand; the elevation above sea-level is 5800 feet. Extensive seams of coal have been discovered about forty miles to the east-south-east of Pretoria. Roads in every direction traverse the country. The distances from Pretoria to the following places are: to the west, Rustenberg, 40 miles; north to Marabastadt, 160 miles; east to Middleberg, 100 miles; and to Lydenburg, 165 miles; south to Heidelburg, 55 miles; Standerton, 120 miles; and Newcastle, 190 miles; south-west to Potchefstroom, 110 miles; and to Kimberley diamond-fields, 334 miles. Middleberg is a small village on the road from Pretoria to Lydenburg, and the gold-field is in this district; a cobalt-mine has been discovered. Lydenburg is situated in the open country, on a branch of the Spekboom river. The country round is very hilly, some of them attain a height of 8000 feet above sea-level. The average height of the gold-diggings is 4200 feet.