War's Brighter Side: The Story of The Friend Newspaper Edited by the Correspondents with Lord Roberts's Forces, March-April, 1900Ralph, Julian
History
War's Brighter Side: The Story of The Friend Newspaper Edited by the Correspondents with Lord Roberts's Forces, March-April, 1900
Ralph, Julian
Friend (Bloemfontein, South Africa); South African War, 1899-1902 -- Periodicals
My company and one other, having spent a very cold night on a kopje
N.W. of Rensburg, came down at 5 a.m. to find our other companies "not
lost but gone before" to Arundel, and a sudden and unexpected Boer
cross-fire brought on the aforesaid "attack." From 6 to 8 I lay
watching little puffs of dust in the immediate vicinity, caused by our
men returning the fire, as a lot of the Boers had followed us up and
were lying down about 300 yards from me.
At 8 our fire stopped, and up galloped batches of the ragged
ruffians, the first two pointing Mausers at me and asking, "Rooinek
wounded?" My answer, "Yes," seemed to relieve them, and they jumped
off their horses, and quickly relieving me of carbine and belt (the
only things they took) galloped on. At intervals of ten minutes all
sorts and conditions followed them with, "Good morning, old chap," and
they seemed very sorry at seeing me wounded. At 10, four of them,
under the guidance of a commandant, carried me in a bit of sacking a
mile to Rensburg Station, to the "Station Commandant's" Room, and I
spent a happy day till 5 p.m. with 11 of our men, all air prevented
from coming in by our inquisitive friends, the enemy, who "held" both
doors and windows with great success, making the place a regular Black
Hole.
They seemed quite happy, just standing still, staring at us, and never
uttering a syllable, though they would do anything we asked. At last,
after hours of waiting, they moved us to a coachhouse close by and
"dressed" us. We stayed there till 5 the next day, and had many
interesting talks with them. One old man gave us a blessing, with "I
wish Chamberlain was here to see you now." Their sole idea was that
Jos. C. and Rhodes were entirely responsible for the war. Many such
questions as "Were you compelled to fight?" &c., were asked you, and a
small box of "sparklets" cartridges was a source of much wonder. My
next move was to an empty store in Colesberg, where Hofman (of the
Cape Parliament) had a Russian-German and Dutch Ambulance combined
(one of his men had been fighting against us and now, covered with Red
Crosses, helped to carry us about). I stayed there a week, having
devoured more figs and grapes than ever before.
All the English ladies and the Dutch Minister in particular brought us
fruit, and I should like to thank them personally. Only the Dutch
people were allowed in to see us, and were very keen on getting our
buttons and badges as keep-sakes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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