The losses were heavy. Besides one gun which stuck in a bog, another weapon overturned and fell into a watercourse, where it was captured by the enemy. The killed were thirty-one and the wounded fifty-eight, almost all taken prisoners, while 633 unwounded men were also captured by the enemy. A few wounded officers and men were brought into Molteno from the battlefield by the troops. The British loss in officers was lighter than usual; but Lieutenant-Colonel Eager, of the Royal Irish Rifles, was mortally wounded, and both the majors of this battalion were wounded. The enormous total of prisoners taken was due simply and solely to the exhaustion of the men. [Illustration: DETRAINING ARTILLERY AT NAAUWPOORT.] [Illustration: AN AWKWARD ACCIDENT. The capsizing of a waggon on any of the South African coach-roads is by no means an unusual sight. It is usually caused by careless driving, as, for example, by attempting to drive straight across a watercourse or "sluit" on the road instead of taking the waggon diagonally over it, so as to lessen the strain. On more than one occasion, as on the road to Stormberg, a like accident has occurred to our guns.] The Boer force which inflicted this grievous punishment was said, by the enemy, to have been only 800 strong. It certainly did not exceed 1,500. It was composed of very indifferent material, a fact which heightened the deplorable nature of the reverse. It displayed neither vigour nor enterprise, and this though its losses were absurdly small--five killed and sixteen wounded. At this low cost it had completely paralysed General Gatacre's column and cut up two of the finest battalions in the British Army. It was not the enemy's generalship or marksmanship that won this Boer success, but the strange run of ill-luck in General Gatacre's column, and the neglect of all ordinary precautions. As a matter of fact, the Boer shooting was exceedingly bad, and all who witnessed the action were astounded to discover that so few had been killed and wounded on the British side. Surprised as the column was, in close formation, it should have been all but annihilated. [Sidenote: Disastrous results.] The natural result of the defeat was that the Dutch in the district, who had been sitting on the fence to see which side would win, joined the victors. Some hundreds of farmers at once repaired to the Federal standard. General Gatacre found his position so doubtful that he thought fit to retire from Molteno and fall back to Bushman's Hoek, where he established his headquarters. [Illustration: DUMB VICTIMS: WOUNDED HORSES AT NAAUWPOORT.] [Sidenote: NOV. 1-15, 1899.] _Situation at Colesberg._] There were stories that, as soon as he discovered that his guides had misled him, he drew his revolver and shot them. A court of inquiry investigated the behaviour of the guides after the battle, and decided that they had erred through inadvertence, not treachery. [Illustration: