Her Royal Highness, ever to the front in the cause of suffering humanity, has taken the keenest and most earnest interest in the fitting-up of this hospital ship towards the cost of which she has made a large private grant of funds.] [Illustration: [_Photo by Gregory._ THE ALEXANDRA WARD ON BOARD THE "PRINCESS OF WALES" HOSPITAL SHIP.] Nor were these schemes all. The Princess of Wales--Princess of Pity she has rightly been called--at the head of the Red Cross Society, with private effort, equipped hospitals and hospital ships; Lady Randolph Churchill, widow of a man who loved England, who strove for honest reform, and whose name will not soon be forgotten, of American birth herself, raised, with the aid of other American ladies in London, a fund for a hospital ship; Lady White, the wife of the British general in Natal, collected a great sum to furnish the soldiers of the heroic Natal Field Force with Christmas gifts; every steamer carried away to the Cape presents of provisions, dainties, clothing, tobacco and cigarettes, for the men fighting in the field. From the Queen on her throne to the peasant in his cottage all gave liberally. The flood gates of generosity were opened; a universal impulse of patriotism moved the nation. [Sidenote: [OCT. 1899.] [Sidenote: Strength of the forces in Natal and Cape Colony.] Meantime in South Africa the situation was one of the utmost peril. The Transvaal had originally intended to despatch its ultimatum on September 17 or 18, and then to begin the war. At this date none of the reinforcements from England or from India had arrived. The British troops available were four battalions of infantry,[2] two regiments of cavalry, three batteries of field artillery, and one mountain battery in Natal, under the orders of Major-General Sir Penn Symons, a total of about 5,000 men and 18 guns. In Cape Colony were only two-and-a-half battalions, or 2,000 men all told, under General Sir F. Walker. [2] A battalion of infantry numbers from 800 to 1010 men. A regiment of cavalry is 480 men. A battery of artillery has 6 guns and 180 men. The guns are: in field artillery, 15-pounders (_i.e._, they fire a shell weighing 15 lb.); in horse artillery, 12-pounders; and in mountain artillery, 7-pounders. [Illustration: [_Photo Window & Grove._ GENERAL SIR GEORGE STEWART WHITE.