[Illustration: COL. PLUMER'S FORCE WATERING HORSES, ON THE WAY FROM BULUWAYO TO TULI.] [Illustration: COLONEL PLUMER'S FORCE MARCHING OUT OF BULUWAYO.] [Sidenote: [OCT. 1899.] Kimberley lies close to the Free State frontier and 647 miles north of Capetown. In an analogous position close to the Transvaal frontier, 230 miles further to the north, and on the long railway which descends from Rhodesia to the sea, stands Mafeking, with Vryburg halfway between it and Kimberley. At Mafeking had assembled a small British force of irregulars, raised by Colonel Baden-Powell, an officer of exceptional dash and capacity, from the splendid material available in Rhodesia, and some detachments of the British South Africa Company's police. Still further to the north and more than a thousand miles from the Cape were other small detachments under Colonel Plumer, at Palapye, Makloutsi, and Tuli, on the northern frontier of the Transvaal. Between these detachments and Mafeking, between Mafeking and Kimberley, between Kimberley and Orange River, the communications could not be protected, and were certain to be broken. Thus from the first it was evident that Mafeking and Kimberley would have to stand sieges of considerable duration. [Illustration: RHODESIAN HORSE. The Rhodesian Horse was originally formed during the Matabele War, in the course of which it did magnificent service. A contingent is here shown under the command of Lieut. Maurice Gifford. A detachment of this regiment proceeded to the relief of Mafeking under Colonel Plumer and repulsed the Boers on more than one occasion.] [Illustration: [_Photo by Elliott & Fry._ COLONEL R. S. S. BADEN-POWELL. Colonel R. S. S. Baden-Powell, who is commanding the plucky little garrison of Mafeking, is forty-three years old, and was educated at Charterhouse. He joined the 13th Hussars in 1876, and has seen service in India, Afghanistan, and South Africa. His recently published textbook on the art of scouting has had an enormous circulation. He has also written many books of travel and sport, is a noted amateur artist and actor, and equally at home at scouting, fighting, pigsticking, polo, big-game shooting, hunting, yachting, acting, singing, writing, and painting. Major, 1892; Lt.-Colonel, 1896; Colonel, 1897.] [Illustration: [_Photo by Bassano._ LT.-COLONEL HERBERT S. O. PLUMER. Has seen much active service in Africa. He was present at El Teb and Tamal in the Soudan War of 1884; and in South Africa, under Sir F. Carrington in 1896, he raised and commanded a corps of Mounted Riflemen. He commands the gallant little contingent of Rhodesians whose business it is to relieve Mafeking. Col. Plumer has an unusually happy knack of being able to get on well with colonial troopers.]