On the southern frontier of the Free State handfuls of troops occupied the important railway junctions of Naauwpoort and Stormberg, and there were British outposts at Aliwal North. It should be explained that three railways run from the littoral of Cape Colony inland to the Free State or the Free State frontier. The first comes up from Capetown to Kimberley by De Aar; the second from Port Elizabeth to Bloemfontein by Rosmead Junction and Naauwpoort; the third from East London by Stormberg to Springfontein on the Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth railway. Lines from De Aar to Naauwpoort and from Rosmead to Stormberg connect the three. Stormberg and Naauwpoort were therefore points of the utmost strategical importance. [Sidenote: Doubtful attitude of the Schreiner Ministry.] [Sidenote: OCT. 11-17, 1899.] _The War on the Western Frontier._] The attitude of the Dutch Ministry in power in Cape Colony was so dubious that defensive preparations were rendered most difficult. Mr. Schreiner, the Cape Premier, allowed tons of ammunition and hundreds of railway trucks to enter the Free State just before the war, and seems to have taken no steps of any kind to protect the Colony against invasion. The Cape Mounted Police, a superb body of men, 1,900 strong, the Cape Mounted Rifles, 1,000 strong, and the Cape Volunteers, 4,000 strong, were not drawn upon for defence as they should have been. The volunteers were not properly armed or supplied with ammunition. In fact, the Cape Ministry appeared to hold to the view that a strict neutrality ought to be preserved by the Colony. There may have been an object not altogether unfriendly in this--to keep quiet the Cape Dutch--or there may have been real disloyalty. But had 5,000 or 6,000 Cape Colonials been available at the outset, Stormberg could have been firmly held, and the Boers prevented from besieging Kimberley. [Illustration: VICTORIA HOSPITAL, MAFEKING. Repeatedly fired on by the Boers during the siege.] [Illustration: FORT AT MAFEKING.] [Sidenote: First Act of War.] The Boers opened proceedings on the western frontier by advancing on October 11 under Commandant Cronje from Zeerust to Mafeking, while they broke the railway both to the north and south. On the 13th the siege began. On the night of the 12-13th an armoured train, bringing up two 7-pounder guns and ammunition, which had been sent forward from Capetown, was derailed at Kraaipan, a station forty miles south of Mafeking, and its contents and the party in charge were captured. The engine-driver and one man succeeded in escaping to the south. This was the first example which showed the utter uselessness of armoured trains operating without any support. A rail removed or thrown out of gauge, and they were at the enemy's mercy. [Illustration: NATIVE VILLAGE, MAFEKING.]