The enemy naturally profited by our confusion to pursue us more closely than
before. The prospect before us was a sad one, and we asked ourselves, "What
is to be the end of all this, and what is to become of our poor people?
Shall we be able to prolong the struggle, and for how long?"
But no prolongation of the struggle appeared to have entered into our
enemy's minds, who evidently thought that the War had now come upon its last
stage, and they were as elated as we were downhearted. They made certain
that the Boer was completely vanquished, and his resistance effectually put
an end to. At this juncture Conan Doyle, after pointing out what glorious
liberty and progress would fall to the Boers' lot under the British flag,
wrote:—
"When that is learned it may happen that they will come to date a happier
life and a wider liberty from that 5th of June which saw the symbol of their
nation pass for ever from the ensigns of the world."
Thus, not only did Lord Roberts announce to the world that "the War was now
practically over," but Conan Doyle did not hesitate to say the same in more
eloquent style.
How England utterly under-estimated the determination of the Boers,
subsequent events have plainly proved. It is equally plain that we ourselves
did not know the strength of our resolution, when one takes into account the
pessimism and despair that weighed us down in those dark days; and as the
Union Jack was flying over our Government buildings we might have
exclaimed:—"England, we do not know our strength, but you know it still
less!"
Nearly all the commandos were now in the neighbourhood of Pretoria, General
Botha forming a rearguard, and we determined to defend the capital as well
as we could. But at this juncture some Boer officer was said to have
received a communication from the Government, informing us that they had
decided not to defend the town. A cyclist was taking this communication
round to the different commandos, but the Commandant-General did not seem to
be aware of it, and we tried in vain to find him so as to discover what his
plans were. The greatest confusion naturally prevailed, and as all the
generals gave different orders, no one knew what was going to be done. I
believe General Botha intended to concentrate the troops round Pretoria, and
there offer some sort of resistance to the triumphant forces of the enemy,
and we had all understood that the capital would be defended to the last;
but this communication altered the position considerably. Shortly afterwards
all the Boer officers met at Irene Estate, near Pretoria, in a council of
war, and were there informed that the Government had already forsaken the
town, leaving a few "feather-bed patriots" to formally surrender the town to
the English.
I
thought this decision of easy surrender ridiculous and inexplicable, and
many officers joined me in loud condemnation of it. I do not remember
exactly all that happened at the time, but I know a telegram arrived from
the Commandant-General saying that a crowd had broken open the Commissariat
Buildings in Pretoria and were looting them. An adjutant was sent into
Pretoria to spread an alarm that the English were entering the town, and
this had the effect of driving all the looters out of it. Some of my own men
were engaged in these predatory operations, and I did not see them again
until three days after.
The English approached Pretoria very cautiously, and directed some big naval
guns on our forts built round the town, to which we replied for some time
with our guns from the "randten," south-west of the town; but our officers
were unable to offer any organised resistance, and thus on the 5th of June,
1900, the capital of the South African Republic fell with little ado into
the enemy's hands. Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State, had
months before suffered the same fate, and thousands of Free Staters had
surrendered to the English as they marched from Bloemfontein to the
Transvaal. Happily, however, in the Free State President Steyn and General
De Wet were still wide awake and Lord Roberts very soon discovered that his
long lines of communication were a source of great trouble and anxiety to
him. The commandos, meanwhile, were reorganised; the buried Mausers and
ammunition were once more resurrected, and soon it became clear that the
Orange Free State was far from conquered.
The fall of Pretoria, indeed, was but a sham victory for the enemy. A number
of officials of the Government remained behind there and surrendered,
together with a number of burghers, amongst these faint-hearted brethren
being even members of the Volksraad and men who had played a prominent part
in the Republic's history; while to the everlasting shame of them and their
race, a number of other Boers entered at once into the English service and
henceforth used their rifles to shoot at and maim their own
fellow-countrymen.
