During the early part of the summer of 1901-2 the Cape Colony was,
comparatively speaking, quiet, though dormantly rebellious. Little positive
progress was made, either by French or by the inflammatory elements opposed
to him, of which the leader was J. C. Smuts. These were for the most part
acting in a spacious and inaccessible area, which included the districts of
Kenhart, Carnarvon, Sutherland, Fraserburg, and Calvinia. A blockhouse line,
which when completed would stretch from Victoria West to Lambert's Bay, was
in course of construction through these districts.
In
December Kritzinger headed a raid from the Orange River Colony; but although
he was soon captured near Hanover, the greater portion of his followers
escaped to the south and infested the districts of Cradock and Somerset
East. Stephenson was put in immediate charge of the operations against
Smuts, who had established himself on the Zak River between Kenhart and
Calvinia, and who in January moved eastward. It was a false move, because it
brought him into the Fraserburg district, and made him more accessible to
the columns opposed to him. It was made apparently with the intention of
breaking across the railway in the vicinity of Beaufort West.
The operations against Smuts, the flank bases of which, Beaufort West and
Lambert's Bay, were over 300 miles apart, attained only negative success. A
large convoy drawn by donkeys fell into the hands of the rebels between
Beaufort West and Fraserburg, and a smaller convoy in the Sutherland
district.
French now took in hand the Drive, the last weapon left in the British
Armoury, which his colleagues in the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony
had been wielding for some months. It was brandished northwards from
Beaufort West on February 17; but it only dispersed without destroying the
rebels, most of whom had retired to the north and N.W. Not a few scraped
round the right flank of the drive, crossed the railway, and plunged into
the Graaff Reinet and Aberdeen districts, where they were joined by a band
under Fouché, which had been lurking and conniving far away to the N.E.
between Dortrecht and Aliwal North.
Smuts withdrew to the N.W. and laid siege to Ookiep, which was relieved on
May 3 by an expedition sent from Capetown through Port Nolloth; Smuts having
in the meantime retired in order to attend the Peace Conference. He had done
his best to carry out the instructions given to him by the Boer Council of
War held in June, 1901, to foment a general insurrection in the Cape Colony,
but he had failed.
