TOPIC:

This is a difficult one.

I think parts of it read:

Capt Goodyear taken on at 15/- to organise native & Cape Boys for defence of this ...... (I can't make head or tail of line three)

Corps of cadet orderlies assembled. This will relieve a number of mounted orderlies to carry on their proper duties.

Thank you, Neville, for looking into this. Your reading fits the sense very well.

BP's diary is almost complete but these thin pages that have been microfilmed continue to challenge.

I cannot make sense of the middle section of this paragraph.



Under Methakgong, another party of Barolong who had been out cattle raiding arrived with 26 fat oxen. They had gone to Jan Massibi’s and here saw a Boer named Barwise (Barwise owned Rooidemmetjes Farm) [???] and blow up the railway line with dynamite. They went to his farm and got away with his cattle. When getting near Jackal Tree they were attacked by a small party of Boers and had a fight in which they killed two Boers and wounded another, losing one of their party killed and one ox.

With thanks
David

The only short word that I can think of that might make sense is "go". It looks like the word immediately after the # has been crossed out.

They had gone to Jan Massibi’s and here saw a Boer named Barwise (Barwise owned Rooidemmetjes Farm) go and blow up the railway line with dynamite.

Many thanks, Neville.

David, to put BP’s lines into context herewith a map of the position of Jan Masibi’s farm vav Mafeking. The Bloemfontein Museum’s website lists a Rebel called John Barwise, of Eastwood, Nottingham, Mafeking district. The good man was a farmer and taken POW on December 6, 1901. Rooidammetje is adjacent to Eastwood.