The Diamond City was in certain respects well adapted to withstand a siege.  The old residents delighted to call it a city.  Newcomers, who had Continental ideas on the subject, inclined to think the term a misnomer, and a reflection upon Europe and America.  But although its buildings were not high, nor its houses very majestic, Kimberley was a rich place, and a large place, with a good white population and a better coloured one.  It had its theatre, and it had its Mayor.  Arrogant greenhorns were soon made to cease winking when we talked of the “city”; for Kimberley was a city (after a fashion), and the most important centre in the Cape Colony.  The young Uitlander (just out) who described it as “a funny place, dear mother; all the houses are made of tin, and all the dogs are called ‘voet sak,’” was more cynical than truthful.

The numerous debris heaps surrounding the city made excellent fortifications, and it was not surprising that the Boers put, and kept, on view the better part of their valour only, when from their own well-chosen positions they looked across at our clay Kopjes.  To have attacked or taken Kimberley, they would have been obliged to traverse a flat, open country; and they have an intelligent antipathy to rash tactics of that sort, when fighting a foe numerically stronger than themselves.  They were reputed to believe that Providence was on their side; it was even stated that their ardour to “rush” Kimberley knew no bounds, until it was cooled by the restraining influence of General Cronje.  That astute leader, though fully cognisant of the virtues of his people, had a respect for “big battalions,” and thought that the virtue designated patience would best meet the necessities of the situation.  Accordingly, he and his army, well primed with coffee, lay entrenched around Kimberley, in the fond hope of starving us into submission.  Artillery of heavy calibre was utilised to enliven the process—­with what result the world knows.

And how were we prepared to meet the attentions of this well-equipped and watchful enemy?  We had a few seven-pound guns capable of hurling walnuts that cracked thousands of yards short of the Boer positions; and a Maxim or two, respected by the enemy, but easily steered clear of.  Of what avail were these against the potent engines of destruction on the other side?  And as for men; with great difficulty, and by dint of much pressure, the authorities had been persuaded to send us five hundred (of the North Lancashire Regiment, and Royal Engineers) under command of Colonel Kekewich (who constituted himself Czar, in the name of the Queen)—­a small total with which to defend a city—­“a large, straggling city, thirteen miles in circumference,” as Lord Roberts subsequently observed, that he could hardly have thought it possible to defend so long and so successfully with the forces at our command, that is to say, with five thousand men; for such was the strength of the garrison when the shop boys, the clerks, the merchants, and the artisans had stepped into the gap with their rifles.