On March 6 he reached Lobatsi, where he was forty-five miles from Mafeking.  He found, however, that it was an awkward place to defend and soon quitted it, as Baden-Powell seemed to be in no immediate need, and was in fact averse to Plumer’s small force throwing itself upon the besiegers.  With the greater part of his command, the rest being sent back to hold the railway at Crocodile Pools, he withdrew to the base which he had established at Kanya; afterwards advancing to Sefetili, thirty miles from Mafeking, where he awaited the approach of Mahon’s relieving column from the south.  Baden-Powell, rejoicing in his siege, was not anxious that the game which he was playing so well should be brought to a premature conclusion, and was more afraid for Plumer than for himself.

Plumer filled in his two months at Kanya and Sefetili by occasional raids in the direction of Mafeking and by an expedition towards Zeerust.  The column in the south, of whose movements many false reports reached him from time to time, seemed to be tarrying by the way, and it was not until May 12 that he received a message from Lord Roberts that it was nearing its destination.

For some weeks after his entry into Bloemfontein, Lord Roberts was unable to arrange for the direct relief of Mafeking by a column specially detailed for the purpose.  He had originally intended that this should be done by Methuen, but subsequently ordered him to operate in the Free State on the left flank of the advance on the Transvaal.  He hoped to apply his favourite method of an automatic relief, brought about by external pressure elsewhere.  At the end of April, however, when it had become an urgent matter, he ordered Hunter, who had recently arrived at Kimberley from Natal, to send out a mounted force under Mahon, following it himself with the rest of the Xth Division.

He left Kimberley on May 3, and on the following day Mahon set out from Barkly West on his 230 miles’ march to Mafeking.  Mahon advanced wide of the railway up the Hart’s River, which joins the Vaal at Barkly West, his right flank being covered by Hunter, who kept close to the Vaal.  Mahon met with no serious resistance until he had covered 200 miles of his journey, when he found a, force which had been sent down from Mafeking across his path, and which diverted him to Massibi; where he joined Plumer on May 15.

The advance of the main and less mobile body under Hunter was aided by demonstrations made by Methuen from Boshof.  With three columns claiming their attention the bewildered Boers were unable to do more than offer a stout but ineffectual resistance to Hunter on the Vaal on May 5.  Two days later he occupied Fourteen Streams and restored the railway communication across the Vaal, having during his halt taken possession of Christiana, a village in the Transvaal a few miles up the river.  It was now no longer necessary for him to hurry after Mahon, and his advance northwards was made at leisure.  Early in June he occupied Lichtenburg, where Mahon rejoined him.