interpretation of a treaty between Great Britain and Portugal, and after some weeks of diplomatic discussion and in spite of a protest naturally made by the Transvaal Government, the Rhodesian Field Force was permitted to land on Portuguese territory at Beira in April and to move up country.  Its advance was further delayed by a break of gauge on the railway between Beira and Buluwayo; it was pulled hither and thither, and was never able to co-operate effectively with the general operations.  It was moved in driblets, and some details did not reach Buluwayo until September.  A portion of it came along the Western line, and Rustenburg was saved by the Imperial Bushmen.  At the end of the year it was disbanded.

[Sidenote:  Map, p. 240.]

On July 11 three blows were struck by the Boers with success.  The attempt on Rustenburg drew back Baden-Powell, whose place at Zilikat’s and Commando Neks was taken by a regiment of regular cavalry which happened to be passing that way.  As it was required elsewhere, a body of infantry was sent out from Pretoria to take over the Neks, and on the night of July 10 Zilikat’s Nek was held by three companies and a squadron.  Next day, after a struggle which lasted throughout the day, it was captured by Delarey, and two guns and nearly 200 prisoners of war fell into his hands.  The disaster, the first of its kind in the Transvaal, was due to two causes.  The British force actually at the Nek was insufficient to hold it; and the main body of the cavalry stood aloof.  The latter was no doubt in a dubious position.  It was under orders, which were brought by the infantry relief, to meet Smith-Dorrien nearly twenty-five miles away on July 11; and when the enemy was seen occupying a strong position on the Nek, it assumed that assistance would be of no avail, and beyond a short artillery bombardment nothing was done.  Even the squadron holding Commando Nek was ordered to retire at midday.  A relieving force was sent out from Pretoria, but it arrived too late to avert the disaster.

The cavalry thus delayed was intended to reinforce a column under Smith-Dorrien, who had come up into the Transvaal with Ian Hamilton’s column, and who was marching from Krugersdorp to take off the pressure from the south on Baden-Powell at Rustenburg; Olifant’s Nek, over which the road to the town passed, being in the possession of the Boers.  On July 11, when Smith-Dorrien had marched about ten miles from his starting point, he met a commando at Dwarsvlei, which was so well handled that not only was he compelled to retire on Krugersdorp, but also had much difficulty in bringing away his guns.  The failure was chiefly due to the non-appearance of the cavalry, without which he did not feel himself justified in standing up to the enemy.

On the same day another cavalry regiment was in trouble.  Onderste Poort, a few miles north of Pretoria, was attacked by Grobler of Waterberg, and while reinforcements were on their way he drove back still nearer to the capital the force which was holding the outpost, and forced one troop to surrender.