At the end of May Dixon set out westwards from Naauwpoort in the Magaliesberg district on a raiding expedition.  He trekked for three days and then ran unexpectedly into a Boer column at Vlakfontein.  He was attacked through a veil of smoke from a grass fire which the slim enemy had lit to windward.  In spite of this disadvantage he held his own and compelled the Boers to retire, but soon, however, found it advisable to retire himself and returned to Naauwpoort.

The column which had engaged Dixon was under the command of Kemp, whom the Intelligence had after the Hartebeestfontein operations despatched in imagination with Delarey to the south, where they were reported to be concentrating.  Kemp, however, had returned to the Zwartruggens.  After the Vlakfontein affair he found columns approaching him from all sides and dissolved his command.  Delarey had gone south, and was now in the Orange River Colony.

The northward retreat of De Wet through the Orange River Colony in March, 1901, drew in its trail a host of British columns, which plodded sturdily across the veld with scanty results.  He endeavoured to systematize guerilla by parcelling out the late Free State into districts under commandants acting locally:  Lord Kitchener retorted by parcelling it out into a smaller number of districts, each district being in charge of a general officer armed with columns with which to worry the local commandants.  Many divagations ensued; few profitable results were attained.

Of these divagations the most conspicuous was a visit paid by Rundle to the Brandwater Basin, wherein the enemy was reported to be once more concentrated.  There were, in fact, less than 1,000 burghers within the Basin, but these pressed severely on him when, at the end of May, he made his exit through the Golden Gate with one prisoner of war.

Exigencies elsewhere compelled Lord Kitchener to allow the Cape Colony, to a great extent, to take care of itself.  Some troops were sent down, but they were insufficient to control the disaffection which was active in the midland districts.  Kritzinger remained in the Cape Colony; paying, however, a brief visit to the Orange River Colony in April.

Early in June Delarey, De Wet, and Steyn met at Reitz, for the purpose of considering a communication lately received from the Transvaal Government, suggesting that overtures should be made to Lord Kitchener.  To this Steyn had already returned an unfavourable answer; but he distrusted the wavering and wandering Transvaal Government, and he was desirous of obtaining the support of Delarey, whom he knew to be the most stalwart and implacable of the Transvaal leaders.  It was arranged that Steyn, Delarey, and De Wet should go north and meet Botha at Ermelo.