Of all the Boer forces concentrated in the Wittebergen, only about six hundred did not surrender.  To secure these also every means were resorted to.  No fewer than three times were messengers sent to them with reports from the enemy.  At first we were courteously invited to return and surrender.  To prove to us the validity of the surrender, all the papers bearing on the negotiation from first to last were forwarded to us.  The excellent conditions granted to the surrendered burghers were also transmitted to us.  In these conditions we observed that the surrendered burghers would each be provided with a horse to ride to their destination, which would be Winburg, till further orders.  We saw also that they would be kept as prisoners-of-war until the war was over, which meant, though they did not suspect it then, two years longer.  Their private property was to be respected.  How the last condition was violated is well known.

Olivier and his men were, however, not to be easily ensnared.  He politely rejected the proffered terms, stating at the same time that Prinsloo’s surrender was illegal.  A few days later, and lo! in the distance we beheld another flag-of-truce, a second report.  The polite request had failed, intimidation must now be tried—­that might succeed better.  We were admonished urgently to come back at once, and surrender without further delay.  Failing that, we must not expect to receive such generous and lenient treatment as would be extended to those surrendered already.  All our goods would be confiscated, etc.

On receiving this report, Olivier sent back the somewhat curt and abrupt reply:  “That if the British wanted his rifle they would have to capture him as a man, for he would not surrender like an old woman.  And he would receive no more white flags on this matter.”  Consequently the third messenger was sent back without being interviewed.

So much for the Prinsloo disaster.  It was a sad one for those still struggling against overwhelming odds.  Many a heart beat low, and many a sigh was heaved.  That was an “unkind cut,” which wounded the hearts of thousands.  Many a one, even of those who stood to the last day, never recovered from the effects of that shock.  They fought bravely, and did their duty towards their country, but hope for an ultimate victory was dead within them.

And those who surrendered, what lessons they had to learn!  Even to-day, a year after the close of the war, some of them have not reached their homes, but are on lonely islands, and in distant India, while many have passed away to the unseen world on those foreign shores.  Those that came back, what did they find?  A country strewn with ruins, their homes destroyed and burnt, and their sheep and cattle stabbed and shot lying in heaps upon the ground.  What a sad sight did greet their eyes!  How many of their beloved families were missing, having died in the Concentration Camps.  But when they reflect on the past the saddest thought should be their vanished freedom.