Thinking that it might be only a patrol of the enemy that had come upon us incidentally and not intentionally, I tried hard to get the rather panic-stricken burghers into action.  At a gate through which they had to pass I stopped them, and ordered them back.  We soon noticed, however, how serious our position was; in fact, that we were surrounded on every side, and would have to fight our way through and out.

At about 3.30 A.M. the British brought their guns into action.  The mountains resounded with the explosion of the shells, and the night was illuminated by the flashes of the guns.  The fireworks were magnificent beyond description, but ... we had no inclination to admire them under such circumstances.

The next morning we counted our losses:  ten burghers were captured, two wounded and one killed.  One hundred and thirty horses were missing, most of the men were without saddles, and only a few had blankets.

This was indeed a surprise, and yet we were astonished that, after all, any of us did escape.  So eager was the enemy to secure my person, that they did not attend to the burghers, whom they had disarmed, but simply flung their rifles aside and left them to themselves.  The men, thus disarmed, instantly picked up their rifles and “trapt,” i.e., ran off.  Thus very few of them were without rifles the following day.

Our feelings cannot be easily described.  There were forty-six men who had to go on foot.  A large number had no saddles.  I lost all my horses.  The only hope we entertained was that the British Government would soon restore our property.  What we regretted most was the loss of our men.

Two of our pickets were caught, the remaining six, when charged and cut off, had taken refuge in a deep ditch, where they remained until the enemy had left, and then found their way back to the commando.

My next escape, though not exposed to the enemy’s fire, and perhaps not even known to them, was probably the narrowest I had during the whole campaign.

We were again hard pressed by two columns.  Our horses being very tired, we were obliged to rest them for a short while, even at the risk of falling into the hands of the enemy.  Our way led through a valley, bordered on both sides by huge mountain ranges which for at least six miles ran parallel.

On the side of the road, half-way up the valley, was a farmstead where we off-saddled and gave our horses some fodder.  The two columns which were on our track had been coming nearer.  Fortunately darkness was setting in.  When the front column was a short distance from us, we saddled and went to a dense bush close to the road.  In that bush we delayed, till the first column had passed us and advanced some distance.  As the second was only one or two miles behind the first, and as we were not sure whether it would also pass, we fell in behind the first; there was but one road.