We could now fill our bandoliers, and requisition the necessary articles in clothing, boots, etc.  But the enemy was not slow to follow us.  We were just allowed sufficient time to take all we required, and then the columns came to remind us that we were strangers and intruders.

As we have related our experiences in other chapters, we shall not here enter into details.  For at least seven months, after we had crossed the river, the enemy continually harassed us.  We hardly enjoyed a single day’s rest.  During the day we had to fight, and during the night we had to trek.  One thing was plain:  the enemy was determined to silence us completely.  That they did not succeed is almost passing strange.  If 300 Britishers were to have entered the two republics, would they have proceeded very far?

General Hertzog had, at the same time, invaded the western province of the Cape Colony, but, being far away from the railway line, the British did not worry him very much.  They all seemed to conspire against my small band, and had the additional advantage of railways on every side of us.  Deeper and deeper into the heart of the Colony we were driven.  We marched in a southern direction.  Whither?  We did not know, only forward.  And so far did we push on that at length the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean loomed in the distance, and reminded us that it was time to retrace our steps, for we could certainly go no farther on horseback.  So we slipped through the pursuing columns, and returned to the districts of Jansenville, Graaff-Reinet and Cradock.

In February we were not so hotly pursued.  De Wet had entered the Cape Colony from the north-west; and like a magnet he drew most of the British forces irresistibly to him.  This gave us a short rest, which was, alas! only too short.  For De Wet, as well as Hertzog, had to fall back on the Orange Free State, and with redoubled energy the British came upon us like a mighty avalanche.  The reader can hardly realise what we had to undergo these first eight months in the Cape Colony.

It was a bitter disappointment to learn how De Wet had fared and that both he and Hertzog had abandoned the Cape Colony.  We knew it was not their fault and so did not blame them.  Still we were resolved to hold out as long as possible.  Gradually it went better; the colonists began to enlist and our numbers swelled.  We could now form other commandos, and despatch these in various directions, and that prevented the enemy from concentrating all their forces on us.  At last we had gained such a strong footing in the Colony that to expel us all was simply an impossibility.

And how did General De Wet fare when he crossed the Orange River on the 11th of February, 1901?  The following account given by one who accompanied him will give the reader some idea of the unsuccessful attempt at invasion.