Lieutenant-Colonel White, in command of the advanced guard, sent back a request for guns to be pushed forward as a precaution in case of an attack from the Boers in front.  By the time these guns reached the advanced guard, the Boers were still retreating some two miles off.  A few rounds were then fired in their direction.  Had Colonel White, in the first instance, opened fire with his Maxims on the Boers, whom he surprised watering their horses close to Hind’s store, considerable loss would have been inflicted; but this was not our object, for with the exception of the small skirmish on the previous night, the Boers had not as yet molested the column, whose sole aim was to reach Johannesburg if possible without fighting.

[1.30 p.m.]

At this hour Hind’s store was reached.

Here the troops rested for one and a half hours.

Unfortunately, hardly any provisions for men and horses were available.

[3 p.m.]

An officers’ patrol, consisting of Major Villiers (Royal Horse Guards) and Lieutenant Grenfell (1st Life Guards) and six men, moved off for the purpose of reconnoitring the left flank of the Boer position, while Captain Lindsell, with his permanent force of advanced scouts, pushed on as usual to reconnoitre the approach by the main road.  At the same time I forwarded a note to the Commandant of the forces in Krugersdorp to the effect that, in the event of my friendly force meeting with opposition on its approach, I should be forced to shell the town, and that therefore I gave him this warning in order that the women and children might be moved out of danger.

[Friendly!]

To this note, which was despatched by a Boer who had been detained at
Van Oudtshoorn, I received no reply.

At Hind’s store we were informed that the force in our front had increased during the forenoon to about 800 men, of whom a large number were entrenched on the hillside.

[4.30 p.m.]

Four miles beyond Hind’s store, the column following the scouts, which met with no opposition, ascended a steep rise of some 400 feet, and came full in view of the Boer position on the opposite side of a deep valley, traversed by a broad “sluit” or muddy water course.

Standing on the plateau or spur, on which our force was forming up for action, the view to our front was as follows: 

Passing through our position to the west ran the Hind’s store—­Krugersdorp Road traversing the valley and the Boer position almost at right angles to both lines.

Immediately to the north of this road, at the point where it disappeared over the sky-line on the opposite slope, lay the Queen’s Battery House and earthworks, completely commanding the valley on all sides and distant 1,900 yards from our standpoint.

Some 1,000 yards down the valley to the north stood a farmhouse, surrounded by a dense plantation, which flanked the valley.