an attempt by Carrington to relieve the place on August 5th had been beaten back, and that the state of the country appeared so threatening that he had been compelled, or had imagined himself to be compelled, to retreat as far as Mafeking, evacuating Zeerust and Otto’s Hoop, abandoning the considerable stores which were collected at those places.  In spite of all these sinister indications the garrison was still holding its own, and on August 16th it was relieved by Lord Kitchener.

This stand at Brakfontein on the Elands River appears to have been one of the very finest deeds of arms of the war.  The Australians have been so split up during the campaign, that though their valour and efficiency were universally recognised, they had no single exploit which they could call their own.  But now they can point to Elands River as proudly as the Canadians can to Paardeberg.  They were 500 in number, Victorians, New South Welshmen, and Queenslanders, the latter the larger unit, with a corps of Rhodesians.  Under Hore were Major Hopper of the Rhodesians, and Major Toubridge of the Queenslanders.  Two thousand five hundred Boers surrounded them, and most favourable terms of surrender were offered and scouted.  Six guns were trained upon them, and during 11 days 1800 shells fell within their lines.  The river was half a mile off, and every drop of water for man or beast had to come from there.  Nearly all their horses and 75 of the men were killed or wounded.  With extraordinary energy and ingenuity the little band dug shelters which are said to have exceeded in depth and efficiency any which the Boers have devised.  Neither the repulse of Carrington, nor the jamming of their only gun, nor the death of the gallant Annett, was sufficient to dishearten them.  They were sworn to die before the white flag should wave above them.  And so fortune yielded, as fortune will when brave men set their teeth, and Broadwood’s troopers, filled with wonder and admiration, rode into the lines of the reduced and emaciated but indomitable garrison.  When the ballad-makers of Australia seek for a subject, let them turn to Elands River, for there was no finer resistance in the war.  They will not grudge a place in their record to the 130 gallant Rhodesians who shared with them the honours and the dangers of the exploit.

On August 7th Ian Hamilton abandoned Rustenburg, taking Baden-Powell and his men with him.  It was obviously unwise to scatter the British forces too widely by attempting to garrison every single town.  For the instant the whole interest of the war centred upon De Wet and his dash into the Transvaal.  One or two minor events, however, which cannot be fitted into any continuous narrative may be here introduced.