six or seven wounded.  The Boers were broken, however, and fled, leaving twenty-five prisoners to the victors.  Baden-Powell and Paget pushed forwards as far as Nylstroom, but finding themselves in wild and profitless country they returned towards Pretoria, and established the British northern posts at a place called Warm Baths.  Here Paget commanded, while Baden-Powell shortly afterwards went down to Cape Town to make arrangements for taking over the police force of the conquered countries, and to receive the enthusiastic welcome of his colonial fellow-countrymen.  Plumer, with a small force operating from Warm Baths, scattered a Boer commando on September 1st, capturing a few prisoners and a considerable quantity of munitions of war.  On the 5th there was another skirmish in the same neighbourhood, during which the enemy attacked a kopje held by a company of Munster Fusiliers, and was driven off with loss.  Many thousands of cattle were captured by the British in this part of the field of operations, and were sent into Pretoria, whence they helped to supply the army in the east.

There was still considerable effervescence in the western districts of the Transvaal, and a mounted detachment met with fierce opposition at the end of August on their journey from Zeerust to Krugersdorp.  Methuen, after his unsuccessful chase of De Wet, had gone as far as Zeerust, and had then taken his force on to Mafeking to refit.  Before leaving Zeerust, however, he had despatched Colonel Little to Pretoria with a column which consisted of his own third cavalry brigade, 1st Brabant’s, the Kaffrarian Rifles, R battery of Horse Artillery, and four Colonial guns.  They were acting as guard to a very large convoy of ‘returned empties.’  The district which they had to traverse is one of the most fertile in the Transvaal, a land of clear streams and of orange groves.  But the farmers are numerous and aggressive, and the column, which was 900 strong, could clear all resistance from its front, but found it impossible to brush off the snipers upon its flanks and rear.  Shortly after their start the column was deprived of the services of its gallant leader, Colonel Little, who was shot while riding with his advance scouts.  Colonel Dalgety took over the command.  Numerous desultory attacks culminated in a fierce skirmish at Quaggafontein on August 31st, in which the column had sixty casualties.  The event might have been serious, as De la Rey’s main force appears to have been concentrated upon the British detachment, the brunt of the action falling upon the Kaffrarian Rifles.  By a rapid movement the column was able to extricate itself and win its way safely to Krugersdorp, but it narrowly escaped out of the wolf’s jaws, and as it emerged into the open country De la Rey’s guns were seen galloping for the pass which they had just come through.  This force was sent south to Kroonstad to refit.