When last mentioned Kritzinger’s men had crossed the railway north of Rosmead on December 30th, and held up a train containing some Colonial troops.  From then onwards a part of them remained in the Middelburg and Graaf-Reinet districts, while part moved towards the south.  On January 11th there was a sharp skirmish near Murraysburg, in which Byng’s column was engaged, at the cost of twenty casualties, all of Brabant’s or the South African Light Horse.  On the 16th a very rapid movement towards the south began.  On that date Boers appeared at Aberdeen, and on the 18th at Willowmore, having covered seventy miles in two days.  Their long, thin line was shredded out over 150 miles, and from Maraisburg, in the north, to Uniondale, which is only thirty miles from the coast, there was rumour of their presence.  In this wild district and in that of Oudtshoorn the Boer vanguard flitted in and out of the hills, Haig’s column striving hard to bring them to an action.  So well-informed were the invaders that they were always able to avoid the British concentrations, while if a British outpost or patrol was left exposed it was fortunate if it escaped disaster.  On February 6th a small body of twenty-five of the 7th King’s Dragoon Guards and of the West Australians, under Captain Oliver, were overwhelmed at Klipplaat, after a very fine defence, in which they held their own against 200 Boers for eight hours, and lost nearly fifty per cent of their number.  On the 12th a patrol of yeomanry was surprised and taken near Willowmore.

The coming of De Wet had evidently been the signal for all the Boer raiders to concentrate, for in the second week of February Kritzinger also began to fall back, as Hertzog had done in the west, followed closely by the British columns.  He did not, however, actually join De Wet, and his evacuation of the country was never complete, as was the case with Hertzog’s force.  On the 19th Kritzinger was at Bethesda, with Gorringe and Lowe at his heels.  On the 23rd an important railway bridge at Fish River, north of Cradock, was attacked, but the attempt was foiled by the resistance of a handful of Cape Police and Lancasters.  On March 6th a party of Boers occupied the village of Pearston, capturing a few rifles and some ammunition.  On the same date there was a skirmish between Colonel Parsons’s column and a party of the enemy to the north of Aberdeen.  The main body of the invading force appears to have been lurking in this neighbourhood, as they were able upon April 7th to cut off a strong British patrol, consisting of a hundred Lancers and Yeomanry, seventy-five of whom remained as temporary prisoners in the hands of the enemy.  With this success we may for the time leave Kritzinger and his lieutenant, Scheepers, who commanded that portion of his force which had penetrated to the south of the Colony.