This hard-working General, having garrisoned Zeerust and Lichtenburg, had left his old district and journeyed with a force which consisted largely of Bushmen and Yeomanry to the disturbed parts of Bechuanaland which had been invaded by De Villiers.  Here he cleared the country as far as Vryburg, which he had reached in the middle of January, working round to Kuruman and thence to Taungs.  From Taungs his force crossed the Transvaal border and made for Klerksdorp, working through an area which had never been traversed and which contained the difficult Masakani hills.  He left Taungs upon February 2nd, fighting skirmishes at Uitval’s Kop, Paardefontein and Lilliefontein, in each of which the enemy was brushed aside.  Passing through Wolmaranstad, Methuen turned to the north, where at Haartebeestefontein, on February 19th, he fought a brisk engagement with a considerable force of Boers under De Villiers and Liebenberg.  On the day before the fight he successfully outwitted the Boers, for, learning that they had left their laager in order to take up a position for battle, he pounced upon the laager and captured 10,000 head of cattle, forty-three wagons, and forty prisoners.  Stimulated by this success, he attacked the Boers next day, and after five hours of hard fighting forced the pass which they were holding against him.  As Methuen had but 1500 men, and was attacking a force which was as large as his own in a formidable position, the success was a very creditable one.  The Yeomanry all did well, especially the 5th and 10th battalions.  So also did the Australians and the Loyal North Lancashires.  The British casualties amounted to sixteen killed and thirty-four wounded, while the Boers left eighteen of their dead upon the position which they had abandoned.  Lord Methuen’s little force returned to Klerksdorp, having deserved right well of their country.  From Klerksdorp Methuen struck back westwards to the south of his former route, and on March 14th he was reported at Warrenton.  Here also in April came Erroll’s small column, bringing with it the garrison and inhabitants of Hoopstad, a post which it had been determined, in accordance with Lord Kitchener’s policy of centralisation, to abandon.

In the month of January, 1901, there had been a considerable concentration of the Transvaal Boers into that large triangle which is bounded by the Delagoa railway line upon the north, the Natal railway line upon the south, and the Swazi and Zulu frontiers upon the east.  The bushveld is at this season of the year unhealthy both for man and beast, so that for the sake of their herds, their families, and themselves the burghers were constrained to descend into the open veld.  There seemed the less objection to their doing so since this tract of country, though traversed once both by Buller and by French, had still remained a stronghold of the Boers and a storehouse of supplies.  Within its borders are to be found Carolina, Ermelo, Vryheid, and other storm centres.  Its possession offers peculiar strategical advantages, as a force lying there can always attack either railway, and might even make, as was indeed intended, a descent into Natal.  For these mingled reasons of health and of strategy a considerable number of burghers united in this district under the command of the Bothas and of Smuts.