with another from Lydenburg might form the two crooked claws of a crab to enclose a great space of country, in which smaller columns might collect whatever was to be found.  Without an instant of unnecessary delay the dispositions were made, and no fewer than eight columns slipped upon the chase.  It will be best to continue to follow the movements of Plumer’s force, and then to give some account of the little armies which were operating from the south, with the results of their enterprise.

It was known that Viljoen and a number of Boers were within the district which lies north of the line in the Middelburg district.  An impenetrable bush-veld had offered them a shelter from which they made their constant sallies to wreck a train or to attack a post.  This area was now to be systematically cleared up.  The first thing was to stop the northern line of retreat.  The Oliphant River forms a loop in that direction, and as it is a considerable stream, it would, if securely held, prevent any escape upon that side.  With this object Plumer, on April 14th, the sixth day after his occupation of Pietersburg, struck east from that town and trekked over the veld, through the formidable Chunies Pass, and so to the north bank of the Oliphant, picking up thirty or forty Boer prisoners upon the way.  His route lay through a fertile country dotted with native kraals.  Having reached the river which marked the line which he was to hold, Plumer, upon April 17th, spread his force over many miles, so as to block the principal drifts.  The flashes of his helio were answered by flash after flash from many points upon the southern horizon.  What these other forces were, and whence they came, must now be made clear to the reader.

General Bindon Blood, a successful soldier, had confirmed in the Transvaal a reputation which he had won on the northern frontier of India.  He and General Elliot were two of the late comers who had been spared from the great Eastern dependency to take the places of some of those Generals who had returned to England for a well-earned rest.  He had distinguished himself by his systematic and effective guardianship of the Delagoa railway line, and he was now selected for the supreme control of the columns which were to advance from the south and sweep the Roos-Senekal district.  There were seven of them, which were arranged as follows: 

Two columns started from Middelburg under Beatson and Benson, which might be called the left wings of the movement.  The object of Beatson’s column was to hold the drifts of the Crocodile River, while Benson’s was to seize the neighbouring hills called the Bothasberg.  This it was hoped would pin the Boers from the west, while Kitchener from Lydenburg advanced from the east in three separate columns.  Pulteney and Douglas would move up from Belfast in the centre, with Dulstoom for their objective.  It was the familiar drag net of French, but facing north instead of south.