Upon December 3rd Bruce Hamilton, who had the valuable assistance of Wools-Sampson to direct his intelligence, struck swiftly out from Ermelo and fell upon a Boer laager in the early morning, capturing ninety-six prisoners.  On the 10th he overwhelmed the Bethel commando by a similar march, killing seven and capturing 131.  Williams and Wing commanded separate columns in this operation, and their energy may be judged from the fact that they covered fifty-one miles during the twenty-four hours.  On the 12th Hamilton’s columns were on the war-path once more, and another commando was wiped out.  Sixteen killed and seventy prisoners were the fruits of this expedition.  For the second time in a week the columns had done their fifty miles a day, and it was no surprise to hear from their commander that they were in need of a rest.  Nearly four hundred prisoners had been taken from the most warlike portion of the Transvaal in ten days by one energetic commander, with a list of twenty-five casualties to ourselves.  The thanks of the Secretary of War were specially sent to him for his brilliant work.  From then until the end of the year 1901, numbers of smaller captures continued to be reported from the same region, where Plumer, Spens, Mackenzie, Rawlinson, and others were working.  On the other hand there was one small setback which occurred to a body of two hundred Mounted Infantry under Major Bridgford, who had been detached from Spens’s column to search some farmhouses at a place called Holland, to the south of Ermelo.  The expedition set forth upon the night of December 19th, and next morning surrounded and examined the farms.

The British force became divided in doing this work, and were suddenly attacked by several hundred of Britz’s commando, who came to close quarters through their khaki dress, which enabled them to pass as Plumer’s vanguard.  The brunt of the fight fell upon an outlying body of fifty men, nearly all of whom were killed, wounded or taken.  A second body of fifty men were overpowered in the same way, after a creditable defence.  Fifteen of the British were killed and thirty wounded, while Bridgford the commander was also taken.  Spens came up shortly afterwards with the column, and the Boers were driven off.  There seems every reason to think that upon this occasion the plans of the British had leaked out, and that a deliberate ambush had been laid for them round the farms, but in such operations these are chances against which it is not always possible to guard.  Considering the number of the Boers, and the cleverness of their dispositions, the British were fortunate in being able to extricate their force without greater loss, a feat which was largely due to the leading of Lieutenant Sterling.

Leaving the Eastern Transvaal, the narrative must now return to several incidents of importance which had occurred at various points of the seat of war during the latter months of 1901.