The total number captured in this important drive was 780 men, including several leaders, one of whom was De Wet’s own son.  It was found that De Wet himself had been among those who had got away through the picket lines on the night of the 23rd.  Most of the commando were Transvaalers, and it was typical of the wide sweep of the net that many of them were the men who had been engaged against the 28th Mounted Infantry in the district south of Johannesburg upon the 12th of the same month.  The loss of 2000 horses and 50,000 cartridges meant as much as that of the men to the Boer army.  It was evident that a few more such blows would clear the Orange River Colony altogether.

The wearied troopers were allowed little rest, for in a couple of days after their rendezvous at Harrismith they were sweeping back again to pick up all that they had missed.  This drive, which was over the same ground, but sweeping backwards towards the Heilbron to Wolvehoek line, ended in the total capture of 147 of the enemy, who were picked out of holes, retrieved from amid the reeds of the river, called down out of trees, or otherwise collected.  So thorough were the operations that it is recorded that the angle which formed the apex of the drive was one drove of game upon the last day, all the many types of antelope, which form one of the characteristics and charms of the country, having been herded into it.

More important even than the results of the drive was the discovery of one of De Wet’s arsenals in a cave in the Vrede district.  Half-way down a precipitous krantz, with its mouth covered by creepers, no writer of romance could have imagined a more fitting headquarters for a guerilla chief.  The find was made by Ross’s Canadian Scouts, who celebrated Dominion Day by this most useful achievement.  Forty wagon-loads of ammunition and supplies were taken out of the cave.  De Wet was known to have left the north-east district, and to have got across the railway, travelling towards the Vaal as if it were his intention to join De la Rey in the Transvaal.  The Boer resistance had suddenly become exceedingly energetic in that part, and several important actions had been fought, to which we will presently turn.

Before doing so it would be as well to bring the chronicle of events in the Orange River Colony down to the conclusion of peace.  There were still a great number of wandering Boers in the northern districts and in the frontier mountains, who were assiduously, but not always successfully, hunted down by the British troops.  Much arduous and useful work was done by several small columns, the Colonial Horse and the Artillery Mounted Rifles especially distinguishing themselves.  The latter corps, formed from the gunners whose field-pieces were no longer needed, proved themselves to be a most useful body of men; and the British gunner, when he took to carrying his gun, vindicated the reputation which he had won when his gun had carried him.