The escort of the convoy consisted of the 5th Imperial Yeomanry, sixty of Paget’s Horse, three companies of the ubiquitous Northumberland Fusiliers, two guns of the 4th R.F.A., and a pom-pom, amounting in all to 630 men.  Colonel Anderson was in command.  On the morning of Tuesday, February 25th, the convoy was within ten miles of its destination, and the sentries on the kopjes round the town could see the gleam of the long line of white-tilted wagons.  Their hazardous voyage was nearly over, and yet they were destined to most complete and fatal wreck within sight of port.  So confident were they that the detachment of Paget’s Horse was permitted to ride on the night before into the town.  It was as well, for such a handful would have shared and could not have averted the disaster.

The night had been dark and wet, and the Boers under cover of it had crept between the sleeping convoy and the town.  Some bushes which afford excellent cover lie within a few hundred yards of the road, and here the main ambush was laid.  In the first grey of the morning the long line of the convoy, 130 wagons in all, came trailing past—­guns and Yeomanry in front, Fusiliers upon the flanks and rear.  Suddenly the black bank of scrub was outlined in flame, and a furious rifle fire was opened upon the head of the column.  The troops behaved admirably under most difficult circumstances.  A counter-attack by the Fusiliers and some of the Yeomanry, under cover of shrapnel from the guns, drove the enemy out of the scrub and silenced his fire at this point.  It was evident, however, that he was present in force, for firing soon broke out along the whole left flank, and the rearguard found itself as warmly attacked as the van.  Again, however, the assailants were driven off.  It was now broad daylight, and the wagons, which had got into great confusion in the first turmoil of battle, had been remarshalled and arranged.  It was Colonel Anderson’s hope that he might be able to send them on into safety while he with the escort covered their retreat.  His plan was certainly the best one, and if it did not succeed it was due to nothing which he could avert, but to the nature of the ground and the gallantry of the enemy.

The physical obstacle consisted in a very deep and difficult spruit, the Jagd Spruit, which forms an ugly passage in times of peace, but which when crowded and choked with stampeding mules and splintering wagons, under their terrified conductors, soon became impassable.  Here the head of the column was clubbed and the whole line came to a stand.  Meanwhile the enemy, adopting their new tactics, came galloping in on the left flank and on the rear.  The first attack was repelled by the steady fire of the Fusiliers, but on the second occasion the horsemen got up to the wagons, and galloping down them were able to overwhelm in detail the little knots of soldiers who were scattered along the flank.  The British, who were outnumbered by at least three