A quick succession of encounters occurred at
various parts of the seat of war, the general tendency of which was
not entirely in favour of the British arms, though the weekly
export of prisoners reassured all who noted it as to the sapping
and decay of the Boer strength. These incidents must now be set
down in the order of their occurrence, with their relation to each
other so far as it is possible to trace it.
General Louis Botha, with the double intention of making an
offensive move and of distracting the wavering burghers from a
close examination of Lord Kitchener's proclamation, assembled his
forces in the second week of September in the Ermelo district.
Thence he moved them rapidly towards Natal, with the result that
the volunteers of that colony had once more to grasp their rifles
and hasten to the frontier. The whole situation bore for an instant
an absurd resemblance to that of two years before--Botha playing
the part of Joubert, and Lyttelton, who commanded on the frontier,
that of White.
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