and also Captain Scheepers with his corps, which con-
sisted of thirty men. With the addition of my staff
we numbered altogether 246 men.

Thus our ways parted--the President going to the
Government of the South African Republic, the laager
to the north, and I back to the Free State. I had
now to cross the Magalies Mountains. The nearest
two passes were Olifantsnek and Commandonek.
But the first named was too much to the west, and
the second was probably occupied by the English. I
therefore decided to take a footpath that crossed the
mountains between the two saddles. I was forced to
choose this middle road because I had no means of
ascertaining whether Commandonek was, or was not,
in the hands of the enemy.

On August 18th we arrived at a house where some
Germans were living--the parents and sisters of Mr.
Penzhorn, Secretary to General Piet Cronje. They
were exceedingly friendly to us, and did all in their
power to make us comfortable.

We did not stay here for long, but were on the
march again the same day. Soon after we had
mounted our horses we came in sight of a large Eng-
lish camp, which was stationed on the road from Rus-
tenburg to Pretoria, between Commandonek and
Krokodil River. This camp lay about six miles to the
south-east of the point where we first saw it. Another
great camp stood about seven miles to the north-west.

The enemy could see us clearly, as it was open
veldt, with only a few bushes cropping up here and
there. We now rode on in the direction of Wolhu.
terskop, which is close to the Magalies Mountains. I
thought I should thus be able to reach the great road
from Rustenburg to Pretoria, which was eight or nine
miles from the footpath across the Magaliesberg.
When we were about two miles east of Wolhuterskop
we suddenly came upon two English scouts. One of
them we captured; and he told us that there was a
great force of the enemy in front of us and marching

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