WITH PLUMER AT TULI

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 24, 29 January 1900, Page 6

WITH PLUMER AT TULI

The following exciting narrative of the experiences of a trooper in Colonel I'lumer's force at Tuli is an extract from a letter dated November 5:

We were on a kopje near Rhodes' Drift. Last Wednesday the Boers cut our telephone wire to Tuli and fired on our police. We sent out a patrol, but. without success. On the 2nd they cut the wire again, so Captain Glyn was sent out with six of us to see what it was. There is a big- kopje about five miles from where we were, on the road to Tuli. When we got 800 yards from it we came out of the bush, and saw the kopje lined with Boers. They were firing- with two big guns at a store (Bryce's) and waggons. They captured seven of them loaded with food for us. I knew we were in for a hot time then. We galloped back to camp, and heard them tiring- there. We had to cross 400 yards of open ground to get in. The bullets came tiying around pretty thick, but no one was hit. This was just at mid-day. We had piled up stores all round for shelter, which was a luck}' thing for us, as they fired at us all day with shot and shell. We had no big gun at all, and they had two. They kept on firing- till (5 p.m., but node of us was hit. I didn't like the sound of the shells at all going over our heads; then the Martini makes a great row, and the Mauser comes with a ping, We could not see them at all to fire at them, except for ten minutes, when they came in our front. We made it so hot they soon cleared out, and went to the one end again. There were only 80 of us all told. They shot over 40 of our horses, but could not hit us. Most of the time they were firing- we were smoking and joking. We kept one man on the look-out. A bullet just grazed my heel. I was a bit nervous at first, but did not mind a bit afterwards; though .we didn't know how we were going to get out of it, as our retreat was cut off, and our water, too. We thought we were for Pretoria if we eeaped alive, as the next morning they would bring down their 7-pounders from the kopje and simply wipe us out.

Just after dark we were all told to cut our horses loose. I felt it very much parting- with mine, but it could not be helped. Colonel Spreekley told us he was going to try and get us through the Boer lines/and retire to Tuli on foot. We had to leave everything behind, so I lost all my kit. We started at 7 p.m. and walked all night, stopping- for two hours in the morning, and reaching Tuli at 2 p.m. We had to go a very roundabout way right through the thick bush in pitch darkness. We crawled part of the way, not speaking a word. The thorns were awful, our hands and faces were fearfully scratched. We did about 35 miles altogether, with of course no food of any sort. As soon as Colonel Plumer heard we were coming, he sent horses for us, but we were only five miles away then. They had food and coffee ready for us. They thought we were all killed; we were indeed fortunate to get out alive. I don't know what we shall do without horses, but nine of ours came in yesterday, mine amongst them. I was glad to get him again, though I have no saddle. They must have come right round by the river to have got here, a tremendous distance. We were pretty well played out: the ambulance was sent for several who couldn't walk any further. My feet, were sore, and I ached all over. I carried 140 rounds of ammunition. We don't think we

ought to have been left so long- without a gun.