WITH COLONEL PLUMERS' RELIEF FORCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 62, 14 March 1900, Page 2

WITH COLONEL PLUMERS' RELIEF FORCE.

PLANNING A DESPERATE DASH. P. W. Longbottom, of Col. Baden-Powell's Protectorate Reo-i----ment, formerly at Eorfc Salisbury with the British South Africa Mounted Police, and now in British BechuanaJand, writing home from Manalapye, to his father in Capetown, says:— We are having anything but a pleasant time of it. There are now some 800 Boers around us, with four big guns making things very hot for us. We are cut off from our base, and I think Col. Powell, our chief, thinks we are all cut up, for he sends us no despatches. sWe are holding a big kopje, or hill .(twenty-five of us), so that the Boers C? n __*ot plant thelr P" on it. and ""i-MPT-our main position some few hundred yards away. Our force here numbers about 300, as a lot of B.S.A. Police have arrived from Bulawayo. The Boers came here on November 8, and made for our kopje, not thinking any one was there. Our sentry gave the alarm. We manned the walls, and waited until about 100 of them were nearly half way up, when we got the word to fire, and fire we did, with good effect. The Boers were fairly surprised, and stood looking at us, not knowing what to do. Then they got cover and returned our fire, but we had the best positions, and our other fellows took them in the rear, and they .began to retreat. When our officer ' saw this he gay.c n* the Order to fix bayonets and charge,* and we charged 'flown.-the hill like madmen. The Boers who had not escaped dropped on their knees and asked ns not to kill them, but they got little mercy. My bayonet had changed its colour. I shot eightythree rounds of ammunition before we charged. I don't know how many Boers I shot. We took five prisoners, and killed and wounded many. Our •loss was slight. We had one man killed and five wounded. Khama, the chief whose country we , are in, is sending about' 800 men to help us, if necessary. Bothoen, another chief, came to meet us dressed in an officer's, suit of the Life Guards. I told him, through his interpreter, that I saw him in Sheffield with Khama. He said he liked Sheffield bet- , ter than London, because in Sheffield he could go where he liked, but in London he had to follow the stream of people. But the Queen's stables, he said, were cleaner than any white man's house in Africa. He sat on a splendid white, horse, and his induna, or head man, carried his sword, given him by an officer in England. We are now camped on a rock or kopje 500 feet high. The country Is flat, and the view we have is wonderful—as far as the eye can see. . . . Khama's son is here, with a few of his men. who are acting as scouts for us. '.-' Khama's men are all very pious. We Jiear them everjr few hours sLngijur_

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hymns and praying to God, but they seem to think that stealing is not wrong. We are going to try at all costs to break through the Boers and reach Mafeking. We fear our corps—Colonel Baden-Powell'sProtectorate Regiment, known as Colonel Bore's Horse —is having a terribly hard time of it, and . cannot hold out much longer. Colonel , Hore is next in command. I suppose we shall have a hard time getting : through, as all the line is wrecked.