TRAVELLING, NOT FIGETING.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10765, 19 September 1900, Page 5

TRAVELLING, NOT FIGETING.

Trooper Keith, one of the Rough Riders, writing to his brother in Christchurch from Buluwayo, on July 30th, says: —"We have been doing nothing but travelling ever since we left MarandeLas on the 18th of June. We walked and led our horses nearly all the way here, a distance of 300 odd miles, so it wasn't a bad sort of a walk. Colonel Somm__*vi__e, who was in charge, wanted to have the horns looking weQ when he arrived here, and the horses were a disgrace, ns they never had half an hour's rest and the same with the men. We were up nearly a.U night and drilling all da.. We. very often hadn't time to boil our billy; but, thank heaven, things are better. Major Davies, who was in charge of the First Contcngent, has taken us over, and we were ordered to go to.Pretoria via Fort Tuli and Pietersburg. Well, we left h-3» on the 13th and got as far as a. place calkd Manzahama, after a week's march tho|n__h very rough country, and we got wo?a to return to Bulawayo, as .here was no waiter at Tuli, so we had a fortnight's marching for nothing, although we thought nothing of it, as the Major knows how to treat men and horses, and we are all contented, and our horses are doing sp_endidly. We leave here for Mafeking by rail to-mor-row ; it tak.s forty-eight hours, and there is a chance of the line being down, as the Boers are all along the Hne, and they are very troublesome round about Mafeking, so we expect to get into action within the next week, and I think it's nearly tuns, as we have been travelling for the last three months. I don't think we will ever see a battle. The Boers are all scattered, and are going -about in small forces, doing as much damage as they can. They are just hanging on in the hope of other Powers intervening. ... In fact, if the trouble in China hadn't broken out the war would have been ail over now. This is a rotten place, there are all kinds of diseases. Horses can't live here in the summer, but if they do get over the disease they are worth any money. I have seen bits of ponies you could*buy in New Zealand for £1 each bring as much* as a hundred here. This is not a bad scut of _ town. There are a few very fine buildings. The Grand Hotel beats anything in New Zealand. This place is about as big as Hawera. It is purely a mining town, but I don't think it will last long.

CABLE NEWS.