WITH THE “ SILENT SIXTH.”

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12590, 27 August 1901, Page 6

WITH THE “ SILENT SIXTH.”

♦“ A TROOPER’S LETTER HOME. LIFE ON THE VELDT. MEDITATIONS UNDER FIRE. AN OPEN FIELD AND AN UNSEEN FOE. Mr J. Robertson, of the Sixth Contingent, in a letter from Utrecht, dated, June 25, writes to his parents at New Brighton as follows:

THOUGHTS OP HOME. I am having a very good time of it over here at present, but I ami longing to be back .amongst yon all _ again. With a few exceptions, scvtuiering is not aib life, and the experience may com© useful in years to come.

THE SEVENTH. We have a good deal of forced march!n~ to dt>, making long treks tvithi Mttie wot or-sleep, but there is a good deal to occupy our attention and interest, as there must always be in a new country. I have not seen any of the Seventh Contingent vet. bat they were in, Standerton a few days‘ before we arrived-there. They are reported' to be having rather hard iUcfc, having had- several killed and captured on their first trek.

BOEE TACTICS. Tlpto date-wo have not had a great deal of actual lighting, but have captured 'a good many prisoners and large numbers of cattle. The Boer is a very slippery customer, and it ie teed to get a good shot at ham. He fights on the hide-and-seek pnneapue, and w-e simply -have to play him at. hi« onm game. When you hear the “ping of a Mauser hulM whistling close to your «ar without knowing where the fellow as who fired it, it makes yon wish you could get him <rat into the open for about five meoate*, so- that you could settle matters Up with him ■without any unnecessary delay or bother. News has test been brought Into camp that General Elliott has captured ■bout forty prisoners, twice as many wnffffoos and large quantities of stock and ammunition from Da Wet- This means a step nearer homo for us, os it la recognised here the t the defeat of De Wet would put ah, end to -the war, BOEB TONIES AND KAFFIR SEE"

tants. ' . ■ ; I have had some splendid little Boer ponies lately. They are very email and touttooM hardly think they would rbe ibwfia enough to carry you, hut their eusis hi no indication of thwir strength. They m also very swift, and their endurance iorprisinz, TfWob may account [for the ease wifco' which a Boar con. get away when b» doesn’t want to be captured. Wo have Kifflr boys to do all cttr work for ns. They tbs fires, boil the billies, make the b*d*» groom and saddle the hareea, and do other odd' jobs for the magnificent salary of fly*."colonial Roberta" a wk. As this j„ kbwrfld between' four of ns, you will! see that the "demw*tiorservant problem:" is not queetlon with us at any rate.

A TRAIL OF FIRE, jo * letter? dated soma days later Mr Bobertooß saye:— ', , . . 'We are' hawing a very good trek ums time nmob better than the Pietensburg one —-pjeiifcy of tucker and not so anuob duty. On oor march w© are underordera to doetwy 'everything we coma across. Fancy chontwog up -pianoa, chairs, tables, etc., ma uaing them as firewood 1 It is really STibaino to see «o many beautiful things wantonly destroyed. You can just imagine wi»t .it would bo if some foreign Power wor* at * Traar ~w £tb. New* Zealand andl the soldierr were to march into your house nod destroy every thing. Sometimes, when the owners axe looking on while their little belongings are being broken up, it makes you wish it were not considered a mime to 'disobey orders. All the little ornaments and things it has taken yeans, perhama, to accumulate (many of them valuable only to their 1 owners on account of the awodatioiis Connected with them) and destroyed! Military orders mtist : o£ course be but I oonfisss it makes a fellow feel a bit mean, to have to execute them. That is, however, a matter of sentiment, and there ought to be-no (sentiment in war. A BIT OF A SCRAP,

We had a hit of a scaup the other day in •-winch I 'had rather a narrow escape. Four of iw were sent in 1 advance towards a kopje where a force of Beers were con- ■ cealed, and when we got within a,bout 200 J aids they opened fire on us from al sides, tell you it was decidedly hot while it lasted, and made, a chap wish he was any where else hub where he happened to be at that particular moment. At home I u*«d to sing “I’m not particular,” hub I never knew till then how particular X could be. Anyhow, we were “ particularly ’’ ■mart in getting under cover until the rest of ow company came forward to our assistance. If you could see who was shooting at you it wouldn’t be so bad, as you might be able to get a shot in and 1 make the footer lose ’the'number of bis mess, but the bullets seem to come from nowhere In particular, with the chance of landing pomewhere that would bo very particular indeed, which makes the situation a bib awkward, , j LEFT ON THE VELDT. We had the misfortune to lose one of ««r lieutenants. We buried him amongst the mountains. This is where the sad reality of war comes in. It is all very well for those who return to home and friends again, but what about the poor fellows who lie on the lonely veldt or in the bleak and desolate mountains of South whose friends have not even the melancholy satisfaction, of knowing, the place where . they are buried? The day after the engagement to which I have referred we were under fire for about four tours, and again on the day following for’ about the same length ,c£ time. This is all the fighting we have done since we came over, unless an occasional bit of sniping on the part of the Boers, and a bib of playing ’possum on our part to catch them, may be called fighting.

THE VERB “TO COMMANDEER.” On the 20thi we were ordered on a mid- ( night march. About an hour after we ' started we came on some farmhouses where we replenished our larders -with some nice fat turkeys, pigs, and mealies. My mate and, I also seemed a splendid tarpaulin, which wil come very useful to us on wet ' and -frosty nights. You don’t steal anything over here. You don’t even confiscate it. You commandeer it. This is a nie« genteel word, which soothes' the con- , when appropriating anything that dtoam’t belong to you, , A little further on w« passed a long stone wall, on the top of which a number of fine plump turkey# were roosting, all innocent of wrong, and- quite oblivious of the fact that a number. of marauding .New Zealanders would have roast turkey next day for dinner,