UNKNOWN

Manawatu Standard, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 6626, 19 February 1900, Page 4

UNKNOWN

SOME EXCITING ADVEjfruRE^ The East London DespatcHfcublishesthe followiog letter from a BrMish subject who was until recently ;in »he Free ~.„. State:-- . .... I Peka Station,;B&sutoland. My dear Father and MntherrVl have never written to \n^ parents with so ranch joy as I do this morning, and I am sure you will agree with me when you have listened to my tale. On the 3rd October we were commandeered from Olocolan, A——S-—and I. We went at once, as we were told we were being Bent to guard the Basutolind border close to Ladybrand "We formed a laager there, and things went on very smoothly for nearly two weeks, when we heard some talk about sending some of our men to the front. Of course we went to the commandant at once, and told him plainly that we did not intend taking up arms against the- British. He was rather wild at first, but after a bit of talk said he could quite understand it, and that he should write to the President and put the matter before him. He wrote, and in a _ week or so got this reply :—" The clever Englishmen in Van Eooyen's laager may stay on the border, but mast have lots of work given them to do." Of course we did not object to the work at all, and did any amount of night patrolling, etc Unfortunately for us, the commandant did not tell the fieldcornel; abon£ our position in the laager. and be went to Wepener. During his absence the field-cornet sounded the bugle, and gave the order to saddle up for Norval's Pont (False Alarm). Of course we went to him at once, and told , him our instructions from the comman;(C" dant. He got yery wild, said he knew nothing about the wire, and made out that we were liars. I went to him again, and he said: "As you say you had these orders, you had better sit quietly in your tent, and I shall wira to the commandant to-morrow.1' Next morning about nine o'clock the bugle ;-* sounded, and the burghers were all called up. The field-cornet got on the stand, and said, " All men who won't o:7 r fight against the English stand on one side." Of course we all stood out like one man, eleven of us. Then they gave speeches, hitting us very hard, naturally and the question " Does any burgher want these men to remain in our camp ?" was put to the vot3, and we were blackballed unanimously. I asked to be allowed to speak, and after a lot of ■■: talk was allowed to'do so. I told them .'• the wb.ole4b.ing from beginning to end, . but;: they would;^ nofi believe about the M^ife -I asked them to wait till the com- .'-* rriahdant came, aad he would show them the wire. A RUSE THAT FAILED. "We went to breakfast, everyone scowliug at us, and about 12 o'clock were called to the officers' tent, and the veldt-cornet asked us if we would not take up arms against the English, and he having promised to send the wire to the President, we did so. Then he said we were to get ready for Bloemfontein in iwo hours. So we went to our tenf3, packed up everything, and seat for our horses, and as we were having some lunch a fellow walked in, demanding all our guns acd ammunition and small pocket-knives. Have you ever heard of such rot ? Then mounted guards rode up, saddled our horses, and coupled them together four and four. By this time all the camp, nearly 400 men, were standing round us spying good bye We were told to mount, and, something going wrong with my girth, I had to dismount again, and a fellow, one of my Dutch chum*, came to my assistance. Just as I was getting into the saddle again he whispered in my ear : "Richards, do you know where you fellows are going to?" I said: "Bloemfontein." Ha said : " No ; you fellows are going to the front at Ladysmith,'' You can just imagine what a fearful shock tbis was to us all. I jumped off at once, caught the veldt-cornet by the arm, and asked him where we were going. Ho answered : " Ladysmith, as rebels against a Free Btata Government." I said : " I am —if I will go to Ladyiaitb," and ■my chum having by this time joined me, <»-.,- we implored him to wait till the commandant came. Some of the other Dutchmen helped us, and they got him to send a wire to the President. We were ordered to off saddle again, and the reply came towards dark, saying that we mast be tried by court-martial, composed oE five officers, and at about six o'clock the trial commenced, lasting till ten. A terrible time we hud, I cm tell you, and the verdict was: ""Wait till the commaudint comes." I can't toll you what a relief this was to us all. "We felt as if a great weight had been lifted off us. The commandant came on Saturday, and came straight into our tent, and said that he still had the original wire in his possession, and would have released us at one had it not been for the wire received since saying we were to be tried by court, martial. He said that he would pick eleven office's, and get Papenfus, Landdrost, of Bloemfontein, to try us on the Thursday following (November 24th). A BOER COURT-MARTIAL. I can't tell you what a terrible time we had for nearly a week, guarded some- * times by the cruellest men I hive ever seen, watching our every movement. "We wsre not allowed to speak to a soul. 1 thiok eleven more miserable men you never saw. We couldn't sleep and we couldn't eat, and yet we got more determined every day, and thoroughly made our minds to srick to what we had sigrfed, even if they shot us for it. Thursday morning came, and we were sent with a strong escort to Ladybrand. The trial started at eight o'clock, and by th« time we got into the courthouse the place was packed with hundreds of armed Dutchmen. The caae waa very short, and did not last more than an hour, and, wonderful to relate, we could hardly believe it to be true—we were discharged, as we had disobeyed nothing, - and simply followed the commandant's instructions. We went back to the camp free men. Our guns were given back, which I did not like, as was proved by the commandant sending for us as soon as we arrived, and .reading the new pro- > clamation. from the President, saying that every inhabitant of the Free Stite . was considered a burgher, and bouad to go to the front and fight the enemy of . the Free State—the English. We felt very low when tbis was read out. " Have you ever heard of such cruelty ? I asked the veldt-cornet to give me two daya' leave. I wanted to see grandma, P as I. hsard that she was so sick. Of %.- ' course this was only a plan on my part, 'V bb A. S and I had made up our minds to clear to Basutoland as soon as we could. He wavered a bit, and then gave us a couple of passes to Fick'sburg. Of course we started at; once, and we rode to Clocolan in record time. Jongbin Bnd Miss JoD»hin were glad to see us. We had cot been at Clocolan an hour before a special messenger arrived, saying that the veldt-comet had had a -wire from Bloemfontein, saying that ".roo-is " had defeated the Boers close iDe Aar, and. they wanted 125 men OUS of laager, and thit I was one of the picked men. Only two out of our eleven were picked, Ted Rudman and I, and I was to be in laager at twelve o'clock on Saturday (November 25). Of course I said I shVnld be there, and be one of the men to try and stop Buller. THE ESCAPE. Next morning at eight o'clock we started for the laager. Said good-bye to a lot of - Dutchmen at the shop, and I shall not forg6t old Styrdom. He pu& his arms around my neck, kissed me, and asked j the Lord to keep me safely at>d help me : to fight like a man. I felt quite soft to the old fellow. We rode straight up the road till out of sight, and then turned sharply toward the river. I shall never forget that ride. I have a splendid pony, and he seemed to enjoy the fun of the thing. Fortune favoured us when we got to the bank at Munro's, as the patrolling party on the Free State side were just out of sight, and the Basutoland guard were unarmed. We led our horses through a big garden and down a terrible bank, the perspiration just drop- • ping off us. We simply plunged into •the water, and Arthur threw his gun ,'i, {Tod cartridges into tbe water (we had f beep warned not to -eater Basutoland I - with* guns), but I tools mine tbrxrughf

and gave it li^heguara^Gn the bank, * and told him abouTTTr^nur's gun in the water, which he eventually found, Then we raced up,to Johnston's Btore, about two miles in Basutolauayanil you can imagine how we felt after the most fearful week of-suspense either of us had Xs[i.r. undergone. We are now williqg prisoners of the Baeutoland authorities, and have been treated like lords. Isn't it funny ; here we are, not 200 yds from the river—l'm quite sure if any of the I laager fellows came to the bank they j would recognise us—and feeling quite safe from the cruellest men in the world. < The hypocrites preach religion from < morning till night, and they are capable \ of anything—even murder —to gain their j own selfish ends. I am sure we never would have reached Ladysmith. We would have been shot as rebels in the war, and I was told so by a Dutchman in the laager, the fellow who told me we were going to Ladysmiih. The names of the inhabitants of tcnfe No. 614 (Englishmen) are H. W. Stockdale, James Budman, Sam Eudman, John Budman, Sammy Eudman, George Hylands.TedTrollope, Arthur Sporshott, Charles Gardiner and Edmand Bichard, all joily good fellows and bricks. i