THE WESTERN FRONTIER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11200, 21 October 1899, Page 5

THE WESTERN FRONTIER.

BRITISH FORCES RETIRING. ! THE DEFENCE OF MAFEKING. : BOERS LED INTO A TRAP. LYDDITE MINE EXPLODED. TERRIBLE SLAUGHTER. FIFTEEN HUNDRED KILLED. : Capetown, October 20. News from the western frontier states that Vryburg and Fourteen Streams on the Cape-Buluwayo railway have been evacuated by the slnall detachments of Cape police who were defending them, and that the latter in accordance with instructions are now retiring southwards. It is reported here that Colonel Baden-Powell, who is in command of the force defending Mafeking, led the Boers into a trap by feigning a retreat. Believing that the British were retiring from their position, the Boers were led to advance, and were drawn over some Lyddite mines which had been laid, and which were then exploded, with the result that 1500 of them were killed. Colonel Hore, who is in charge of the Bechuanalatd contingent, then made a dashing sortie with Maxim guns, and succeeded in killing many more. Kimberley was safe on the I7tli, and Mafeking on the loth. Capetown, October 19. The Boers admit that they lost 70 killed and wounded in the attack on Mafeking. An armoured train reconnoitring north of Kimberley on Saturday engaged 500 Boers. The Boers suffered heavy loss. I Lord Edward Herbert Gascoyne Cecil, son of the Marquis of Salis- , bury, who holds a lieutenant s commission in the Grenadier Guards, is at Mafeking.