THE JACOBSDAL SURPRISE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4259, 19 January 1901, Page 8 (Supplement)

THE JACOBSDAL SURPRISE.

FRIGHTFUL EFFECTS OF BOER • EXPLOSIVE BULLETS. The disaster to the Cape Highlandtra at Jacobsdal on October 25 is described in a letter received by Reuter’s Agency, and written by one of the men who took part in the action. The Boers opened fire on the men in the market square at half-past five in the morning, and the Highlanders fell in their tents right and left, wounded and dying. A few men lay on their backs for an hour and a half, expecting to be shot every moment, and eventually five of them made a rush for the hospital. Three reached the building, one being killed on the very threshold. “The firing continued until 2.30 in the afternoon,” says the writer. “Meanwhile, news had reached' Modder river that the town was in the hands of the Boers, and reinforcements, consisting of another fifty of our fellows and five mounted men, were despatched to cur assistance. On their arrival the enemy, doubtless thinking they were the advance guard of a large force, left, and rode for the kopjes behind the town. “Thus we were relieved after being about nine hours under fire. We then collected our dead and wounded, and found that out of the forty of us in tne tents eleven had been killed and seventeen wounded. Three of the latter died during the night, making our dead number fourteen. It is a miracle tna’any of us escaped. Five of the killed were very great chums of mine. “They were all hit by explosive bullets. The enemy seem to have had_ no others. The wounds were terrific, spine largo enough to put a closed fist into. In some cases heads were almost entirely blown away. “After collecting cur dead- and wounded wo went round the town and searched all the bouses. Thirty-six suspicious houses were burned to the ground. Titov simply' teemed with ammunition,’ which was exploding at intervals during the night. Wo found that the women wo were protecting had been feeding j the rebels while they' were firing upon us.”