BLUE JACKETS AND BOERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2253, 6 May 1897, Page 49

BLUE JACKETS AND BOERS.

"It was the first time that Boers and bluejackets had ever met in fight, and, as Mr Secretary Leyds had taid, the Boers didn't understand the bluejackets a bit. Instead of allowing them to entrench themselves behind the stones, and then charging up to their rifle muzzles, as the red-coats had done ia the war of '80 and '81, these strange creature?, active as monkeys and fierce as tiger?, had scattered and come on in little rushes of twos and threes and half dczsne, taking advantage of every reck and stone, and shooting only at close quarter?, and with disgusting precision. The light was not good enough for long shots, for the attask of the blue jackets had purposely been made before dawn, so that by the time day broke the Boers, who had attempted to take up positions on the slopes and about the railway embankments, found themselves outflanked by their strange antagonists, and exposed, whenever they showed themselves in any considerable numbers, to the sweeping fire of the Maxim on the hill.

"Four times with dogged valour they attempted to storm the hill, and four times they had to retire before the storm of bullets •which swept down every man who showed himself. At length, towards mid-day, they came to the conclusion that the game was not quite worth the candle. They had neither artillery nor machine guns, and the rooineks had botb, so they decided to retire into tbe hills towards Krokodilpoort, and wait for reinforcements from Middleburg before driving the insolent English back into the sea. It so happened that, ju3t as they were in full retreat, a long train emerged from the hills about six miles away, and came swinging rapidly down the line. The two 12-pounders were immediately got into position, one on each of the station platforms, and fire was opened on the advancJDg train while the British force was re-embarking in its own train. Shell after shell burst near the advancing Boer train, but it was too far off and advancing too rapidly for accurate shooting.

" Then a brilliant idea struck Lieutenant Ferris. A Netherlands railway engine which had brought a detachment of Boers down from the Barberton district wag still in the station with steam up. He went to Captain Pearson and said, pointing to it, • There's an engine we don't want. Why not start it off f ufl speed up the line on its own account, and let them smash 1 That will stop them if anything will."

" ' Bravo, Ferris ! ' replied Captain Pearbod, patting him on the shoulder.- ' That's the very thing. Go and tell a couple of your fellows to stoke her up all she'll stand, have our train backed out of the way to let her pass, and then send her off.'

"It was a job after the men's own heart. They backed the engine off the branch line and on to the main line, piling in the coal and raking up the furnace until the steam began to roar out of the safety-valve. Then they got two ' iron ' chairs, weighing about a hundredweight each, lashed them together, huug them over the valve, and then threw the throttle-valve open and jumped off. The engine puffed and snorted furiously, and started ,off with a series of quick, bucking jumps, and then, as one of the marines put it-, she settled down to her stride, and went up the slopa like a Derby winner. Soldier and sailor alike held his breath and waited for the smash, and the retreating Boers stared open-mouthed and wide-eyed at the atrocity that these strange devik from the sea had been guilty of. "As for those on the train, they had neither time nor space- to do anything in particular. Their engine, with the heavilyloaded carriages behind it, had been swinging down the incline at a speed that made sudden stoppage impossible and jumping off a matter of imminent risk to life and limb. Meanwhile the other engine was gaining in speed at every yard. Brakes were put hard down, but the train slid on with terrible velocity in the midst of a cloud of sparks and smoke. The enginedriver and stoker jumped for their lives, and tbe men began swarming out of the carriages on to the footboards.

"Then the crash came. The two engines rushed together like a couple of charging bulls; then they reared up. on end and fell over on their sides, and the carriages, crushed and telescoped into each other, reeled in a confused mass of wreckage off the line, and rolled down the long embankment with their shrieking, struggling loads of maimed and dying." — "Britain or Boer: A Tale of the Fight for Africa," by George Griffith.