NORTHERN FRONTIER. CAPETOWN, February 19

Otago Witness, Issue 2399, 22 February 1900, Page 37

NORTHERN FRONTIER. CAPETOWN, February 19

Detachments of the Inniskilling Dragoons, -the Royal- Dragoons, the 12th Lancers (with four guns), and two companies of the New South Wales Mounted Infantry under Captain J. G. Legge and Lieutenant W. Holmes, reconnoitred at Knilfontein, westward from Rendsburg, on Saturday. They were exposed to a terrible fire from two VickersMaxim guns, but escaped scatheless. LONDON, February 20. A troop of the Tnniskilling Dragoons and the Victorian Mounted Rifles defended a kopje west of Bastard's Nek, in the Colesberg district, until the enemy opened upon them with a 40-pounder. Then they took up a position at Hobkirk's farm, which they tenaciously defended, the British numbering only hundreds against thousands of Boers. Eventually the Inniskillings charged through 500 of the enemy, and managed to escape after inflicting heavy loss. The Times correspondent states that the Victorians, seeing the Boers on the kopje, charged, were entrapped, .and that all were found dead with their bayonets fixed and bloodstained. No official confirmation has been received that all the Victorians were dead. - Tile Times says that the devotion of the Victorians, dying to a man and fighting to the last, will always elicit admiration, and will draw closer the ties which bind the Empire. Brigadier-general Brabant's column left Penhock, crossed a trackless veldt, and bivouacked in the heart of the rebel country in Northern Cape Colony. They fought all Friday, dismantling a Boer 15pounder at Dordrecht. At midnight Captain Flanagan led a charge, capturing the Boer laager at the point of the bayonet, and also much forage and a number of prisoners. Brigadier-general Braoant occupied Dordrecht on Sunday, and pursued the retreating enemy. The British casualties were seven killed and eight wounded. The Boers claim' to have captured 142 of the Wiltshire Regiment when the British retired to Arundel, including 44 wounded.