lII.—A SENSATIONAL EXPERIENCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2650, 28 December 1904, Page 69

lII.— A SENSATIONAL EXPERIENCE.

(The narrative of Trooper Peterson, of the , Third N.Z.M.R., of his .capture at i Reitvlei und imprisonment and escape.) "We jhad .a long, .dreary trek from ' Pretoria to Middleburg, -passing 'hundreds of | • carcases of oxen, horses, and mules, the st faich from wMch was horrible. f Occa- j sionally we would hear a shot, and Tmow ' •that another "New .Zealand mount had" passed out, and another man had to tramp ■the whole of 'the journey. We were all i X-'kased when we reached Middleburg, and j anticipated a spall lor v -daj- to give the j horses a chance to pick up. We stayed . about lour hoiirs, and 'here I saw Br Burns, , of the "First, who had charge of -one of the , hospitals. Here also I met Peterson, of the North Island, -who was captured by the I • Boers at Heifevlei with Captain Bourn and Lieutenant Cameron, anil -who escaped and was shot by -Brit-feli' pickets, after enduring gieat hardships. He is able to walk about, and I asked him to give me .an account ' of the capture, and heie ai-e his own ! words : — •» j "You remember we were sent out to ' hold a kopje against about four times our i number. Well, we were at once spott-erl ! by the Boeis, and caught it hot. It ;, wasn't safe to move, and we just lay still ' and blazed away. The kopje on our right was being held" by Boyal Irish.- who also ccminanded the lick between their kopje and ours. The Boers were advancing on us from the front and right, and had their guns playing on us all the . ime. Cap- , lair Boivm, saw at once that we were in | a tight corner, and to retreat meant that ' half of us would .hav-e been shot. In a perfect hail of bullets he stood up and told us he -wus going to the end ol the kopje en our right to see what chauce we nad thf-re. \V.e expected every minute to see him drop riddjed, for the bullets were dash- , injr on the stones all roTind him. He took ' no notice of them, btit coolly walked to the , ] end and back and told us 'the Boeis M"ere j coining on us from all .sides, aud that to

retreat meant death to some of us ; so we must keep low and give them all we could, and, by Jove ! we did. These sears across my fingers are from the barrel scalding and blistering my fingers. The rifles we had are no good at all. There is no piotection to your hands, and they become hot in no time. We laid it into them until they were right on top of us. They ran at us with their rifles resting on their hips, firinsr as they came. Then it was a case of r Hands up!' and the Boers made a rush, each man after a rifle ar.d bandolier as spoils. "They took my glasses and two watches, and did likewise to some of the others. They tried to take Captain Bourn's glasses from him, but he refused to give them up. They threatened him, and tried hard to get them, but he "refused to give in. and has' them yet. He's as plucky as you make them, and we were all proud of the way he defied them. "We were then bundled into the ranks, and inarched 20 miles to Bronkhurst S.pruit. We sang all the way, and kept our eyes peeled ,sor a break. At Bronkhurst Spruit they cave us some bread and coffee, and stock us in a fowlhouse, and Captain Bourn and Lieutenant Cameron in a house under a strong guard. Next morning they gave us a lump of soap, and we became clean again, and got first-class tickets on a mule: waggon to Balmoral. "I fprgot to tell you .that ,after* our .fight they carried away three waggon loads of wounded. We looked at them- with pleasure, and inquired how many. -but were met with something in Butch which meant Mind your own business.' Any way, they carried some of our lead .with them. "We then took the train -to Watervalonder, and then to Nooigodachk Here we were counted and searched, and put into a compound) with 15U0 .other .prisoners. Some of them had been .prisoners since last November. Luckily >we arrived the day rations „'were issued, ot'hejjwise we might Wive been short. We took a spell for a day, and them started building sod huts, and at the same time two Australians .and Sergeant MTDonaldj Rob* Smith, jand myself formed a iplot to dig a ttunnel and escape. "I hadi .23 sovereigns that I had secretefl about my body, iand ,which the "Boers ihadf overlooked, and I .got Bill M'Lennan, who was Tiieutenant 'Cameron's -.orderly, to .buy anything ~^he cotild, aspire* -had -a «ebanee, bemg with the -.officers." , it icostdne JBL/,per day. - „ ... , .r * '"We started the tunnel 'by digging a hole about^ft deep on ith§ .slant, -and then tunnelling. As we took :the earth out we put it in the 'holes tcausfid Lby jligging '£he sods up for the huts, andi . tramped At -down. As we got in, we put small air holes, also on_the- slant, and covered :in\the entrance with a candle box sunk in£o the hole and cov-ered .with neatly-cut srods of .grass 'and earth. Smith and I used "to sleep over "Che entrance. The guard used to occasionally, pass acz*oss over the 'tunnel, and =t"he men on <watch would pull a string attaoheti 'to the d'eg of the 'man in the tunnel, one null being the signal to stop, -and.d>wo, that all was safe. So things went on for three weeks, andi -when the tunnel %as 55ft long -we were beyond the wire enclosure and started to bore up to the surface. When witthin £bout t6in of -tliQ surface .we put up a milk box and propped it up firmly, so that if anyone walked over it it could not give way. One night I 'intended to go with some of the New Zealanders, but they thought relief was neaT, and decided to stay, so I got the other chaps, and we scooted. Directly we got out I went on my oral, and steered N.W. -past Machadodorp, and then north. I used to sleep in the day and travel at "night, It was hard work on foot, and I had no blankets. At Dalmanthua I saw a lot, of Boers trekking cast. I kept out of their way, but often they came so close I could have hit them with a brick. That night I came to a small laager, and, being tired of walking, sneaked at dark into the lines and took a horse and rug. I was dressedi in black clothes, and the Boers thought I was one of th?m, and did not come near me. I .couldn't get a bridle, so gofc on his back and used a piece of raw hide ream and' galloped off. My word, the horse -was a •clinker, and went like smoke. I passed two "Boers who were supposed to be doing picket duty,' but they evidently took me for a Boer, and I got clean away, and galloped right for .Belfast. I thought Ishe British were there. Here I came to two wire entanglements, and got down and pulled them •down. I was just- getting on again when I got a volley, and fell off my horse, s=hot through the hip. I heard the officer in charge say, 'Sight rifles for 500 yds.' He was shooting at the horse. I yelled, 'Stop shooting, you. . . . " I'm "a New Zealander. all the way from Machadodorp. " The Seventh Dragoon Guards cam© round me and carried me to picket, and did everything possible for me. 'The man who shot me almost cried, and could not be kind enough to me. Anyway, the bullet went clean round the back of me, just touching the bone, and out of my thigh on the other side. It was worth the bullgt .to get the feed they gave me. I had only had inealie cake for four days. They put me on the train and sent me to Middleburg to a hospital, where N.Z. Nurse Hay was, and I got the best Df treatment. " General French. General Pole-Carew. and General Hutton all came to see me, and took down what I said. They also took a sketch of the route I took, and congratulated me on my escape, which they said put Winston Churchill in the &Jiade ; but that doesn't matter. '" I'll b& up with you again soon. I've wot a little bit to wipe fioni them for takinc: my watchfs and glasses. If I could only hnxe carried n pocket Maxim I could iiavf ihot hundreds of the wretches. " I f«el fine, and the doctor tells me mv le^ is as good as ever." [The End.]