In a Warm Corned.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10653, 26 May 1902, Page 2

In a Warm Corned.

One of the Imperial, Yeomanry, having from Hartpool, who wu with Donop's convoy when it was captured by the Boers on February' 2s; Vrote to his mother: — 'On the' night of the 24th I was on outpost duly all-night— pitch dark and raining in torrents: We had reveille at 3 a.m. our the 25th, and moved off at 4.30 o.m. We hadn't got a couple- of miles from the camping ground when the Boers opened a terrific rifle fire on our advanced screen, W*>. were then moving up a gentle slope, and the enemy were hidden in the wood which was on top of the rise. 1 was riding- alongside the waggon* leading two sick horses, my own none being sick as well. When the first volley came the horses 'turned round and stampeded. I let go of the two that I was leading and stuck to my own. Shortly after my horse fell, and of course I came a cropper. However, I •^ot, out of that all right, but was minus a horse. The worst of it was I sprained my shoulder. My rifle also got dogged up with dirt. After cleaning the rifle* with a couple' of. blang cartridges I advanced into the firing line. All the time I was engaged the Boer bullets were whizzing aIC-'about me. By this time the Boers were within 200 br 300 yards of us. I was. lying down behind an anthill and blazing away for all I was worth. There were about 1,500 or 1,700 of them, and we were not 400 strong. They came all round us, and when I looked round thewaggons were a mile ahead of us. Of course, thera was nothing for it but to lie down. W» got the order to retire, and I was doing so when I got » bullet through the lower part of my lungs. I spun, round like a top and dropped. However, I kept on. firing until my ammunition was all spent, and then waited for Johnny Boer to come up and 'put me 'out of mess.' When he did come up he got my rifle, but I had previously broken it so as to be of no use to him. He stripped- me of everything I wore 'except my bloodstained trousers. > When -I managed to get on my feet I spied an over-turned ambulance van. I made fox this as best as I could, and after- a desperate struggle reached it in safety. The fight lasted about two hours, and the Boers got every blessed thing. . . . All the. time I was on the veldt and in the ambulance I had nothing to eat -or drink, and my last meal was a biscuit and a cup of coffee."