Read Ebook: Baden-Powell of Mafeking by Fletcher J S Joseph Smith

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 39 lines and 8430 words, and 1 pages

cer. For the nurses and doctors, who work day and night, the authorities endeavoured to provide slightly better rations than those available for the general community. Our sources of supply have been chiefly through Mr. Weil, who had a large stock on hand for the provisioning of the garrison, until the contract terminated at the beginning of February. Since then supplies have been collected from various merchants, storekeepers, and private persons, and stored in the army Service Corps dep?t, and from the original Army Service Corps stock, of which forage and oats formed a great proportion. Fresh beef is obtained by purchase from a private individual named White, and in a lesser degree from the natives.

"Breadstuffs are obtained, like groceries, by commandeering the stocks of various merchants and private persons."

The same correspondent, alas! remarks in a despatch of somewhat later date that "excellent brawn is now being made, and is eaten by both whites and blacks. It is made from ox and horse hides." He adds with a brevity which has a good deal of pathos and humour in it, that "the garrison is very cheerful, very dry, and very hungry." Most of the necessarily brief despatches from Mafeking in the most trying days of the siege have a spice of humour and a good deal of pathos in them. On May 3rd, Lady Sarah Wilson cabled the following laconic message to Lady Georgiana Curzon:--"Mafeking, May 3rd.--Breakfast consisted of horse sausages; lunch, minced mule and curried locusts. Well." "There is great demand for horse side and brawn," says Reuter's special correspondent on May 5th. But perhaps the most significant, and certainly the most impressive, message of all was that of Major Baillie, dated May 1st, which will surely be remembered when many incidents of the Boer War are forgotten:--

"This morning the Boers attacked us.

"The result was as usual.

"There is an aching void here.

"Pass the loaf."

Those of us who sit at home at our entire or comparative ease can scarcely comprehend the full meaning of these messages, nor of the heroism of the men who, sorely tried by hunger and disease, were keeping up the flag with such stern, immovable determination. In the town, hunger and sickness; outside the town, an enemy so bitterly unscrupulous as to observe no civilized conditions of warfare, and whose leaders did not scruple to fire on women, children, and sick men--here was a situation in which surely nobody but the most courageous could have preserved a cheerful confidence. How that confidence struck Baden-Powell may be judged from the despatch which he sent to Lord Roberts on the 200th day of the siege. "After 200 days' siege," he said, "I desire to bring to your lordship's notice the exceptionally good spirit of loyalty that pervades all classes of this garrison. The patience of everybody in Mafeking in making the best of things under the long strain of anxiety, hardship, and privation is beyond all praise, and a revelation to me. The men, half of whom are unaccustomed to the use of arms, have adapted themselves to their duties with the greatest zeal, readiness, and pluck, and the devotion of the women is remarkable. With such a spirit our organization runs like clockwork, and I have every hope it will pull us successfully through."

THE LAST DAYS

About the end of April a new Boer commandant appeared on the scene at Mafeking in the person of Sarel Eloff, a near kinsman of President Kruger. He was the fifth Transvaal officer to be placed in charge of the Boer attack, and it was rumoured that he was specially ordered to succeed where the elder and younger Cronjes, Snyman, and Botha had failed. But the siege had now been in progress for seven months, and the Boers were in no better position than at first. So far as the actual taking of the town was concerned they were in a much worse position, for Baden-Powell's watchfulness and daring had driven back their lines, wrecked a good many of their works, and done more damage to their forces than they had succeeded in effecting amongst the garrison. From a military point of view there was now little, if any, advantage likely to accrue to the Boers by this capture of Mafeking. If Cronje had reached the town by assault during the first few days of the siege he would have been able to command a large stretch of country, and in a position to dominate Rhodesia, but the lapse of several months had changed everything, and from the tactician's point of view there was nothing to be gained by the fall of Mafeking. Nevertheless the Boers continued to surround the place, and were able on more than one occasion to drive back the relieving force under Colonel Plumer, who advanced at various times to within a very near distance of the town. What the feelings of the besieged, weary with constant watching and weak with hunger and privation, must have been when it was known that their would-be succourers had been within six miles of them, and had then been obliged to fall back, may be better imagined than described.

"He is a wonderfully tireless man, ever on the alert, ever with one eye on the enemy and the other divided between the town and that nightmare, the native stadt. Some say that he never sleeps, and I half believe the statement. I have frequently seen him myself at the peep-of-day crossing the veldt on his return to town after visiting all the works, with the customary tune on his lips; and half an hour afterwards he was on the roof with his glasses glued to his eyes, having an early look at the enemy. Later on he takes a constitutional walk up and down before his quarters like one doing sentry-go. An hour or so later he is on the stoep writing his diary, generally with his left hand, for with his wonderful foresight he has recognized that in pursuing his trade he may lose his right, and he does not wish to be left in the lurch. Again he is on the roof once more, having another look at the enemy, and if everything is particularly quiet, he trusts the look-out men and goes to his nook to dip into a novel or have a stretch under his mosquito curtain. I always know that he is there as I pass when I see a pair of tan boots sticking out.

"He spends the rest of the day doing a thousand and one things, receiving reports, adjusting differences, learning from his staff all they know, powwowing with Lord Edward Cecil, his chief staff officer, discovering how much food we have from the D.A.A.G., and suggesting how it may be conserved, and how much per head shall be served out to each soul under his care--all the time with an eye fixed upon Snyman and his horde, reading their thoughts, knowing what they are about to do, and planning a checkmate. In the evening he goes up to the hospital to inquire after his wounded--he never misses this visit--and if a victim of the siege is to be buried it is ten to one that we see him at the graveside. The Colonel trusts his command, but like the good general that he is, leaves nothing to chance, and always has the concentrated knowledge of every officer in his head. Many stories are told by our sentries of one who silently steals out of the blackness of the night and is on them before they have time to challenge. He asks a question or gives a suggestion and a cheery word, and then departs as silently as he came. They even tell of a bearded stranger dressed in grey tweed who has the stature of B.-P., and strolls around the works and makes such remarks as 'Keep a keen eye in that direction; you never know what may be stirring or where they are.' He goes away and they know that he is the commander. Napoleon himself never kept keener vigil than B.-P., or had a greater grasp of what was going on around him. Added to this night-and-day round, our Colonel even directs the other force away up north that he never sees, yet every movement of which he is acquainted with. Nevertheless, the strain, the anxiety that must be there, despite the external show of light-heartedness, the constant watchfulness, and the worries connected with the interior economy of the town, would have soured and broken down and turned grey-headed many another man. But B.-P.'s temperament preserves him, and to-day he is as fresh, as keen, and as full of vigour as when he started in October."

Perhaps an even more remarkable testimony than this was that which came from General Pretorius, who, while in hospital, recovering from the wound he received at Elands Laagte, discussed the sieges of Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking with an English friend.

"The Ladysmith men," he said, "were good, but there were 10,000 of them, and all fighting men. Kimberley was remarkable because of the large number of its civilian population and natives; but the siege of Mafeking, however it may end, will always live in South African history, because a flat and absolutely unprotected country village has by the genius of one man been defended, and defended against the most strenuous efforts not only of our leading general, Cronje, but of his successors. I should like to take you outside Mafeking where I have been, and look at the place. You would have thought that the 8000 with which we once surrounded it could have got in on any night they chose. We had the best of Cronje's burghers there, but it is no confession of cowardice on our part to say that we knew that Baden-Powell was not only prepared for every surprise of ours, but that he was quite ready to spring surprises upon us at any moment. And though I think that we shall eventually take Mafeking, it will be by starvation and not by attack. Our burghers have not exhibited fear on any occasion, but I do not think they will tackle Colonel Baden-Powell."

It was scarcely probable that the man, then feared by one of the most capable of the Boer generals, should be outwitted by a comparatively young officer like Eloff, who must necessarily have been somewhat discouraged by the failure of Cronje, Snyman, and Botha. Eloff, however, was not wanting in courage or ability, and he seems to have been more daring than any of the Boer leaders who had preceded him. He arrived before Mafeking during the last week in April, and on the 24th the garrison received information from natives that a determined assault was to be made upon the town. Something in the nature of a feeble fusillade was begun by the Boers next day, but it was extremely futile, and the garrison thought it scarcely worth their while to reply to it. Indeed, there was so little doing on the part of the Boers at this stage of the long-drawn-out proceedings that the besieged were able to devote some of their energies--the energies of starving men!--to getting up a military tournament, which was successfully held on Sunday, April 29th.

Now occurred another of the little episodes which, when reported to the folk who were looking on at the game from such a tremendous distance, made everybody wonder what sort of man this wonderful Baden-Powell could be that he could crack jokes while he and his men were half starved to death. It came to the knowledge of Commandant Eloff that the garrison of Mafeking amused itself on Sundays in various pleasant ways, whereupon he wrote a letter to Colonel Baden-Powell saying that he heard there was cricket and singing, and dancing and tournaments in Mafeking on Sundays, and might he and his men come in and join in the festivities, for it was dull outside. One would like to know if that message was intended to be serious, or if it was "writ sarcastic." Anyway, Baden-Powell replied to it in fitting terms. Referring to Eloff's remarks about the Sunday cricket match, he said that it would be better to postpone the return match until the one then in progress was finished, and then suggested that as the garrison were already 200 not out, and as Cronje, Snyman, and others had not been successful, a further change of bowling might be advisable.

On May 12th, Eloff made his long-threatened and would-be final attack upon the town. At four o'clock in the morning the garrison was roused by heavy firing, and it soon became evident that something important was afoot. It was soon seen that the native stadt was in flames, and presently came the news that the fort occupied by the British South African Police had been taken by the enemy. As events proved later, Eloff and seven hundred men had advanced along the river-bed and got into Mafeking. They began to loot and to destroy immediately. The garrison, realizing that at last they were in for such a fight as they had long desired, worked like heroes, aided by the Baralongs, and fighting became general. Even the prisoners under sentence in gaol were released and armed, and fought manfully with the rest. All through the day the fight went on, the Boers being gradually surrounded by squadrons under Captain FitzClarence, Captain Marsh, and Captain Bentinck, and by the Baralongs under Major Godley. Finally the Boers were cornered--one party in the British South African Police Fort; another in one of the native kraals; a third in the kopje. Hundreds of them broke away, many to be shot as they fled. At last the British artillery got within forty yards of their principal position, and then Eloff surrendered. He had kept his word and got into Mafeking, and there for awhile he was to stay--as prisoner. He and his men were marched in batches into the town, and were received in silence by the British, but with hooting by the natives whose stadt they had burned. Baden-Powell's reception of the Boer commandant was interesting, and characteristic of the former. "This is Commandant Eloff, sir," said the officer in charge of the Boer leader. "Good evening, commandant," answered Baden-Powell. "Won't you come in and have some dinner?"

That was a great night in Mafeking. Men went about the town singing "Rule Britannia" and "God save the Queen," and cheering themselves hoarse. In the regimental messes and the hotels liquor which had been carefully hoarded away was brought out and healths were drunk. If they had only had definite news of it, the rejoicings would have been greater, for while the Mafeking garrison was engaged with Eloff and his men, the relief columns under Mahon and Plumer were drawing nearer to the town, and the long-desired succour was close at hand.

THE RELIEF AND THE EMPIRE

When Baden-Powell sent the famous despatch to Lord Roberts in which he drew the latter's attention to the fact that the garrison had now undergone a two hundred days' siege, the reply came back, "Relief on May 18th." This reply was pretty much in the nature of a prophecy, for the actual relief of Mafeking took place on May 17th. During the first two weeks of the month the two columns under Mahon and Plumer had been steadily forcing their way towards the beleaguered town, and on the 15th they joined hands, at a point thirty miles west of the town. As the relief columns drew nearer, the Boers, realizing that their efforts were hopeless, retreated in all directions, and on the 16th the besieged chiefly occupied themselves in watching Mahon's and Plumer's forces shelling the Boers out of their camps and laagers. In the evening Major Kerr-Davis and a few men of the Imperial Light Infantry rode into the town. Their reception was characteristically British. Stopping to tell a passer-by that they formed the advance guard of the relieving force, they were answered in laconic fashion, "Oh, yes; I heard you were knocking about outside somewhere!" But a good deal--more than a good deal!--of feeling doubtless lay behind that apparently careless answer. It may have been hard for the besieged to realize that Mafeking was really relieved at last. But on the morning of the 17th the relief force was in the town in strength, and the Boers were vanishing on the horizon.

"As the sky brightened before us Mafeking was eagerly looked for, but for a long time each successive rise only showed us another beyond which hid the desired view. But at last, while some of us were buying eggs at a Kaffir kraal, a more adventurous person climbed upon a rubbish heap and shouted, 'There's Mafeking.' There was a rush for the coign of vantage, and a great levelling of glasses. There it lay, sure enough, the little town that we had come so far to see--a tiny cluster of white near the eastward horizon, glistening amid the yellowish-brown of the flats. We looked at it for a few moments in silence, and then Colonel Mahon said, 'Well, let's be getting on'; and no one said anything more about Mafeking, but every one thought a great deal."

With the siege over there were still many things to do. One of the first things done was thus graphically and pathetically described by the special correspondent of the Press Association:--

"This morning the garrison was paraded around the cemetery, where a combined memorial and thanksgiving service was held, and we said our last good-bye to those of our comrades who lie in the little graveyard, and who were killed in defending Mafeking. When the service was over, we tried to sing 'God save the Queen,' but the hymn sounded feeble and quavering, for most of us had lumps in our throats.

"To the artillery, under Major Panzera and Lieutenant Daniel, Colonel Baden-Powell said: 'You were armed with obsolete weapons, but you made up for these by your cool shooting and the way you stuck to your guns.'

"It was the turn of the British South African Police next. To them the Colonel said: 'I need not repeat to you men the story of the little red fort on the hill which Cronje could not take.'

"The Cape Police, under Captain Marsh, were addressed as follows: 'You have not been given an opportunity of doing anything dramatic, but throughout the siege you have held one of the nastiest places in the town, where the enemy were expected at any moment, and where you were always under fire.'

"Speaking to the town guard, the Colonel remarked that he ought to say a lot to them. They had turned out in such large numbers and in such good spirits, submitting to all the restrictions and routine of military law. They were, he added, like a walnut in a shell. People thought that once they got through the shell there would be no difficulty about the kernel. On Saturday last the enemy had got through the outer husk, but found they could make nothing of the kernel. The moment communication was restored he would make it his business to represent to the High Commissioner the claims of the Town Guard for compensation, and he hoped he would succeed. In conclusion, the Colonel announced that any civilians who wished to return to their ordinary occupations immediately, might do so. Those who had none to return to, whose billets had been lost or business ruined, would be permitted in the meantime to draw trench allowances and to remain on duty in the inner defences. Colonel Baden-Powell shook hands with Major Goold Adams, the town commandant, who has done such excellent work, and thanked him for the help he had received from him.

"To the Railway Division, under Captain Moore, the Colonel said: 'I cannot thank you enough for what you have done. You have transformed yourselves from railwaymen into soldiers. Your work is not yet done, because it will be your business to reopen communication and get in supplies.' He then shook hands with Captain Moore and Lieutenant Layton, who has been raised to a commission from the ranks owing to his gallant work on Saturday.

"Turning next to the Bechuanaland Rifles, Colonel Baden-Powell said: 'Men, you have turned out trumps. With volunteers one knows that they have been ably drilled, but there is no telling how they will fight. I have been able to use you exactly as regular troops, and I have been specially pleased with your straight shooting. The other day, when the enemy occupied the Protectorate Fort, they admitted that they were forced to surrender by your straight shooting, under which they did not dare to show a hand above the parapet.'

"To the Cadet Corps the Colonel said: 'Boys, you have begun well as soldiers. I hope you will continue in the profession, and will do as well in after life.'

"Addressing the various units of Colonel Plumer's northern relief force, Colonel Baden-Powell pointed out how much they would all have liked to see the northern force relieve Mafeking off their own bat. They had not been strong enough to do that, and there would not be much about them in the picture papers, but they had put in seven months of splendid work in a bad country and a bad climate. Now, they had their reward, for they not only had been able to assist in the relief of Mafeking, but the honour of bearing the brunt on the right flank of a well-fought fight, and had inflicted a severe blow upon the enemy, routing him, and kicking him out of Bechuanaland. He was proud to command them.

"Addressing the units of the southern relief force, the Colonel congratulated them upon a march which would live in history. He had heard of their coming from prisoners, and had been pleased by the news, but he had been better pleased to hear their guns and see the enemy fleeing. He complimented Colonel Mahon on commanding such a splendid body of men. On the subject of the Imperial Light Horse, the Colonel added that he was especially pleased to see them, for they had indeed travelled far for the relief of Mafeking, both corps having been present and themselves besieged in Ladysmith. They would, therefore, be able all the more to sympathize with the people in Mafeking.

"With these few simple, soldierly ceremonies, a stirring epoch in the history of the war was closed."

There was yet another ceremony, this time of an altogether jubilant nature, at Mafeking. On May 24th Baden-Powell gave a dinner at Dixon's Hotel to the commanding officers of the relief columns and the garrison, and to officers who had distinguished themselves in the defence of the town. Here he made some more speeches. The first was in proposing the health of the Queen. He said:--

"Gentlemen,--It is customary on occasions like these for the president to rise at this juncture and to say, 'Gentlemen, the Queen.' In these three blunt words we Englishmen convey a very great depth of feeling. The other day, when the relieving column met the garrison, we merely shook hands with them and said, 'How do you do?' but I do not hesitate to say that there was more real feeling expressed in that hearty handshake than in the weeping and embracing by which foreigners are accustomed to give expression to their relief. At a time like this I feel as if I could drink the health of Paul Kruger himself, coupled with that of Mr. Rhodes, because Paul Kruger has been the cause of this great outburst of Imperial feeling, and Mr. Rhodes was the red rag to the bull which drew him on. Well, we showed the rag, and the bull charged, but he did not expect to be surrounded by such a crowd of matadors and picadors as are harassing him now, and to-day the old bull is beaten down upon his knees. In the arena round us sit some of the men and all the women and children of England and her Colonies. At their head looking on is that great and gracious lady Her Majesty the Queen."

Then later on he spoke of the splendid march made by the relieving columns, comparing it with Lord Roberts's famous march to Kandahar, and pointing out that while Lord Roberts's troops made from 15 to 16 miles a day, Colonel Mahon had averaged nearly 20 miles. Finally, in replying to the toast of his own health, proposed by Mr. Whiteley, the Mayor of Mafeking, to whose great services and splendid loyalty he paid a well-deserved tribute, he once more thanked the Town Guard, the members of which, though nominally non-fighters, had done such valuable work during the siege.

When the news of the relief of Mafeking reached England the whole nation rejoiced with a fervour and abandon that was surprising even to those who rejoiced. There had been jubilation at the succour of Kimberley and gladness at the raising of the siege of Ladysmith, but the rejoicings on these occasions were as nothing to those which took place all over the country when it was known that Mahon and Plumer had at last shaken hands with Baden-Powell. The news of the fall of Pretoria, which arrived some weeks later, was received with gladness and satisfaction, but those who saw the London streets on Mafeking night and afterwards compared their appearance with that which they presented when Pretoria fell will remember that the fall of the Transvaal capital did not occasion one-tenth of the mad delight which broke out all over London when it was known that Baden-Powell and his garrison had indeed "sat tight and shot straight" and won in the end. And it was not only in London and in England, but all over the British Empire that men rejoiced. Men, whatever may be their faults and failings, love courage, and endurance, and determination, and the siege of Mafeking had given the world such an exhibition of these qualities as it had rarely seen before. And Englishmen in particular felt that this exhibition had come at the right time. We began the war none too well; some of us began to whine and whimper, and some to scold and threaten, because things were going wrong with us, and here came the Man for the Moment, who feared nothing, fought against fearful odds, helped and encouraged those who fought under him, and made himself a very rock and tower of strength in the hour of need.

"One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, Sleep to wake.

"No, at noonday in the bustle of man's work-time Greet the unseen with a cheer! Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be, 'Strive and thrive!' cry 'Speed--fight on, fare ever There as here!'"

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet