AMID THE PERILS OF WAR
HAS MADE THEM HONOURABLY CONSPICUOUS
EVEN AMONG THEIR FELLOW COLONISTS




INTRODUCTORY NOTE


This small book is mainly a personal record of my adventures and
impressions during the first five months of the African War. It may also
be found to give a tolerably coherent account of the operations
conducted by Sir Redvers Buller for the Relief of Ladysmith. The
correspondence of which it is mainly composed appeared in the columns of
the _Morning Post_ newspaper, and I propose, if I am not interrupted by
the accidents of war, to continue the series of letters. The stir and
tumult of a camp do not favour calm or sustained thought, and whatever
is written herein must be regarded simply as the immediate effect
produced by men powerfully moved, and scenes swiftly changing upon what
I hope is a truth-seeking mind.

The fact that a man's life depends upon my discretion compels me to omit
an essential part of the story of my escape from the Boers; but if the
book and its author survive the war, and when the British flag is firmly
planted at Bloemfontein and Pretoria, I shall hasten to fill the gap in
the narrative.

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL.
_March 10, 1900_.