The Rustenburgers, who had nearly all laid down their arms and taken the
oath of neutrality, took courage when they saw De la Rey's big commando,
and joined us one and all.

Then we recognised a great fault in the character of our people. Without
the slightest compunction, they first fail in loyalty to their own
country, and then break the oath of neutrality, although the enemy had
in no single respect violated their part of the contract. Some of them
we, in a way, forced to join us, as we took the guns and horses of the
unwilling ones or of those who acted at all in a suspicious way. We also
called them traitors. But most of the burghers joined us of their own
free will. Many had not taken the oath of neutrality, as they had been
beyond the reach of the enemy; others had, after Lord Roberts'
threatening proclamations, ridden over to the enemy to give up their
arms, but had given up their old rifles and kept the Mausers for
'eventualities,' to use the now historical word of Sir Alfred Milner.

A few of the oath-breakers tried to excuse themselves by the Jesuit plea
that either they did not mean what they swore or else they had purposely
changed the form of the oath. In judging those who broke the oath of
neutrality later on, we must remember that the enemy did not keep to
their part of the contract, and so our men were justified in considering
it as null and void, and, according to William Stead, their forcing us
to take the oath of neutrality was against the Geneva Convention. But it
is too difficult a question for me to discuss.

When the enemy, a few days later, drove us from Olifantsnek, General de
la Rey sent Captain Kirsten with twenty men to the neighbouring kopjes
to prevent the enemy from going on a plundering expedition. Then I for
the first time saw a farm-house burnt down by the enemy. From a high