We were busy all evening baking vet-koek (a kind of scone fried in
lard), as we had received the order to be ready to leave the following
morning at one o'clock, and to take provisions sufficient for two
days. Although our officers were beginning to see the advisability of
keeping their plans secret, we were able to guess that we were going
to attack General Clements' camp, an hour's ride further east at
Nooitgedacht--particularly as the chances of success, in case of an
eventual attack, were being discussed by some of the officers. The
general opinion was that Clements' force was 5,000 strong.

We left quite three-quarters of an hour later than the fixed time in the
early morning of December 13, 1900, and recrossed the steep, narrow
neck, took a way to our right in the Kromriverskloof, making a sharp
turn to Elandskrans, where a strong outpost had been placed by the enemy
on the Magalies Mountains.

That was the crust through which we had to bite to get at the dainties
of the booty. It cannot be denied that victory and booty, in our
impoverished circumstances, were very close together in our thoughts.
The enemy's camp lay at the foot of the long, high cliff that forms a
precipice on that side of the mountain, while the slope of the mountain
on our side was not steep, and there were a great many footholds and
boulders. The artillery had been left in the neck of the pass to protect
the lagers. Beyers, with some Zoutpansbergers, turned away from us to
the right to reach Elandskrans along the mountain ridge. It appeared,
therefore, that Beyers and Kemp were going to make the attack from the
north, with 1,000 men, and that Kemp had the centre and the left wing.
We were again too late. The sun had risen when we began the attack.
Corporal Botman was ordered by Kemp to surround the extreme right of