When once the Boer left his home he became an army unto himself. He needed
no one to care for himself and his horse, nor were the leaders of the army
obliged to issue myriads of orders for his guidance. He had learned long
before that he should meet the other hunters of his ward at a certain spot
in case there was a call to arms, and thither he went as rapidly as his
pony could carry him. When he arrived at the meeting-place he found all
his neighbours and friends gathered in groups and discussing the
situation. Certain ones of them had brought with them big white-tented
ox-waggons for conveying ammunition, commissariat stores, and such extra
luggage as some might wish to carry; and these were sent ahead as soon as
the field-cornet, the military leader of the ward, learned that all his
men had arrived from their homes. The individual hunters then formed what
was called a commando, whether it consisted of fifteen or fifty men, and
proceeded in a body to a second pre-arranged meeting-place, where all the
ward-commandos of a certain district were asked to congregate. When all
these commandos had arrived in one locality, they fell under the authority
of the commandant who had been elected to that post by the burghers at the
preceding election. This official had received his orders directly from
the Commandant-General, and but little time was consumed in disseminating
them to the burghers through the various field-cornets. After all the
ward-commandos had arrived, the district-commando was set in motion toward
that part of the frontier where its services were required; and a most
unwarlike spectacle it presented as it rolled along over the muddy,
slippery veld. In the van were the huge, lumbering waggons with hordes of
hullabalooing natives cracking their long raw-hide whips and urging the
sleek, long-horned oxen forward through the mud. Following the
waggon-train came the cavalcade of armed lion-hunters, grim and
determined-looking enough from a distance, but most peaceful and
inoffensive when once they understood the stranger's motives. No order or