days the men are without food, but worse still are the pestiferous
air, the loathsome water, and the suffering of the wounded. It is
too much for flesh and blood. The morning of the 27th February saw
the first white flag hoisted by a Boer general. It was a woeful
sight when 3600 Boers, undisciplined peasants, reluctantly threw
down their rifles among the wreck of the shells and ambled past the
English lines. They had withstood the onslaught of 80,000 British
troops with modern death-dealing implements of war, and, towards
the end of the siege, about 1000 guns were brought to bear upon
them."

How far this disaster can be attributed to General Cronje is difficult
to say. The following considerations may, however, throw some light on
its causes.

During the early part of the war we hardly realised the great value and
necessity of good scouting. It was only after General Cronje and his men
had fallen into the hands of the enemy that a regular scouting corps was
organised and placed under the control of the brave Danie Therou.

Lord Roberts's forces were almost on Cronje's laager before they were
perceived, and unfortunately they were even then entirely
under-estimated and consequently thought light of. Flushed by the
victory at Magersfontein, the General did not contemplate the
possibility of such a bitter reverse. He was going to strike another
hard blow at the enemy--he did strike it, but at too great a cost. Had
he realised his position the first or second day after the siege was
begun, he might still have escaped. The convoy would have been captured,
but the men would have been saved. The old gentleman was determined to
hold all, and consequently lost all.