he should not be able!" we kept saying. We still say it morning and
evening, but the pinch of the danger is passed. Last Thursday night the
1st Devons and the 19th Hussars began to arrive and the crisis ended.
Yesterday before daybreak half the Gordons came. We have now a mountain
battery and three batteries of field artillery, the 19th Hussars (the
18th having gone forward to Dundee), besides the 5th Lancers (the "Irish
Lancers"), who are in faultless condition, and a considerable mixed
force of the Natal Volunteers. Of these last, the Carbineers are perhaps
the best, and generally serve as scouts towards the Free State frontier.
But all have good repute as horsemen, marksmen, and guides, and at
present they are the force which the Boers fear most. They are split up
into several detachments--the Border Mounted Rifles, the Natal Mounted
Rifles (from Durban), the Imperial Light Horse, the Natal Police, and
the Umvoti Mounted Rifles, who are chiefly Dutch. Then of infantry there
are the Natal Royal Rifles (only about 150 strong), the Durban Light
Infantry, and the Natal Field Artillery. As far as I can estimate, the
total Natal Volunteer force will not exceed 2,000, but they are well
armed, are accustomed to the Boer method of warfare, and will be watched
with interest. Unhappily, many of them here are already suffering from
the change of life and food in camp. That is inevitable when volunteers
first take the field.

But Ladysmith has an evil reputation besides. Last year the troops here
were prostrated with enteric. There is a little fever and a good deal
of dysentery even now among the regulars. The stream by the camp is
condemned, and all water is supplied in tiny rations from pumps. The
main permanent camp is built of corrugated iron, practically the sole
building material in South Africa, and quite universal for roofs, so
that the country has few "architectural features" to boast of. The
cavalry are quartered in the tin huts, but the Liverpools, Devons,