engaging the enemy in skirmishes, and inflicting heavier losses upon
them than would otherwise have been the case. For the same reason our
losses grew larger from month to month, but they did not increase in the
same proportion as those of the enemy. Again, we captured more prisoners
than formerly. It is much to be regretted that we were unable to keep
them, for had we been in a position to do so, the world would have been
astonished at their number. But unfortunately we were now unable to
retain any of our prisoners. We had no St. Helena, Ceylon or Bermuda,
whither we could send them. Thus, whilst every prisoner which the
English captured meant one less man for us, the thousands of prisoners
we took from the English were no loss to them at all, for in most cases
it was only a few hours before they could fight again. All that was
required was that a rifle should be ready in the camp on a prisoner's
return, and he was prepared for service once more.

The fact that we fought throughout the Free State in small detachments,
put the English to some trouble, for they felt themselves obliged to
discover a vocabulary of names to apply to us!

Thus when Lord Roberts on the 24th of May, 1900, proclaimed the Orange
Free State (and afterwards the Transvaal) as annexed by the British
Crown, he described those who continued to fight as rebels. Then again
we were called "Sniping Bands" and "Brigands." But the list of epithets
was not exhausted yet, for it appeared that we were "Guerillas," and our
leaders "Guerilla Chiefs!"

I was always at a loss to understand by what right the English
designated us "Guerillas." They had, however, to withdraw the
_soubriquet_ at the Peace Negotiations, when they acknowledged that our
leaders formed a legal government.