also killed.

I have no exact figure as to the losses of the English, but judging from
the number of dead and wounded lying on the battlefield, I should say
that their casualties must have been about eighty.

The fight lasted from eleven till three o'clock, and then a
reinforcement of cavalry, from eight hundred to one thousand men strong,
appeared with some guns. The force with which we had been engaged,
numbering about two hundred men, belonged to the column which was now
coming up. As we could not drive the English from the kraal before the
arrival of the reinforcements, we had to give way.

Although I had given orders that all the waggons which had managed to
escape should be sent on to Reitz, in the actual event only a few carts
went there. The women had left the waggons behind, close to the hill at
the foot of the English position, where I could not see them, in order
to await the result. They had forgotten what I had told them, namely,
that they were to get away as quickly as possible. This order I had
given in the expectation that a reinforcement might arrive at any
moment.

After I had ordered a few men to bring the wounded into a safe place, I
retired with the remainder, some forty-five in number. Among these was
Veldtcornet Serfontein and his burghers.

The English now directed their fire upon the women's laager, to compel
it to come to a standstill. Whether any of the women and children were
killed or wounded I was unable to ascertain, but it was horrible to see
the bombs bursting over their heads. Thus the women again fell into the