President Steyn's Narrow Escape


The following morning we had to continue our journey to the Transvaal.
It being necessary to keep out of sight of the enemy, we marched first a
short distance to the south, and then went south-east. After a few days
we reached Vrede. There Commandant Manie Botha spared us a few burghers
who knew this part of the country well to serve as guides across the
railway line. We headed to the north of Volksrust, and on the second
evening after we had left Vrede, we struck the railway line at a spot
which was guarded by an outpost. They opened fire on us at once. General
De la Rey and I then came to the decision that after the burghers had
exchanged a few shots, we would quietly retreat a short distance, and
then, with a sweep, try and cross the line at another spot. This ruse
was successful and we crossed unobserved. But the first of our men had
hardly got seventy paces from the railway line, when a fearful explosion
of dynamite took place, not thirty paces from the spot where we had
crossed. Whether this was managed by electricity or whether the hindmost
horses had struck on the connecting wire of some trap set by the enemy,
I cannot say; at all events, we escaped with only a fright.

On the fourth day after this we met the Transvaal Government and held a
conference at once, in accordance with the letter mentioned in my last
chapter. It grieved us much that things should have taken this turn, for
it nearly always happened that somehow matters of this sort came to the
ears of the English.

But the Transvaal Government had again taken courage, as they had
received an answer to the cable which they had sent to the Deputation,