CHAPTER I

I Go on Commando as a Private Burgher


In the month of September, 1899, the burghers of the Orange Free State
were notified, under the Commando Law, to hold themselves in readiness
to go on active service at the shortest possible notice.

Before proceeding any further I should like to explain that portion of
the Commando Law which dealt with commandeering. It stipulated that
every burgher between the ages of sixteen and sixty must be prepared to
fight for his country at any moment; and that, if required for active
service, he must provide himself with a riding-horse, saddle and bridle,
with a rifle and thirty cartridges--or, if he were unable to obtain a
rifle, he must bring with him thirty bullets, thirty caps, and half a
pound of powder--in addition he must be provisioned for eight days. That
there should have been an alternative to the rifle was due to the fact
that the law was made at a time when only a few burghers possessed
breech-loading rifles--_achterlaaiers_, as we call them.

With reference to the provisions the law did not specify their quality
or quantity, but there was an unwritten but strictly observed rule
amongst the burghers that they should consist of meat cut in strips,
salted, peppered, and dried, or else of sausages and "Boer biscuits."[1]
With regard to quantity, each burgher had to make his own estimate of