these being the first to steal away from the fight. They opened fire as
the cavalry approached, but were soon overthrown or driven away in
headlong flight. Many of the waggons were seized, but each moment their
defenders became stronger. The Boers were now flocking down in great
numbers, and seeing their teams and property in danger they dismounted,
formed some of the waggons up in a square, and from them opened a heavy
fire upon the troopers. Chris dismounted his party, and returned the
fire, but the officer in command, seeing that with so small a force of
infantry he could do nothing, and that the numbers of their enemies were
increasing, drew off. He would have continued the fight, but he supposed
that the artillery would soon be at work, and knew they could not open
fire as long as he was engaging the Boers, he therefore retired with the
long train of captured waggons, and late in the afternoon reached camp.

Nothing was seen of the other squadron and mounted infantry, nor was any
news received of them until the following day, when a medical officer
with some wounded men came in. Like the larger force, they too had
ridden in among the waggons, but had taken a more northerly line, and
had come on a point where the Boers were thickest. They had charged and
taken several prisoners, and inflicted severe loss on the enemy. These,
however, had swarmed round them, keeping up an incessant fire and
barring their retreat. They took up a defensive position in a farm, and
for three hours repelled all the attacks of the Boers, until their
horses were all killed or had broken away and the ammunition exhausted,
while the Boers had just brought up the three guns they had withdrawn
from the hill. Further resistance would have ended in the extermination
of the whole party, and Lieutenant-Colonel Moller was therefore obliged
to surrender.