"Thank you, sir; I have not come for orders, but to report to you that
with Mr. Horrocks and two others, and one of our Kaffir servants, I
entered the Boer camp last night in order to ascertain their strength."

"You did!" the general exclaimed in surprise. "You hear that,
gentlemen?" he said, turning round to three or four of his staff
standing but a short distance behind him. "Mr. King and three of his
party absolutely entered the Boer camp last night to discover their
force. Well, sir, what was the result?"

"There are about four thousand of them, sir, over rather than under, and
they have six guns, all of heavy calibre. When I was there they were at
work building a thick wall some five feet high of rough stones along the
edge of the hill. It will scarcely shelter the guns, but it will provide
cover for the riflemen at the edge of the hill. There is an immense
gathering of waggons and carts--there are certainly not less than a
thousand of them--in a confused mass behind the hill. Arriving in the
dark, each seems to have gone on until it could get no farther. The
fighting men are all on the top of the hill, and between them and the
waggons are their ponies. They certainly could not ride away till the
waggons have been passed through, but possibly a passage may have been
left on each side of these for them to get through, in order, as is
their intention, to charge your army when their guns have silenced your
artillery. I gathered that expected commandos had not come up. They were
disappointed at hearing nothing of the Free Staters, who they expected
would have attacked Glencoe from the other side. They are absolutely
confident of success, and expect to overwhelm General White at Ladysmith
in three days from now, and to be in Pietermaritzburg in a week, and are
talking of driving the last rooinek on board the ships at Durban shortly
after."