Usually, after we had towed them for a day or two, they would
let go, and then another lot would come along and lay hold. The first
party would then retire to its own village and district, feeling, no
doubt, that it had barked us off the premises in great style, and lay in
wait for the next army of ten or twenty thousand men that should happen
to pass that way.
It is the convoy that always hampers our movements so, that dictates the
formation of an advance and makes us almost a passive target to attack.
Our convoy with Ian Hamilton must have been seven or eight miles long,
and was often delayed for hours at fords and creeks, where scenes of
wild confusion took place and you were deafened with yelling Kaffirs and
cracking whips. This convoy has of course to be guarded throughout,
which means a very attenuated and consequently weakened force, an attack
on one part of which might be carried on without the knowledge of the
rest of the column, or the possibility of its giving much help anyway.
When we left Lindley we had a sharp rearguard action, and the Boers
pushed their attack very vigorously. They did the same on the right
flank, and the advance guard also had some fighting. Neither of these
parties knew that the others were engaged at all, and probably the bulk
of the main column were quite ignorant that a shot had been fired
anywhere.
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