knew that Lord Roberts would be put in a grave difficulty if he lost all
this food. I did not lose a moment's time, but at once ordered the
burghers to load up the waggons as speedily as possible, and to inspan.
It was necessary to reload the waggons, for the English troops had made
use of the contents to build _schanzes_; and excellent ones the
provisions had made.

The loading of the waggons was simple enough, but when it came to
inspanning it was another matter. The Kaffir drivers alone knew where
each span had to be placed, and there were only thirty-six Kaffirs left.
But here the fact that every Boer is himself a handy conductor and
driver of waggons told in our favour. Consequently we did not find it
beyond our power to get the waggons on the move. It was, however, very
tedious work, for how could any of us be sure that we were not placing
the after-oxen in front and the fore-oxen behind? There was nothing left
for it but to turn out the best spans of sixteen oxen that we could, and
then to arrange them in the way that struck us as being most suitable.
It was all done in the most hurried manner, for our one idea was to be
off as quickly as possible.

Even when we had started our troubles were not at an end. The waggons
would have been a hard pull for sixteen oxen properly arranged; so that
it is not surprising that our ill-sorted teams found the work almost
beyond their strength. Thus it happened that we took a very long time to
cover the first few miles, as we had constantly to be stopping to
re-arrange the oxen. But under the supervision of Commandant Piet
Fourie, whom I appointed Conductor-in-Chief, matters improved from hour
to hour.

After a short time I issued orders that the convoy should proceed over