755 SCENE OUTSIDE PRETORIA JAIL AFTER DR. JAMESON S ARRIVAL.

(Photo: ArthurEll oil, Pretoria.)

CHAPTER III.

THE SECOND MATABELE WAR.

THF situation wasnow very serious. In the first weekof April the greaternumberof the white folk had takenrefuge in Buluwayo. A careful censusgave thenumbersas632 womenand childrenand915 men,making a total of 1,547. There were smaller gatherings of refugees inhurriedly constructed laagersat Gwelo, Belingwe, and Mangwe. Horse sickness had been very general in the country, and there wereonly about 300 horses at Buluwayo, many of them unfit for hard work. Of rifles and carbines there weresix or seven hundred. There was one Maxim gun in good order, another out of repair,a Hotchkiss, a Gatling, a Nordenfelt, and a Gardner gun, and two small field pieces, but for these last there were only seventeen roundsofammunition. Organisedregulartroops there were practically none. Of the native police more than half hadjoined the rebels, and the rest had to be disarmed. Of the white ed police only forty-eight officers and men were left in the whole country, of whom -two wereat Buluwayo. No wonder the settlers cursed the folly that had sent hundreds oftheir defenders to fallor surrenderat Krugersdorp and Dornkop, and had ended in handing over to the Boers the rifles, artillery, stores, and horses that were now so sadly deficient.

Deducting those who were unfit for activework,about 800 fighting men were musteredat Buluwayo, not all of them armed. Of these it was nece sary to keep 400 in the town for the protection of the women and children,and 130 weresent to garrison the outlying forts on the coach road, so that only about 300 were available for operations in the field. To these therewaslater addeda forceof "friendlies," 150 strong, known as the " Cape Boys," chiefly Amakosa Kafirs and Zulus. They* were commanded by Mr. Johan Colembrander, and did excellent service.

To this small white force the rebels could oppose several thousand fighting men, who, besidestheirnative weapons,possessed aconsiderablenumberof modern riflesand a miscellaneous lot of smooth-bore muskets and fowling piece-.

There is little doubt that after the first war the natives,instead ot surrendering their rifles and cartridges,had concealed them inlarge numbers. Since then they had here and there got a rifle and cartridges from some careless prospector as a reward for showing him old gold workings. They* had captured somemore rifles in the farms and stations they had raided, and the deserterfrom the police had brought them nearly 200 more. How the)- accumulated the enormous