One of the farmers rode to
Greytown for help. Most of the young men there had joined one or other
of the colonial troops, but fifteen of us said that we could go out. It
seemed that there were not more than some fifteen or twenty Boers. Well,
I can't tell you all about it, for, as it is a matter of life and death,
I have not a moment to lose. However, we came up to them north of
Botha's Castle. We had a sharp fight. Two of our men were killed and
five of the Boers; the rest rode off. We set to work to bunch all the
cattle, and as we were at it we were attacked suddenly by a party sixty
or seventy strong. The fellows that we had driven off had evidently come
across them and brought them down upon us. We made a running fight, but
our horses were not so fresh as theirs; and seeing that they had the
speed of us we made for an empty farmhouse, and as they rode up we
brought down several of them.
"There was a wall round the yard, and the Boers drew off for a bit to
consider. Then they dismounted and planted themselves round the house in
such shelter as they could find within two or three hundred yards, and
the affair began in earnest. The first day they kept up a heavy fire, to
which we could make but little reply, for it was certain death to lift a
head above the wall or to show one's self at a window even for a moment.
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