Major Clarke then addressed the men, telling them that, though
personally he did not care about his own life, he did not see that
they could serve any useful purpose by being burned alive, so he should
surrender, which he did, with a loss of about six killed and wounded.
The camp meanwhile had repulsed with loss the attack made on it, and was
never again directly attacked.
Whilst these events were in progress at Potchefstroom, a much more awful
tragedy was in preparation on the road between Middelburg and Pretoria.
On the 23rd November Colonel Bellairs, at the request of Sir Owen
Lanyon, directed a concentration on Pretoria of most of the few soldiers
that there were in the territory, in view of the disturbed condition of
the country. In accordance with these orders, Colonel Anstruther
marched from Lydenburg, a town about 180 miles from Pretoria, on the 5th
December, with the headquarters and two companies of the 94th Regiment,
being a total of 264 men, three women, and two children, and the
disproportionately large train of thirty-four ox-waggons, or an
ox-waggon capable of carrying five thousand pounds' weight to every
eight persons.
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