The moral effect of our defeat on the Boers was very great. Up to this
time there had been many secret doubts amongst a large section of them
as to what the upshot of an encounter with the troops might be; and with
this party, in the same way that defeat, or even the anxiety of waiting
to be attacked, would have turned the scale one way, victory turned it
the other. It gave them unbounded confidence in their own superiority,
and infused a spirit of cohesion and mutual reliance into their ranks
which had before been wanting. Waverers wavered no longer, but gave a
loyal adherence to the good cause, and, what was still more acceptable,
large numbers of volunteers,--whatever President Brand may say to the
contrary,--poured in from the Orange Free State.
What Sir George Colley's motive was in making so rash a move is, of
course, quite inexplicable to the outside observer. It was said at the
time in Natal that he was a man with a theory: namely, that small bodies
of men properly handled were as useful and as likely to obtain the
object in view as a large force.
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