Independent accounts of the Tweefontein affair show that Commandant. De Wet's force of 1,500 men removed their boots, climbed the precipice noiselessly, and: completely startled the sleeping camp. There was a terrible struggle which lasted barely half-an-hour.
Colonel Bruce Hamilton engaged Commandant Grobelaar on the 23rd of December to the east of Ermelo in a thick fog. The enemy left four men dead on the field and eleven prisoners, Colonel Mackenzie, ce-operating to the northward, captured seventeen Boers and got away with the two guns captured from Colonel Firman at Tweefontein—Reuter, 2nd January.
The call for two thousand Yeo-maury has been met with an. immense response in London.
The newspaper correspondents at Pretoria continue to urge the necessity of farther reinforcements.
'0 intelligence officers have been treacherously shot near Warmbaths, Two Boer attacks, at Laing's Nek and Botha's Pass, have been repulsed, The official return of the losses of the Boers in 1901 is 14,887 killed, wounded, and surrendered.—Reuter.
5th January.
General De Wet has ordered the Boer commandants to retard the work on the British blockhouses at any cost, Hence serious fighting is expected General Bruce Hamilton has captured a hundred Boers, including General Erasmus.—Reuter.
6th January.
A party of Scots Greys have been caught in an ambush near Brockhorstspruit. Six of our men were killed and thirteen wounded. After two hours' fighting the enemy retired.
The correspondent of the "Times" at Ermelo wires on the 29th that General Bruce Hamilton's columns are obliged to withdraw in order to refit. Such respites to the Boers are to be regretted, but they are inevitable unless more men and animals are available—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.