The following morning we went to lie in a trench that had been dug by our men on a rise to the right of Spion Kop.  The previous day eight burghers had been wounded there.  Red Danie Opperman was Field-Cornet.  Not far from us, to our left, stood a few of our cannon, and facing us, to our left, on the long mountain slope, we could see fourteen guns of the enemy’s.  In front of us was a large wood, and close to that the English camp.  We could see the enemy moving in great close square masses.  It was a terribly hot day; we had to lie in the trenches, as all day long the enemy fired at us from the smaller positions facing us, at a distance of 15,000 paces; and constantly the bombs burst over our heads.  At regular intervals a lyddite bomb—­that gave us a shock through our whole body—­came from the wood towards the cannon on our left.  Once only part of our entrenchment, where, fortunately, no one happened to be, was blown to bits.

Whenever there was a moment’s pause, we lifted our heads above the trenches to have a look at the lovely landscape and at the positions of our enemy.  That day not one of us was wounded.  Only the artillery suffered.  If our few cannon ventured to make themselves heard, eight or more bombs followed in quick succession to silence them.  Next to me lay a man whose servant, a restless, impatient Bushman, most amicably addressed him as Johnny.  The Bushman went to and fro continually to a ‘chum’ of his who lay hidden behind a rock close to us.  Once, on one of his visits to his ‘chum,’ a bullet struck the ground close to his heels; he stood still, looked slowly and defiantly from his heels to the enemy, and said in a most emphatic tone, ’You confounded Englishman!’ and calmly proceeded on his way to his chum.

To the right of this position was an open space, almost level with the immediate surroundings, but ending in a steep decline some 900 paces further on.  There we went towards evening with a reinforcement of the Pretoria town commando that had followed us.  The Field-Cornet made us stand in rows, and told off forty men to dig a trench that night.  The rest of the men would relieve us the following night.  My brother and I were in the first shift.  Towards morning, while we were still digging at the trenches, fire was opened across the whole line of battle.  We imagined that we were being attacked, and jammed ourselves in the narrow trench.  But as the attack did not come off, and the bullets flew high over our heads, we went on digging until daybreak.  Then we noticed that the enemy were lying in a trench about 800 paces ahead of us.  We fired a few shots at them, but saved our ammunition for an eventual storming.

The whole of that day and the two succeeding days there was a constant salvo over our heads.  The bullets flew over our heads like finches, and did us no harm, but we had to be on our guard against the sharpshooters, who occasionally fired close to us.  That day (January 24), the heroic Battle of Spion Kop took place, where our burghers, after having been surprised in the night by the enemy and driven off the kop, obliged them, after a stubborn fight, to abandon it again.  The Pretoria men, who were to have relieved us in the trench, took a great part in that battle.  Reineke, Yeppe, Malherbe, De Villiers, and Olivier were killed.  Ihrige was severely wounded.