“There were about four hundred of us, all picked men, and when the commandant called to us to go and take the kopje, we sprang up eagerly, and dashed down over some hills, meaning to cross the gully and charge up the kopje where those twenty men were waiting for us.  But we did not know the Australians—­then.  We know them now.  Scarcely had we risen to our feet when they loosed their rifles on us, and not a shot was wasted.  They did not fire, as regular soldiers nearly always do, volley after volley, straight in front of them, but every one picked his man, and shot to kill.  They fired like lightning, too, never dwelling on the trigger, yet never wildly wasting lead, and all around us our best and boldest dropped, until we dared not face them.  We dropped to cover, and tried to pick them off, but they were cool and watchful, throwing no chance away.  We tried to crawl from rock to rock to hem them in, but they, holding their fire until our burghers moved, plugged us with lead, until we dared not stir a step ahead; and all the time the British troops, with all their convoy, were slowly, but safely, falling back through the kopjes, where we had hoped to hem them in.  We gnawed our beards and cursed those fellows who played our game as we had thought no living men could play it Then, once again, we tried to rush the hill, and once again they drove us back, though our guns were playing on the heights they held.  We could not face their fire.  To move upright to cross a dozen yards meant certain death, and many a Boer wife was widowed and many a child left fatherless by those silent men who held the heights above us.  They did not cheer as we came onward.  They did not play wild music, they only clung close as climbing weeds to the rocks, and shot as we never saw men shoot before, and never hope to see men shoot again.

“Then we got ready to sweep the hill with guns, but our commandant, admiring those brave few who would not budge before us in spite of our numbers, sent an officer to them to ask them to surrender, promising them all the honours of war.  But they sent us word to come and take them if we could.  And then our officer asked them three times if they would hold up their hands, and at the third time a grim sergeant rose and answered him:  ’Aye, we will hold up our hands, but when we do, by God, you’ll find a bayonet in ’em.  Go back and tell your commandant that Australia’s here to stay.’  And there they stayed, and fought us hour by hour, holding us back, when but for them victory would have been with us.  We shelled them all along their scattered line, and tried to rush them under cover of the artillery fire; but they only held their posts with stouter hearts, and shot the straighter when the fire was hottest, and we could do nothing but lie there and swear at them, though we admired them for their stubborn pluck.  They held the hill till all their men were safe, and then, dashing down the other side, they jumped into their saddles and made off, carrying their wounded with them.  They were but twenty men, and we four hundred”