I would have told him that 300 Boer sharpshooters behind rocks would be an overmatch for his 500 raw young fellows on horseback.
If pluck were the only thing essential to battle-winning, the English would lose no battles.

But discretion, as well as pluck, is required when one fights Boers and Red Indians.

In South Africa the Briton has always insisted upon standing bravely up, unsheltered, before the hidden Boer, and taking the results: Jameson's men would follow the custom.
Jameson would not have listened to me--he would have been intent upon repeating history, according to precedent.

Americans are not acquainted with the British-Boer war of 1881; but its history is interesting, and could have been instructive to Jameson if he had been receptive.

I will cull some details of it from trustworthy sources mainly from "Russell's Natal." Mr.Russell is not a Boer, but a Briton.