I had delayed my departure too long; it was extremely doubtful whether another train would be allowed to pass South, and, even when started, it would stand a great chance of being wrecked by the Boers tearing up the rails.

Under these circumstances I was allotted comparatively safe quarters at the house of Mr.Benjamin Weil, of the firm of the well-known South African merchants.

His residence stood in the centre of the little town, adjacent to the railway-station.

At that time bomb-proof underground shelters, with which Mafeking afterwards abounded, had not been thought of, or time had not sufficed for their construction.

On all sides one heard reproaches levelled at the Cape Government, and especially at General Sir William Butler, until lately commanding the troops in Cape Colony, for having so long withheld the modest reinforcements which had been persistently asked for, and, above all, the very necessary artillery.
At that date the Mafeking garrison consisted of about seven or eight hundred trained troops.