I must confess I hardly expected to find anyone confiding enough to part with bullion, but Mr.Brevel duly returned in a few days with the money, and said they were very pleased to get rid of gold in exchange for a cheque on a London bank.
He also, however, brought back our letters, which had been refused at the post-office, as they would take no letters except with Transvaal stamps, and for ours, of course, we had used those of Cape Colony.
The magistrate wrote me a miserable letter, saying his office had been seized by the Boers, who held a daily Kriegsraad there, and that he had received a safe-conduct to depart.

The striking part of the communication was that a line had been put through "On H.M.

Service" on the top of the official envelope.

I was really glad to find the young man had done no good with his own business, having failed to dispose of any of his cattle.

He, a Dutchman, had returned with the feeling that no property was safe for the moment, and much alarmed by the irresponsible talk of those burghers who had nothing to lose and everything to gain by this period of confusion and upheaval.