13/14 They told me they had seen large numbers of Boers moving slowly with cattle and waggons towards the Free State passes. The Boers whom I saw were going in just the opposite direction, towards Colenso. I counted twenty-seven waggons with a large escort creeping steadily to the south along some invisible road. They were carrying provisions or the ammunition to fight our relieving column. A Natal newspaper, with extracts from the Transvaal _Standard and Diggers' News_, brought in yesterday, exaggerates our situation almost as much as the Boers themselves. |