CHAPTER XXI.
RELIEVED AT LAST _Tuesday, February 27, 1900._ This is Majuba Day, and in the afternoon the garrison was cheered by the news that Roberts had surrounded Cronje and compelled him to surrender.
For ourselves, relief seems as far off as ever, though it is said shells were seen bursting not far beyond Intombi Camp.

The bread rations are cut down again to half, after a few days' rise; though, indeed, they can hardly be called bread rations, for the maize bread was so uneatable that none is made now.

The ration is biscuits and three ounces of mealie meal for porridge.
Towards evening I went for my first drive through old familiar scenes that have come to look quite different now.

The long drought has turned the country brown, and it is all the barer for the immense amount of firewood that has been cut.

It was decided about a week ago not to issue any more horse as rations till the very last of the oxen had been killed.
_February 28, 1900._ From early morning it was evident that the Boers were much disturbed in mind.