When they reached the station, however, the buildings there gave them considerable protection.

I little knew when I voted in the Volksraad for the construction of this line, that I was voting for the building of a station which our enemies would one day use against us.
An attempt was made by the English to save the five guns, but it was far beyond their powers to do so.

They did succeed, however, in getting the other two guns away, and in placing them behind the station buildings.
From there they severely bombarded us with shrapnel shell.
While the English troops were running to find cover in the buildings, they suffered very heavily from our fire, and the ground between the station and the spruit was soon strewn with their dead and wounded, lying in heaps.

But having arrived at the railway they rallied, and posting themselves to the right and left of the station, they fired sharply on us.
The eleven hundred and fifty burghers who were to the east of the Modder River now hurried up to my assistance.

But unfortunately, when they attempted to cross the river, they found that the Water-Works dam had made it too deep to ford.