They told me that they were willing to surrender, on condition that they were allowed to retain their private property and the mail bags, for it appeared that there were two English mails under their charge.
I replied that so far as their private belongings were concerned, they were welcome to keep them, as I never allowed the personal property of my prisoners to be tampered with in my presence.[47] But I told them that the letters were a different matter, and that I could not allow them to reach their destination--unless they were directed to a bonfire! There was nothing left for the officers to do, except to agree to my terms then and there; for had they hesitated even for a moment, I should certainly have stormed the station.
But they wisely surrendered.
On our arrival at the station, we were all filled with wonder at the splendid entrenchments the English had constructed from bales of cotton, blankets and post-bags.

These entrenchments had been so effectual that the enemy's loss was only twenty-seven killed and wounded--a remarkably small number, when it is remembered that we took two hundred of them prisoners.
I had expected that our booty would be large, and my expectations were more than realized.

To begin with, there were the bales of clothing that the English had used as entrenchments.

Then there were hundreds of cases of necessaries of every description.

Of ammunition, also, there was no lack, and amongst it there were projectiles for the Naval guns, with which Lord Roberts had intended to bombard Pretoria.
Some of the burghers attempted to lift these gigantic shells, but it took more than one man to move them.
I read in the newspapers afterwards that I had inflicted a loss of three quarters of a million sterling on the English Government--let that give the extent of my capture.
But at that moment we did not realize how much harm we had done to them.
We had little time for anything which did not directly forward our cause.