A similar expedition, but less numerous, under Colonel Pilcher, had gone out early in January, capturing forty rebels.

While otherwise useful, it seems probably that MacDonald's enterprise was intended chiefly to fasten the enemy's attention in a false direction.

On the 8th he was recalled by Methuen, acting under orders from headquarters.
The great projected operation was to turn the eastern left flank of Cronje's position, seizing important drifts, or fords, on the Riet {p.269} and Modder Rivers by a secret and rapid circuit of cavalry, which should hold them until they were secured by slower moving infantry following on the track.

When the last and chief of these, Klip Drift on the Modder, some twenty miles east of Magersfontein, was held by an infantry division, the cavalry's flank would be secured and its advance would then be pressed to Kimberley.

While the movement was in progress, Methuen in his old lines on the Modder would hold the enemy in his positions by a demonstration of force seemingly not reduced.