One brigade, the nineteenth, crossed Paardeberg Drift to the north of the river under heavy fire from the hills west of the ford and the kopje just above it.

The enemy was found to be occupying also the river bed from just above the drift to the laager. The nineteenth brigade, after turning the hills and kopje by moving north of them, the enemy retiring up toward the laager, moved toward the river to a position about 3,000 yards below and west of the laager. The third brigade attacked the enemy from the south side of the river and drove him from just above the drift up the river.

The sixth division, less the two regiments sent to the river above the laager, attacked the river bed from the south, their line being in prolongation of the third brigade up the river. The enemy's wagons were parked, or rather bunched, on the plain on the north side of the river as marked in sketch.

Kitchener's Kopje, which proved to be the key of the position, commanding both the plain between it and the laager and toward the south, was not then occupied by the enemy. who was in the river bed; the British neglected to occupy it, but sent a small force of mounted infantry to Stinkfontein farm, about 11 a. m. While General Kelly-Kenny, commanding sixth division, was having a hasty breakfast at the foot of the kopje, he was fired upon from its crest, as the enemy's reenforcements, about 1,200 men with a Maxim-Nordenfelt gun, having come up from the south, had found the kopje unoccupied and taken it. They had also occupied Stinkfontein farm and captured most of the mounted infantry, 6 officers and 58 men, who were there, the rest escaping. This force was a detachment of Kitchener's horse colonials raised in Cape Colony.

The occupation of this kopje and the farm proved a veritable thorn in the side of the British, and isolated the two regiments north of the laager from their division and supplies; the cavalry, being on half rations themselves, could not help them.

The losses of the British during the day were: Killed, 14 officers and 198 men; wounded, 57 officers and 879 men; missing, 6 officers and 58 men; 2 officers prisoners.

Early on the morning of the 19th General Cronje asked for an armistice of twenty-four hours to bury his dead and collect. the wounded, to which Lord Kitchener replied as follows, but ordered the answer to be signed "French :"

"I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter to-day, and have sent your communication to commander in chief, British forces; as soon as I receive his reply I will inform you. In the meantime I shall not attack your laager; seeing, however, that you are completely surrounded, I would advise you to surrender with your forces, and peace will again reign in the land.

FRENCH."

When Lord Roberts arrived at 10.30 he demanded unconditional surrender, to which demand General Cronje replied as follows:

"Since you are so unmerciful as not to accord me the time asked for, nothing remains for me to do but as you wish.” Lord Roberts replied: "Accept surrender; please return with Captain Liebman."

Captain Liebman was the bearer of the communication and speaks Dutch fluently. General Cronje speaks no English.

At 3.15 p. m., the third brigade started to move down from the southern artillery position across the plain to the laager, in close column, to receive the prisoners. As they appeared out of the crest of the ridge they were fired upon from the river bed and trenches and fell back behind the ridge, fortunately without any casualties. At the same moment Lord Kitchener rode up and said, "They have changed their minds and won't surrender."

This movement of the third brigade took place before the bearer of the flag of truce, accepting the surrender, had returned to Lord Roberts. On his return he carried the following message from General Cronje: "Since you are so unmerciful as not to accord me the time asked for, nothing remains for me to do; you do as you wish. During my lifetime I will never surrender. If you wish to bombard, fire away. Dixi." All these and subsequent communications passing between Lord Roberts and General Cronje were in writing.

Captain Liebman, with a sergeant carrying a large white flag-a large bath towel-was the bearer of these communications, and, on his return to Cronje's laager with the letter accepting the surrender, was fired upon by the enemy, the sergeant's horse being killed. I saw this myself. They were at no time over 2,500 yards distant from the enemy; it was a

bright, sunny day and the white flag looked to me as large as a house, a slight exaggeration.

They were in plain view of the enemy upon the open plain; in fact, were the only objects on it.

Something had evidently occurred to alter General Cronje's decision about surrendering, and the firing upon the flag of truce bearing Lord Roberts's acceptance, would seem to me to indicate that some of the other Boers, readily guessing what it was, did not wish it to be received. The facts will probably never be known.

There was hardly any firing during the rest of the day by either army, the British artillery all taking up positions north and south of the river as indicated on the sketch.

There were north of the river the 5-inch howitzer battery, three 4.7-inch and one 12-pounder naval guns, and three batteries of field artillery. On southern side, one 4.7-inch, three 12-pounders, naval, and three batteries of field artillery. The remaining three batteries allotted to the ninth division had not yet arrived.

During this night and the ones following until the surrender, the British gradually and cautiously advanced their trenches, until they finally reached the positions shown on the sketch.

General Kitchener said in my hearing: "If I had known yesterday, the 18th, what I know to-day, I would not have attacked the Boers in the river bed; it is impossible against that rifle."

From the southern artillery position and Kitchener's Kopje the ground gradually slopes down to the river, is flat and without cover of any kind. The same description applies to the plain north of the river.

FEB. 20.-Artillery opened from both sides of the river on the enemy in trenches and river bed and on the wagons at 6 a. m., eliciting no response from the enemy's guns. In fact, the Boer guns did not fire, excepting the VickersNordenfelts, the entire time up to the surrender; this was afterwards explained by them as due to the fact that they had nothing but black powder and were afraid to use it on account of the target it would make. Heretofore they had used smokeless powder in all their forces, but General Cronje's supply had become exhausted.

There was no infantry fire other than an occasional Boer "sniper" during the day.

During the night two regiments of the fourteenth brigade, under General Chermside, started across the plain between the laager and Kitchener's Kopje to reenforce the two regiments of the same brigade in river bed north of laager.

General Chermside halted when half across the plain and went into bivouac. The night was clear and starlight.

FEB. 21. The cavalry division complete, the third brigade having joined it from Kimberley on the evening of the 20th, moved down the river on the north side, crossed at Paardeberg Drift, and advanced around to the south of Kitchener's Kopje and the farm, followed by a brigade of mounted infantry, Ridley's, with one battery of field guns, and opened fire with the eight batteries at 8.30 a. m.

This movement left the country northeast of the river almost entirely open, and General Cronje could have easily escaped in that direction, had he known of the fact and desired to do so, with those of his command whose ponies had not been killed.

When he surrendered there were no ponies left. The two regiments of the fourteenth brigade under General Chermside, which had gone into bivouac on the plain, discovered at dawn that they had lost their way and were within 500 yards of the enemy's laager. The enemy seemed to have been so paralyzed with astonishment when they discovered them that it was an hour before they opened fire.

The British could neither advance nor retire on the open plain under the Mauser fire from the river and Kitchener's Kopje, so they did the only thing left for them to do-lay down and waited for night or Providence to extricate them. Any reenforcements sent during daylight would have been decimated.

Providence appeared at exactly 8.30 a. m. in the form of cavalry-it often does in war.

The moment French opened with his artillery on the kopje and farm, the enemy, taken in reverse, jumped on their ponies and retreated, abandoning their wagons. Some escaped through the interval between the cavalry and mounted infantry, which was about 2 miles in rear of the cavalry.