III Sitting Tight
Strolling Home in the Morning.
On New Year’s Day, 1900, the Boers began a new species of assault upon Mafeking. They fired several nine-pounder shells into the laager reserved for women and children, killing one child and injuring two others. They also fired on the convent and on the hospital. Baden-Powell sent a vigorous protest against this cowardly action to General Snyman, but the same tactics were pursued at intervals during the next few weeks. On January 3rd a smart artillery duel took place between the besieged and the enemy. During the previous night the British artillery had been concentrated in a fresh position, and when it came into play it wrought considerable damage amongst the Boer guns, one of which, at least, was thrown out of action. On the 6th the enemy threw a number of shells into the market-square, but did little damage, and on the 15th they were compelled to retire with their ninety-four-pounder and their Krupp gun to more distant positions, the besieged having successfully pushed out trenches and sharpshooters towards their big gun battery. In his despatch of the 17th Baden-Powell remarked that he had now driven back the Boers on three sides well out of rifle-range, and had opened grazing for cattle on the east side of the town. On the 16th the Boers again resorted to questionable tactics. They fired a ninety-four-pounder shell into the convalescent hospital and partly wrecked it, and afterwards fired on an officer and orderly who went out under the white flag. What the garrison must have thought of these outrages one need not conjecture.
About this time the question of food supply began to agitate the minds of those responsible for the beleaguered town. For the first two months of the siege privation had not been felt, but in the despatches coming to hand about the middle of January there was evidence that provisions were beginning to run short. Oats were no longer given to horses, but saved for men; tinned milk and matches were taken charge of by the military authorities; and food generally began to be sparingly used. Before this the Kaffirs in the native quarter had eaten mules killed by the Boer guns. But apart from this shortening of rations a spirit of courage and determination filled the garrison. In the despatches from Major F.D. Baillie (war correspondent of the Morning Post) which got through about this time, a phrase occurs again and again which shows how bravely everybody was keeping up in Mafeking—“All is well.” Certainly there was a desire on the part of somebody—whom one shrewdly suspects to have been the commandant himself—to make things as pleasant as possible. An agricultural show was held on January 21st and was a great success. On Sundays Baden-Powell organized concerts and musical entertainments, and himself appeared to delight perhaps the strangest audiences he had ever played to in his life. On one occasion he impersonated Paderewski in the first part of the performance, and a cockney in the second, winding up by playing “Home, Sweet Home” on a mouth-organ! One would like to have been present at that performance—despite the fact that Snyman and his Boers were still eager to seize the little town.
In his despatch of February 3rd Baden-Powell reported various artillery duels between that date and January 23rd, and remarked that General Snyman had practically admitted shelling the women and children’s laagers, and that he, in consequence, had informed him that he had placed the Boer prisoners in these places in order to protect them from deliberate bombardment. But another foe was now at hand. Dysentery broke out amongst the garrison and fever amongst the children. In a despatch from Reuter’s special correspondent, dated February 19th, the first terrible picture of the siege comes into view. He speaks of rations of weevily biscuit and horseflesh; of typhoid and malaria in the women’s laager, into which the Boers still threw shells; of the children’s graveyard daily receiving new victims; and of the natives wandering about, gaunt and hungry. Up to that date nearly three hundred persons had been killed or wounded or died of disease. But there was no talk of surrender, even though the hope long deferred made many hearts sick. All through February the state of affairs was unchanged with the exception that the Boer attrocities seemed to increase. Not content with firing on the women and children’s laager, and on hospital and convent, they treated natives who tried to leave the town with great cruelty, stripping and flogging the women, shooting down the men, and generally adopting the most brutal means of warfare.
On February 26th came the Queen’s message to Baden-Powell and his little garrison and gave them new heart and courage. About the same time news of the relief of Kimberley was received, but there was small prospect of similar help coming so quickly to Mafeking, where diphtheria had broken out amongst the children. During the early days of March a good deal of fighting went on in the brick-fields, and the enemy’s big gun began to be very active. In his despatch of March 13th, however, Baden-Powell reported that the enemy’s cordon had been much relaxed, and that he had captured twenty-six head of their cattle and killed twelve Boers. Then the bombardment began again, and continued with varying success on the part of the enemy. On March 24th the Boers evacuated their trenches in the brick-fields, and they were taken possession of by the garrison, who at this time, according to Major Baillie’s despatch to the Morning Post of the last-named date, were less pressed than at any period since the beginning of the siege. Some little diversion was caused on Sunday, March 25th, by the holding of a Siege Exhibition, at which prizes were awarded for such exhibits as collections of shells (Boer shells!), models of fortifications, and the like.
Not only food, but money was running short in Mafeking now, and the ingenious brain of its commander was called upon to supply the deficiency. He instituted a paper currency for sums as low as threepence, and also issued bank-notes for £1 and £5. The postage stamps becoming exhausted, a new supply, stamped with the words “Mafeking Besieged,” was produced. However short the money supply was, however, it seems to have made little difference to people who wished to spend it, since one hears of unexploded shells being sold as curiosities for as much as twelve guineas each.
In his despatch of March 27th, Baden-Powell, after beginning with the familiar “All Well,” which sounds so strange to folk who were wondering how Mafeking was contriving to hold out as she did, goes on to say that they are experiencing the hottest shelling of the siege, but that the town was comparatively free from musketry fire. The Boers, in fact, were being steadily pushed back, the besiegers never losing an opportunity of advancing their trenches nearer to the enemy’s position, and the latter were also worried by the advance of Colonel Plumer’s relief column. On March 31st, heavy firing was heard to the northward of the town, and the enemy were seen to be going in a northerly direction in great haste, taking three field guns with them. The garrison at once opened fire on their forts, and continued it until the firing northward ceased. Next morning General Snyman sent a message to Baden-Powell requesting him to send out an ambulance to bring in the dead of Colonel Plumer’s force, who, according to his version, had been slain by hundreds. When the ambulance reached the scene of operation, three bodies were discovered.
About the beginning of April, General Snyman was relieved of his command, in which he had had no more success than the redoubtable Cronje, by Commandant Botha. This made no difference to the garrison, who were determined to hold out two months longer if necessary. Some considerable help was given to the commissariat department at this period by a Scotsman, Mr. Sims, who invented a food called sowan porridge, made from the husks of oats. This proved very nourishing, and if not exactly appetizing, was wholesome, and much to be preferred to nothing when the question of going supperless to bed came on. A statement prepared by Captain Ryan, head of the commissariat department, shows how things were going in April:—
“The total number of white men is approximately 1150, of white women 400, and of white children 300. The coloured population consists of some 2000 men, 2000 women, and 3000 children.
“Both the white and coloured men originally received eight ounces of bread. The allowance has now been reduced to six, but a quart of soup is given to make up the deficiency. Half a gallon of sowan porridge a day will sustain life. The recipients are of three classes: those who receive it in lieu of two ounces of bread; those who wish to purchase food over and above the quantity to which they are entitled; those who are absolutely destitute, both black and white, and who receive the porridge free. It has been suggested that the natives should not be charged for sowan porridge, but it is thought unwise to pauperize either blacks or whites. If any profit has been made from the sale by the end of the siege, it will be employed in buying grain for the many native women and children in Mafeking who have been involved in a quarrel which is not theirs.
“The horse soup is made from the carcases of animals which had ceased to be serviceable and those killed by the enemy’s fire, as well as horses and donkeys purchased from individuals who can no longer afford to keep them. This soup is unpopular among the natives, but this is due rather to prejudice than to its quality.
“The distribution of supplies is entirely under Imperial control. The Army Service Corps possesses a slaughter-house, a bakery, and a grocery at which the authorities receive and distribute all vegetables, and it receives and distributes milk to the hospital, to women and children, and to men who have been medically certified to need it.
“At present the hospital is supplied with white bread, and it is hoped that the supply will be continued. Hospital comforts are issued to such as are in need of them, both in and out patients, on receipt of an order from a medical officer. For the nurses and doctors, who work day and night, the authorities endeavoured to provide slightly better rations than those available for the general community. Our sources of supply have been chiefly through Mr. Weil, who had a large stock on hand for the provisioning of the garrison, until the contract terminated at the beginning of February. Since then supplies have been collected from various merchants, storekeepers, and private persons, and stored in the army Service Corps depôt, and from the original Army Service Corps stock, of which forage and oats formed a great proportion. Fresh beef is obtained by purchase from a private individual named White, and in a lesser degree from the natives.
“Breadstuffs are obtained, like groceries, by commandeering the stocks of various merchants and private persons.”
Shortly after this report was published, the special correspondent of Reuter’s Agency announced that a further reduction in the supply of breadstuffs had taken place. “We are now able to receive only four ounces daily,” he continued. “This, however, has been to some extent compensated by the issue of sowan porridge to whites as well as blacks. We have still a fair supply of fresh vegetables, which the Chinese are retailing at famine prices. As vegetables, however, are perishable commodities they are still cheap in comparison with whisky, which is 25s. a bottle. Eggs are 18s. a dozen, fowls 20s. each, jam 2s. 6d. a small tin.”
The same correspondent, alas! remarks in a despatch of somewhat later date that “excellent brawn is now being made, and is eaten by both whites and blacks. It is made from ox and horse hides.” He adds with a brevity which has a good deal of pathos and humour in it, that “the garrison is very cheerful, very dry, and very hungry.” Most of the necessarily brief despatches from Mafeking in the most trying days of the siege have a spice of humour and a good deal of pathos in them. On May 3rd, Lady Sarah Wilson cabled the following laconic message to Lady Georgiana Curzon:—“Mafeking, May 3rd.—Breakfast consisted of horse sausages; lunch, minced mule and curried locusts. Well.” “There is great demand for horse side and brawn,” says Reuter’s special correspondent on May 5th. But perhaps the most significant, and certainly the most impressive, message of all was that of Major Baillie, dated May 1st, which will surely be remembered when many incidents of the Boer War are forgotten:—
“This morning the Boers attacked us.
“The result was as usual.
“There is an aching void here.
“Pass the loaf.”
Those of us who sit at home at our entire or comparative ease can scarcely comprehend the full meaning of these messages, nor of the heroism of the men who, sorely tried by hunger and disease, were keeping up the flag with such stern, immovable determination. In the town, hunger and sickness; outside the town, an enemy so bitterly unscrupulous as to observe no civilized conditions of warfare, and whose leaders did not scruple to fire on women, children, and sick men—here was a situation in which surely nobody but the most courageous could have preserved a cheerful confidence. How that confidence struck Baden-Powell may be judged from the despatch which he sent to Lord Roberts on the 200th day of the siege. “After 200 days’ siege,” he said, “I desire to bring to your lordship’s notice the exceptionally good spirit of loyalty that pervades all classes of this garrison. The patience of everybody in Mafeking in making the best of things under the long strain of anxiety, hardship, and privation is beyond all praise, and a revelation to me. The men, half of whom are unaccustomed to the use of arms, have adapted themselves to their duties with the greatest zeal, readiness, and pluck, and the devotion of the women is remarkable. With such a spirit our organization runs like clockwork, and I have every hope it will pull us successfully through.”