I The Warm Corner
In July, 1899, Baden-Powell was suddenly called away from the gaieties of Henley Regatta to attend at the War Office. There he received orders to proceed to South Africa, and within three days he was on his way. Always prepared for such emergencies, he might easily have set out within three hours, but the necessary delay enabled him to pay some farewell visits to friends. It was at this time that he paid the visit to Dr. Haig-Brown, which has become famous because of the words he used in saying good-bye to his old schoolmaster—“I hope they’ll give me a warm corner.” How warm that corner was to be nobody anticipated when Baden-Powell left England to fill it.
On his arrival at the Cape Baden-Powell was ordered to form a body of irregular troops in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and he set up his headquarters at Mafeking. This place, now famous all the world over, is situate on the Malopo River, and in the most important centre of population in British Bechuanaland. It is a comparatively new settlement, but was of considerable importance as a trading centre ten years ago. Mr. Lionel Decle, the famous traveller, who visited it in 1891, thus describes it in his “Three Years in Savage Africa”:—“The ‘town’ consisted of a big open place called the ‘Market Square,’ round which were grouped a few buildings, mostly of corrugated iron. Two hotels, five or six stores, a barber, a butcher, and a baker composed the commercial part of the place. One building, standing by itself, contained the Law Court, the Post, and the Government offices. Add to this a church and a few private houses, where the clergyman, the magistrate, and the doctor lived, and you have Mafeking as it was in 1891. About three-quarters of a mile off is a big native village.” By 1899, however, Mafeking had considerably increased in size and importance, though its architecture was still of a very primitive nature, consisting chiefly of soft bricks and corrugated iron. With the exception of the convent, all the houses were but one storey in height. On the west, north, and east the surroundings of Mafeking are flat; on the south and southeast the town is overlooked by high ground.
In Mafeking, between August and October, 1899, Baden-Powell gathered together a small garrison—so small, indeed, that one feels amazed to know that such a handful of men afterwards accomplished so much. At the beginning of October he had under him about seven hundred men, drawn from the Bechuanaland Protectorate Regiment, the British South African Police, the Cape Police, the Bechuanaland Rifles, and the Town Guard. The men of the Protectorate Regiment and the South African Police were armed with the Lee-Metford rifle, and had six muzzle-loading seven-pounders, very old-fashioned in make, and several Maxim, Hotchkiss, and Nordenfeldt guns. The remainder of the garrison were armed with the Martini-Henry rifle. Long before war actually broke out, Baden-Powell kept his handful of men busily engaged in strengthening the defences of the town. There were people in Mafeking who would have dissuaded him from making such elaborate preparations, believing that the differences between Great Britain and the South African Republic would be settled by diplomatic process, but Baden-Powell left nothing to chance, and he and his men worked with a will. Defence works were made all round the town, bomb-proof shelters were contrived, a system of communication by telephone between headquarters and the various forts was established, an armoured train (soon to figure very conspicuously in the first outbreak of hostilities) was kept waiting in the station, and the principal buildings of the town were protected by sand-bags. While all these preparations for a possible siege were being made there were many other things to be done. It was well known that there were several traitors and disaffected folk in Mafeking—Baden-Powell, with characteristic promptitude, had them arrested and placed in safe-keeping. Then came the question of getting the women and children away. A great many of them were sent off to the south, but many refused to leave the town. The sisters at the convent remained as a matter of course, and were soon busily engaged in nursing the sick and wounded. The question of provisioning the place was one which caused Baden-Powell a good deal of anxiety. It was found that the quantities of food-stuffs stocked in the various shops and stores were much below the average, and the commandant’s powers of ingenuity were sorely taxed in order to devise means for the proper victualling of the town. In this work he was much helped by three men—Lord Edward Cecil, one of the Prime Minister’s sons, Mr. Benjamin Weil, a member of a mercantile house with a great reputation in South Africa, and by Mr. Frank Whiteley, a Yorkshireman, who, after an adventurous life as sportsman and traveller, settled down in Mafeking many years ago, and was its Mayor during the eventful days of the siege.
By the beginning of October Baden-Powell had made his corner—soon to be warmer than perhaps ever he had dreamt of!—all ready against whatever was to be. Everything was in readiness. In a letter written from Mafeking on October 9th the writer says that there was then nothing in the appearance of town or people to indicate the nature of what was coming—men and women were pursuing their ordinary avocations as though the shadow of war was far away instead of being so near. The town was ready and waiting, and meanwhile its usual life went on until the need came for action. Baden-Powell and his garrison had not long to wait, however. On October 11th hostilities began between Great Britain and the South African Republic, and the armoured train of Mafeking figured conspicuously in the first engagement. On that date it left Mafeking with the last load of women and children, and made its journey southward in safety; but on its return journey it fell into the hands of the Boers, and ere long English readers were informed of its capture. This was the first of the reverses which came in quick succession during the autumn of 1899.
The armoured train of Mafeking consisted of an ordinary four-coupled locomotive, protected in every part by 7-16 in. steel plates, and two bogie trucks, fenced to a height of five feet by stout rails, bolted longitudinally together. Communication with the driver was had by a system of bells and speaking tubes from the trucks, each of which was furnished with a machine gun and had accommodation for fifty men. On the night of October 11th Captain Nesbitt and fifteen men were in charge of the train, and were bringing back in it a further supply of guns and ammunition for the garrison. All went well until a point some forty miles south of Mafeking was reached. There, about midnight, the armoured train ran off the lines, which had been purposely displaced by the Boers. The latter, ambushed close by, immediately poured in volley after volley upon Nesbitt and his little company. The fight went on until morning broke, and it was not until he had fought for several hours that Nesbitt surrendered. The Boers had by that time brought up heavy cannon, and the situation was hopeless. Only the engine-driver escaped by crawling along a dry ditch at the side of the track—the rest fell into the hands of the Boers.
The actual investment of Mafeking began on October 12th, when General Cronje, in command of an army estimated at eight thousand strong, appeared in the neighbourhood. He was well supplied with cannon, but is said to have been surprised to find that there was need for its use, as he had expected that he would be able to occupy the town with very little opposition. Baden-Powell, however, was not at all disposed to yield to the Boer general in any way, and Cronje quickly found that whatever success might be in store for him would have to be fought for. On the first day of hostilities rather severe fighting took place between the Boers and two squadrons of the Protectorate Regiment under Lord Charles Bentinck and Captain FitzClarence. The Boers are said to have lost over fifty men in this preliminary fight; the British three. Baden-Powell on this day played an ingenious trick upon the besiegers, which resulted in their serious discomfiture. There was a considerable store of dynamite in Mafeking, which might have proved extremely dangerous if a shell had burst in it. Baden-Powell therefore caused two trucks to be filled with it, and sent them down the line attached to an engine, the driver of which was instructed to leave them when in sight of the Boer lines. The enemy, thinking the trucks contained troops, began a smart fire upon them, with the result that the dynamite soon exploded, and caused great havoc amongst the besiegers in its immediate neighbourhood.
The first Boer shell came into the town on October 15th, and from that time until the 24th the bombardment was very heavy. With the beginning of the bombardment began the curious and amusing interchange of letters and communications between the Boer general and the English commandant. Cronje began by proposing that the opposing forces should observe Sunday as a day of rest. Baden-Powell was quite agreeable, and reminded his enemy that it was not according to the recognized rules of civilized warfare that ambulances should be fired upon—a dirty trick of which the Boers had already been guilty. Cronje explained this away and immediately transgressed again, and continued to do so. On October 17th he endeavoured to cut off the water supply, only to find that Baden-Powell’s ever resourceful mind had thought of all possible difficulties and dangers, and had made provision about wells and springs. This done, the Boer commandant again resorted to letter-writing. He asked Baden-Powell quite innocently whether it would not save much bloodshed if the British surrendered at once. Baden-Powell asked when the bloodshed would begin—a laconic form of reply which appears to have irritated and puzzled the Boer leader. Cronje now began to bombard the town more furiously than ever, throwing a large number of shells into it within the next few days. On the 21st Baden-Powell sent home the following characteristic telegram, which has been talked of and laughed over thousands of times since:—
“October 21st.—All well. Four hours’ bombardment. One dog killed.”
Cronje, being unaware of this terrible effect of his artillery practice, now sent another letter to Baden-Powell, hinting once more at a British surrender. Baden-Powell replied that he would let General Cronje know when the garrison had had enough. Evidently disposed to give them as much as possible, and in as short a time as might be, Cronje renewed the bombardment, firing hundreds of shells into the town within the next thirty-six hours. Then Cronje wrote again, telling Baden-Powell that he had better surrender, for he was bringing a heavy siege gun to bear upon the town, and would shortly blow it all to pieces. Baden-Powell replied that he thanked General Cronje for the news, and would give him some information in return. He then went on to say that the town was surrounded by mines, which could be exploded automatically, that he had placed a yellow flag above the building in which the Boer prisoners were confined in order to give General Cronje information of his friends’ exact whereabouts, and finally that the persistent shelling of the women’s and children’s laager would make a precedent for the British army which would eventually invade the Transvaal. Cronje replied to this budget of very pertinent information by a renewed shelling of the town, this time doing a good deal of damage.
An every-day Scene in the Market.
On October 27th a brilliant passage of arms took place. Captain FitzClarence, taking some men of the Protectorate Regiment and of the Cape Police, made an attack by night upon the enemy’s trenches, and gave the Boers a taste of the bayonet. Over one hundred of the enemy were killed on this occasion, the British loss being very slight indeed. The trenches upon which the attack had been made were taken, but were found to be untenable. Four days later there was another fine bit of fighting at Cannon Kopje, the key of the British position, which was resolutely attacked by the Boers early in the morning. The British South African Police, commanded by Colonel Walford, met this attack—which was made under cover of very heavy gun fire—with splendid resolution, and finally beat the Boers off with heavy loss on both sides. It must have become increasingly evident to Cronje that Mafeking was not to be taken so easily as he had at first anticipated, and that its commander was as capable an exponent of the art of war as he was an amusing and exasperating correspondent.
Whether Baden-Powell thought the corner which had been given him warm enough for his taste one does not know—that it was an extremely busy corner, and that he had many demands upon his time, is certain. He was the brain of the whole town—from him, as from some wonderful reservoir of strength and judgment, went all the various promptings, encouragements, and counsels which made men strong. He was tireless in his labours—those who were with him speak of the marvellous way in which he seemed to bear a thousand things in mind. It is very easy to sit at home and talk of the siege of Mafeking, but there are few people who can at all realize what it must have meant to Baden-Powell to feel himself the head and front of his little force, and that upon his courage and determination everything depended. The contest, as it began, looked so unequal—on one hand stood a little irregular band of some nine hundred men, on the other an army of eight thousand. But great general and bold leader as Cronje is said to be, he had more than met his match in Baden-Powell, who had sat down in the warm corner which he had desired, and had made up his mind that he would keep the English flag flying over it until such times as relief came to him. Let the relief come soon or late, Mafeking must be held against the Boers at all costs.