The country through which they passed was so broken that the troopers led their horses in single file, and would have found themselves helpless in face of any resistance.

Fortunately, Cingolo Hill was very weakly held, and by evening both our horsemen and our infantry had a firm grip upon it, thus turning the extreme left flank of the Boer position.

For once their mountainous fortresses were against them, for a mounted Boer force is so mobile that in an open position, such as faced Methuen, it is very hard and requires great celerity of movement ever to find a flank at all.

On a succession of hills, however, it was evident that some one hill must mark the extreme end of their line, and Buller had found it at Cingolo.

Their answer to this movement was to throw their flank back so as to face the new position.
Even now, however, the Boer leaders had apparently not realised that this was the main attack, or it is possible that the intervention of the river made it difficult for them to send reinforcements.