On the 5th of August he had made his way to Rustenburg and drove off the investing force.

A smaller siege had been going on to westward, where at Elands River another Mafeking man, Colonel Hore, had been held up by the burghers.

For some days it was feared, and even officially announced, that the garrison had surrendered.

It was known that an attempt by Carrington to relieve the place on August 5th had been beaten back, and that the state of the country appeared so threatening that he had been compelled, or had imagined himself to be compelled, to retreat as far as Mafeking, evacuating Zeerust and Otto's Hoop, abandoning the considerable stores which were collected at those places.

In spite of all these sinister indications the garrison was still holding its own, and on August 16th it was relieved by Lord Kitchener.
This stand at Brakfontein on the Elands River appears to have been one of the very finest deeds of arms of the war.