They could make no impression, however, upon the steady Irish infantry, and after some hours the arrival of General Hart with reinforcements scattered the assailants, who succeeded in getting their guns away in safety.
At the beginning of August it must be confessed that the general situation in the Transvaal was not reassuring.

Springs near Johannesburg had in some inexplicable way, without fighting, fallen into the hands of the enemy.

Klerksdorp, an important place in the south-west, had also been reoccupied, and a handful of men who garrisoned it had been made prisoners without resistance.

Rustenburg was about to be abandoned, and the British were known to be falling back from Zeerust and Otto's Hoop, concentrating upon Mafeking.

The sequel proved however, that there was no cause for uneasiness in all this.