The opening of the year saw the mobile column of Free Staters 150 miles over the border, pushing swiftly south over the barren surface of the Karoo.

It is a country of scattered farms and scanty population; desolate plains curving upwards until they rise into still more desolate mountain ranges.

Moving in a very loose formation over a wide front, the Boers swept southwards.

On or about January 4th they took possession of the small town of Calvinia, which remained their headquarters for more than a month.

From this point their roving bands made their way as far as the seacoast in the Clanwilliam direction, for they expected at Lambert's Bay to meet with a vessel with mercenaries and guns from Europe.