And they had their agents, who gave them their intelligence through thick and thin.

I locked up everybody who I thought could go and tell, but somehow or other the intelligence went on." The Boer was an effective scout because he was familiar with the country, and because his eyes were far better than those of any of the men against whom he was pitted.

The South African atmosphere is extraordinarily clear, and every person has a long range of vision, but the Boer, who was accustomed to the climatic conditions, could distinguish between Boer and Briton where the stranger could barely see a moving object.

Field-glasses were almost valueless to Boer scouts, and few of them were carried by any one except the generals and commandants, who secured them from the War Department before the beginning of the war.

There was no distinct branch of the army whose exclusive duty it was to scout, and there was even greater lack of organisation in the matter of securing information concerning the movements of the enemy than in the other departments of the army's work.