It seemed as if every one was fighting, not for his own glorification, but for the success of his country's army, and consequently there was little hero-worship.

Individual acts of bravery entitled the fortunate person to have his name mentioned in the _Staats-Courant_, the Government gazette, but hardly any attention was paid to the search for heroes, and only the names of a few men were even chronicled in the columns of that periodical.

One of the bravest men in the Natal campaign was a young Pretoria burgher named Van Gas, who, in his youth, had an accident which made it necessary that his right arm should be amputated at the elbow.

Later in life he was injured in one of the native wars and the upper arm was amputated, so that when he joined a commando he had only the left arm.

It was an extraordinary spectacle to observe young Van Gaz holding his carbine between his knees while loading it with cartridges, and quite as strange to see the energy with which he discharged his rifle with one hand.