What an indescribable burden this camp, with four hundred and sixty waggons and carts, was to me! What a demoralizing effect it had upon the burghers! My patience was sorely tried.

Not only were we prevented from moving rapidly by these hampering waggons, but also, should we have to fight, a number of the burghers would be required to look after them, and so be unable to fire a shot.
We marched to the farm of Mr.Hendrik Serfontein, on Doornspruit, and whilst I was there, waiting for darkness, some burghers, who were not my scouts, brought a report that there were English camps both at Honingspruit and at Kaallaagte.
This alarmed the President and the members of the Government, because, should this report prove true, we should be unable to cross the railway line without hard fighting, and besides there would be a considerable risk of being taken prisoner.
For myself, I did not pay any attention to these burghers.

I relied on my own scouts, and I waited for their reports.

I knew that if there had been any truth in what we had been told, that I should have heard the news already from the men whom I had sent out in the morning in that direction.

At last some of Captain Scheepers' men appeared--he was scouting in front, and Captain Danie Theron in the rear--and reported that the railway line was clear, with the exception that at Honingspruit there were half a dozen tents, and four in the Kaallaagte[63] to the north of Serfontein, and a few small outposts.