President Steyn had expressed a wish to go with us.
We marched on with the intention of crossing the railway line somewhere near Winburg.

On the morning of the 5th we arrived at Bothaville, where we found General Froneman, who had been marching with the commandos from Rhenoster River.

Little did we know that a terrible misfortune was awaiting us.
That very afternoon a strong English force, which indeed had been in pursuit of us all the time, came up, and a skirmish took place, after which the English withdrew out of reach of our guns, while we took up a position under cover of the nearest hill.

Without suspecting any harm we went into camp about seven miles from the English, keeping the Valsch River between us and them.
I placed an outpost that night close to the river and told them to stay there till the following day.

The burghers of this watch returned in the morning and reported that they had seen nothing but wreaths of smoke ascending from the north bank of the river.