I Fail to Enter Cape Colony The enemy gave us plenty of time in which to effect our escape, and by nightfall we had abandoned our positions at Platkop.

Taking with us the prisoners of war (whom I intended to set free on the far side of the Orange River), we marched towards Vaalbank, arriving there on the following morning.

That day the English attacked us unawares.

While I was at Dewetsdorp, Captain Pretorius had come up to give me a report of his recent doings.

I had sent him, two months previously, from the district of Heilbron to Fauresmith and Philippolis, in order to fetch two or three hundred horses from those districts; he had told me that he had brought the horses, and that they were with his 200 men at Droogfontein.
It was about eight o'clock in the morning after our night march that our outpost at Vaalbank saw a mounted commando riding from Beijersberg in the direction of Reddersburg.