As soon as we had crossed over the first piece of rising ground, I halted my men, and ordered them to leave their horses out of sight of the enemy, and to return to the brow of the hill, so as to be able to fire into the forts on the right and left hand, which were from eight hundred to nine hundred paces from us.

From this hill we kept up as fierce a fire as we could, and this to a great extent prevented the enemy in those forts from firing on our burghers who were still coming on in a long train.
It is necessary, in order that the reader may understand the task which we had set ourselves to accomplish, to say a few words about Springhaansnek.

At either side of the way by which we must pass, there were two strong forts, at a distance of from a thousand to twelve hundred paces from each other.

In the space between them there was absolutely no cover; and the distance from the point where the burghers were first visible to the men in these forts, to the point where they again disappeared from view, was at least three thousand paces.
Over these terrible three thousand paces our burghers raced, while a storm of bullets was poured in upon them from both sides.

And of all that force--eight thousand strong--no single man was killed, and only one was wounded! Our marvellous escape can only be described to the providence and irresistible protection of Almighty God, who kept His hand graciously over us.
What the enemy's loss was I never heard.
In addition to the burghers, a few carts and waggons, as well as one of the two guns which had been taken at Dewetsdorp, got safely through the English lines.