Commandant Mentz was, like myself, enclosed in the "drive," but some distance away.
General Wessels, Commandant Beukes, and some of the Bethlehem burghers were in the same predicament to the west of us.

I did not know for certain where these officers were placed, and therefore I could not inform them of my plan to break through that night, for I had only come to this determination after the sun had set.

But I felt sure that they would at all costs make their way through the cordon.[104] Commandant Jan Meijer had met me at Brakfontein, but one party of his burghers was still six miles to the south.

When I decided to break through, I sent him orders to follow me; and this he was quite capable of doing, as he was well acquainted with this part of the country.

My orders were that the mounted men were to proceed in advance, taking with them my little waggon drawn by eight mules.
This waggon had accompanied me into Cape Colony, and since that time--for fourteen weary months--had never left me.