THE ADVENTURES AND EXPERIENCES OF J. D. KESTELL CHAPLAIN TO PRESIDENT STEYN AND GENERAL CHRISTIAN DE WET METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON 1903 Colonial Library TO MY WIFE WHO WAS ONE OF THE THOUSANDS WHO ENDURED IN THE GREAT STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM, I DEDICATE THIS BOOK AND WITH HER I COMMEMORATE HERE THE FIDELITY AND PATRIOTISM OF HIM WHO WAS MY COMRADE IN THE FIELD, AND WHO DIED IN THE SPRINGTIDE OF HIS LIFE, A PRISONER OF WAR, AT LADYSMITH, NATAL Our Son , CHARLES KESTELL...

I purpose to chronicle in the following pages my experiences of the war between the Boers and the English. It is my object to record what I went through on commando, and to give the reader an idea, according to my own observation, of the struggles and sufferings of a small nation against the overwhelming odds of an Empire—nay, against the world itself. For was it not against the world that the little nation fought? Think of it. Not only did England have 240,000 men in the field against 45,000 of

This second part of my notes, like the first, is not cast in the form of a journal. The reason is that my diary was lost on the 6th of June 1901 at Graspan, near Reitz, where I was captured by the English and remained in their hands for seven hours. [2] I escaped with nothing more than the clothes on my back. When, some days after, I arrived at Fouriesburg I began to rewrite what I could recollect, and succeeded in this better than might have been expected. I prepared a calendar of the Sundays,

"Will this lead to peace?" the burghers asked one another, when, on 27th March, the news spread through the commandos that there were messengers from Acting President Schalk Burger seeking President Steyn. The messengers, it was said, had a safe-conduct from Lord Kitchener, and were provided with horses and rations by the English in order to be able to travel rapidly. I got all the particulars when I returned to the laager of the President on the following morning (Good Friday). Our Government h