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 warbetween the Boers and the English. It is my object to record what I wentthrough on commando, and to give the reader an idea, according to my ownobservation, of the struggles and sufferings of a small nation againstthe 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 against45,000 of the two South African Republics; not only did she have moreguns than the two little States, much more ammunition, a much greateramount of supplies, a great many more horses, much more money—but shehad the world also on her side. The world looked on the strife withoutputting forth a hand to help the weak against the strong: nay, it helpedthe strong. The United States of North America sold horses and wheat(p. 4) and meat to the mighty Empire, that was carrying on a war ofextermination against the two small States in South Africa; theRepublics of South America gave mules; Austria and Russia suppliedhorses. I do not forget, when I say this, the large sympathy which theworld showed us. I should be guilty of the most heinous ingratitude if Idid not acknowledge that the world, and especially Holland, went out ofits way in liberally supplying clothing and large sums of money to ourwomen and children in the concentration camps, and to the prisoners ofwar on the islands. But England had the advantage of a market almostwherever she wished to buy; and she closed up every avenue through whichwe might have been aided. And so the little nation stood alone, whileits great adversary was assisted from the four corners of the earth.
Now I purpose to put on record my experiences in this strife. I will doso as well as I can. What I have to relate, however, will by no means bea history of the war.—We shall not have a history of the war until ourchildren write it.—No, I am not going to write a history: I am going torecord my limited experiences. You will not find here, for instance,anything about the events which happened at Stormberg or Magersfontein,or about the taking of Bloemfontein or Pretoria. I was not present atthose events. Only on that of which I was an eye-witness, or on whattook place in the commando to which I belonged at the time, or what cameto my notice shortly after its occurrence—only on that will I report inthese pages.
But let me tell you before I proceed, that I accompanied the burghersonly as a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. I was never armed. Inever took part in a fight as a soldier. I never meddled with militarymatters. All tha