THE WAR UN SOUTH AFRICA.

Evening Star, Issue 4288, 23 November 1876, Page 4

THE WAR UN SOUTH AFRICA.

The following telegram has been re? ceived from Governor . Sir Hehryf Barkly, G.C. M G., K. 0.8., via Madeira, dated Cape Town, September 1, 1876 : —“ Transvaal news confirmed. All quiet here. Plymouth, September ,19. —The African brings news from Cjape Town to August 26. A telegram from Kimberley, dated August 25, published there, gives the following details of the defeat of the Transvaal forces under President Burgers:—“On August 2 President Burgers, with 2,000 whites, 900 Mapochs, and one cannon, advanced on the town. The attack commenced midnight, the President’s force being divided into two columns. The eastern column, under Jonbers and Yan der Tenter, behaved well, scaled the mountains to the north-east of the otadt, and remained under fire, losing two whites. The losses sustained by the blacks are not mentioned. The right wing, under Pretorius and Smith, with whom were the Mapoch Kaffirs, behaved badly. All their officers have since been tried by court-martial, and fined various sums, from L2 10s to L 5, for neglect of duty. The right must nearly have entered the town j but the main body did not even strive to en g a g e the enemy, leaving to about forty men the brunt of the affair, in which not one man seems to have been killed. When these forty found themselves unsupported by the right they retired, .as also did the eastern division. The retreat, although not interrupted, was a hasty one, and tended to increase the present demoralisation. The men were mutinous, many grumbling at the commissariat, which was defectively organised. President Burgers ordered torts to be built, one at Steel Port and one at Magali, and offered land to men willing to remain. Many refused to work, and others deserted. One officer marched off with 500 picked men to work his way down to Hydenburg, now become an exposed - point. President Burgers has determined upon a protracted system of war, to be maintained by sending monthly reliefs to occupy the border in connection with the forts.