The Transvaal.

Manawatu Herald, 22 May 1900, Page 2

The Transvaal.

RELIEF OF MAFEKING.

News has been received of the relief of Mafeking

Details of the relief show that the flying column, with spare horses and light mule waggons carrying the baggage, left Kimberley secretly via Barkly West. The troops marched rapidly northwards, leaving Taungs and Vryburg to the right, completely nonplussing the Boers who were in the vicinity, as they retired to the eastward.

A few Boers who were afterwards met with were captured, and numbers of cattle were also secured.

The column marched twenty miles daily, and reached Maretsahi (twentyfive miles south of Maieking) on the eleventh day, without incident. The telegraphist at Malopolole (in Becbuanaland) has reported that there was sharp fighting in progress around Mateking on Thursday.

It was officially announced at Pretoria on Friday that the laagers and forts around Mafeking had been severely bombarded, and that the Boer troops in the vicinity having abandoned the siege, a British force from the south had entered the town.

The mention of the laagers is interpreted to mean that the relief force

was the attacking party, and compelled the Boers to raise the siege.

It is stated by the Delagoa Bay correspondent of the Daily News that eighty of the German Corps were killed at Mafeking. The telegram from Renter's agent at Pretoria announcing the relief of Mafeking is confirmed unofficially from other sources.

From these it appears that Major Baden-Powell, brother of the hero of Mafeking, accompanied the relief column, which was fifteen hundred strong, and entered the town unopposed on Wednesday. The Boers investing the position withdrew.