1900 - Diary of the siege of Mafeking by Edward Ross
Sunday, 25 February
Was unpleasantly awakened this morning by hearing the irregular ping pong of the enemy’s rifles in the brickfields, and wondered if our Sunday rest was going to be marred by the snipers, and also anxious to know if Big Ben was going to drive us again to earth. The latter, thank goodness, did not happen, but the former was kept up until after breakfast-time. The original cause of this being our Cape Boys at Currie’s post, who being within shouting distance of the enemy, poured forth volley after volley of abusive epitaphs at the Boers in their trenches. These Cape Boys are past masters in the art of using vile, filthy language, and they irritated the Boers to such an extent that they returned Mauser bullets in retaliation. In one case seriously wounding one of the boys.
Did some good work today by managing to take six new photos.
Railway gave an excellent concert this afternoon, B.P, giving two very excellent turns. Packed house, a lot over two hundred being in the hall.
Before lunch today the look-out notified the fact that a troop of two or three hundred Boers could be seen having come over the rise at the back of Signal Hill and were making their way towards McMullen’s farm; with them were twelve to fifteen waggons and three pieces of artillery. Eventually the whole crowd were lost to view on the Malmani road. Reinforcements? Or some being driven by Plumer?
A native boy is supposed to have come in this morning from the Boer laager, who states that the Boers have lost communication with the south, that the natives in the Transvaal are rising and looting Boer farms, and that a lot of men have gone away from around Mafeking.
The natives are now getting a bit of their own back and treating the Boers as they treated them. What a dispicable lot the Boers are around here; many of their dastardly traits are much worse than those attributed to the natives.
