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1900 - Diary of the siege of Mafeking by Edward Ross

Friday, 9 March

Another day without a shot from his majesty the "great roar”, although during the day the enemy endeavoured to worry our nerves by elevating him, directing him on different parts and then again depressing the muzzle. There is nothing wrong with their gun and it cannot be want of ammunition, as a waggon-load was seen to arrive there some days ago. The only construction we can put upon their not firing is that since their gunner was shot, there is no one there to undertake the responsibility, although that hardly seems right as they have fired 3 or 4 shots since. Perhaps they are waiting for a man from Pretoria, and in the meantime just let her go now and then to tell us she is still there. These people are very superstitious, and it is possible they cannot get a man to take charge, considering all the gunners attending to Big Ben have been killed or seriously wounded; this we know because they have never returned to duty, with one exception, and he was seen to come limping on crutches.

Today the Boers have been seen digging all round the big gun, possibly cutting draining sluits or else mining it.

In mentioning to one in authority my intention to reserve some Ilford plates to get some pictures of the Boer works surrounding us, if possible later on, I was cautioned to be very careful, as they know all their forts and works are mined. Pleasant occupation to go strolling over unexploded dynamite sky-senders.

There is a lot of talk about the camp that the Boers are gradually trekking away. But B.P. expresses his opinions that this is not correct and that he does not consider they will move for some time yet. However, he says we are all right now that Plumer’s two columns, one at Kanye and the other at Lobatsi, are gradually moving down and that he has train-loads of foodstuffs; as a matter of fact it is believed if absolutely necessary, he could rush through in twenty-four hours, but would probably have to fight hard and possibly lose a lot of men.

The brickfields are still the centre of attraction, gravitation, axle of the earth, etc., etc., as far as we are concerned. The morning exchanges of small ammunition, the evening’s small artillery practice, Lee Enfield and Mauser retaliation and hand-grenade throwing being the continual order of the day. There is also the humorous side of the situation down there as well as the extremely serious. For instance, one of the enemy’s trenches is about 60 yards from the Cape Boys, and as the latter cannot throw the hand-grenades far enough to reach them, they start throwing stones at them, of course both sides lay so low that a bead cannot be drawn on either, so throwing "klips” helps to break the monotony.

A copy of the headlines of the news received on Thursday morning and printed on one of the "Mail slips” was taken down there, fastened round a Mauser bullet and flung over into the trench. I wonder what they think of it, especially the headline "Snyman to be hung”.

The network of saps and trenches down there has become almost a labyrinth, and one of the men humorously asked the officer in command if signboards could not be erected, denoting which are the Boers’ and which our trenches, and a warning be put on them, "Trespassers will be prosecuted". 

This morning through the glass the Boers could be seen passing the time away at their big laager, playing leap-frog, throwing the weight, long jump, etc.

At about 4 in the afternoon, eighteen mounted and fully equipped men left the Boer laager and proceeded northwards; considered to be only a scouting patrol.

The lower class of natives are beginning to suffer the pangs of starvation very severely; one poor devil was found on the south out-skirts of the town this afternoon, terribly emaciated, and had to be carried to the hospital where they gave him a good feed.

Two old natives were arrested today for stealing a horse and killing it. When found they had already eaten more than half of the animal, the stench of which I am told would have driven even a dog away, but hunger had given these almost inhuman wretches the stomach of the carnivorous aasvogel. I wish Mark Twain was here, not that I wish him any harm, but I should very much enjoy a satirical chapter on siege matters from his pen.

The lies the Boer spy natives told yesterday about it being the intention of the enemy to leave the neighbourhood today having proved false has got the boys into serious trouble. They will be duly tried.