Some very interesting figures have been published this week in
regard to the numbers of the Boers. The original estimates placed the forces of the Transvaal at about 30,000 men, and those of the Orange Free State at 22,000, a total of 52,000. In addition there were the foreign legion and the Cape rebels. It now appears that the total Boer force exceeded 80,000, of whom at least 11,000 were killed and wounded. The prisoners and previously surrendered Boers number about 51,000, and the final surrender accounts for 18,000. In addition there must be Considerable number of men who managed to get back into cape Colony without being detected, and further, a good body of men who have managed to "lie low" in different parts of the vast theatre of war. But even if the total is only 80,000 men, the magnitude of the task we undertook in the year 1899 is sufficiently obvious. To overcome 80,000 mounted men in their own country some six thousand miles away from your base is something to be proud of.
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