A well-planned and completely successful feat of arms is reported
from the Western Frontier. On New Year's Eve Lieutenant-Colonel Pilcher left Belmont with a small flying column of about seven hundred men, including two hundred Queenslanders and one hundred Canadians, camping at sun- set after a forced march to the north-west of twenty miles, and, after taking the sensible precaution of shutting up all the natives in the neighbourhood of the camp, surprised the Boer laager at Sunnyside, about thirty miles from Belmont, at 6 a.m. next morning. The enemy, shelled out of their laager, took up a strong position on the neighbouring kopjes. After several hours' hard fighting, in which the Torontos and Queenslanders greatly distinguished themselves, the position was taken with a quantity of stores and some forty prisoners. Our losses were small, the casualties being confined to the Colonials, who bore the brunt of the engagement. Colonel Pilcher occupied his entrenched position that evening, and next day marched into Douglas—some fifteen miles further west—where he was greeted with great enthusiasm by the loyalists. The defeated commando, it is stated, was composed of Colonial Dutch, who for the last six weeks had been governing the country, but who have now cleared out of the district with their women and children. Colonel Filcher has since returned to Belmont with the loyalist refugees from Douglas ; the Canadians, who acted as escort, carrying the babies for the women and enlivening the column by singing as they marched.
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