Before this Roberts had initiated a move ment from Pretoria to sweep down to Komati Poort on the Por tuguese frontier, in which Buller, advancing across country from the south. was to co-operate. On Sept 25 Komati Poort was occupied by Roberts's troops. From October the military opera tions were confined to attempts to reduce guerrilla commandos which had taken the field. Kruger, deserting his countrymen, left for Europe in a Dutch man-of-war, and Buller sailed home. The Boer leaders definitely decided upon a guerrilla policy, deliberately dispersed their field army, and then swelled and multiplied the innumerable local commandos. On Oct. 25 the ceremony of an nexing the Transvaal was performed at Pretoria.
The prevailing opinion was that the war was over, and Roberts left South Africa, handing over the command to Lord Kitchener. Then followed a long pe riod of groping for a means to cope with the development of guerrilla tactics, which for the next six months were at their zenith. The railway communications were constantly damaged, isolated posts and convoys captured, and the raiders always seemed able to avoid contact with the columns sent in pursuit. De Wet, after escaping from Brandwater Basin, was hunted north-westward, and crossed into the Transvaal, where, joining the local guerrilla bands, he surrounded an infantry brigade at Fredrikstad. But, unable to reduce it, and threatened on all sides, he turned back. On Nov. 6 he was severely handled and his guns and wagons captured at Bothaville. But this misadventure only stimulated him. His emissaries roused the Free Staters west of Bloemfontein, and disaffection broke out in Cape Colony to an alarming degree, while, as forerunners of the promised in vasion, scattered bodies of Free Staters crossed the Orange river to swell the rebellion. From Bothaville De Wet made for Thaba Nchu, where the Bloemfontein garrison held a cordon of posts. He passed through this and on to Bethulie, capturing Dewets dorp and Soo men en route. Pursued closely and finding the rivers in flood De Wet hid some of his men under Kritzinger near the Orange and himself doubled back, traversing again the line of posts east of Bloemfontein. Kritzinger, Hertzog and bodies of Cape rebels raided Cape Colony as soon as they were able to cross the Orange, and Hertzog penetrated so far that he exchanged shots on the Atlantic coast with a British warship. All that the
British forces could do was to localize the raids and to prevent the spread of rebellion. Botha meanwhile held his own in the northern Transvaal, attacked the railway posts on the Middel burg railway and captured Helvetia. De la Rey operated suc cessfully and scathelessly in the western Transvaal, in concert with Beyers. Kitchener called for more men, and on Dec. 22 the War Office announced that 30,00o more mounted men would be despatched to the seat of war.
With the opening of 19oi Kitchener tried new schemes. He withdrew all his detached garrisons except in the most important centres, and set himself to make his rail way communications secure. He determined to make the area of operations a waste, and instituted the concentration camps, into which he intended to bring the whole of the noncombatant in habitants of the two republics.
Although there were no great disasters, the new policy was not prolific in success. The enemy invariably dispersed before superior forces, and the removal of the women and children from the farms did not have the effect of disheartening the burghers as had been anticipated—it rather mended their vitality by re lieving them of responsibility for their families' welfare.
On Feb. 10 De Wet, with five guns and 3,00o men, carried out his promised invasion of Cape Colony. Passing the Bloem fontein-Thaba Nchu cordon a third time, he crossed the Orange to join Hertzog and rouse the Cape Dutch. But this invasion failed. By judicious use of the railway Kitchener concentrated sufficient troops in the Colony to cope with the attempt, and, after being hunted for 18 days, De Wet escaped into the Orange River Colony with the loss of all his guns, munitions and half his force. In the northern Transvaal a force under Sir Bindon Blood cleared the country, but could not prevent Viljoen from escaping eastward to join Botha. Botha's activity in the south-east caused Kitchener to despatch thither a large force under French. This swept the country up to the Swaziland border, but Botha escaped. On March 3, after various raids, De la Rey, the lion of the west ern Transvaal, essayed an attack upon Lichtenburg, in which he was heavily repulsed. Signs of weakness were now apparent, anu as a result Louis Botha, acting with the authority of Schalk.