Episode 86 - General Louis Botha grows despondent while Reitz plays cat and mouse with the English

We’ve reached May 1901 and surprisingly, General Louis Botha is trying to reach out to Lord Kitchener who is the British Army commander of the over 240 000 troops in South Africa. Botha wants special permission to send emissaries to Paul Kruger in the Netherlands to ask if a ceasefire could be arranged. But that only happened after Botha and Jan Smuts had collected as much information about the Boers position - and it was a depressing account. They were running out of weapons, ammunition, food, clothing, horses, money, everything as Historian Martin Bossenbroek writes. Could supplies be sent from Europe, through German South West Africa perhaps? Between the two countries was a significant desert, but was traversable - still this was indicative of just how desperate the Boer leadership was. While Generals Koos de la Rey and Christiaan de Wet and the other unconventional leaders were foraying back and forth, the echelon of senior leaders was growing more aware of an unsustainable situation. In the southeastern Transvaal reports emerged of British using Zulu warriors to loot cattle from Boers. There’s an allegation made that British officer Colonel Bottomley sent a letter to King Dinizulu suggesting he send his men into the region to grab cattle and around 6 000 warriors crossed to border between Natal and the Transvaal in May 1901. Meanwhile, far to the north west on the Transvaal border with Bechuanaland - modern day Botswana, Deneys Reitz and a small commando under the leadership of Commandant Jan Kemp were under orders to attack the railway line which was being used to ferry supplies into the Mafikeng. General de la Rey had divided his force into two parties, and took one of these south where he began to engage with British columns. Commandant Jan Kemp led his group westwards, and for two days in mid-May they rode through barren country until they reached a point on the Harts River. British troops could be seen along the River, watching for any Boer movement so they decided to make the crossing at night. Reitz was part of a German scouting unit led by the Johannesburg businessman called Mayer that was sent ahead of the main body, riding through the Cunana Native Reserve all night until four the next morning when they crossed the British border.