About half way through we passed a farm with a large dam, and here there were numerous indications of the recent presence of a large body of Boers with their wagons, as the ground was covered for some space with hoofmarks, remains of fires, cartridge papers, etc. This laager had been immediately in rear of the final Boer position, which we passed, black and frowning, on our left; from the front it was steep and impassable and covered with huge rocks; on top, the hill sloped to the rear, and the descent on the enemy's side was easy, so that the position presented many points in favour of the Boers.
On either side of the defile, or pass, at this point were huge ravines covered with black rocks, running up into the hills: one of these ravines on our left was recognised as being the one which had lain between us and the enemy, and just beyond it was the hill which we had occupied.
We were now just clearing the defile, and the position revealed itself to us in all its massive strength: on the right it ran back for miles, a huge wall of rock, black and glistening, and rising almost sheer out of the plain, but with a low glacis of grassy veldt in front; on the left the position was more in the nature of a range of grass covered hills, with some broken ground and a few isolated kopjes in front. This was the ground that we had manoeuvred over on the two previous days, and, having now passed through the Boer position in two places, we were quite at a loss to understand why they did not make a better stand, and we thought ourselves very fortunate in having escaped with the moderate loss that we had experienced.
The road to Pretoria wound off to the right, and passed for some miles at the base of this precipitous range of rocks, which continued to run in a northerly direction towards Pretoria.
We camped at night at the foot of these hills, at a farm called Schwartz Kopje; from here the range became lower and lower until it merged into the hills round Pretoria.
Around us were many farms, and some country houses belonging to Pretoria people, whilst a few miles to the north lay the railway line, and a large distillery at a spot called Eerstefabrieken.
Lord Roberts wired to the War Office on the 14th of June as follows:--