[Illustration: Gordon Highlanders entering Pretoria, June 5, 1900.]
[Illustration: Types of the crowd who watched the British entry.]
During the first few days of the occupation Lord Roberts started the machinery of his wonderful government, and in a very short time everything was running smoothly. All stores and storehouses were put under guard and the contents commandeered for military use; although, when the stock was the property of private individuals, a good price was paid for it. If the burghers had had sufficient presence of mind or the inclination to destroy all the stores in Pretoria, the army under Lord Roberts would have been not only seriously embarrassed, but in a very critical condition. As it was, a sufficient quantity of Boer rations was left to keep the British going until the railroad was opened. In one building enough forage had been left by the Boers to keep the stock supplied until more could arrive. A single match would have prevented this, but one of the Boer commandants said regarding it, “Oh, it would be such a wanton destruction of property!” They preferred to allow it all to fall into the hands of their enemies than to burn it. If they had destroyed it the horses would have had practically nothing to eat, and all operations would necessarily have been stopped.
A corps of correspondents came in with Roberts’s army, and they were all very anxious to hear of the events that had occurred on the Boer side. Mr. Dinwiddie, of _Harper’s Weekly_, was one of the first in Pretoria; he had but recently come over from the Philippines, where he had been with General Lawton, but he had seen all the British advance since Bloemfontein. I had last seen him during the Cuban campaign. Another veteran of the Santiago campaign was Mr. Atkins, of the Manchester _Guardian_. The famous war correspondent, Mr. Bennett Burleigh, was also among the first to arrive. He is one of the oldest in the profession, and before he began writing he fought with the Confederacy during our Civil War. Mr. Barnes and Mr. Jenkins were two more of the American correspondents, although they were representing English papers.
Some of the wagons that were used by the correspondents and the _attachés_ were grotesque affairs. One of them was a pie-wagon, with a door in the back; its possessor had cut a hole in the roof and run a stovepipe out so that he could cook in any kind of weather. There were a good many grocers’ wagons, but the most common conveyance was the two-wheeled Cape cart.