We had some rough times of it before we relieved Ladysmith but thank God our endeavours were crowned with success. We fairly thrashed the Boers out of Colenso & they won't forget either in a hurry. I went over the battlefield the next morning after the fighting and from what I could see the fire from our artillary must have been a perfect Hell. Lyddite, shrapnel, & shrapnel bullets were lying about on the ground as thick as rice after a wedding. We advanced on to Ladysmith but alas the Boers had disappeared like ghosts except they left tons of flour, thousands upon thousands of rounds of ammunition, wagon, rifles, tents, boxes of Creusot shells and pom-poms & c-c. They had to go in a hurry for we found ever so many wagons had been abandoned through them sticking in the mud. Since then we have done very little, only once being on a fortnight's patrol around Van Reenen's & De Beers Passes. At the latter place we lost 2 men they having walked right into the Boer lines and and were shot before they could get out of the road. For my part I would far rather go into a pitched battle than patrol as one never knows when he is going into a trap, so you may be sure it takes us all our time to keep our eyes skinned.
