Page 187 - The Diary of A. H. W. Behrens

88
1901
A convoy under a British general suddenly came from Magaliesberg to Bethanie, threateningly set up his canons opposite the Bethanie village and said that he had come to destroy the mill. Upon my request he was satisfied by removing irreplaceable machine parts and moved off after having mixed all available wheat with dirt on the street. All weapons had to be handed over in Bethanie and were brought to Rustenburg on two wagons. 1900 was a very unsettling year! Every now and again I hid private, congregation and school money at different places in the floor and waited to see what the future would hold for us. We also hid all kinds of food, lights, salt, sugar and other things. 1901
It was on 6 January, Epiphany, the first bells had rung, I wanted to go to the church, when Theodor came running: “Father, the English are coming!” Correct, the first horse-riders had just reached the stream. Nobody had known anything about this. Two riders, one officer and the regiment’s pastor, stopped in front of my house and said that they would give me fifteen minutes to get ready, I would have to come along on foot or on horseback or with a cart, the son would have to come along. I had my horses harnessed, took whatever came to my mind and off we went,
out of the village on the top end where the entire convey had
set up camp. There the horses were unharnessed and we were commanded to stay seated. I asked the officer whether they did not have a pastor of the regiment to whom I could speak. He was called and I explained to him the entire situation