Page 191 - The Diary of A. H. W. Behrens

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1901
left everything and went. The people carried everything back inside. When the wagons with the Englishmen arrived where we were I asked for permission to see my family. An armed soldier had to accompany me. I asked for milk from my cows for the children, this was refused although there were 11
cows to be milked. Theodor and I had spent the night sitting
up straight on the cart, guarded by an armed soldier who had made his bedstead next to a wheel and then checked every now and again whether the “boers” were still there. It was January and there was dew and my two unsalted horses ate the wet grass and within one week one of them had apparently already died.
We carried on across stones and bumps with no roads across the plane to Selikatsnek and on the other side of the nek we again set up camp, from there to Pretoria through Irene, where we were given tents and where we came to live among many boer families. On Sunday I held a service for them under
large willow trees and preached on the text, “Be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer” etc. (Romans 12).
We were given moist wood to cook and rations, looked for stones and made a small oven. More and more boer families were brought, from whom everything had been taken and whose houses had been burnt down. Our livestock, wagon and oxen had been kept in Pretoria.