Page 193 - The Diary of A. H. W. Behrens

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1901
On an (open) wagon Schepmann, Meyer and Friedenthal also arrived.
In the second week when the livestock died of a lung epidemic and was only buried shallowly etc. etc. I went to the captain
in charge of the concentration camp, described our situation to him and asked him for a letter and permission to go to Pretoria to the Military Governor Maxwell. He received me friendly and gave us the permission to settle in Pretoria. There we were given a house that we first had to clean from all the dirt and where we were then all accommodated. In the Irene Camp many people died because all kinds of diseases broke out.
I went to Provost Marshall and asked that we missionaries would be allowed to return home. Permission was granted. But when I also asked for sustenance because our houses had been plundered by the “Australian bushmen” under General Paget,
I was forbidden to take any food! Under these circumstances
I could impossibly return with my family because we were all still weak from malaria. Schepmann and Meyer accepted to return to their families in Berseba without food because only they had been led away. So I asked for our horse cart with eight oxen that were in Pretoria and the three of us drove to Bethanie in order to organise our things, to fetch books etc. and to bring them to Pretoria so that they would be safe. This was permitted.