A LETTER FROM SOUTH AFRICA

In his last letter to his parents at Middlemiss, Trooper J.A. DeCow, of the South Africa Constabulary, writing from Hoopstadt on March 4, tells of the death of the troop sergeant-major from enteric fever, making the second non-com. of that rank to die since the troop left Halifax. The day of writing was the first anniversary of DeCow's leaving home, and while he was fond of life on the veldt, he was looking forward to his return to Canada, two years hence. DeCow also writes of a roundup near Harrismith, in the Orange River Colony, in which the British killed 36, including a brother of General Philip Botha, captured De Wet's son and 600 other Boers, together with 2,000 horses, 28,000 cattle, 60,000 sheep, 200 wagons, 50,000 rounds of ammunition and 600 rifles. Troop 19, of the Constabulary, with which DeCow is connected, was out for three days and took 13 prisoners and 400 cattle. "We had a fine soaking on each of the days," writes the trooper, "It rained heavily, and we were outside through it all. But we are used to these things by this time. When we get back to camp after an excursion like this we soon forget about the discomforts and are ready for it again, for the harder we work the sooner the war will be over."