men were sent to intercept the party and to take charge of the prisoners. Before they left, Sgt. Wrench was reminded by BVC Corporal Albert van der Westhuizen, an Afrikaner "joiner", that Morant had ordered that no more prisoners were to be brought in, as the Troopers would then have to share their rations with them. After taking command of the prisoners, Sgt. Wrench and his patrol had made it as far as the Elim Hospital when they were met by Lts. Morant, Handcock, and Witton, along with Sgt.-Maj. Hammett and Troopers A.W.M. Thompson and A. Ducket. Lt. Morant ordered Sgt. Wrench and his patrol to return to Fort Edward as an advance guard. Lt. Morant told Sgt. Wrench's patrol to ride on about a mile ahead. Morant also said, "If you hear shots in front of you gallop back to the wagon." According to BVC Trooper Albert van der Westhuizen, "He told us to scout as we went along as a large number of Boers were close at hand. We did not scout, as we knew this all to be moonshine." As they stopped at Elim Hospital, the Troopers were noticed by Rev. Carl August Daniel Heese of the Berlin Missionary Society's Station at Potgietersrus. At the request of a senior Australian Intelligence Officer named Captain Frederick de Bertodano, Rev. Heese and his driver, a member of the Southern Ndebele people, had travelled from Potgietersrus in to bring Mr. Craig, a British shopkeeper and Army Intelligence Scout, to be treated at the Elim Hospital. But as Rev. Heese and his driver began their journey back home to Potgietersrus, the missionary recognized one of his friends among the eight prisoners. Only four of the eight prisoners were Afrikaners. The rest were Dutch schoolteachers who had come to the Northern Transvaal on a teaching contract funded in Amsterdam. One of them was W.D. Vahrmeijer, the former head teacher at the Emmanuel School in Potgietersrus. In a letter to the Berlin Missionary Society, Rev. Heese's wife Johanna wrote, "As he turned a corner he saw a wagon with 8 Boers who had surrendered—that is given up their arms, and they were now, as they thought, to be taken to some sort of camp. They were guarded by Lieutenants [Morant] and Handcock of the Sweetwaters Camp and some Australian soldiers who were lying in the grass. Rev. Daniel Hesse recognized one of the