Bloemfontain, June 24 [1900]

Dear Sager,

I received your kind letter dated May 13, some days ago, and was of course glad to hear from you. I expect you had a big time on the 24th of May, if, as you expected, the 7th of London were with you. Berger is here. McLean, who was wounded, has, I understand, gone down country. Dan is either at Naauwpoort or Wynberg, I do not know which. I have written him twice but so far, have had no reply. The nights are bitterly cold, although the days continue fairly warm; we get heavy frosts every night, which is not altogether pleasant for sleeping out. I would much prefer the heat for my part, but of course, we must take what comes. There is lots of fever here and the deaths, I am told, number over two thousand. I should think, however, the cold weather should modify it somewhat. I am pleased to note that you are having good parades, although of course, they will be over by this time. The attendance at rifle practice is certainly very encouraging. The war seems to drag slowly on. It would be useless for me to try to give any opinion, as to when it will end, as there seems to be an endless number of unforeseen incidents occurring, which all tend to prolong it. There is however one certainty and that is the end is approaching. I do not know whether I shall have enough men to form a band or not for going home. I am not very particular anyway, as I cannot get much satisfaction out of the old tin-pots provided as instruments. The Boers captured 2,000 bags of mail on the 7th inst., just north of here and if Oxtaby sent that tobacco, I expect they would have a smoke of Canadian tobacco. I am in pretty good health. Kindly remember me to all the boys in the mess also to any of the band that you see.

Yours truly

A. C. Tresham