At the beginning of March Cronje's Burgers came to Simonstown and were put on ships where measles and typhus soon broke out.

After thirty men had died, 120 men from the Mongolian were brought into our camp and an equal number of us, including myself, were brought on board in their place on 26th March. We found the people there wrongly in an indescribable dirty and sickly situation in which we very soon shared. There was no satisfactory method to wash clothes and there was no soap provided. We were packed like herrings and only allowed on deck for the eight o'clock meal. Here there was no space for movement - there was only room to stand but we had fresh air, while below the air was poisonous. The hooks for the hammocks were only 45 cm apart. So you can appreciate how we lay,

On 2nd April I also became sick, feverish and unable to sleep and I was brought to hospital at the back of the ship.Even more people died. Then at last we were brought back on 9th April, I to a hospital tent. Here I received good news on the 11th and this with the pure air gave me such a speedy recovery that I could be discharged from the hospital on the 15th.

At any rate a great anxiety disappeared about the upkeep of my health during imprisonment. On 24th April we marched through Simonstown to the station and for the first time in six months I saw women and children. We were packed in cattle wagons and went by rail to Cape Town where we went on board the Bavarian. The next day the anchor was weighed and we (1100 men) left for St Helena. The Bavarian is a good ship, it rolls a little but it was again very full. We could actually always be on deck where we also wanted to sleep, although below was not so fetid as the Mongolian. However for physical exercise there was no space. Then on 1st May the anchor was dropped at Jamestown, the only landing place here.

Here we lay until 18th May and this was a tedious time. The whole day men saw opposite only the perpendicular grey rocks and one warship. We went the same way as I had followed eleven months ago to Napoleon's cemetery when I was enroute to Pretoria. The way went always up towards the mountains and two thirds of us were so weakened that we had to rest before five miles at a place where I had rested for the first time the previous year.

I personally however, although thin, remained still strong and although 1 was wearing heavy English soldier's shoes, am somewhat dispirited.

We live in tents not far from Napoleon's house in a spacious camp. It is now winter but very mild, similar to Naples. The food is restricted but healthy. There is also a little shop in the camp where flour, rice, butter and such foodstuffs are sold, also tobacco but which costs £3.30 (?) per English pound and thus is too dear for nearly everyone. High import duties are the cause. About us are farming lands and mountains.

Here now are General Cronje, all the officers and 1700 to 1600 Transvaal Burgers. The rest are with the Free Staters in Green Point near Cape Town. I now believed all what I and my partners politely mentioned to have what I may mention, and end in the hope that you will receive this in good well-being.
Your very Noble Protestant Servant
J.M.Mante

Prisoner of War Island of St Helena

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