Portuguese transport Benguela transporting British Boer prisoners according to the Dutch newspaper Vlissingse Courant dated 19 April 1901

An item reported that according to the doctor Van Engelen (1) who returned from Lisbon to the Netherlands the treatment of the Boers on board of the Portuguese transport Benguela was not as worse as was claimed.(2) Their stay in the camps around Lisbon was made as comfortable as possible. The medical care was such well that sending of a Dutch ambulance was not necessary. The prisoners got plenty food, each Boer a grant of eight cent and their officers even more. Tobacco, pipes, matches, and soap were still more as welcome.(3)

Notes

1.This must be André Hendrik Cornelis van Engelen, born 25 March 1871 at The Hague and who served between 1900 and 1901 in Transvaal as chief of a Dutch Red Cross ambulance.

2. The Second Boer War found place between 11 October 1899 and 31 May 1902 and ended in a defeat of the Boers and regaining British sovereignty of the Orange Free State and South African Republic (Transvaal). In 1920 became the Union of South Africa part of the Commonwealth.

3. The newspaper De Zeeuw dated 8 July 1902 reported that according to tidings received from Lisbon the Boers at Peniche had made an oath of allegiance to the British government and were to leave Lisbon on the 10^th on board of a British transport towards Cape Town. The newspaper Zierikzeesche Nieuwsbode dated 19 July published an item dated Madrid 17 July and reported that around 1,000 Boers were to leave Lisbon on board of the British transport Orotava which ship earlier brought Lord Kitchener back to England. Responsible for the execution of this transport were British agents and the Boers leaders Kock and Greyling.