This journey was to throw Churchill into the public arena for the first time. He reached Cape Town on the 31st October (in the capacity of War Correspondent for the Daily Mail) and 15 days later on the 15th November he was ambushed and captured by the Boers on his way to Colenso. He was taken as a prisoner-of-war to Pretoria from whence he made his dramatic escape on the 12th December, arriving safely back to a hero's welcome on the Portuguese side of the border on the 21st of December.