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 r 
 
 THE BOER WAR 
 
 Its Causes^ and 
 its Interest to 
 Canadians i^-^- 
 
 With a Glossary of Cape Dutch, 
 and Kafir Terms 
 
 By E. B. BIGGAR. 
 
 BIGGAR, SAMUEL & CO. 
 
 TORONTO AND MONTREAL 
 
 1899 
 
 Price, 10 Cents 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
'I'J^!!^^':^:':, 
 
 "iM- 
 
 r^jii 
 
\ 
 
 THE 
 
 BOER WAR 
 
 ITS CAUSES. 
 
 AND ITS INTEREST TO 
 
 CANADIANS 
 
 WITH A 
 
 \ 
 
 GLOSSARY OF CAPE DUTCH 
 
 AND 
 
 KAFIR TERMS 
 
 \ 
 
 BY E. B. BIGGAR 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 BIGGAR. SAMUEL & CO. 
 Toronto and Montreal 
 1899 
 
 
 t-^-.-imfif 
 
 /^^^, 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 As the average Canadian has not had the opportunity of 
 studying the history of South Africa and the causes which have 
 led to the present Boer war, and many are desirous of knowing 
 the facts, the brief sketch here presented may serve a useful pur- 
 pose. The writer spent five years in South Africa, and since 
 his return to Canada has followed events there with close atten- 
 tion. As a believer in the future greatness of both countries, he 
 states his reasons why Canadians should have a personal interest 
 in the struggle now going on in South Africa. 
 
 The term Boer is used throughout the sketch to designate 
 the Dutch inhabitants of the Transvaal, and — except when it is 
 specifically applied — does not refer to the Dutch of the Free 
 State, or our fellow colonists of Dutch origin in the Cape 
 Colony, who are a much more progressive, enlightened and 
 generally well educated people. While reports of the disaffection 
 of the Dutch on the frontier were being circulated the writer 
 could not help being impressed with the meaning of ^'n 'tern in 
 a Cape paper just to hand, which records the departure from 
 Capetown of a batch of young Colonists, all having Dutch 
 names, who were going to England to finish their university 
 education. 
 
 Even, of the Transvaal Boers perhaps the worst that will be 
 said, after the passions of the war have subsided, is that they 
 have been shamefully misled by their too well trusted ruler, 
 
 Toronto, November ist, 1899. 
 
 ^*^ 
 
 •»H,„,:, 
 
 ,*»... 
 
The Boer War' 
 
 ThQ obduracy of the Transvaal Boers and their 
 president in refusing to concede the common rights of 
 man to citizens not of their own race, is tu-ning the at- 
 tention of the civilized world to South Africa and its 
 people, That quarter of the world possesses unusual in- 
 terest to Canadians, not only from the standpoint of im- 
 perial politics, but from its commercial development 
 and its possibilities as a field for Canadian trade. 
 
 The Cape of Good Hope was discovered by 
 Diaz, a Portuguese navigator, six years before Colum- 
 bus landed in America, but though used as a port of 
 call by the Portuguese for a century afterwards, it re- 
 mained for two English captains, in the employ of the 
 East India Company — Shillinge and Fitz^ierbert — to 
 make formal claim of sovereignty in the name of Eng- 
 land in 1620. After some rivalry between the English 
 and the Dutch East India companies, the latter, realiz- 
 ing the salubrity of the climate and the fine soil, sent 
 out an expedition under Jan Van Riebeek — in whose 
 honor the Hon. Cecil Rhodes has recently had a statue 
 erected in Capetown — to make a permanent settlement, 
 and thus began in 1652 the Dutch occupation of the 
 Cape. Little by little the settlements extended back 
 from the Castle on Table Bay, but the life of the set- 
 tlers was the life of white slaves. They were not al- 
 lowed to sell their produce to visiting ships, but could 
 only sell to the company at prices fixed by the company 
 On the other hand, they were not permitted to purchase 
 goods except from the company and at prices fixed, of 
 
 *Tbese Papers are now appearing in the Canadian Engineer, 
 
 ^^■' 
 
4 THE BOER WAR. 
 
 course, by the company. They and the artisans of the 
 town were, moreover, bled at every turn by the com- 
 pany's officials, and if they attempted to complain to 
 headquarters in Holland their complaints were either 
 suppressed altogether, or the complainants wer^ im- 
 prisoned as treasonable persons or otherwise utarked 
 out for persecution. The farmers had no title to the 
 lands they brought under cultivation, and were often 
 ejected after working a lifetime upon their lands. They 
 were plainly told that they held their property by grace 
 of the company. Offences, which now would scarcely 
 come under the criminal code, were visited with death 
 in its most fiendish forms. Crucifixion was a common 
 mode of capital punishment, and another was the tying 
 of the victim with his back on a wheel, where his 
 body was broken, and he was left "a prey to the birds 
 of heaven," The rack and the gallows were the com- 
 mon means of punishing slaves. It is not to be won- 
 dered at that the Dutch settlers sought to escape this 
 tyranny, and from time to time, in spite of threats and 
 the company's claim of jurisdiction, many got beyond 
 the reach of the company, risking the enmity of the 
 natives in their migpration. Thus began the "trekking" 
 of the Boers, which dates back to 1670, and has been a 
 peculiar characteristic of Dutch colonization down to 
 the present day. 
 
 During the upheavals of the French revolution, 
 England felt the necessity of possessing the Cape to 
 save her East Indian trade, and after a feeble resistance 
 the Castle capitulated to Sir James Craig in 1795. At 
 the peace of Anii«:ns m 1803 the Cape was restored to 
 the Dutch, but was imally taken in 1806 by Sir David 
 Baird. The first ta.'le of individual liberty and reason- 
 able goverm.ient t'li joyed by the Cape Dutch was given 
 to them by Great Biitain. With the advent of Britain 
 at the Cape, the Dutch farmers got their first clear titles to 
 land, they get d-«iirict conns-, wher justice was for the 
 first time adniinl&tered with fairness and without the 
 corruption which had made their masters so odious. 
 
 '*?te^^.-« 
 
 "'"liliiii 1 1111(1 f*"*!*^;!^- 
 
 
 ■taaMilH 
 
THE DOER WAR. 
 
 The people got their first regular school system, and 
 their first postal system from their new British rulers, 
 who also did away with the system of punishing 
 offenders by the cross, the wheel, and the rack, those 
 brutal instruments of torture being destroyed at the 
 very outset of the British regime. 
 
 Such, in a few words, was the contrast between 
 British and Dutch rule at the Cape. It is not to be 
 denied that between the Home Government and the 
 colonial rulers many mistakes have been made in the 
 subsequent history of British rule in Sout^ Africa; but 
 more often than otherwise these errors were made 
 through mistaken leniency or mistaken philanthropy 
 towards Boer and native alternately. Perhaps the most 
 unpardonable grievance nursed by the Boers in the 
 present century was the emancipation of the slaves in 
 the Cape Colony in 1834. Many Boers to the present 
 day believe with apparent honesty that a Kafir has no 
 soul, and class him with the wild beasts of the veldt. 
 While other nations besides the United States have 
 freed the slaves without compensation to the slave 
 owners. Great Britain voted to the slave holders of the 
 Cape £1,247,000. This was only half the amount of the 
 appraisement, but it must be remembered that the slaves 
 of the West Indies and other parts of the empire had 
 to be freed at the same time at a total cost of £20,000,000 
 — an enormous sum for those days, and the sublimest 
 exhibition of the awakening of national conscience ever 
 recorded in the history of nations. Though the Boers 
 must have known from the agitation that had been go- 
 ing on in England for the preceding thirty years that 
 the emancipation of slaves must come, there was a 
 great outcry when the amount of compensation was an- 
 nounced, and, to make matters worse, from their stand- 
 point, a horde of self-appointed agents, working on the 
 circumstance that the money had to be paid in London, 
 bought up the claims of the farmers for a mere song 
 in many cases, and the enraged slave-owning farmers 
 trekked into the interior to the number of several 
 
6 THB BOER WAR. 
 
 thousand, founding what is now the Orange Free State, 
 the Transvaal, and a portion of Natal. British settlers 
 had anticipated them in Natal, and after some bloodshed 
 and a few years' hesitancy on the part of the Home 
 Government, British sovereignty was proclaimed over 
 Natal in 1843. Although the British Government had 
 warned the emigrant Boers that they were still British 
 subjects, those who settled in the Free State and the 
 Transvaal were allowed to rule themselves. The Free 
 State was indeed taken under British rule for a number 
 of years, but that rule was withdrawn under the protest of 
 a large minority of the inhabitants, and the State was 
 left an independent Republic in 1854. Under the wise 
 and common-sense rule of the late Sir John Brand, 
 who was president for twenty -five years, the Free 
 State has had till now the best relations, almost unin- 
 terruptedly, with Great Britain and with her colonial 
 neighbors. There was but one serious difficulty and 
 that arose out of the discovery of the diamond fields on 
 the borders of the State in 1867. The land had been 
 owned and was still claimed by a Griqua chief, named 
 Waterboer, and the British Government having bought 
 up his rights, proclaimed the diamond fields British 
 territory in 187 1. The Free State, which had claimed a 
 part of these fields, withdrew under protest, but what- 
 ever the merits of its claims they were generously com- 
 pensated by a payment of £90,000, with which the little 
 State was well satisfied, and with which it built its first 
 railway — a road that stands to-day as the best asset 
 possessed by the State. While the Dutch in thp Free 
 State and Natal, as well as in the Cape, have settled 
 down to a fairly general friendliness towards the British, 
 the history of the Transvaal Boers has been marred by 
 a strong and persistent hatred of British Government 
 ;md people. Peopled largely by the irreconcileables, who 
 had left Natal and the Free State on the advent of the 
 British, and utterly unable or unwilling to understand 
 the British idea of government of the Kafir tribes, they 
 have become the Ishmaels of South African civilization 
 
THE BOBR WAR. J 
 
 — their liand forever against the Kafirs on the one side 
 and against the British on the other. They have so far 
 failed to see the advantages of the golden rule, or to 
 read the signs of the times, that they have perpetuated 
 the same ideas of lordship as those under which their 
 ancestors groaned in the 17th century. In 1877, when 
 the country was in a state of bankruptcy. Sir Thco- 
 philus Shepstone annexed the Transvaal to the British 
 Empire, without active opposition. Whatever may be 
 thought of this step, it was taken with the best inten- 
 tions, and with the desire to save the Boers from the 
 destruction which would have been their fate at the 
 hands of the Zulu King Cctyvvayo. The step once 
 taken, it is now generally realized that a terrible mis- 
 take was made in giving the country back to what has 
 proved a monstrous system of misrule. The British 
 Government, however, gave the Boers just ground of 
 complaint when it left the Transvaal tor three years 
 without any representative institutions, and permitted 
 during that time a military oligarchy, composed of men 
 who gave no consideration to the susceptibilities of the 
 Dutch inhabitants, a large part of whom would have 
 been fairly contented under a system which gave them 
 a voice in the affairs of the country. It was unfortunate 
 that just when the British Government began to be 
 awake to the seriousness of Boer discontent, and were 
 actually considering the constitution framed by Sir 
 Bartle Frere, the flames of rebellion broke out, with the 
 result that the British were defeated in three engage- 
 ments, through the guerilla tactics of the Boer sharp- 
 shooters, and then the Gladstone Government restored 
 the republic under that "suzerainty," which has been 
 ever since a source of misapprehension to the Boers. 
 
 Before alluding, in the next section, to the present 
 condition of affairs in South Africa, it is worth whj"e to 
 remember this teaching of the past, that wherever the 
 British and Dutch have co-operated either in coloni- 
 zation, in politics or commerce, they have both pros- 
 pered. The British possession of the diamond fields 
 
B 
 
 THE BOER WAR. 
 
 was the financial salvation of the Free State; and the 
 British operation of the Transvaal gold fields has lifted 
 that republic from commercial nothingness to a state 
 that has become at once the chief power and the chief 
 danger to the neighboring states and colonies. 
 
 ^^ 
 
 As there exists a g'^eat deal of misconception about 
 the causes of the present war, we shall endeavor to re- 
 view the main facts. 
 
 What led to the annexation of the Transvaal? It 
 was not lust of gold, for only small alluvial diggings 
 had been found as yet, and the great gold reefs of 
 Johannesburg were then as little dreamt of as the Klon- 
 dyke of Canada. It was because the Republic was bank- 
 rupt, 'the Boers in many districts having refused to pay 
 any more taxes, the country reduced to a state of 
 anarchy by the incapacity of its administrators, by fac- 
 tions bitterly antagonistic to each other, and 
 threatening civil war, and the failure of the 
 Boer commandos to subjugate the native Chief 
 Sckukuni, who was bringing other native tribes 
 down upon the territory, the principal danger being 
 threatened by the Zulus, under Cetywayo. This re- 
 nowned Zulu King was anxious to pay oflf old scores 
 with the Boers, who had constantly encroached on his 
 territory, and frequently captured and enslaved his peo- 
 ple and robbed them of their cattle and lands. The British 
 Government might have allowed the Boer Republic to 
 find its own way out of its financial difficulties, but when 
 it came to their relations with the natives there was 
 danger that once the Zulu King had overrun the Trans- 
 vaal, with his 40,000 warriors, he could not restrain his 
 army at that achievement, but it would then turn upon 
 the British colony of Natal, which was neighbor to 
 
 ♦The Government £1 notes or " blue backs " then sold at a shilling/or'say five 
 cents on the dollar; vsrhile the salaries of the civil servants were three months In 
 
 arrears. 
 
 ^Hm 
 
 ttmrn 
 
THE BOER WAR. 
 
 both, and which then had a white population of only 
 30,000, against a native population of 300,000. Under 
 these circumstances, and considering that ? petition for 
 British intervention had already been signed by 3,000 
 out of 8,000 of the voters of the country. Sir 
 Theophilus Shepstone, who had been authorized by the 
 Home Government to act as he thought wise, 
 annexed the country, without any force other 
 than a personal >.'scort of twenty-five mounted police- 
 men. The British then took in hand the conquest of 
 Sekukuni, which the Boers had failed to achieve, and 
 then had to deal with Cetywayo, who, robbed of his 
 revenge upon the Boers, now turned sullen towards the 
 British. The next act in the drama was the great Zulu 
 war, which was fought with no help from the 
 Boers, except that given by a single family, 
 riot Uys, and his sons. These people, for- 
 getting their rescue from certain destruction 
 at the hands of the Zulus, no sooner 
 found this dreadful menace removed, than they began 
 to agitate against British rule. As stated betore, 
 they had one real grievance in the dilatoriness 
 of the Imperial Government in granting them a local 
 legislature; but this at last was being framed when re- 
 bellion was brought about through the enforcement of 
 taxes, which the Boers refused more obstinately to the 
 British than they had done to their own authorities. 
 
 In this rebellion they were led by a man, who, 
 when the history of that land comes to be written, will 
 be set down as the evil genius of the Dutch race in 
 South Africa — Paul Kruger. This man, who was born 
 a British subject in the Cape Colony, first came into 
 prominence among his countrymen as a hunter and 
 fighter — a fighter first against the Kafirs and then 
 against his own people, as well as the English, whom 
 he hates as cordially as the British sailor of Nelson's 
 day did the French and Spaniards. It seems curious 
 that a man of Kruger's pretenses to piety should be so 
 
10 
 
 THE BOER WAR. 
 
 tenacious of liberty and natural rights for himself and 
 his fellow-Boers, and yet refuse the most elementary 
 rights to British people in, his country; and that he, 
 should see nothing but iniquity in Dr. Jameson's 
 quixotic dash to rescue the Outlanders from misgovern- 
 ment, and yet see no wrong in his own invasion of a 
 friendly State with no better motive than a lust of power. 
 Some forty years ago, at a time when the Transvaal 
 and the Orange Free State (a neigliboring Republic, 
 composed of his own fellow-countrymen), were at peace, 
 Paul Kruger formed a plot with M. W. Pretorius, an- 
 other Boer leader, to overthrow the governmrnt of the 
 Free State. While Kruger invaded the country, at the 
 head of a commando, inciting the Free State Boers to 
 rise, as he proceeded, Pretorius was set to instigate 
 the Free State natives to revolt. The Free State forces 
 were, however, brought together in much quicker time 
 than he anticipated, and when Kruger saw himself con- 
 fronted with double the number of cannon his own force 
 had, he discreetly withdrew. 
 
 That Kruger's intrigues during the days of the first 
 Republic were a cause of the country's troubles is shown 
 by the statement of' the last President, Thomas Burgers,* 
 who, referring to the events that led up to the an- 
 nexation, said: "Fruitlessly did I press upon him 
 (Kruger), the fact that by showing how our danger lay 
 in want of unity, the British Government would have 
 cause to step in, on the ground of humanity, to avert 
 
 * In the course of his last address to his Volksraad, President Burgers said : "I 
 would rather be a poli'-eman under a strong government than the President of such 
 a state. ♦ * You i.uve ill-treated the natives, you have shot them down, you have 
 sold them into slavery, and now you have to pay the penalty. * * The fourth point 
 which we have to take into account affects our relations with our English neighbors. 
 It is asked, what have they to do with our position ? I tell you as much as we have to 
 do with that of our Kahr neighbors. As little as we can allow barbarities among the 
 Kafirson our borders, as little can they allow that in a state on their I- >rders anarchy 
 and rebellion should prevail. ♦ * To-Hay a bill for jf r,ioo was laid before me for 
 signatun-, but I would sooner have cut oft my liaht hand than siisn that paper, for I 
 have not the slightest ground to expect that when that bill becomes due there will be 
 a penny to pay it with." President Burgers— who left the Transvaal broken henrted, 
 not because of the annexation, but bi-cause of thei.urigning which brought about the 
 condition of things rendering that step inevitable— just before he died left a statement 
 '-♦■ the case for the benefit of posterity, in which he shows how Kruger plotted with 
 the anntxation faction in order to oust Burgers and get the presidency for himself. 
 Kruger ->verdid his part, but thnugh his ambition was balked for the time bj the an- 
 nexation which he did not count upon, he continued his intrigues against the British 
 with the result which history tells. 
 
 riMH 
 
 MMl 
 
THE BOER WAR. 
 
 II 
 
 civil war, and to present a general rising of the natives. 
 * * He would not hear of retiring. Had I not 
 endured in silence, had I not borne patiently all the 
 vile accusations, but out of selfishness or fear, told the 
 plain truth of the case, the Transvaal would never have 
 had the consideration it has now received from the 
 British Government. However unjust the annexation 
 was, my self-justification would have exposed the Boers 
 to such an extent, and the state of the country in such 
 a way, that it would have been deprived both of the 
 sympathy of the world, and the consideration of Englisli 
 politicians." 
 
 After the annexation, he was appointed held 
 cornet (a position corresponding to our sheriff, but 
 including also the duties of tax collector and other func- 
 tions), of his district, at a salary of i200, which in those 
 days was a good income. By false representations, how- 
 ever, he drew £300, or what came to the same thing, with- 
 held tax moneys to that amount over his salary. The ad- 
 ninistration called upon liim to make g"ood the amount. 
 but he did not do so then, or since. He 
 only met the Government's request by demand- 
 ing an increase of salary! The correspondence 
 in the case is on record. How much the consciousness 
 of this fraud had to do with the intrigues he engaged 
 in against the British Government, it is hard to say. At 
 all events, while holding an office under the British 
 Government, he was engaged in agitations against it, 
 and became the leader in the armed rebellion that fol- 
 lowed. After the Britsh defeats in the skirmishes at 
 Laing's Nek, Majuba Hill and Ingogo, and while 
 British reinforcements, to the number of 10,000 men, 
 were gathered, the Gladstone Government stayed the 
 sword-arm that was ready to strike back, and an armis- 
 tice was arranged, followed by the convention of t88t, 
 by which the Republic was restored, subject to the 
 suzerainty of the Queen. By this instrument, the 
 right of internal self-government was given to "the in- 
 habitants" of the Transvaal, without prejudice as to 
 
12 
 
 THE BOER WAR 
 
 i 
 
 nationality, and in the discussions by which the intent 
 of its provisions was explained, Mr. Kruger distinctly 
 declared that all would be put on an equality, as re- 
 garded the franchise and other rights. These discus- 
 sions were taken down at the time, and form part of 
 <the records in the colonial office. At that time the 
 Beers were in a large majority, and it is possible 
 Kruger might have kept faith had the population re- 
 mained thus, but Englishmen began to come to the 
 country in greater numbers, and in 1886 the discovery of 
 the now celebrated VVitwatersrand gold fields brought 
 people from all quarters of the globe, until the alien or 
 outlander population, which of course included English- 
 men, outnumbered the Boers. Kruger had from the 
 first aimed to keep all power in the hands of the Dutch, 
 and hence began the evasions and trickery by which 
 the plain intentions of the negotiators of the original 
 convention were to be thwarted. His ambition did not 
 stop here. He purposed the formation of a great mili- 
 tary state, which would centralize the Dutch influence 
 in South Africa, and establish a Dutch republic extend- 
 ing from the Cape to the Zambesi, with Pretoria as the 
 capital. For a long time this ambition, though steadily 
 pursued, was concealed, and even now there are many 
 well-informed public men in England and America 
 who have either not grasped the situation or refused 
 to believe the designs so steadily pursued by this cun- 
 ning trickster. The people of the Orange Free State, 
 under the misguiding influence of their present head, 
 President Steyn — a third-rate attorney, possessed of 
 none of the commonsense statesmanship of the late Sir 
 John Brand, who so wisely guided the little State for 
 twenty-five years previously — were easily led into these 
 designs, and in the Cape Colony, the widespread rami- 
 fications of the AlFrikander Bond — a sort of granger or- 
 ganization, having for its rrotto: "Africa for the 
 Afrikanders" — afforded good ground to work upon, as 
 its membership was almost exclusively Dutch. The 
 plan, as regarded Cape Colony, was to overturn British 
 
THE BOER WAR. 
 
 13 
 
 authority gradually, allowing Britain to retain the 
 naval station at Simon's Bay, and a certain "suzerainty," 
 which could be strained to the breaking-point as time 
 went on. Steyn, the Free State president, with his 
 usual lack of diplomacy, gave a plain statement of these 
 designs in a speech just a year ago, and anyone ,vho 
 studies the wording of most of Kruger's recent 
 despatches and his replies to the enquiries of American 
 and other newspapers, will see how he claims to act as 
 champion of the whole of South Africa, though the 
 difficulty is supposed to be with the Transvaal only. It 
 was made plain to the British element in South Africa, 
 and to the Home Government, that Britain must either 
 make good her claim of paramountcy or give over the 
 rule of South Africa to the Boers. As one of the Boers 
 put it, there could not be two "bosses" in South Africa, 
 and it became a question, which was it to be, Boer or 
 Briton? 
 
 In pursuance of his policy of Napoleonizing South 
 Africa, President Kruger, at the head of a delegation of 
 three, went to London in 1884 to attempt to get a re- 
 lease from all semblance of British control, and to get 
 a formal confirmation of the encroachments he had been 
 making on independent native tribes since the conven- 
 tion of 1 88 1. He represented to Lord Derby, the 
 Secretary of State for the colonies, that his burghers 
 were discontented under the existing convention, which 
 they felt implied interference with their internal aflfairs. 
 The deputation drew up a draft of a new convention, 
 i:i which the name of the Transvaal was changed to the 
 "South African Republic," and in which the British 
 suzerainty was expressly abolished. In discussing this 
 draft. Lord Derby politely, but firmly, informed the 
 deputation that "neither in form nor in substance was 
 it such as Her Majesty's Government could agree to;" 
 but that as the paramountcy of Great Britain was an 
 obvious fact, and did not require a document to estab- 
 lish it, he had no objection to satisfying the suscepti- 
 bilities of the Boers by accepting the change of name. 
 
H 
 
 THE BOER WAR. 
 
 and by omitting any specific use of the word 
 "suzerainty," which Kruger had said was offensive to 
 them. And so, clinging to the letter of this change, 
 Kruger built up his claim that the Transvaal was now 
 a "Sovereign International State," though the new con- 
 vention of 1884 distinctly prevents the Transvaal from 
 making any treaty with a foreign power without the 
 consent of Great Britain. Without trying to define the 
 term "suzerainty," plain men will question the "sover- 
 eign independence " of a country whose autonomy was 
 given as an act of grace, and which could 3t make 
 its own treaties. But even if there were no suzerainty, 
 the conduct of the Boer Government had rendered it 
 liable to h^t called to account in a dozen ways under 
 common international law. 
 
 Some people ask, was not the Boer Governmetit 
 justified in its recent policy; by the Jameson raid^ Ihe 
 answer to that question is that the Jameson raid was 
 the result of Boer tyranny and misrule, and not the 
 cause of it. Had Kruger treated the Uillanders as 
 white men with natural rights, and had he not laid on 
 burden after burden, and taken away right after ight, 
 with studied hostility towards British subjects in par- 
 ticular, there would have been no Jameson raid. The 
 educational restrictions, the arming and fort building, 
 the prohibition of public meetings, and the iniquitous 
 press law, and other grievances, all preceded the Jame- 
 sonraid. The people of Johannesburg and other Uitlander 
 centres began to despair of any action from the 
 British Government, and yet, while agitating persistently 
 for their rights, the majority of the members of the 
 "National Union," formed at the time to obtain redress 
 for the people's grievances, publicly and privately as- 
 sured the President that they had no desire to upset the 
 republican form of government. And there is com- 
 plete evidence that these sentiments were genuine with 
 
THE BOER WAR. 
 
 15 
 
 the Uitlanders at that time. Dr. Jameson's brave, but 
 quixotic raid, as it was carried out, put the people of 
 Johannesburg in a false position, and they have been 
 unjustly charged with cowardice. It is not denied by 
 the National Union leaders that an agreement was 
 made with him to come to their aid. But after smug- 
 gling in 3,000 rifles, the leaders found that more hud 
 to be done to make the rising a success — for it was in- 
 tended to seize Pretoria, whose forts, then under re- 
 pair, were exposed and ill-garrisoned — and so they sent 
 word to Jameson to wait on the Bechuanaland border 
 till they notified him. Their object was not merely to 
 become better equipped for the struggle, but to declare 
 to the world that the struggle was their own, and not 
 brought about through an invasion. They proposed to 
 have a Jiew flag, so that there should be no question 
 of the independence of the movement. Dr. Jameson, 
 however, became impatient, and appears to have disre- 
 garded either the requests of the committee or the warn- 
 ings of the Imperial Government, who wired him as 
 soon as they heard of his intention. The reader will 
 remember how his force of 400 or 500 men were .caught 
 by a Boer force of three times his number before he 
 reached Johannesburg, and compelled to surrender, the 
 leaders in the movement at Johannesburg being un- 
 aware of his approach till too late to do anything. These 
 leaders were arrested, and, as we know, heavily fined, 
 the fines aggregating over a million pounds, and were 
 bound over for three years not to take any part in the 
 politics of the Transvaal. Their tongues were, there- 
 fore, tied, and hence the false impression that has been 
 current regarding this afifair. With his characteristic 
 cunning, Kruger sent, as mediators, three men in whom 
 the Johannesburgers had faith, and by promises of re- 
 form, made on his behalf through them, but which he 
 had no intention of keeping, the people were induced 
 to lay down their arms, hoping for redress at last. The 
 President saw that the reformers had lost the sympathy 
 of the outside world, through Dr. Jameson's mistake. 
 
i6 
 
 THE BOER WAR. 
 
 and he took the fullest advantage of the fact. He at 
 first pleaded for delay in the execution of the reforms 
 till the excitement of his burghers should be allayed, 
 and when this plea was somewhat worn by time, he re- 
 pudiated the promises made to the mediators. An 
 ever-increasing revenue, squeezed fiom the gold fields, 
 enabled him to add to his forts and armaments, and the 
 Jameson raid furnished the excuse that had been want- 
 ing before. In the case of Pretoria, the capital and 
 centre of Dutch influence, the gims were mounted point- 
 ing outward; in the case of Johannesburg, the Uitlander 
 city, they were placed so as to bear upon the town it- 
 self. Taking advantage of the sympathy naturally 
 aroused in the Orange Free State, he drew that re- 
 public into a formal alliance by which it bound itself 
 to join the Transvaal in any war that might arise. Be- 
 fore the Jameson raid, official Boerdom was insolent 
 enough in its dealings with aliens, but after the raid, 
 matters grew worse. 
 
 ■^^i 
 
 To give an idea of all that has been suffered by 
 the Uitlander population of the Transvaal would be 
 impossible in so brief a sketch as this, but a few of 
 the grievances may be stated. First stands the fran- 
 chise. As already mentioned, when the internal inde- 
 pendence of the country was granted in 1881, it was, 
 of course, believed that all white races would be treated 
 alike, and Kruger, in the most distinct manner, promised 
 this. The franchise was at first to be given on a pro- 
 perty qualification or upon one year's residence; but in 
 order to cut ofif those who came in after the annexation, 
 the Volksraad (Parliament) afterwards changed this to 
 five years, and then when time passed by and the rive 
 years" citizens looked to the time of enfranchisement, 
 the law was again amended so that a man had to bei 
 a constant resident in the country for fourteen years. 
 
 f 
 
THE BOER WAR. 
 
 17 
 
 When the co ditions were looked into, it was seen that 
 even when the fourteen years should have elapsed, the 
 Uitlander would not get his vote, because the claim 
 had to be based on the field cornet's records, and in 
 nine cases out of ten, there were no records of the re- 
 gistration. In many cases the field cornet could not read 
 or write, and in cases where he could, there was a temp- 
 tation to neglect the duty. In a majority of cases he 
 collected the taxes without making any returns, so that 
 the omission of the names gave no record of the fraud, 
 thus serving the double purix)se of concealing his 
 stealings atnd depriving the Uitlander of his vote. But 
 even if this were honestly carried out, the Uitlander was 
 further discouraged by the provision that he should first 
 have to renounce allegiance to his own country, remain- 
 ing a political eunuch for these fourteen years, and then 
 when this time expired, he would have to get the re- 
 commendation of a majority of the burghers of his dis- 
 trict (whom he knows to be hostile), and still after 
 that his application is liable to the veto of the President 
 and Executive. We see the pitfalls so artfully prepared, 
 in order that a man would certainly fall in one if he 
 escaped another. Can it be wondered at that the High 
 Commissioner and the British Government wanted to 
 make sure of the details of the recent proposals made 
 by Kruger at and since the Bloemfontein conference? 
 As President Kruger is a great reader of the Bible, it 
 would be curious to know what he would have to say 
 to the franchise provisions laid down in the 47th chapter 
 of Ezekiel, verses 21 to 23? The Montreal "Witness," 
 in pointing out this principle of Old Testament law, re- 
 marks that "the most curious thing in Boer legislation 
 is that they should by special enactment exjQlude from 
 participation in the land and liberty they enjoy, the very 
 people to whom they are indebted for the Scriptures 
 they prize so highly, and who, even before the Baby- 
 lonian captivity, extended to the stranger, who came 
 among them, the benefit of the ancient ordinances. This 
 instance, however, only goes to confirm the estimate 
 
 r 
 
i8 
 
 THE BOER WAR. 
 
 made of the Boers by Dr. Livingstone, who described 
 them as narrow, stupid and cruel." 
 
 The Boer Government not only excludes both 
 Jews and Roman Catholics from the franchise, but even 
 from working in the civil service. If it is found out 
 that a railway, post office, or other civil servant is a 
 Jew or Catholic, he is quietly but speedily dismissed, and 
 a Boer, Hollander, or German appointed to take his 
 place. The Germans and Hollanders would, however, 
 not be called in if it were not that very few Boers are 
 sufficiently educated to fill these places. 
 
 By the trickery and breach of faith before described, 
 the voting-power was kept, as before, in the hands of 
 the Dutch br/ghers. As not one out of a thousand of 
 the Boers of the rural districts had enough educar 
 tion to fill civic offices of responsibility, many English- 
 men held public posts for a time after 1881, but one by 
 one these were dismissed and Hollanders and Germans 
 imported to take their places, until British subjects 
 were almost as completely shut out from all share in the 
 civic life of the country, as they were from political in- 
 fluence. One of the first fruits of this oligarchic rule 
 was the system of plunder by concession. Each session 
 of the Volksraad brought a horde of speculators, who 
 purchased by bribery the sole right to manufacture or 
 sell this or that article in the Transvaal. These mono- 
 polies, or "concessions," were secured chiefly by Hol- 
 landers and Germans, and hence, we see one mainspring 
 of the active sympathy of Hollanders and Germans in 
 the present contest, for between the fat salaries of the 
 imported officials, and the dividends from the operation 
 of the monopolies, a good stream of money has been 
 flowing into Holland and Germany for some years past. 
 When we consider this, and the extortions of the 
 Netherlands Zuid Afrikan Railway Co., owned and 
 managed by a group of Hollanders, and when we con- 
 sider that by every device possible, British trade is 
 hampered and Dutch and German imports favored, we 
 
THE BOER WAR. 
 
 19 
 
 sec why the cause of the Boer should be so warmly 
 espoused in Holland and by sections of the German 
 press, even if race affinity were not a factor in the case. 
 We may add to this the work of the Transvaal political 
 agent in Europe, Dr. Leyds — a Dutch pocket edition of 
 Talleyrand — who has been supplied with means to make 
 the agency a nest of intrigue against Great Britain ever 
 since his appointment. The Netherlands Railway Co. 
 has practically controlled the finances and legislation of 
 the State. It has been able to levy the outrageous 
 freight rate, averaging 8>^d., say 17 cents per ton per 
 mile, as compared with 6 cents per ton per mile on the 
 Cape and Natal railways, which themselves return a 
 good dividend to their governments. Yet, when some 
 of Kruger's own friends protested against these extor- 
 tions, he said he considered his contract a matter of 
 high policy, and would not even hear the subject dis- 
 cussed. 
 
 The art by which the combined Boer and Hollander 
 legislators framed laws, which, while appearing to the 
 outside world to be quite fair, yet could be made to 
 work out to the particular disadvantage of the Uit- 
 lander, amounts to a positive genius. For instance, 
 the school laws, while apparently giving a show to Eng- 
 lish children, are so worked as to school hours, etc., 
 that in practice English children can neither get a 
 chance to learn English or Dutch, while the school tax 
 is so artfully fixed that the English parent, whose child 
 is robbed of its chance of education, has to pay i7 
 against the Boers' £$. A law, to forcibly suppress all 
 English private schools even, was proposed in the Volks- 
 raad, and, only defeated by two votes. The school law 
 is so beautifully arranged, in the case of Johannesburg, 
 that the grand sum of £650 a year is spent on the chil- 
 dren of Uitlanders, who have to pay nine-tenths of the 
 £63,000 spent on education there. Then there is a tax 
 of £20 recently levied on farms. Here the unsuspecting 
 foreigner would see a tax levied on the Boer element 
 
•o 
 
 THE DOER WAR. 
 
 entirely. KruRcr cannot be so unfair after all. But 
 look at it a little closer, and you will notice that farms 
 on which the proprietor lives are exempt; look still 
 closer and you sec that it applies to farms owned by 
 companies only. Now the Boer never buys stocks or 
 bonds, and never goes into partnership, so you see it hits 
 the Uitlander, who has bought up a Boer farm at five 
 or ten times its agricultural value, on the chance of 
 minerals being found on it. Another example of Boer 
 "slimness'': A poll-tax was recently introduced. It was 
 to be levied on all male inhabitants, and there was no 
 distinction or discrimination. Surely this was fair to all? 
 Time answered the question in the same old way, when 
 it became known that the tax of i8s. 6d. was faithfully 
 collected from all Uitlanders, but not one Boer or Hol- 
 lander has ever been made to pay. These are just a few 
 samples of Krugerite equity. 
 
 We are familiar with the press law, by which 
 Kruger has imprisoned and brought financial ruin on 
 editors who have had the courage to run up against 
 him. Of the same brand is the law giving it into the dis- 
 cretion of a policeman to break up a meeting, in the 
 open air, of more than seven persons. 
 
 ^ 
 
 If the torture and degradation of thousands of 
 Englishmen, Americans, Australians, and other peoples, 
 accustomed to free institutions, were not in question, 
 it would be amusing to those knowing the facts, to ob- 
 serve the injured innocence which glowed in the official 
 despatches of the Boer Government right up to the time 
 of the ultimatum. "If these people," said one of these 
 despatches dealing with the petition of 40,000 Uit- 
 landers made direct to the Queen, "instead of complam- 
 ing to the British authorities had only come to this Gov- 
 ernment direct, their complaints would have had atten- 
 tion." What had they been doing all these years but 
 complaining to a Government which treated their en- 
 treaties with scorn and contempt and only changed the 
 
 11 
 
THE BOSK WAR. 
 
 ai 
 
 K 
 < 
 
 r 
 
 chastisements by whips for those of scorpions? In 
 1893, a petition for the redress of grievances, signed by 
 13,000 Uitlanders, was presented to the Raad, and was 
 received with a general laugh of derision. In 1894, 
 another petition, praying for reforms, and signed by over 
 35,000 adult male inhabitants, was presented, 
 and received more seriously, and it is due to some of 
 the Dutch members that they made a stand for fair 
 play; but the only response from Kruger, who moulded 
 the Executive at his will, was new restrictions on the 
 Uitlandcr's liberty, and new burdens on his industry. 
 When the vote was taken on this petition, one of the 
 Boer members was heard to say: "Nothing can settle 
 this but fighting, and there is only one end to the fight. 
 Kruger and his Hollanders have taken away our inde- 
 pendence more surely than Shepstone ever did." It is 
 only fair to say that many members of the Raad, who 
 might be called progressive, by comparison, saw what 
 Kruger's policy was leading to, and urged concessions 
 to the Uitlandcr element. These were supported by a 
 slowly-growing minority of burghers, who were almost 
 as jealous of the Hollander faction as they were of 
 British. But Kruger had his will; and when he found 
 occasions arising where he could not carry his point by 
 straight legislation, he went past the Volksraad and did 
 it illegally, as head of the Executive. On several occa- 
 sions he upset the decisions of the High Court, and 
 ended by forcing the resignation of Chief Justice Kotze, 
 who refused to prostitute the courts and make it the 
 tool of the Executive. A more pliant man was put in 
 his place, and Chief Justice Kotze was deposed with- 
 out a pension or other allowance or support to his old 
 age. A sample of the direct and easy way in which 
 the Government overrode the decisions of the courts 
 was furnished by the Doms case, among others. A 
 man named Doms sued the State, but while the case 
 was pending, tne Government passed a resolution de- 
 claring that Doms had no right to sue! And so Doms 
 was thrown out of court, lost his property, and is now 
 
22 
 
 THE BOER WAR. 
 
 a cab driver in Pretoria. When the Government wished 
 to defeat the ends of justice, even in the High Court, 
 all it had to do was to declare itself by resolution, and 
 it was done whether the resolution conflicted with the 
 grondwet (constitution), or not. It is scarcely to be 
 wondered at that the Uitlanders lost all hope of fair 
 play when such things could be done. 
 
 
 The foregoing were a few out of many political 
 grievances. On the top of these the people of Johannes- 
 bv'-o- in particular had their local or municipal griev- 
 ances no less trying. The condition of Johannesburg 
 has, like other ma::ters in the Transvaal, been much mis- 
 understood by outsiders. The Boer newspapers and 
 public men have sought to make it appear that Johan- 
 nesburg is made up of the offscourings of the earth, to 
 whom it would be dangerous to give rights of self-gov- 
 ernment. In the early days, it is true, a great many 
 adventurers came from all parts, but the town passed 
 through that phase of life as all mining communities 
 do ; and for some years past it is no better and no worse 
 than the average city of its size. It is not an alluvial 
 mining diggings where men of every stamp can work 
 their own claims, but a settled industry carried on by 
 rock-crushing, as in the Kootenay, and necessitating ex- 
 pensive machinery and expert hands. Indeed, the min- 
 ing machinery of the Witwatersrand is the most 
 modern, as well as the most extensive in the world, 
 many of the large companies having their own 
 machine shops and operating large steam and electrical 
 plants, with large staffs of the most skilled workmen. 
 The manual labor is done chiefly by natives, but the 
 mining and commercial business — the former having 
 the cleverest mining engineers and experts in the world, 
 and the latter, including branches of the most reputable 
 firms of England, Germany, the United States, etc. — 
 are carried on by white people, among whom there are 
 
 ^ 
 
 H 
 
THE BOER WAR. 
 
 2,3 
 
 
 practically no Dutch. Wher.; there is so much gold 
 production (the output last year was $75,000,000), there 
 must be a large number of banks and financial corpor- 
 ations, which of necessity must have trustworthy em- 
 ployees, and so it must be said of business firms. Are 
 the owners of these big mining plants, banks and finan- 
 cial houses likely to put their affairs into the hands 
 of ruffians, drunkards, and thieves? If this question 
 cannot be answered by a moment's reflection, the doubt- 
 ful reader can satisfy himself by examining a copy of a 
 recent Directory of Johannesburg, and read down the 
 names and occupations. The same directory will show 
 how unfounded is the statement that this agitation is 
 purely a capitalistic one. Now imagine such a city of 
 80,000 * progressive and energetic inhabitants being 
 governed by thirty farmers; and imagine the represen- 
 tative financial and mining body of the city (the cham- 
 ber of mines) being refused an ordinary charter of in- 
 corporation, on the ground that it would be creating 
 "a State within a State." At first, English-speaking 
 men were chosen to the town council, but to cut them 
 off from self-government, even in municipal matters, 
 President Kruger decreed that only Dutch should be 
 spoken in the council, and so the Anglo-Saxon was de- 
 barred there. And the Burgomaster (Mayor) is not 
 elected by the voters, but appointed by the Government. 
 The drainage of the city flows along the streets in 
 open gutters, exhaling poisonous vapors, as was the 
 case in the early days of Capetown, and the people are 
 compelled to drink dangerously unwholesome water, 
 with no power to alter the condition of things. Drunken 
 zarps (policemen) swagger about brandishing revolvers, 
 occasionally shooting down poor natives for some 
 trifle, and insulting Uitlanders (who are not allowed 
 to carry arms), whenever an excuse offers. The killing 
 of Edgar by a squad of zarps, who broke into his house 
 
 ♦Resides the white pep ilatlon there were at the beginiiiriK of this year 90,000 
 blacks. 
 
 ttm 
 
' 
 
 24 THE BOER WAR. 
 
 and murdered him in cold blood, as he was sitting on 
 his bed talking to his wife, is a notorious example. The 
 murderers were arrested, tried, acquitted, and some of 
 them promoted. Such was the municipal condition of 
 Johannesburg up to the present crisis. 
 
 ^^ 
 
 The Boer Government of the Transvaal stands con- 
 demned by the liquor trafific. In theory, no Uquor is 
 sold to the natives, but in the large mining centres, par- 
 ticularly Johannesburg, the native laborers, who are 
 heided in enclosures like cattle, are supplied with the 
 vilest of intoxicating drinks, in such quantities that 
 scarcely a day passes without one or more murders, 
 brought about through drunken natives engaging 
 in "faction fights." It is estimated that one-third of tht 
 total native labor supply is rendered non-etfective, week 
 in and week out, through natives being incapacitated 
 by drink, while the damage to goods and machinery, 
 through the same cause, is a serious item. So great did 
 this scandal become that the Boer Church was shamed 
 into strong representations against it last year, but 
 though Kruger is himself an abstainer, he sided with 
 the liquor dealers, and would do nothing, on the ground 
 that if this trafific were stopped, a number of honest 
 men would be put out of employment. 
 
 The operation of the liquor law in Johannesburg is 
 thus described by a brother of the Rev. Chas. T. Cocking, 
 of King, Ont., writing lately from the Transvaal: "Take 
 the case of the liquor law, which prohibits sale of liquor 
 to natives. Every Sunday one can see hundreds of 
 natives wandering about the mines and suburbs of the 
 town almost mad with drink. Kafir eating-houses are 
 filled with natives drinking, and from which they stag- 
 ger with sacks full of liquor to be swilled on the open 
 veldt by fraternal groups. A special liquor detective 
 department exists, and yet for twelve months this has 
 gone on. Result? For two or three days following the 
 debauch, hundreds of natives are unable to do their 
 
 ■■■ 
 
THE BOER WAR. 
 
 25 
 
 
 work, and remain sleeping off their carouse in the mine 
 compounds to the dead loss of the mining companies. 
 Cause? An immensely wealthy liquor syndicate, which, 
 by bribery, etc., prevents the law being effective. The 
 Governnient is so inconsistent as to absolutely prohibit 
 natives from drinking, but a treaty with Portugal must 
 allow the importation of Kafir liquors and spirits 
 through the port at Delagoa Bay, and from the duty on 
 which they obtain a handsome increase in the revenue." 
 
 ^^ 
 
 A word as to the commercial situation. In the 
 year 1884 the revenue of the Transvaal was £161,596, 
 and the expenditure, £184,820. The population at that 
 time was about 45,000, of whom 35,000 to 37,000 were 
 Dutch. That was the year when Kruger went to Eng- 
 land to obtain the new convention. The finances of his 
 country were in bad shape, and remembering what 
 England and Englishmen had done to rehabilitate the 
 country financially during the three years of British 
 administration, he had a letter published in the London 
 papers inv'*ing British capitalists, miners and merchants 
 to come and settle in the Transvaal. Thev accepted 
 the invitation, and in 1885 — 86 the De Kaap and Wit- 
 watersr^d fields were discovered, with the result that 
 the revenue for 1898 was £3,329,958, practically all of 
 which is derived from the energies of the Uitlander. 
 In the face of this, Kruger now asks, and the prO-Boer 
 organs throughout the world echo the question: "If 
 the Uitlander does not like the treatment he gets, why 
 does he not stay away?" The Uii mder, upon Kruger'!» 
 invitation, came to the country, dijcovered the gold, 
 and built up the industry. Should he be robbed o* the 
 business he has created^ And if prior occupation is 
 urged by the Boer, how about the Kafirs, whom he 
 has dispossessed of their lands? But while an unneces- 
 sary revenue, such as this, is squeezed from one element 
 of the population, the expenditure has gone on to keep 
 pace with it. Last year the expenses of government 
 
26 
 
 THE BOER WAR. 
 
 m 
 
 
 were £3,476,844, or sufficient to give every Boer in the 
 country £400 a year. A large part of this, as stated, 
 goes to build up a military power to overawe and op- 
 press the very people whose exertions provide the 
 money; much of it, according to Cecil Rhodes, has gone 
 as a bribery fund to influence elections in the Cape 
 Colony, and carry on the propaganda for seducing the 
 Cape Dutch from their allegiance to Britain. A huge 
 secret service fund is used largely for political purposes 
 in Europe to the same end; while a large but unknown 
 sum is given by the President himself, as "doles," to 
 Boers in the back districts, ostensibly to help farmers 
 in distressed circumstances, but in reaHty to keep 
 l^urghers loyal to him. The various monopolies also 
 yield large bribery funds. The dynamite monopoly, by 
 which the sole right tb make or sell dynamite was given 
 to one man (afterwards a syndicate), who was permitted 
 to charge 200 per cent, over what the article would cost 
 in the open market, filches from the Witwatersrand 
 mines alone £600,000 a year. Space forbids reference 
 here to the other monopolies, but it may be noted that 
 these monopolies are given to Kruger's favorites on 
 articles that are chiefly imported from Great Britain, 
 or are used chiefly by British subjects. This is one of 
 the numerous violations of the conventions, wlflch pro- 
 vided that the taxation should be equal to all classes. 
 It may also be noted that President Kruger has not 
 only defended these monopolists under all circum- 
 stances, but in the numerous cases in which boodling 
 schemes have been unearthed, and scandals exposed 
 — sometimes by honest men in his own party — he has 
 invariably shielded the boodlers and not infrequently 
 promoted them or given them fresh opportunities. 
 
 A great deal might be said on the external relations 
 of the Transvaal. The convention of 1884 fixed the 
 boundaries of the Transvaal exactly, and the republic 
 undertook solemnly to respect the independence of 
 
 r 
 
THE BOER WAR. 
 
 27 
 
 native chiefs outside its territory. Scr.rcely a year has 
 passed without the violation, of the convention in this re- 
 spect. One of Kruger's first acts vvras to invade part of 
 the British Protectorate and proclaim it a portion of 
 the Republic, following up the operations of some of 
 his free hooters. And he only withdrew because of Mr. 
 Rhodes' protest and the Warren expedition, which cost 
 the British Government over £1,250,000. Then the 
 Boer Government turned its attention to Zululand, 
 which, after an intrigue with Dinizulu against the 
 other chiefs, it invaded and attempted to upset the set- 
 tlement made by Lord Wolseley. Next they invaded 
 the country of the Matabele whom they had driven 
 out of the Transvaal originally, and who were now 
 under British protection, and they were only turned 
 back by the tact and firmness of Dr. Jameson. Again 
 they tried to lay hands on Tongaland, but the Queen 
 Regent would have nothing to do with any country but 
 England, whose protection she had sought. The in- 
 vasion and spoliation of Swaziland was another Boer 
 outrage, which Great Britain, from a mistaken notion 
 of keeping peace with the Boers, condoned. 
 
 Such are a few of the features of Krugerism in 
 South Africa, and the reader can judge whether they 
 are such as to justify the interference of Great Britain. 
 
 
 
 It is a subject of wonder to many that the Boers 
 persist in a course which a large number of them must 
 know to be wrong, and stand out against the whole 
 might of the British Empire in so doing. It must be 
 remembered, however, that the vast majority, who 
 never read a newspaper, or a book, except the Bible, are 
 as ignorant of the outside world as the Hudson Bay 
 Indians. Perhaps not ten of the whole body of 
 burghers ever saw a man-of-war or visited England or 
 Europe. Even Kruger and the other members of the 
 Volksraad, who visited England, saw little of its re- 
 
28 
 
 THE BOER WAR. 
 
 sources; and it must be admitted of Kruger, who is a 
 man absolutely without fear, that if he had the clearest 
 realization of Britain's power, it would make no differ- 
 ence with his policy, so' convinced is he that the Boers 
 are the only favored nation of Heaven. What can be 
 done with a man who believes (as Kruger argued with 
 Dr. Hertz, and a deputation of Johannesburg Jews, 
 who came last year to plead for educational freedom), 
 that the Boers are the direct descendants of Isaac, and 
 the Jews the descendants of Ishmael, and that, therefore, 
 it would be against the Scriptures for both people to 
 inherit the land together! It must also be understood 
 that, whatever the Boer leaders know, the Roers them- 
 selves are convinced that when the Gladstone Govern- 
 ment gave back the country in 1881, it was through 
 fear, and that the profession of generosity or justice 
 was merely a cloak for this fear. And they point, in 
 confirmation, to the fact that when Mr. Gladstone, after 
 denouncing the annexation, in his Midlothian speeches 
 in Opposition, came into power, he refused all along 
 to restore the Boer Government until he had the ex- 
 perience of Majuba Hill. The leniency with which the 
 British Government treated the Transvaal in its re- 
 peated violations of the two conventions, and the way 
 in which they were allowed to despoil the Swazi tribe, 
 were to the Boer mind only so much accumulating 
 evidence of this fear, apparent to him as the years went 
 on. Perhaps Kruger himself thought the Transvaal 
 was a match for Britain, as J. P. Fitzpatrick relates the 
 following, in his "Transvaal from Within:" "The late 
 W. Y, Campbell, as spokesman of a deputation from 
 Johannesburg, addressing President Kruger, stated in 
 the course of his remarks that the people of Johannes- 
 burg 'protested' against a certain measure. The Presi- 
 dent jumped up in one of his characteristic moods, and 
 said: 'Protest! Protest! What is the good of protest- 
 ing? You have not got the guns! I have.' And Mr. 
 Campbell, in reporting this in Johannesburg, remarked: 
 That man is sensible; he knows the position. I claim 
 
 
THE BOER WAR. 
 
 29 
 
 to be sensible, also, and I know he is right; you can 
 take my name off any other deputations, for we'll get 
 nothing by asking.' " 
 
 We have evidence that several members of the 
 Raad would have given the Uitlanders, not all. but some 
 of the rights they vainly sought, but Kruger had be- 
 come too powerful an autocrat, and they were no match 
 for him either in diplomacy or determination. But 
 though the Boers were ignorant, they were not so 
 ignorant as to fail to realize that if the franchise was 
 granted to Uitlanders, and a clean, honest administra- 
 tion inaugurated, these "doles" to burghers would cease, 
 and they would no longer be able to live in ease at the 
 expense of the hard-working alien. Hence, their deter- 
 mination to do what would otherwise appear insane — to 
 risk the destruction of the Republic itself rather than 
 to do justice at the cost of giving up control. 
 
 When the question of sending a Canadian regi- 
 ment to help Britain in South Africa was discussed 
 lately, one of our politicians asked, "Why should we en- 
 tangle ourselves in Great Britain's foreign wars, and 
 why should we spend our money and blood in those 
 far-away places?" In the first place, this is not a for- 
 eign war. From an Imperial standpoint it is very much 
 a domestic war. It is not merely a matter of the ill- 
 treatment of our fellow-subjects in the Transvaal, but 
 whether we are to abandon our fellow-colonists in the 
 Cape and Natal to a misrule comparable only to that 
 of the Turks in Armenia — whether, in short, we are to 
 lose or hold our Empire in South Africa. The Cape, be 
 it remembered, is the halfwa- house to India, to our 
 possessions in China, to Austi«.iasia, and to the smaller 
 islands of the Eastern Hemisphere. If it had not been 
 for the possession of the Cape and the ability of Great 
 Britain to send reinforcements thence to India, during 
 the great mutiny, she would have lost her Indian 
 
3° 
 
 THE BOER WAR. 
 
 Empire then. If it was vital to Britain then, the Cape 
 is doubly so now, when Australia has become a daughter 
 nation, and other Eastern lands have increasing claims 
 upon her. South Africa is, in fact, the key of tHe 
 Empire in the Eastern, as Canada is in the Western, 
 Hemisphere. 
 
 To descend to a lower plane, Canada has a strong 
 commercial reason for seeing British ideas prevail in 
 South Africa. Our manufacturers are now beginning 
 to seek foreign markets, and under the rational rule of 
 Great Britain, a large trade development awaits Canada 
 there. South Africa is the counterpart of Canada. We 
 consume large quantities of goods she has to sell, such as 
 merino wool, hides, and sub-tropical products, while she 
 imports largely of manufactured goods, such as furni- 
 ture, boots and shoes, textile fabrics, stoves, hardware, 
 machinery, and other manufactures, which we wish to 
 sell. South Africa is essentially a non-manufacturing 
 country, and the United States, having studied the 
 conditions there through its consular agents, has al- 
 ready built up a big and rapidly-increasing trade. Not 
 many years ago the exports of the United States to 
 Africa amounted to but a few thousand dollars 
 annually. In 1898, the shipment of United States 
 goods to British and Portuguese South Africa alone, 
 amounted to over $16,000,000, the increase over 1897 
 being a growth of over $1,480,000, or at the rate of 
 nine per cent. These exports consisted of foodstuffs, 
 books, cotton goods, leather goods, and a long list of 
 manufactured articles, such as agricultural implements, 
 bicycles, hardware, sewing machines, typewriters, car- 
 riages, furniture, canned goods, lumber, etc. In almost 
 every one of these lines, Canada is able to compete with 
 the United States. Here and there, it is true, some 
 Canadian manufacturer has already entered the market, 
 but, as a rule, the Canadian exporter is still asleep to 
 the possibilities of that land. It is time we woke up to 
 tliis, for the trade connections ought to be as close as 
 
 
 i 
 
 ^ 
 
 Mb 
 
THE BOER WAR. 
 
 31 
 
 the political fraternity, and the sending of the Canadian 
 regiment will tend to strengthen the bonds, both in a 
 commercial and political sense. Further reference to 
 the trade of South Africa will be found in the section 
 of "miscellaneous facts." 
 
 As for our duty to Great Britain, as citizens of 
 Canada, when we reflect that in the past twenty years 
 the Mother Country has spent over $55,000,000, accord- 
 ing to J. Castell Hopkins, on the defences of Canada, 
 we owe it to our own self-respect to see that at least 
 some of this is repaid. As citizens of the Empire, does 
 it not seem a duty to defend it when any vital part of 
 that Empire is threatened? 
 
 What will be the outcome of the war? In all pro- 
 bability the union of the present colonies and states 
 in a confederation, in principle like that of Canada, 
 but differing in details, to accord with the varying con- 
 ditions. When the British and Dutch have got to- 
 gether, after the present conflict, they will see, by a 
 study of their past history, that the policy of mutual 
 hate, distrust and intolerance, is a policy that must 
 mark their land with ruin; but the policy of good-will 
 among the white races will make South Africa what its 
 climate and latent resources fit it to become — one of the 
 most delightful in the world. This much is certain, 
 that in the settlement to be made, the British Govern- 
 ment will not revisit upon the Boers the injustice 
 under which the Uitlander population has groaned for 
 the past eighteen years, but will see that there shall be 
 absolute equality of rights among the white races, and 
 fair, just treatment of black and white from the Cape 
 tO' the confines of British Central Africa. 
 
Miscellaneous facts relating to South Africa. 
 
 The following miscellaneous information, relating 
 to South Africa, will be of interest to the reader in 
 studying the present conditions: 
 
 Mr. Garrett, a well-informed Capetown journalist, 
 estimates the white population as follows, distinguish- 
 ing the Dutch from the British in the same table: 
 
 Total 
 White 
 Dutch. British. Population 
 
 Cape Colony and Bcchuanaland.2(j5,20O 194,800 460,000 
 
 Basutoland 300 350 650 
 
 Orange Free State 78,100 15,600 93,700 
 
 Nat'.i and Zululand 6,500 45.500 52,000 
 
 Transvaal 80,000 123,650 203,650 
 
 Rhodesia 1,500 8,500 10,000 
 
 Total 431.600 388,400 820,000 
 
 John Noble's "Handbook of the Cape and South 
 Africa for 1893," gave the area and white and colored 
 population of South Africa, as follows: 
 
 Area White Colored 
 
 sq. miles, population, population 
 
 Cape 221,311 376,987 1,150,237 
 
 Natal 20,461 42,759 512,817 
 
 Pondoland 3,869 100 200,000 
 
 Zululanvl 8,900 548 145,336 
 
 Amatongaland 5,300 80,000 
 
 Basutoland 10,293 578 218,324 
 
 British Bechuanaland ........ 6o,yy7 5,284 55, 122 
 
 . Bechuanaland Protectorate ....386.200 500 iio.oco 
 
 Brit. Mashonaland (Rhodesia) . 150,000 2,500 250,000 
 
 Orange Free State 48.326 77.716 129,787 
 
 Transvaal 113,642 160,000* 649,560 
 
 Swa;^iland 8,000 500 63,000 
 
 1.037,079 667,472 3.564.183 
 
 * A white population of 300,000 was generally credited to 
 the Transvaal up to the time of the recent troubles, of which from 
 70,000 to 90,000 was accorded to Johannesburg. 
 
 Ji 
 
 *i 
 
 Mb 
 
THE BOER WAK. 33 
 
 For the trade tables which follow, the writer is in- 
 debted to the "British and South African Export 
 Gazette," an ably conducted paper, published in Lon- 
 don in the interest of South African connnerce. 
 
 llic agyrcgato trade, buth imports and exports, of South 
 Africa in the past five years, amounted to about £220,000,000 
 stcrUng. This includes an approximate calculation of the 1898 
 figures. Of this total, the imports of oversea goods represented 
 a sum equal to £108,855,340, and these were imported into 
 South Africa through its several ports in the following pro-, 
 portions: 
 
 Ports of Cape Colony £ 77,623,922 
 
 Ports of Natal 21,348,222 
 
 Ports of Delagoa Bay 9,883,196 
 
 Quinquennial total £ 108,855,340 
 
 Of this handsome total Great Britain's share in the export of 
 purely British and Irish goods and manufactures was repre-, 
 stnted by £62,801,203, and that of the British possessions by 
 £5^99783. or together £68,600,986, the balance, in round num- 
 bers, of £31,000,000, being the contribution of all other coun- 
 tries. The progres«;ive yearly accretions by which these totals 
 have been reached are shown by the following tabulations; 
 GREAT Britain's quinquennial share of south African 
 
 TRADE. 
 
 1894 £ 8,766,828 
 
 189s 11,167,995 
 
 1896 14,798,430 
 
 1897 14.648,162 
 
 1898 (approximate) 13,419,848 
 
 Quinquennial total £6^,801,223 
 
 quinquennial share of BRITISH POSSESSIONS. 
 
 1894 £ 605,561 
 
 189s 997.558 
 
 1896 1,261,504 
 
 1897 1,235,160 
 
 1898 (approximate) 1,700,000 
 
 Quinquennial total £5.799,783 
 
 QUINQUL.T'TTAL SHARE OF FIVE PRINCIPAL FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 
 
 1894 £ 1,414,56s 
 
 i8q5 2,188,247 
 
 1896 4,432,428 
 
 1897 4-503.366 
 
 1898 (appi oximate) 5,500,000 
 
 Quinquennia! total £ 18,028,606 
 
34 
 
 THE DOER WAR. 
 
 Tile relatively large proportion of a little over one-third of 
 the total trade of South Africa which falls to foreign countries 
 is explained by the fact of the heavy imports in recent years of 
 grain, foodstufTs, and live and dead meat, necessitated by the 
 drouglit and rinderpest and the devastations of locusts, which 
 have afflicted her agricultural and herding industries for several 
 years past. The extent of this huge oversea buying of British 
 and foreign goods would manifestly be impossible unless South 
 Africa possessed purchasing "media" for their acquisition. 
 These are furnished her by her rich and practically inexhaust- 
 ible stores of native gold, diamonds and other minerals, wool 
 and other raw products. Without this extraordinary natural 
 wealth, the tale and total of htr imports, as of her exports, 
 would be far other than they are. As it is, despite temporary 
 depressions, deficits, exports of specie, etc, her movement of 
 trade represents in the aggregate a tangible, actual and lasting 
 progress and prosperity, the rills and broad streams of which 
 beneficially water the utmost confines of \. >. sub-continent. 
 
 The imports into the Cape Colony amounted approximately 
 to £16,845,955 at the end of 1898, having made an average ad- 
 vance of over £5,000,000 since 1894 — •" ^^ct, if compared with 
 the figures for 1897, an actual advance of £7,000,000. In the 
 same quinquennium Natal's imports showed progress from 
 £2,316,596 to approximately £5,127,887, or an enVancement at 
 the handsome rate of 121 per cent. This was even 1 lore than the 
 relative progress of either the South African Republic or the 
 Cape Colony, the latter gaining only 49 per cent., and the 
 former 61 per cent, on the earliest year. It is noteworthy that 
 the former's total — £54,332,227 — is nearly exactly half of the 
 aggregate of South African imports, and shows the over- 
 weighting factor the Republic forms in the commercial ex- 
 pansion of the sub-continent. A modest contributor ?t present 
 to the general trade budget — but one which may possibly in the 
 future dispute the leading place with the last named — is Rho- 
 desia. Quinquennial totals are not available in its case, but its 
 last two years' trade returns are significant of its future import- 
 ance. In the twelve months up to the end of June, 1897, they 
 amounted to £245,923, and to the end of June, 1898, to £574.184, 
 or an increase of 94 per cent. The appended comparison of the 
 percentages of progress of the trade of the past quinquennium of 
 India, Canada, Australia and the colonies of the Cape Colony, 
 Natal, and Rhodesia, and the South African Republic is given 
 bv The Gazette: 
 
 Hn 
 
 ^^ 
 
THB UOUR WAR. 35 
 
 gUlNVfUENNlAI. I'KOliHKSS OF UTIIKR BRITISH rosSESSIONS 
 AS COMI'AHKD WITH SOUTH AKRICA. 
 
 Kate of 
 South Africa— Quin(|ucniiial Progress. 
 
 Natal 1 21.0 percent. 
 
 Rliodesia 'MO P<-'r cent. . 
 
 South African Republic 61.0 i)cr cent. 
 
 Cape Colony 49.0 per cent. 
 
 Other British i'ossessions — 
 
 .Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Fiji.. 40.0 per cent. . 
 
 Dominion of Canada Ho per cent. 
 
 India (including Hurmah, Straits Settle- per cent, 
 
 ments, and Ceylon) o.^ per cent. 
 
 Average for South Africa 71.0 per cent. 
 
 Average for other British Possessions.... 16.0 per cent. 
 
 The ratio of progress in imports alone of South Africa com- 
 pared with those of our chief colonics and dependencies — India, 
 Australia and Canada — is not less instructive. As against a total 
 for South Africa of £108,000,000, Canada has only an import 
 volume of £26,000,000 to show, and Australia of ,£97,000,000; 
 while the vast continent of India only surpasses South Africa by 
 her £157,000,000 of imports in the five years. 
 
 W. Blclocli, in a paper recently read before the 
 Gcolopfical Society of Soutli Africa, confirms the theory 
 first propounded by Dr. F. G. Becker, of the United 
 States Geological Survey, that the Witwatersrand gold- 
 bearing rocks are due to the formation of a scries of 
 sub-shore deposits banked up by ocean currents and 
 waves against a sloping shore. At first sight this is 
 only of interest to geologists and mining experts. If, 
 however, it should be confirmed by subsequent tests, 
 it will have far-reaching effects upon the Rand gold 
 mining industry, and equally upon commerce. For 
 instance, payable reefs, should exist under the major 
 portion of Johannesburg itself, whilst the Main Reef 
 series would be found underlying the overlaps of more 
 recent beds from Vlakfontein to Venterspost, thereby 
 opening up an enormous area of country for mining 
 purposes, and extending the life of the Rand as a gold 
 producing centre far beyond the loo or more years al- 
 ready predicted for it by the world's leading experts. It 
 
 ,<«» 
 
o6 THE BOER VVAK. 
 
 is estimated by Frederick H. Hatch, in the "Engineer- 
 ing Magazine," of New York, that within the next five 
 years the number of stamps in the gold mining district 
 of the Witwatersrand will be increased to over 12,000. 
 The average duty of a stamp here is ",500 tons per year, 
 or a total of 18,000,000 tons, which, at the present grade 
 of 9 to 10 dwts. of fine gold, or 40s. per ton, would 
 give £36,000,000 sterling per annum. 
 
 The coal deposits of the Transvaal are estimated at 
 235,000,000,000 tons, or 37,000,000,000 tons over those 
 of the coal beds of Great Britain. 
 
 tUti 
 
 l ifc i M 
 
Glossary of Cape Dutch and Kafir Terms. 
 
 
 Baaken — Landmark. 
 
 Banket — The conglomerate reef peculiar to the Witwatersrand. 
 
 Bewaarplaatzen — Areas granted for the conservation of water, 
 
 or for depositing the residue of ores. 
 Berg — Mountain, as Tafelberg (table mountain), Drakensberg 
 
 (Dragon's mountain), etc. 
 Besluit — Resolution, order-in-council. 
 Boer — Farmer; applied by the English to the Dutch of the 
 
 country districts. 
 Bosch — Thicket or bush. 
 Burg — Town. 
 Burgher — Voter, elector. Applied by the Dutch to their own 
 
 citizens as distinguished Irom aliens. 
 Commandeer — To call out for military service. 
 Commar.vlo — A military force. The word conveys no meaning 
 
 as to numbers. A commando may consist of a hundred men, 
 
 or a thousand or more. 
 Donga — Ravine. 
 Dorp — Village. 
 Drift— Ford. 
 
 Droogeveld — Dry pasture country. 
 Duin or Dune — Sandhill. 
 Fontein — Fountain or spring, as Bloemfontein (fountain ot 
 
 flowers). 
 Heuvel — Height, or hill. 
 Hoek — Corner, or secluded valley. 
 Hoogte — Height; Hoogteveld, the high ground. 
 Inspan — To harness up. Outspan or uitspan, "to unharness or 
 
 untether. 
 Karroo — Desert land covered with scrubby plants. 
 Klip— Rock. 
 
 Kloof — Mountain pass; or gully. 
 Kop — (Literally a head), hence an isolated hill. 
 Kopjie— Little hill. 
 
 Kraal — Collection of native huts; also a cattle enclosure: 
 Krantz— ClifT. 
 
 Laagte — Low land or valley, as Elandslaagte (Eland valley). 
 Nachtmaal— (Literally night meal), the quarterly communion 
 
 service. 
 Nek — Neck, applied to a depression between two <■ ountains. 
 Raad — An assembly; the legislature. 
 
 ,#»!»'**'■ 
 
 ja^?**^-*"- 
 
38 
 
 THE BOER WAR. 
 
 Rand — Highland; as Witwatersrand (the White-water-high- 
 lands). 
 
 Slim — Cute, cunning. 
 
 Sluit — An artificial water course. 
 
 Spruit — Creek. 
 
 Trek — To travel; to move; hence voortrekkers (literally fore- 
 runners), pioneers. 
 
 Uitlander — (Pronounced as nearly as possible ate-lont-er), out- 
 sider; alien. 
 
 Vlei — Shallow pan or valley, sometimes covered with water. 
 
 Veld or Veldt — (Literally a field), an extent of country. 
 
 Veldtschoen — Sort of moccasin. 
 
 Volksraad — The national council, or parliament. 
 
 Witwatersrand — See Rand. 
 
 Zarp — Policeman. • 
 
 In Cape Dutch, which is a patois, aa has the sound of aw. 
 Example, raad (rawd). V has the sound of f, and w the sound of 
 v; ji has tiie sound of ye, as for example Kopjie (Kop-ye); and 
 ei the power of a long i, as for example Bloemfontein (Bloom- 
 fon-tyne, though this is pronounced by some, Bloom-fon-tane). 
 It is accented on the last syllable. Kruger is usually pronounced 
 by the Boers — Kreeger. 
 
 % 
 
I 
 
 l« 
 
 ^ t 
 
 •j*l#'*'"^' 
 
li. tf 
 
 I 
 
 '1Bsi!ift-iT>« 
 
 vgtii,,^^.. 
 
 •'V'^-'^'^^SM 
 
 'fi*^ 
 
\ 
 
 f. ..»■■' 
 
 7 
 
/AETAL TRADES JOURNAL ^ 
 
 ^^^i^ St ELECTRICAL SCIENCE REVfEW ^te.. 
 
 ISSUED MONTHLY IN THE INTERESTS ^ > 
 
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 Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Locomotive, Stationary, 
 Marine, Mining and Sanitary Engineer; the 
 Machinist and Founder; the Manufac- 
 turer and Contractor. 
 
 THE CANADIAN ENGINEER was first issued ii 
 May, 1893, as a 28-page paper. Each issue now contains 
 52 to 56 pages. The increase in its circulation is still 
 more remarkable, as is shown by the affidavit of our V 
 printing contractors. THE CANADIAN ENGINEER ' 
 stands unrivalled among Canadian trade papers for the 
 wide distribution and character of its circulation. Its subr 
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 copies being to advertisers and contributors), and it ii 
 the only paper which reaches both the men who own 
 the industrial and engineering establishments of Canada, 
 and the men who operate them. 
 
 th^ following shows the steady 
 progress of its circulation: 
 
 August, 1895 
 
 2,200 
 
 August, 1896 
 
 - 3,450 
 
 August, 1897 
 
 4,400 
 
 August, 1898 
 
 4.40,0 
 
 August, 1899 
 
 5,004 
 
 'cs and mail sheets are always open for the inspection 
 
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