ARTHUR M. MANN

Author of The Truth From Johannesburg

With Sixteen Illustrations

London
John Long
6 Chandos Street, Strand

1900

[Illustration]

[Illustration:  Boer mounted police]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  Boer mounted police (Frontispiece)

  Waggons bringing wool to Early
    morning market (Johannesburg)

  A Boer homestead

  Waggons crossing River

  A Boer family

  Majuba Hill

  A Boer Encampment

  RAADZAAL, or Boer Parliament house

  President KRUGER’S house

  President Kruger

  Dutch church (Pretoria)

  Boer cattle farm near Majuba

  Shooting rinderpest oxen

  Waggon on Pontoon over River

  Boers OUTSPANNED for Nachtmaal

  Bloemfontein

THE BOER IN PEACE AND WAR

CHAPTER I

A Boer may know you, but it will take you some time to know him, and when a certain stage in your acquaintance is reached, you may begin to wonder whether his real nature is penetrable at all.  His ways are not the ways of other people:  he is suspicious, distant, and he does not care to show his hand—­unless, of course, there is some pecuniary advantage to be gained.  He is invariably on the alert for advantages of that description.

His suspicious nature has probably been handed down to him from preceding generations.  When he first set foot in South Africa he was naturally chary concerning the native population.  He had to deal firmly with Bushmen, and the latter certainly proved a source of continual trouble.  The Boer set himself a difficult task when he undertook to instil fear, obedience, and submission into the hearts of these barbarians—­a task that could only be faced by men of firm determination and unlimited self-confidence.

These characteristics have always inspired the Boer, and although he may often have been the object of derision, it is to his credit that the predominant qualities mentioned have enabled him to pull through the miry clay.  Without these qualities, it is patent that the little band which landed at the Cape long years ago would have succumbed before the conflicting forces which then existed.  And as succeeding years passed on, and the sun still shone upon the heads of the pioneers, it is worthy to note that, despite the difficulties which continually presented themselves, the little band multiplied, prospered, and evolved an ensample not too mean to contemplate.