A group of excited men were gathered in front of the
Stock Exchange at Johannesburg. It was evident
that something altogether unusual had happened.
All wore anxious and angry expressions, but a few shook
hands with each other, as if the news that so much
agitated them, although painful, was yet welcome;
and indeed this was so.
For months a war-cloud had hung over the town, but
it had been thought that it might pass over without
bursting. None imagined that the blow would come
so suddenly, and when it fell it had all the force
of a complete surprise, although it had been so threatening
for many weeks that a considerable portion of the
population had already fled. It was true that
great numbers of men, well armed, and with large numbers
of cannon, had been moving south, but negotiations
were still going on and might continue for some time
yet; and now by the folly and arrogance of one man
the cloud had burst, and in thirty hours war would
begin.
Similar though smaller groups were gathered here and
there in the streets. Parties of Boers from the
country round rode up and down with an air of insolent
triumph, some of them shouting “We shall soon
be rid of you; in another month there will not be
a rooinek left in South Africa.”
Those addressed paid no heed to the words. They
had heard the same thing over and over again for the
past two months. There was a tightening of the
lips and a closing of the fingers as if on a sword
or rifle, but no one replied to the insolent taunts.
For years it had been the hope of the Uitlanders that
this would come, and that there would be an end to
a position that was well-nigh intolerable. Never
before had a large body of intelligent men been kept
in a state of abject subjection by an inferior race,
a race almost without even the elements of civilization,
ignorant and brutal beyond any existing white community,
and superior only in the fact that they were organized
and armed, whereas those they trampled upon were deficient
in both these respects. Having no votes, these
were powerless to better their condition by the means
common to civilized communities throughout the world.
They were ground down by an enormous taxation, towards
which the Boers themselves contributed practically
nothing, and the revenue drawn from them was spent
in the purchase of munitions of war, artillery, and
fortifications, so enormously beyond the needs of
the country, that it was no secret that they were
intended not only for the defence of the republic against
invasion, but for a general rising of the Boer population
and the establishment of Dutch supremacy throughout
the whole of South Africa.
