and uttered a prayer for the success and the speedy ending of the campaign.  Hymns were sung, and for a full hour the hills, whereon almost twenty years before many of the same burghers sang and prayed after the victory at Majuba, were resounding with the religious and patriotic songs of men going forward to kill and to be killed.  In their laagers the Boers had religious services at daybreak and after sunset every day, whether they were near to the enemy or far away.  At first the novelty of being awakened early in the morning by the voices of a large commando of burghers was not conducive to a religious feeling in the mind of the stranger, but a short stay in the laagers caused anger to turn to admiration.  After sunset the burghers again gathered in groups around camp-fires, and made the countryside re-echo with the sound of their deep, bass voices united in Dutch hymns and psalms of praise and thanksgiving.

Whether they ate a big meal from a well-equipped table, or whether they leaped from their horses to make a hasty meal of biltong and bread, they reverently bowed their heads and asked a blessing before and after eating.  Before they went into battle they gathered around their general and were led in prayer by the man who afterwards led them against the enemy.  When the battle was concluded, and whether the field was won or lost, prayers were offered to the God of battles.  In the reports which generals and commandants made to the war departments, victories and defeats were invariably ascribed to the will of God, and such phrases as “All the glory belongs to the Lord of Hosts who led us,” and “God gave us the victory,” and “Divine favour guided our footsteps,” were frequent.  When one is a stranger of the Boers and unacquainted with the simple faith which they place in Divine guidance, these religious manifestations may appear inopportune in warfare, but it is necessary to observe the Boer burgher in all his various actions and emotions to know that he is sincere in his religious beliefs and that he endeavours to be a Christian in deed as well as in word.

The Boer army, like Cromwell’s troopers, could fight as well as pray, but in reality it was not a fighting organisation in the sense that warfare was agreeable to the burghers.  The Boer proved that he could fight when there was a necessity for it, but to the great majority of them it was heartrending to slay their fellow human beings.  The Boer’s hand was better adapted to the stem of a pipe than to the stock of an army rifle, and he would rather have been engaged in the former peaceful pursuit had he not believed that it was a holy war in which he was engaged.  That he was not eager for fighting was displayed in a hundred different ways.  He loved his home more than the laagers at the front, and he took advantage of every opportunity to return to his home and family.  He lusted not for battle, and he seldom engaged in one unless he firmly believed that success depended partly upon his individual presence.