* * * * *

M. Elisee Reclus, the great Geographer, an able and admittedly impartial Historian, wrote some years ago in his “Africa,” Vol. 4, page 215:—­

“The patriotic Boers of South Africa still dream of the day when the two Republics of the Orange and the Transvaal, at first connected by a common customs union, will be consolidated in a single ’African Holland,’ possibly even in a broader confederacy, comprising all the Afrikanders from the Cape of Good Hope to the Zambesi.  The Boer families, grouped in every town throughout South Africa, form, collectively, a single nationality, despite the accident of political frontiers.  The question of the future union has already been frequently discussed by the delegates of the two conterminous Republics.  But, unless these visions can be realized during the present generation, they are foredoomed to failure.  Owing to the unprogressive character of the purely Boer communities and to the rapid expansion of the English-speaking peoples by natural increase, by direct immigration, and by the assimilation of the Boers themselves, the future ’South African Dominion’ can, in any case, never be an ‘African Holland.’  Whenever the present political divisions are merged in one State, that State must sooner or later constitute an ‘African England,’ whether consolidated under the suzerainty of Great Britain or on the basis of absolute political autonomy.  But the internal elements of disorder and danger are too multifarious to allow the European inhabitants of Austral Africa for many generations to dispense with the protection of the English sceptre.

“Possessing for two centuries no book except the Bible, the South African Dutch communities are fond of comparing their lot with that of the ‘Chosen People.’  Going forth, like the Jews, in search of a ‘Promised Land,’ they never for a moment doubted that the native populations were specially created for their benefit.  They looked on them as mere ‘Canaanites, Amorites, and Jebusites,’ doomed beforehand to slavery or death.

“They turned the land into a solitude, breaking all political organization of the natives, destroying all ties of a common national feeling, and tolerating them only in the capacity of ‘apprentices,’ another name for slaves.

“In general, the Boers despise everything that does not contribute directly to the material prosperity of the family group.  Despite their numerous treks, they have contributed next to nothing to the scientific exploration of the land.

“Of all the white intruders, the Dutch Afrikanders show themselves, as a rule, most hostile to their own kinsmen, the Netherlanders of the mother country.  At a distance the two races have a certain fellow-feeling for each other, as fully attested by contemporary literature; but, when brought close together, the memory of their common origin gives place to a strange sentiment of aversion.  The Boer is extremely sensitive, hence he is irritated at the civilized Hollanders, who smile at his rude African customs, and who reply, with apparent ostentation, in a pure language to the corrupt jargon spoken by the peasantry on the banks of the Vaal or Limpopo.”