THE DUTCH COTERIE:  ITS SEAT IN HOLLAND

As has been shown, the conditions of the two Boer Republics, with High Dutch as the official language, lent themselves to favour the immigration into those States of educated Dutchmen (Hollanders, as they are styled, to distinguish them from the old-established Boer Dutchmen).  These were indeed indispensable, as none of the Boers possessed the competence in High Dutch requisite for the conduct of the more important portion of the clerical work in the administration.  The professional branches were recruited from Holland likewise, in natural sequence.  They were men of high attainments and possessed of energy and astuteness and of various qualifications—­doctors, lawyers, editors, clergymen, teachers.  Those who did not receive Government appointments quickly found lucrative positions in their vocations.  The scope increased as time went by and as those States developed with the growth of the populations and the establishment of numerous towns and villages, especially after the discovery of the diamond-fields in 1870.  Every year brought fresh contingents from Holland, including also the commercial class, artisans, and even servants of both sexes, and agriculturists.  Preserving a constant intercourse with their native country, those Hollanders also maintained cohesion and clanship among themselves in their newly-adopted homes.  Nor did Holland fail to realize the great advantages accruing to that country and its people from the new South African outlets—­regular preserves with almost unlimited scope for further extension and for increasing permanent, profitable connections.  A formidable barrier presented itself in the gradually ascendant tendencies of the English language and English trade, with corresponding neglect of the Dutch factors.  Regretful forebodings aroused energetic efforts to check rival interests.  The prize was too valuable, and increasing each year in importance.  A dyke needed to be erected to stem the English encroachments and to preserve and consolidate the Hollander position of vantage.  The ablest men in Holland and South Africa exercised themselves with that task with an ardour impelled by jealous hatred against the English and intensified by successive revelations of more startling discoveries of gold and other mineral wealth in the Transvaal.  It was then, about thirty years ago, that a well-informed, influential and unscrupulous coterie in Holland devised the fell projects which developed into that potential association since known as the Afrikaner Bond.

The building of the Transvaal railway lines brought other large accessions of educated Hollanders, and as they were completed some thousands more were added to serve as permanent staff.  Dutch influence was thus attaining strength to assert and consolidate its interests with an expanding impulse.  The monopolized railway company promoted immigration from Holland by largely increasing the salaries to such