My husband ran in to see how we were faring about 8 o’clock this evening.  I had not seen him since early morning.  He told me that a Reform Committee had been formed of the leading men of the city.  Also that the Americans had called a meeting in the course of the afternoon to hear the results of a Special Deputation, consisting of Messrs. Hennen Jennings and Perkins, to President Kruger.  Mr. Jennings reported the President as having listened to them attentively while they conveyed to him what they believed to be the sentiment of the Americans on the Rand.  They assured him that, although the Americans recognised the rights of the Boers as well as those of the Uitlanders, unless he could in some way meet the demand of the unenfranchised people of the Transvaal he could not expect their support when the revolution came.  They also told him that the Americans wanted to see the Republic preserved, but on a truer basis.  And when questioned by the President if in case of rebellion the Americans would be with or against the Government, they answered bluntly, ’They would be against the Government.’

President Kruger dogmatically declared ’this was no time for discussion, but a time for the people to obey the law,’ and with this they were dismissed.

A Committee of three is appointed to visit Pretoria to-morrow and again lay before the President a statement of the demands of the Uitlanders, the attitude of the Americans and their wish to preserve the integrity of the Republic, but also to warn him that, if the Government insists upon ignoring these just demands, and thus precipitates war, the Americans must array themselves on the side of the other Uitlanders.

A large mass meeting is called to receive these gentlemen on their return from Pretoria and to decide upon the Americans’ future course of action.

The mail train to Cape Town was crowded with hundreds of terror-stricken women and children sent away by anxious husbands to a place of safety.  The ordinary accommodation was far too inadequate to supply the sudden rush.  They were crowded like sheep on cattle trucks.  I fear the journey of a thousand miles will be one of great discomfort.[1]

There are many anxious souls in Johannesburg to-night.

Betty and I are sitting up.  The night is sultry, and we have dragged our chairs out on to the verandah which overhangs the street.

Midnight.—­The town has quieted down.  Once a wild horseman clattered down the street towards the ‘Gold Fields’ shouting, ’A despatch, men! a despatch.  We’ve licked the Dutchmen!’ A few heads peered out of windows—­but that was all.

December 31.—­My husband came in at 4 o’clock this morning, looking very tired.  He was on the point of going to bed, when a messenger came from the ‘Gold Fields’ and hurried him away.