He did not go into battle because he had the lust of blood, for he abhorred the slaughter of men, and it was not an extraordinary spectacle to see a Boer weeping beside the corpse of a British soldier.  On the field, after the Spion Kop battle, where Boer guns did their greatest execution, there were scores of bare-headed Boers who deplored the war, and amidst ejaculations of “Poor Tommy,” and “This useless slaughter,” brushed away the tears that rolled down over their brown cheeks and beards.  Never a Boer was seen to exult over a victory.  They might say “That is good” when they heard of a Spion Kop or a Magersfontein, but never a shout or any other of the ordinary methods of expressing joy.  The foreigners in the army frequently were beside themselves with joy after victories, but the Boers looked stolidly on and never took any part in the demonstrations.

CHAPTER IV

THE ARMY ORGANISATION

When the Boer goes on a lion-hunting expedition he must be thoroughly acquainted with the game country; he must be experienced in the use of the rifle, and he must know how to protect himself against the attacks of the enemy.  When he is thus equipped and he abandons lion-hunting for the more strenuous life of war the Boer is a formidable enemy, for he has combined in him the qualities of a general as well as the powers of a private soldier.  In lion-hunting the harm of having too many men in authority is not so fatal to the success of the expedition as it is in real warfare, where the enemy may have less generals but a larger force of men who will obey their commands.  All the successes of the Boer army were the result of the fact that every burgher was a general, and to the same cause may be attributed almost every defeat.  Whenever this army of generals combined and agreed to do a certain work it was successful, but it was unsuccessful whenever the generals disagreed.  If the opportunity had given birth to a man who would have been accepted as general of the generals—­a man was needed who could introduce discipline and training into the rudimentary military system of the country—­the chances of the Boer success would have been far greater.

The leaders of the Boer army were elected by a vote of the people in the same manner in which they chose their presidents and civil officials.  Age, ability, and military experience did not have any bearing on the subject except in so far as they influenced the mind of the individual voter.  Family influences, party affiliations, and religion had a strong bearing on the result of the elections, and, as is frequently the case with civil authorities in other countries, the men with the best military minds and experience were not always chosen.  It was as a result of this system that General Joubert was at the head of the army when a younger, more energetic, and more warlike man should have been Commandant-General.  At the last election for Commandant-General, Joubert,