Thirty-five years before he was called upon to be Commandant-General of the army of his nation Louis Botha was born near the same spot where he was chosen for that office, and on the soil of the empire against whose forces he was pitting his strength and ability.  In his youth he was wont to listen to the narratives of the battles in which his father and grandfather fought side by side against the hordes of natives who periodically dyed the waters of the Tugela crimson with the blood of massacred men and women.  In early manhood Botha fought against the Zulus and assisted Lucas Meyer in establishing the New Republic, which afterward became his permanent home.  Popularity, ability, and honesty brought him into the councils of the nation as a member of the First Volksraad, where he wielded great influence by reason of his conscientious devotion to duty and his deep interest in the welfare of his country.  When public affairs did not require his presence in Pretoria, Botha was with his family on his farm in Vryheid, and there he found the only happiness which he considered worth having.  The joys of a pastoral existence combined with the devotion and love of his family were the keystone of Botha’s happiness, and no man had a finer realisation of his ambitions in that respect than he.  Botha was a warrior, no doubt, but primarily he was a man who loved the peacefulness of a farm, the pleasures of a happy home-life, and the laughter of his four children more than the tramp of victorious troops or the roar of cannon.

There are a few men who have a certain magnetic power which attracts and holds the admiration of others.  Louis Botha was a man of this class.  Strangers who saw him for the first time loved him.  There was an indescribable something about him which caused men looking at him for the first time to pledge their friendship for all time.  The light in his blue eyes seemed to mesmerise men, to draw them, willing or unwilling, to him.  It was not the quality which gained friends for Kruger nor that which made Joubert popular, but rather a mysterious, involuntary influence which he exerted over everybody with whom he came in contact.  A man less handsome, of less commanding appearance than Botha might have possessed such a power, and been considered less extraordinary than he, but it was not wholly his personal appearance—­for he was the handsomest man in the Boer army—­which aroused the admiration of men.  His voice, his eyes, his facial expression and his manner—­all combined to strengthen the man’s power over others.  It may have been personal magnetism or a mysterious charm which he possessed—­but it was the mark of a great man.