Well may we ask whether it was a wise policy which converted so many Colonists into bitter enemies, by subjecting them to such revolting measures.

The enlisting of blacks by the British induced many Colonists to cast in their lot with the Boers.  If natives were to be employed to crush a kindred race, the Colonists thought that they were justified in rendering assistance to their fellow-Dutch.

Moreover, these armed natives, once promoted to the rank of soldiers, tantalized the farmers, who were formerly their masters, to an inconceivable degree.  With rifle in hand they would go to these and treat them in the most insulting manner.  They would commandeer bread, butter, milk, clothes, horses, and everything else they pleased, and woe to the man or woman that did not promptly answer their demands.

The farmers of the Western Province of the Cape Colony suffered perhaps most in this respect.  The natives had all congregated in the villages, and there they were armed to assist in the work of destruction, while the farmer, who required their services, had to tend his flocks and plough his fields all alone.

In Calvinia was an infamous Hottentot column, five hundred strong.  These Hottentots were the scare and plague of the whole district.  By their actions they goaded the Calvinia farmers into rebellion.

Let us summarize these causes mentioned—­causes which to some extent account for the rising in the Cape Colony.  They were:—­

(a) War on a kindred race without consent of Colonists.

(b) The Colonists left unprotected, and thus exposed to danger and temptation.

(c) The Colonists harassed by multitudinous proclamations and

(d) Subjected to embarrassing Martial Law regulations.

(e) The arming of natives against Colonists and Republicans.

Other causes why so many once loyal and devoted British subjects took up arms against the English may be cited, but the aforementioned are the principal ones.  By enumerating them we express neither approval nor disapproval of the action of the Colonists; for we admire nothing more in friend or foe than unfeigned devotion and loyalty to country and people.  The traitor and renegade are to be pitied, and their actions despised.  We could not but admire the loyalty of many a colonist under such untoward circumstances; when that loyalty was stretched to the breaking-point, when it became impossible for them to remain such any longer, then and then only we gladly welcomed them and equipped them as best we could.

Those who stigmatize the Colonists as traitors, rebels, or renegades, would do well to take into account the peculiar position in which they were placed by the war, before passing a rash judgment on them.  To be fair towards the Colonists we must take into consideration the causes which produced the effects.  Only after a thorough investigation of the causes could a just sentence be passed on the colonial rebel.  If governments have no responsibility whatever towards their subjects or citizens, and no binding obligations to fulfil in respect to them, then only may the investigation of causes be discarded.