Shall any still that stood afar off and watched the struggle, maybe sympathetically, or with cold indifference—­shall they blame us for having surrendered?  Verily not; for it cannot rationally be expected that a handful of farmers could offer resistance indefinitely, without any assistance, to a rich and mighty empire.  The leaking vessel may ride to and fro for a while on the stormy billows, but eventually she is bound to sink; the shipwrecked mariner may struggle and swim, but, exhausted and powerless, he too goes down to find his last rest in the bosom of the deep.  This was the case of the Republics.  On the stormy billows of the ocean of war they were tossed hither and thither for nearly three years.  Time and again they cried and signalled for relief, but no life-boats were sent to their rescue.  None heeded their cry, or had compassion on them.  The nations stood and looked on, sympathised and pitied, but did not help.  And so, after all their strength was spent in trying to save the vessel of their independence, the gallant crew, with ship and all, sank beneath the waves of conquest.

CHAPTER IX.

THE BOER AS SEEN IN THE LIGHT OF THE WAR.

People tell
Of an old savage.

Omar Khayyam.

’E ’asn’t got no papers of his own,
’E ’asn’t got no medals nor rewards,
So we must certify the skill ’e’s shown.

Rudyard Kipling.

It is with reluctance we approach a subject on which in past years so much has been written, often falsely.  Besides, it is certainly a most delicate matter to expatiate on the character of any individual or nation.

We are aware that some of our readers will read the remarks on this subject—­Boer character—­with considerable suspicion and distrust.  They may argue that the writers, being of Dutch extraction themselves, are not likely to give an accurate and dispassionate estimate of the character of their own people.  They may even fear that our national sentiments might influence and predominate over our judgment, and switch us off the track of strict impartiality.  If there be such, we can only assure them that we have no intention whatsoever of eulogising and extolling the race with which we are connected by blood.

[Illustration:  EX-PRESIDENT STEYN.

Photo by Duffus Bros., Capetown.]

In the past the Boers, i.e., the Dutch element in the late Republics, have frequently been described, and as often maligned, by men who were perfect strangers to them; men who had not taken the least trouble to study their habits and character so as to arrive at a better understanding of the people they were trying to describe.  Hence the various contradictory statements and representations of one and the same people.  Alas! that they should ever have been the victims of so much cheap slander, that some men should have vied with one another in heaping insult