Lord Methuen’s column was not the only one which was attacked and taken on the exposed veldt.  Some of the most brilliant achievements of the Boers were accomplished when they were altogether exposed to the enemy’s fire and had to take the offensive.  Was it then arrogance and vainglory which prompted them to offer battle to one of the great Powers of the world?  Arrogance and vainglory would not have stood the test, but would soon have vanquished like morning clouds before the rising sun.  There must have been some other cause.  What was it?

Here, then, the reader has another reason why the Boers fought so long.  As a people they are brave, and thus scorn the very thought of surrendering like cowards.  They chose to die as men, and the memory of those who fell as such shall ever be dear and sacred to us.

    “For how can man die better
      Than facing fearful odds,
    For the ashes of his fathers
      And the temples of his gods?”

Another trait in the Boer character is his wonderful resourcefulness and his ability to cope with difficulties.  It was as much this phase of his character as his patriotism, religiosity and valour which enabled him to continue the struggle so long.  If the Boers had not been so wonderfully resourceful, and understood so well how to lighten their burdens and solve their problems, they never could have held out so long.

Surrounded on almost every side by British dominions, with all imports cut off, they were bound to fall back on their own limited resources.  When these were exhausted, they had to plan some way out of the difficulty.  And so ingeniously did they contrive to find the wherewithal for the prosecution of the war, and the necessaries of life, that it must have appeared hopeless to the enemy at times that the Republicans should ever be reduced to such an extremity that they could help themselves no longer.

And this is the way they planned.  When their boots wore out, men were appointed to tan hides and make boots; even the women busied themselves in this kind of work.  When there was a great scarcity of soap,—­an article used also by Boers,—­the women boiled a serviceable substance with the help of the ashes of various weeds.  When the British began destroying the mills everywhere mills were mounted on waggons and carried off on the approach of the enemy.  When tobacco failed the burghers, Nature made provision once more.  Leaves of different kinds of trees were taken, dried and soaked in a weak solution of tobacco extract, and when dry these leaves answered the purpose of tobacco.  The fine handicraft of great-grandmothers in the spinning of wool was revived.  The women-folk, constructing spinning-wheels from old sewing-machines, spun wool beautifully, and knitted socks and other articles as fine and as strong as any that can be bought in shops.  When the English took or burnt all their vehicles they reconstructed others from the remnants of the burnt ones.  One