On December 13th, 1880, they, at length, revolted, and proclaimed at Heidelberg a Republic, to be presided over by a Triumvirate, consisting of Pretorius, Kruger and Joubert, whereupon the Burghers, commanded by Joubert, promptly attacked the small British force on the spot, under Colonel Anstruther, whom they defeated at Brunkers Spruit, with the immediate consequence that Sir George Colley set about an effort to re-conquer and re-subject the Transvaal, in which attempt he was finally overthrown and killed at Majuba Hill. From the date of that disaster the sequel is of common knowledge. The noble surrender of Gladstone's Government, in the Convention of 1881, was subsequently modified by the concessions recorded in the Convention of 1884, followed progressively. The recall of Sir Bartle Frere necessarily followed the recognition of the Boer Republic in 1881. That both the policy and military operations of Sir George Colley, who had been reinforced by Sir Evelyn Wood, were egregiously mismanaged, is a conclusion quite unavoidable in contemplating the repulses sustained by the forces at Laing's Neck and Ingogo, and their virtual annihilation at Majuba Hill, particularly when it is borne in mind that, whilst Sir George Colley was precipitating military disaster, he was actually engaged in negotiations with Joubert and Kruger to agree upon terms of accommodation. But whereas Sir George Colley in his own justification affirmed that he had no alternative, in view of the long and apparently inexplicable delay of the Boers in answering his

E

communications, it should not be overlooked that Sir George was hardly supported by the home Government, even in a half-hearted way, whereas the Boers were already being encouraged in their resistance by assurances that Mr Gladstone was favourable to their aspirations, and had formulated his Convention or capitulation, in petto. What is irresistibly established by a review of the whole conduct of the Transvaal Boers since their exodus from Graafreynet and their first settlement in interior Natal, in their dealings whether with the natives or with the British authorities-from subjection to whom it was their aim to extricate themselves-is that they have throughout been determined on independence. Their predominant political characteristic, exalted by their aversion to intercourse with anything British, is a profound aversion to rubbing shoulders with aggressive foreigners. But that renders it all the more essential that such ill-advised, and worse concerted, demonstrations should be eschewed as those latterly made by the Uitlanders of Johannesburg, and their speculating gamesters, quite unequal as they have proved themselves to either political or military combinations, adapted to cope with astute reflective leaders (however rough and ready) such as are Kruger, Joubert and others amongst the governing Boers of Pretoria. The example of the comparatively pacific and conciliatory disposition of the Orange River Boers should not be adopted as a standard in dealing with those of the Transvaal.

My readers will have observed that in this chapter I have acted on the principle of "nothing extenuate." No man who aimed at writing an impartial book dealing with the Transvaal question could deny that the policy and polity of the Dutch Boers in South Africa during the present century have been in some

respects open to censure. But before judgment is passed upon the actions of the Boers, their position, the difficulties they have had to contend with, the manner in which they have been hunted from one settlement to another, should, I think, in all fairness be taken into account. When this is done, I believe the historian of the future, able to calmly and dispassionately survey men and things free from a cloud of prejudice, will conclude that, considering their environment, the Boers were a singularly brave, estimable and God-fearing race.

CHAPTER VII

THE GOLDEN TRANSVAAL-BOERS AND UITLANDERS

LORD DUNMORE, in the able paper he contributed to the Pall Mall Magazine for January respecting the rise and growth of Johannesburg, aptly quoted, as the heading of his article, the well-known lines of Ovid :

"Aurea nunc vere sunt saecula: plurimus auro
Venit horos: Auro conciliatur amor."

Lord Dunmore utilised the Latin poet's aphorism, that by gold men frequently attain the highest honour and can win even love itself, as an introduction to the fact he records, viz., that on the 10th July 1895 the chairman of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange mounted his rostrum and announced that the output of gold from the Rand during the previous month had reached 200,941 ounces, valued at £775,000. The total output for the year 1895 was, I may here state, 2,277,685 ounces, being an increase of over 250,000 ounces on 1894, and of about 800,000 ounces on the output for 1893. In the article referred to, the writer quotes figures to show that the Witwatersrand Gold Field yields to the world over 25 per cent. of its gold supply, although it was only

in the month of May 1887 that the first output was registered. Besides the Rand mines there are many others in the Transvaal, and the value of the total yield from the gold mines of the State during last year was probably not less than £30,000,000.

The Transvaal is, without doubt, the richest goldproducing country in the world, and its fame as such and the fortunes that have been made there, have not unnaturally attracted thither all sorts and conditions of men and women from all parts of the world, mad to acquire wealth by some means or other, and perhaps not over particular as to the means. As a consequence of this invasion from without, the population of Johannesburg has been increasing in numbers in a marvellous manner. The inhabitants are, as might be expected, not exactly the pick of Christendom, and even many of the men at the top of the tree are hardly the class that would be admitted into any respectable West End Club. It is a mixed-terribly mixed, however, regarded-mass, that inhabits the golden city, and, though these people have brought wealth to the Transvaal by developing its mineral resources, it must be remembered that they have acquired wealth in the process. It must also not be forgotten that they came to the Transvaal of their own free will and cognisant of its laws, the disabilities imposed on aliens by the Transvaal Constitution, and the dislike of the Boers to have their pastoral life infringed on by a crowd of hungry financiers, ready to trample down everything and everybody in their mad pursuit of gold.