CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. THE BOER PEOPLE 9
II. THE CAUSE OF QUARREL 23
III. THE NEGOTIATIONS 41
IV. SOME POINTS EXAMINED 61
V. THE NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE 73
VI. THE FARM-BURNING 84
VII. THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS 94
VIII. THE BRITISH SOLDIER IN SOUTH AFRICA 107
IX. FURTHER CHARGES AGAINST BRITISH TROOPS 123
X. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE QUESTION 133
XI. CONCLUSIONS 150
THE WAR:
ITS CAUSE AND CONDUCT
CHAPTER I
THE BOER PEOPLE
It is impossible to appreciate the South African problem and the causes
which have led up to the present war between the British Empire and the
Boer republics without some knowledge, however superficial, of the past
history of South Africa. To tell the tale one must go back to the
beginning, for there has been complete continuity of history in South
Africa, and every stage has depended upon that which has preceded it. No
one can know or appreciate the Boer who does not know his past, for he
is what his past has made him.
It was about the time when Oliver Cromwell was at his zenith--in 1652,
to be pedantically accurate--that the Dutch made their first lodgment at
the Cape of Good Hope. The Portuguese had been there before them, but,
repelled by the evil weather, and lured forward by rumours of gold, they
had passed the true seat of empire, and had voyaged farther, to settle
along the eastern coast. But the Dutchmen at the Cape prospered and grew
stronger in that robust climate. They did not penetrate far inland, for
they were few in number, and all they wanted was to be found close at
hand. But they built themselves houses, and they supplied the Dutch East
India Company with food and water, gradually budding off little
townlets, Wynberg, Stellenbosch, and pushing their settlements up the
long slopes which lead to that great central plateau which extends for
1,500 miles from the edge of the Karoo to the Valley of the Zambesi.
