tretch out our hands towards them. Unless they had help
from our invading forces, they dared not risk a rising, because of the
confiscation of their property in case of failure.

We have had to suffer--to suffer cruelly for our sins. Our enemy forced
his way through the dyke that surrounded us, and like a stormy sea he
ruined our homes, devastated our fields, and caused us endless
suffering. Besides this, the talk of intervention had an enervating
effecton the commandos. In our commando, which was largely composed of
ignorant men, the strangest stories went round. One was that the
Russians had landed somewhere in South Africa with 100 cannon. There was
always talk of a great European War having broken out; and the
consequence was that the Boers counted on intervention or help from the
Powers, instead of depending on their own strength and perseverance. The
most sensible among us recognised the improbability of intervention. It
was not to the interest of any foreign Power to intervene in South
Africa where it had no firm footing, particularly as Chamberlain had, by
most cunning artifices, forced us to be the aggressors.

War was inevitable. Sooner or later it had to come. After the Jameson
Raid, which was really the beginning of the war, the Transvaal
Government recognised the dangerous position in which it stood, as an
isolated Republic, and was therefore obliged to arm itself with the most
modern of military equipments. Before the Jameson Raid race hatred was
dying out rapidly. The consequence of the raid was that the gap between
Boer and Englishman widened, the sympathy of the Uitlanders for us grew
deeper, and the Afrikander Bond grew stronger. England's prestige in
South Africa was threatened, and with it her rank as first Power in the
world. She had to maintain her supremacy in South Africa; while for us
it had become a question of all or nothing. England has evidently
succeeded in keeping up such friendly relations with the other Powers
that no intervention seems possible.

The relief of Ladysmith took place on February 28--a Majuba Day--a day
that had been marked as a red-letter day in our calendars. For nineteen
years the enemy have longed to wipe out the remembrance of that day, and
they have done so brilliantly and malignantly. Since that time we have
been humiliated and belittled. Our fall was great. For the first time
there was a general panic. The two Republics, being forced to venture on
war against a po