ittle change. In the matter of his
native piety he remains as he was. The Boer, if one may use a phrase
recently coined by Lord Rosebery, is an "Old Testament Christian."
No one can describe his race better than the writer who says of the
original settlers in 1652, that "they are a mixture in religion of
the old Israelite and the Scotch Covenanter." There is some question
about Boer hypocrisy, and Dr. Theal says on the subject, "Where side
by side with expressions of gratitude to the Creator are found
schemes for robbing and enslaving natives, the genuineness of their
religion may be doubted." But it must be remembered that in bygone
centuries the world's morality differed much from that of the
present day, and therefore the Boer, who has not progressed in
proportion to the world at large, can scarcely be judged by the
ethics of the world at large. To be just, we must look at him as a
being apart, and place him always in the frame of the seventeenth
century. Some historians declare that the Boer borrowed from the
French refugees much religious sentiment. Other authorities--and
these, considering the Boer disinclination to expansion, seem to be
right--declare that under the French influence he deteriorated.

[Illustration: COLONEL of the 10th HUSSARS.

(H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES.)

Photo by Gregory & Co., London.]

He was by nature bloodthirsty and cruel, but these qualities always
found for themselves a comfortable apology in the Old Testament. The
Boer prided himself on his likeness to the Israelite of old, and his
enemies to the Canaanite, whom it was doing God a service to
destroy. He kept all the rites of the Church with rigid punctuality.
He partook of the Communion (the Nachtmaal) once every three months,
and the whole community gathered together from great distances to
share it. The observances were made the occasion for rejoicing and
merrymaking, for the holding of fairs, the transfer of cattle,
the driving of bargains in hide or ivory, or other goods necessary
to traders. He has been described by a friend of his people "as,
according to his own lights, a citizen pioneer, a rough,
God-fearing, honest, homely, uneducated Philistine."

The opinion of his ancient enemy, Cetchwayo, differs, however, from
this estimate. Sir Frederick Godson has told us that this potentate
informed his brother, who was his captor, that the Boers were "a
mean, treacherous people, people who trusted no one, not even each
other,