and their word was not to be trusted." He had had ample
opportunities of forming a judgment by experience. And there are
many of us nowadays who are inclined to agree with him. Cetchwayo
further asserted that "the British were making the greatest mistake
they ever made in befriending them; for if they had not rescued the
Boers from him, he would very soon have eaten them all up."

As regards the military organisation of the Boers, it may be
described as similar to that of the Republic of Greece or that of
mediaeval England. Every man, from the age of sixteen to sixty,
considered himself a soldier. Every man, when the country demanded
his services, was ready to get under arms--to protect his hearth and
home in the face of a common enemy.

The country was divided into districts, and these districts were
subdivided into wards. To each of these wards was appointed a
field-cornet, who had military duties when a commando was called
out. The officer who took the chief command of the field-cornets was
styled the commandant. This arrangement first originated in the
early days of their emigration to the Cape, when the natives,
lawless and inimical, were perpetually bursting out without rhyme or
reason. Naturally prompt defence became necessary. To many people
the Boer appears to be a "first-class fighting man." Certainly he is
determined, obstinate, and, in his peculiar fashion, brave. But
there are others who can recall events in the battle with Dingaan,
in the tragedy of Majuba Hill, which scarcely add to the honour of
the Boer as a soldier. It has been said that the Boer prefers to do
his fighting without risking his skin, but this may be somewhat
unjust. He is ready enough to risk his skin, but he is equally ready
that some one shall pay for the risk, and he makes him pay by fair
means if he can--if not, by foul.

However, Livingstone knew his man, and thus it was that he wrote of
him: "The Boers have generally manifested a marked antipathy to
anything but 'long shot' warfare, and sidling away in their
emigrations towards the more effeminate Bechuanas, have left their
quarrels with the Kaffirs to be settled by the English, and their
wars to be paid for by English gold." Obviously their methods of
warfare were, to say the least of it, curious. Sometimes they would
drive a battalion of friendly natives or slaves in front of them,
and shoot down their enemies from behind the shelter of these
advanced guards. Occasionally the