trained reserves . . . . . . . . 600

1,400 Transvaal . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,400
------- ----- -------
102,000 . . . . . . . . . . . Total at least about 144,000

102,000 highly efficient, and 42,000 partly trained.

The mounts are docile, hardy and nimble, with large reserves available.
The above includes 500 Johannesburg Mounted Police, a picked body of men
armed with carbine, revolver, and sabre.

_Small Arms_ . . . . . . . . . About 250,000

Martini-Henry rifles in Orange Free State }
} 100,000
" " " in Transvaal }

Guede rifles in Transvaal . . . . . . . . 10,000
Mauser rifles in Transvaal . . . . . . . . 120,000
Revolvers in both States . . . . . . . . . 20,000
------

_Artillery, both Republics_ . . . . . . . . 140

Maxims and Nordenfeldts, modern . . . . . 50
Field cannon and Howitzers " . . . . . 70
Siege and heavy guns " . . . . . 20

BOER CONSERVATISM

Rudyard Kipling truly said "the Boers are the most conservative people
on earth." Habits and views which had prevailed two hundred years ago
with their forefathers are still tenaciously preserved by them. We see
this in matters of language, religion, in certain antipathies, and even
in attire. They are justly famed for hospitality, not only amongst
themselves, but also towards strangers, and a very pleasing trait, no
doubt handed down from the seigneurial Huguenots, is the genial
politeness which a stranger will receive in an otherwise wholly
uncultured Boer family.

On his farm the Boer is chief and supreme after the patriarchal
fashion--no thought of tolerating an equal or a rival in authority.
Collectively also, as in governmental representation, he is extremely
averse to the introduction of any foreign element; such a factor would
meet with his undisguised suspicion and jealousy. It must be Boer
supremacy, and to this strangers must submit; the Boers to figure as
the only caste or military aristocracy privileged to carry arms, very
much like the Samouris nobles of Japan, who from of old until recently
had represented the feudal estate, and had made quite a famous cult of
personal bravery, chivalry and devotion to their Mikado and for their
independent caste. Long intercourse and inter-marriage