commissariat stores of their own
Government, into the food depots from which doles had been
distributed, and into private stores; taking away to their homes,
goods, clothing and provisions of all sorts. Those who witnessed
the invasion of the great goods sheds where the Republican
commissariat had its headquarters say that the people defied the
officials, daring them to shoot them. I met many of these people
returning to their homes laden with spoils. Sometimes there was a
wheelbarrow heaped up with sacks of flour, or tins of biscuits,
or preserved meat. Men, women, children and Kaffir "boys" trudged
along with similar articles, or with bundles of boots and
clothing. Dr Krause, the commandant, did his best to secure order
and to repress looting, but he lacked the reliable agents who
alone could have controlled the people. This sort of thing was
going on on Monday and Tuesday, May 28th and 29th. But for the
astonishing marches by which Lord Roberts paralysed opposition,
and which enabled him to summon the town to surrender on the
Wednesday morning, it is hard to say what limit could have been
put to the disorder. In all probability the dangerous section of
the large Continental element in the population would have broken
out into crime. Looting had hitherto been confined to the
property which was left unprotected, and few unoccupied houses
had not been ransacked; but had the British occupation been
delayed a few days the consequences would have been disastrous.

[Sidenote: _Astonishing the Natives._]

As on that Thursday morning we tramped steadily from Germiston to
Johannesburg we were greatly surprised to find near each successive
mine crowds of natives all with apparently well oiled faces that
literally shone in the sunlight; but natives of every conceivable
shade of sableness, and in some cases of almost every permissible
approach to nudity. They were for the most part what are called "raw
Kaffirs"; and as we were astonished at their numbers after so many
months of war and consequent stoppage of work, so were they also
astonished at our numbers, and confided to our native minister their
wonder at finding there were so many Englishmen in all the world as
they that day saw upon the Rand. It was a vitally important object
lesson that by this time has made its beneficent influence felt among
all the tribe