uction thus of 4,370 men. At their
meeting on June 20th last year he had said that they should throw the
responsibility of the continuance of the war more upon the people.
They should then have said plainly that only faith and perseverance
could save them, and that there was no other means of salvation.
However, the majority of them had taken another view. What he then
specially relied upon was the Cape Colony, on the strength of the
reports that they received from there. Their reports were to the
effect that 2,000 burghers had risen in the Cape Colony. Now,
according to the statements of Generals de Wet and de la Rey, there
were about 600 of his (General Botha's) burghers and of the Free State
burghers together in the Cape Colony; altogether there were about
2,600 burghers under arms there. There has therefore been no further
rising during the past year. He was firmly convinced that they could
expect nothing from the rebellion in the Cape Colony. The time for a
big rising there was past. It appeared that their men were scattered
over that Colony in small groups, and effected nothing. They had to
live on those people who were well disposed towards them (the Boers),
and the result was that those people were treated very harshly by the
enemy, and would be compelled later to assist the latter to drive
those groups of rebels out of the country. Already many Colonists had
been hanged. Their cause was often compared to that of the American
Colonists, but it was not clear to him how that comparison could be
made. The enemy (the British) had about 40,000 men in America, and
America had more than one million inhabitants. She also had the
support of France, and a means of importing supplies. They (the Boers)
had no such means of importing what was necessary, and there was no
proper communication with the outside world. The forces of the enemy
in the country were much greater than the entire male population of
the two Republics. Their population had now been reduced to 15,000 or
16,000 men. Had they grounds for saying that they with 15,000 men
could achieve what 50,000 burghers could not do? They were becoming so
weak that he was afraid that they would afterwards no longer be
considered a party that had to be reckoned with. It was not impossible
that they would afterwards be declared rebels, and then a mutual
murdering would take place. He did not think that it could be expected
of him to co-operate towards that end. They could not