The Project Gutenberg EBook of With the Boer Forces, by Howard C. Hillegas

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Title: With the Boer Forces

Author: Howard C. Hillegas

Release Date: August 7, 2005 [EBook #16462]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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WITH
THE BOER FORCES

BY

HOWARD C. HILLEGAS

AUTHOR OF "OOM PAUL'S PEOPLE," AND CORRESPONDENT OF
"THE NEW YORK WORLD"

WITH TWENTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS AND A PLAN

METHUEN & CO.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON
1900

[Illustration: COMMANDANT-GENERAL LOUIS BOTHA]

PREFACE

In the following pages I have endeavoured to present an accurate picture
of the Boers in war-time. My duties as a newspaper correspondent carried
me to the Boer side, and herein I depict all that I saw. Some parts of my
narrative may not be pleasing to the British reader; others may offend the
sensibilities of the Boer sympathisers. I have written truthfully, but
with a kindly spirit and with the intention of presenting an unbiased
account of the struggle as it was unfolded to the view from the Boer side.
I shall be criticised, no doubt, for extolling certain virtues of the
Boers, but it must be noticed that their shortcomings are not neglected in
these lines.

In referring to Boer deeds of bravery I do not mean to insinuate that all
British soldiers were cowards any more than I mean to imply that all Boers
were brave, but any man who has been with armies will acknowledge that
bravery is not the exclusive property of the peoples of one nation. The
Boers themselves had thousands of examples of the bravery of their
opponents, and it was not an extraordinary matter to hear burghers express
their admiration of deeds of valour by the soldiers of the Queen. The
burghers, it may be added, were not bitter enemies of the British soldiers,
and upon hundreds of occasions they displayed the most friendly feeling
toward members of the Imperial forces. The Boer respected the British
soldier's ability, but the same respect was not vouchsafed to the British
officer,