ight, which had been growing weaker steadily for five
years. That misfortune alone prevented him from accompanying his burghers
to the front and sharing their burdens with them, and he frequently
expressed his disappointment that he was unable to engage more actively in
the defence of his country. When Pretoria fell into British hands Kruger
again sacrificed his own interests for the welfare of his Government and
moved the capital into the fever-districts, the low-veld of the eastern
part of the Transvaal. The deadly fever which permeates the atmosphere of
that territory seemed to have no more terrors for him than did the British
bullets at Poplar Grove, and he chose to remain in that dangerous locality
in order that he might be in constant communication with his burghers and
the outside world rather than to go farther into the isolated interior
where he would have assumed no such great risks to his health.

Mr. Kruger was not a bitter enemy of the British nation, as might have
been supposed. He was always an admirer of Britons and British
institutions, and the war did not cause him to alter his convictions. He
despised only the men whom he charged with being responsible for the war,
and he never thought to hide the identity of those men. He blamed Mr.
Rhodes, primarily, for instigating the war, and held Mr. Chamberlain and
Sir Alfred Milner equally responsible for bringing it about. Against these
three men he was extremely bitter, and he took advantage of every
opportunity for expressing his opinions of them and their work. In
February he stated that the real reason of the war between the Boers and
the British was Rhodes's desire for glory. "He wants to be known as the
maker of the South African empire," he said, "and the empire is not
complete so long as there are two Republics in the centre of the country."

Whatever were the causes of the war, it is certain that President Kruger
did not make it in order to gain political supremacy in the country. The
Dutch of Cape Colony, President Steyn of the Free State, and Secretary
Reitz of the Transvaal, may have had visions of Dutch supremacy, but
President Kruger had no such hopes. He invariably and strenuously denied
that he had any aspirations other than the independence of his country,
and all his words and works emphasised his statement to that effect.
Several days before Commandant-General Joubert died, that intimate friend
of the President declared solemnly that Kruger