ed
either to shoot their dinner or go without. So they began straight
away by shooting their dinner--and they have been able to shoot it
ever since. In warfare, too, they know exactly how to proceed. They
know that it is policy to shoot the Englishmen and save their own
skins. So they get behind large stones and shoot the Englishmen. They
know, further, that the best guarantee of success is to wait
patiently. They know nothing about military discipline, and they don't
want to know anything about it. According to their idea, this is how
the crack British regiments proceed: They march up in a body--close
order--and when they come within range of the Boers the commanding
officer gives the following commands: 'Halt! Attention! Present!
Fire!' And by the time the commanding officer has given the word
'Fire!' the Boers, comfortably stationed behind stones, have shot
those regiments down! There is, perhaps, some truth in this.

But the Boer, after all, believes in peace. It suits him better to be
on his farm, with a pipe in his mouth, and Kaffirs to do all the work,
while he walks around his acres and finds fault. They stick to their
country, and they fight for their country; but they don't like
fighting much. I came across one particular Boer who had been at
Majuba, and who was perfectly clear in his own mind that he did not
care much about it; and he did not entertain favourably the idea of
further warfare. He explained that he quietly got behind the customary
stone, and shot round the corners. During the time he was thus amusing
himself, the stone was struck by fifteen English bullets, and he did
not calculate on waiting to see what effect number sixteen would have,
so he left that stone. The Boers are always very reticent where the
number of their killed is concerned. In English circles it is
jocularly asserted that only one Boer was killed at Majuba, and all
the other Boers went into mourning for him. It is not known, and never
will be known, how many were killed at Krugersdorp by Jameson's men.
There is one thing, however, which goes to prove that a good number
must have succumbed on that occasion. It is rumoured that the Boers do
not want any more fighting with men who shoot as straight as those
comprising Jameson's Horse.

[Illustration: MAJUBA HILL.]

Defence in the Transvaal and Orange Free State is provided for
principally by the burghers, who are liable to be called upon for
active service between the ages of e