bers of the Volksraad. Louis Botha retained his seat right up to the
time hostilities broke out between Great Britain and the Republics under
Mr. Kruger and Mr. Steyn.

During the many stormy scenes which preceded the actual declaration of war
Louis Botha proved that he possessed the coolest and most level head in the
Volksraad. He opposed the war, and, with prophetic eye, foresaw the awful
devastation of his country which would follow in the footsteps of the
British army. But when the time came, and his country was irretrievably
pledged to war, he was not the man to hang back. He was one of those who
had much to lose and little indeed to gain by taking up arms against us,
for, by honest industry, he had become a wealthy farmer and stockbreeder.
At the first call to arms he threw aside his senatorial duties, and took up
his rifle, rejoining his old commando at Vryheid as commandant under
General Lucas Meyer. It is said that at the battle of Dundee General Meyer,
feeling convinced that the God of Battles had decided against him and his
forces, decided to surrender to the British, but Louis Botha fiercely
combated his general's decision, and point-blank refused to throw down his
arms or counsel his men to do so. What followed all the world knows, and
Botha went up very high in the estimation of the better class of fighting
burghers. At the Tugela, before the first big battle took place, General
Meyer was taken ill, and had to retire to Pretoria, and Louis Botha was
then elected assistant-general, and the planning of the battle was left
entirely to him.

It was a terribly responsible position to place so young a man in, for he
was face to face with the then Commander-in-Chief of the British army, Sir
Redvers Buller, a general of dauntless determination and undoubted ability.
Experience, men, and all the munitions of war were in favour of the British
general; but the awful nature of the country was upon the side of the newly
fledged Boer leader, and he made terrible use of it. The day of Colenso,
when Sir Redvers Buller received his first decisive check, will not soon be
forgotten in the annals of our Army. A man of weaker fibre than the British
leader would have been daunted by the disasters of that day, for there he
lost ten guns and a large number of men. But Buller carried in his blood
all the old grit of our race, and the heavier the check the more his soul
was set upon ultimate victory. I have been over that battle gro