und, and
have looked at the positions taken up by Louis Botha. They were chosen with
consummate skill, born of a thorough knowledge of the nature of the country
and inherent generalship.

I have looked at the country Sir Redvers Buller had to pass through to get
at his wise and skilful adversary. The man who dared make the attempt that
Buller made must have had nerves of steel, and a soul that would not blench
if ordered to storm the very gates of Hades. The worst fighting ground that
I saw in all the Free State was but a mockery of war compared to the ground
around Colenso, and I have seen some terrible places in the Free State. But
a man has to see the ground Buller fought in to realise the magnitude of
the task the Empire set him at the beginning of the war. Great as Lord
Roberts is, I doubt if he would have done more than Buller did under the
same circumstances.

That battle of Colenso made young Louis Botha famous, and from that hour
the eyes of the burghers were turned towards him as the one man fit to lead
them. At Spion Kop, when the Boer leader, Schalk Burger, vacated the
splendid position he had been ordered to take up, Louis Botha's genius
grasped the mighty import of the situation, and he at once realised that
Schalk Burger had blundered terribly, and it was he who retook those
positions with such disastrous consequences to our forces. His fame spread
far and near, and his name became a thing to conjure with. When the
Commandant-General of the Boer Army, General Joubert, lay dying, he was
asked who was the best man to fill his place. And he, the grey veteran, did
not hesitate for a second, but with his dying breath gasped out the name of
Louis Botha. The Boer Government promptly appointed him to the position,
and from that day to this he has been the paramount military power in the
Boer lines. He is not the only one of his line fighting under the Transvaal
flag. There are four other brothers in the field, one of whom, Christian
Botha, is now a general, and a good fighter. As a soldier Louis Botha has
proved himself a foeman worthy the steel of any of our generals; as a man
his worst enemy can say nothing derogatory concerning him, for in all his
actions he has borne himself like a gentleman. He is generous and courteous
in the hour of victory, stout-hearted and self-reliant in the time of
disaster--just the type of soldier that a great nation like ours knows how
to esteem, even though he is an enemy in arms