belittle the spirit which moved them to take up arms
against the greatest Power in the world. Their ignorance may have
been great, but not so great as to blind them to the fact that they
were undertaking an unequal contest. It is not possible to say, with
due regard to their records, that they are not a courageous people.
Individual bravery, of the kind which takes no heed of personal risk,
reckless heroic dash, they have not, nor do they pretend to have.
Their system is entirely otherwise. They do not seek fighting for
fighting's sake. They do not like exposing themselves to risk and
danger. Their caution and their care for personal safety are such
that, judged by the standard of other people's conduct in similar
positions, they are frequently considered to be wanting in personal
courage. It seems a hard thing to say of a people who have produced
men like the first Bezuidenhout, who fought and died single-handed
against the British troops; men like Piet Retief, as gallant a man as
ever walked; men like Piet Uys, an example to all men for all time,
and only one of many generations in one family of equally gallant
Dutchmen; but it would truly seem that such examples do not occur
with such frequency among the Boers as among nations with whom they
have been compared. Where they have been able to choose their own
positions, or where they have been stimulated by previous successes,
they have done all that could possibly be asked of them; but their
particular military system does not conduce to success under
circumstances where men are suddenly and unexpectedly called upon to
exhibit the virtues of discipline, to make what to the individual may
appear a useless sacrifice of life, or, in cold blood and in the face
of previous defeat, to attempt to retrieve a lost position.

The Boer military power has been called the biggest unpricked bubble
in the world. Whether this be so or not--whether the early conflicts
between the British troops and the Boers in the Cape Colony and Natal
justify the view that the Boers cannot take a beating and come up
again--is a matter for those to decide who will give their impartial
attention to the records.

Whilst conspicuous personal daring among the Boers may not be
proverbial, it must be remembered to their everlasting credit that
they, as did the Southerners in the American Civil War, robbed the
cradle and the grave to defend their country. Boys who were mere
children bore rifles very nearly