said,
'Yes, the Rev. S.J. Du Toit did that. He was the founder of the
Bond; and to-day he is--nothing! If I did it, I should fall as he
did.' 'Then,' said his British friend, 'what is influence worth if it
cannot be used for good? Can there be said to be influence when it
cannot be used at all?' 'No,' was the reply, 'I have no influence as
against the cry of race: blood is thicker than water; and I have no
influence at all with Kruger.' The answer to this contained the crux
of the question. 'Indeed you have; but you have not the courage to
exercise it. The influence of advice has failed, dare you try the
influence of repudiation?' The answer was a shake of the head and
'Blood is thicker than water.' That is it! The Piper pipes and the
children follow.

It is too much to believe that the conference between the High
Commissioner and President Kruger was a suggestion to which the
latter had to be won over either by President Steyn or Mr. Hofmeyr.
It is, indeed, well-known that the idea of a meeting for the purpose
of discussing matters at issue between the two Governments had been
considered in Pretoria for some months before it actually took
place.{51}

The news that, upon the invitation of President Steyn, the High
Commissioner and President Kruger had agreed to meet at Bloemfontein,
was received by the Uitlanders with relief; not hope, because it was
believed that the President's object was to get something, not to
give something; but sheer relief, because, come what might, the
position could never again be the same as it was before the
conference. Something must change; someone must yield; the unbearable
strain must cease. Sir Alfred Milner--wise and just and
strong--commanded the entire confidence of the Uitlanders. It was not
hoped that he would succeed in effecting a settlement at such a
meeting, because in the circumstances such an achievement was
believed not to be humanly possible; but it was not feared that he
would fail in his duty to his country and to his trust.

It is no part of the object of this volume to deal with the
negotiations which took place at Bloemfontein or with the terms of
settlement at the present moment under discussion; the object is to
recite the circumstances and conditions which made these negotiations
necessary, and which, if they fail, must lead to bloodshed.

With a barrier of insurmountable race feeling before them, the
Uitlanders are hopeless of effecting a peaceful redress of