d he
was sorry we had to leave the Pretoria district, but he could
understand our horses would have all been killed by the sickness if we
had stopped at Poortjesnek. As regards the Battle of Rhenosterkop, he
expressed the Government's satisfaction with the result.

On the 16th of December we celebrated Dingaan's Day in a solemn
manner. Pastor J. Louw, who had faithfully accompanied us during these
fatiguing months of retreats and adversity, delivered a most
impressive address, describing our position. Several officers also
spoke, and I myself had a go at it, although I kept to politics. In
the afternoon the burghers had sports, consisting of races on foot and
on horseback. The prizes were got together by means of small
contributions from the officers. All went well, without any mishaps,
and it was unanimously voted to have been very entertaining.

It was a peculiar sight--taking into consideration the
circumstances--to see these people on the "veldt" feasting and of good
cheer, each trying to amuse the other, under the fluttering
"Vierkleur"--the only one we possessed--but the look of which
gladdened the hearts of many assisting at this celebration in the
wilderness. How could we have been in a truly festive mood without
the sight of that beloved banner, which it had cost so many
sacrifices to protect, and to save which so much Afrikander blood had
been shed.

And in many of us the thought suggested itself: "O, Vierkleur of our
Transvaal, how much longer shall we be allowed to see you unfurled?
How long, O Lord, will a stream of tears and blood have to flow before
we are again the undisputed masters of our little Republic, scarcely
visible on the world's map? For how long will our adored Vierkleur be
allowed to remain floating over the heads of our persecuted nation,
whose blood has stained and soaked your colours for some generations?
We hope and trust that so sure as the sun shall rise in the east and
set in the west, so surely may this our flag, now wrapped in sorry
mourning, soon flutter aloft again in all its glory, over the country
on which Nature lavishes her most wondrous treasures."

The Afrikander character may be called peculiar in many respects. In
moments of reverse, when the future seems dark, one can easily trace
its pessimistic tendencies. But once his comrades buried, the wounded
attended to, and a moment's rest left him by the enemy, the cheerful
part of the Boer nature prevails, and he is full of