towns, and had driven the English people before us and compelled
them to hide in the mountains with nothing upon which to subsist but
mealie pap and meat without salt, with only worn and rent clothes as a
covering, their houses burnt, and their women and children placed in
Concentration Camps in the hands of the enemy. How would the English
have acted under such circumstances? Would they not have surrendered
to the conqueror? However that may be, one thing is certain, that the
patriotism of a nation is only to be learned when put to such a severe
test as this.

In his book, "The Great Boer War," Dr. Conan Doyle has, on the whole,
gained the admiration of the Afrikanders by his moderate language. But
here and there, where he has been carried away by his English
sympathies to use bitter and libellous language with respect to the
Boers, that admiration has been changed into contempt. Dr. Conan Doyle
attempts to defend the British Army by abusing the Boers. Abuse is
not argument. To prove that Van der Merwe is a thief does not
exonerate Brown from the crime of theft if he have been stealing.

The author describes the shooting of Lieutenant Neumeyer, for refusing
to surrender and for attempting to escape from his captors as murder,
and the shooting of kaffir spies it also glibly described as murder;
whereas, the incident at Frederickstad, where a number of Boers were
shot dead by the British because they continued firing after hoisting
the white flag, is justified by him. Of course, the execution of
Scheepers is also justified by the author. I object to such things
appearing in a book, because they must tend to sow anew the seeds of
dissension, hate and bitterness, and these have been planted
sufficiently deep without being nurtured by Dr. Conan Doyle. Neither
Boer nor Briton can speak impartially on this question, and both would
be better employed in attempting to find out the virtues rather than
the vices in one another's characters.

Whoever in the future governs South Africa, the two races must live
together, and when the day of Peace arrives and the sword is sheathed,
let us hold out our hands to each other like men, forgetting the past
and remembering the motto--

="Both Nations have Done their Duty."=

APPENDIX.

_Some Correspondence between the British and Boer Military Officials._

Lyndenburg,
_20th August, 1901_.

ASSISTA