The delegate from Pretoria was in full blast.
The long room was packed full--full of male Boers of all ages: that is
to say, from those in earliest manhood to the white-bearded
great-grandfathers of the community--Boers of every type, Boers hairy,
Boers shaven, moleskin-clad and collarless Boers, and Boers got up with
near approach to European neatness; Boers small, dark, and wiry, still,
after generations, preserving the outward characteristics of their
Huguenot and French ancestry; Boers tall, large-limbed, fair, of Saxon
aspect and descent.
What sitting accommodation the room held was absorbed by the older of
those present, for the patriarchal tradition is very strong among that
old-world and conservative race. The residue stood in a closely packed
mass, literally hanging on the words of the orator.
The latter was a tall, elderly man, all fire and energy both as to
speech and words. His face, strong and bronzed and lined, was of the
Roman type, and the brown of his short beard was just beginning to show
threads of grey. Standing there in his suit of black broadcloth, his
sinewy figure seemed hardly in keeping with such attire. It seemed to
demand the easier and more picturesque hunting costume of the veldt.
Andries Erasmus Botma was his name, and he ranked among his
fellow-countrymen as a "Patriot," second to none as deserving their
closest attention and deepest veneration.
On the table before him stood two lighted candles, throwing out the
lines of his strong, rugged countenance, and between them a ponderous
Dutch Bible, upon the closed cover of which one great hand constantly
rested. On one side of him sat "Mynheer," as the local _predikant_, or
minister, is commonly known among his flock; on the other Jan Marthinus
Grobbelaar--or Swaart Jan, as he was popularly termed--the owner of the
farm on which the gathering was taking place. The minister was a puffy,
consequential-looking man, with long, shaven upper lip and a light beard
cut after the pattern of that worn by the world-famed President, a white
tie, reaching nearly from shoulder to shoulder, standing aggressively
forth from the clerical black. The farmer was a wizened individual,
with a pronounced stoop, and, at first sight, of retiring temperament;
but a long nose and deep-set eyes, together with two teeth projecting
tusk-like from each corner of the mouth out upon a lank, grizzled beard,
imparted to him an utterly knowing and foxy aspect, in keeping with the
reputation "Swaart Jan" actually held among his kinsfolk and
acquaintance.
The delegate from Pretoria was in full blast. The meeting, which had
opened with long prayer by the _predikant_ and a long speech of
introduction and welcome from Swaart Jan Grobbelaar, was now just
beginning to become of intense interest--to the meeting itself.
Beginning far back, with the insurrection under Adrian van Jaarsveldt
and the capitulation of the Cape by General Janssens, the orator had
hitherto been rather academical. Even the emancipation of the slaves,
with its wholly farcical system of compensation, did not appeal over
much to a younger generation, to whom it was all ancient history of
rather too ancient date. But when he came to the Slagter's Nek tragedy,
he had got his finger on a chord that would never cease to vibrate. The
tense attitude of his listeners was that of one mind, of one
understanding.
"Brothers," he went on. "Brothers--and sons--for many are here to-night
who are the men of the future--the men of the very near future--to whom
the one long life-struggle of their fathers in days of old is but a
name; to whom, however, the righting of the wrongs of their fathers is
bequeathed; to whom life--yea, even life itself, has been given and
allowed by the Lord above that they may carry out the solemn bequest of
righteous vengeance which their fathers have handed down to them; that
they may have ever before them, ever in their thoughts, the deliverance
of this their dear land, their splendid fatherland, from the hated
English yoke. You then--you younger men especially--stand up day by day
and bless God for the noble privilege which is yours, the privilege of
the patriot, of the man who sacrifices all, worldly possessions, even
life itself, for the sake of his beloved fatherland. Not many days
since I stood upon that spot, that holy ground, where five of your
fathers were cruelly done to death for no other crime than repudiating
the rule of a bloody-minded king, an English king who was not their
king, whose sovereignty they had never owned. There they were hung up
to the infamous gallows where they died the most ignominious of deaths,
with every circumstance of barbarity which could have been practised by
the savage heathen against whom they have ever striven. Standing upon
that spot I could see the whole of it again. I could see those five men
hauled beneath the English gallows-tree, I could see the brave and noble
fortitude wherewith they went to their death. I could see the weeping
crowd of their fellow-countrymen--of Our fellow-countrymen--and women--
gathered to witness their sufferings. And the five patriots--the five
martyrs--were dragged up by ropes to their doom. But, brothers, God
intervened. Heaven intervened. Even as the lions' mouths were shut to
Daniel--as the fiery furnace kindled by the idolatrous king passed over
the three servants of God unhurt--even so Heaven intervened to render
the slaughter instruments of the cruel English king of no effect. The
apparatus of death gave way, and the five patriot martyrs fell to the
earth unharmed. What then? What then, sons and descendants of those
great ones? Did the English recognise the hand of God? Did they
recognise that even their puny mockery of justice had to bow before the
manifestation of His will? They did not. In the face of the tears and
supplications and bitter grief of those who beheld; of those in whose
veins ran the blood of the martyred men, those five patriots were once
more put through the bitterness of death. This time Heaven did not
intervene. And why? In order that the death agonies of those tortured
patriots should be held in remembrance; that they should be ever before
the eyes of their descendants as an earnest of the death agonies of the
hated and hateful race which was their oppressor and is ours. Brothers,
I stood upon that ground, that very spot, that holy ground, and I prayed
and gained strength that I might fulfil the purpose for which I am here.
Slagter's Nek! The infamous name which was given to that holy spot has
gone down to generations in its infamy, and ever will. Is there here a
Bezuidenhout, is there a Meyer, is there a Faber, is there a Snyman--
yea, and I could name a score of others, a hundred others, a thousand
others--in the veins of whom runs the blood of the patriot martyrs? Let
them not forget the English butchery of Slagter's Nek; then, when their
rifles are pointing straight, let their watchword be `Slagter's Nek'!"
The speaker paused. Utterly carried away by his own feeling; his whole
frame was in a quiver. His eyes were flashing, and the sinews of his
great hand resting upon the holy volume leapt out into knots. The
_predikant_, seated at his right, poured out a glass of water from an
earthenware carafe on the table, and thrust it into his hand, and he
swallowed the contents as with an effort, and in choking gulps. The
effect upon the audience was marvellous. Thoroughly overawed, its
feeling was expressed by exclamations deep rather than loud, and several
of the old men present uncovered--for all wore their hats except the
orator himself--and mumbled a fervid prayer. The fact that the
historical tragedy had been enacted eighty-three years previously was
quite lost to view. It might have taken place yesterday for the effect
the recalling of it produced upon the gathering.
The orator proceeded. He drew vivid pictures of the exodus of the
original Dutch settlers, sacrificing all to be free from the hated
English rule; of their intrepid and simple and God-fearing lives; of
their daily hardships and toil; of their peril at the hands of fierce
and warlike tribes; and while setting forth their endurance and heroism,
he never wandered far from the main point, the text of his whole
discourse--viz. how all that their fathers, the old Voortrekkers, had to
endure was the outcome of the oppressive rapacity of the English yoke.
The myrmidons of England would not leave them in peace and quietness
even when they had avenged the bloodshed and treachery of the Zulu
despot, and had reason to believe they had at last found the land of
promise. Let them look at Natal to-day. They, the Dutch, had bought it
from Dingane, and had occupied it. But the English had come and had
seized it from them, had robbed them of the fruit of their labours and
of their toil, and of their outpoured blood. Let them look at the
Transvaal of to-day. It was the same there. A horde of English
bloodsuckers had poured in, fevered by the lust of gold, and still more
and more, until the land was overrun by them, as the land of Pharaoh
under the plague of locusts. And not only that, but they had brought
with them every life and soul destroying vice which Satan and his
hell-kingdom, Europe, could bring to bear to contaminate and utterly
corrupt a God-fearing people.
The speaker went on to portray in lurid colours the vices of
Johannesburg, a town, he put it, purely English, which those emissaries
of Satan had raised in their midst, contriving to put his finger, with
considerable native astuteness, on the darker spots inseparable from the
advance of European methods and progress. He further drew contrasts
between the simple life of the young Boer of a quarter of a century
back, and the smart, educated, English-speaking, English-dressing, young
Boer up to date, so vivid and so little to the advantage of the latter,
as to cause several there present perceptibly to wince.
"Brothers," he went on, "the time for purging away these iniquities is
at hand. The eye of God is ever upon His people, and His wrath upon
their oppressors. Who turned back England's might, now nineteen years
ago? Who turned the hearts of her trained and drilled soldiers into
water, so that they fled down the sides of Majuba like hunted bucks
before us--before a few farmers, whom they despised as so many ignorant
Boers? Who smote them hip and thigh at Schuins Hoogte, and, indeed,
everywhere, down to the wicked attempt upon our land--our beloved land,
two years ago? Not the arm of our brave burghers, but the arm of the
Lord. His arm brought us in triumph forth from the midst of our
enemies, and assured our peace and safety, and prosperity, in the land
wherein we dwell. And as the might of the Lord was over us then, so is
it now. England may send out her ships, as she is doing--may pour her
soldiers into our land, as she is doing--may threaten our noble
President, as she is doing--but what is that to us? When a nation, a
God-fearing nation, is in peril, God will raise up for that nation a
deliverer. He has raised up one for this nation, and the name of that
deliverer is Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger."
The roar of applause which went up at the mention of the great name--
held in veneration by every Dutchman from the Zambesi to Cape Agulhas--
would have drowned the speaker's voice, even if he had not been
sufficiently master of his craft to pause in order to allow this touch
to have its full effect. It was long before he could continue, and then
with his right hand impressively laid upon the holy book before him, he
thundered forth a volley of passages therefrom, deftly applied so as to
work upon his audience, in such wise that many among it were by no means
sure that the President of the South African Republic was not actually
mentioned by name therein, while a few were quite certain he was. The
whole constituted a strange and instructive scene, for these enthusiasts
were, with the exception of the orator himself, all British subjects,
dwelling and prospering within a British colony, enjoying a responsible
government and equal rights and representation for all.
At length arose shouts for order and silence, and the speaker was able
to resume:
"Brothers, I have heard it said that ye are our brethren no more; that
we of the two Republics are of another nation, of a different blood;
that you on this side of the Groote Rivier have become English now--"
"_Nee, nee_!" burst from the audience, in roaring negative.
"--That you will not raise a rifle in the holy cause of your brethren, I
believe it not. Our watchword is not `Africa for the Transvaal,' or
`Africa for the Free State,' but `Africa for the Afrikanders'."
Again a shout of acclamation greeted the words.
"Brothers, I have been in England; I have seen her millions of people,
her splendour, and her enormous wealth. But I have seen more. I have
seen her weakness. I have seen her large cities, and their vice and
squalor. I have seen the frivolous luxury of her rich, and the hideous
misery and want and desperation of her poor; and I tell you that for all
her outward strength she is a weak nation, a rotten nation, with all her
best blood poisoned by disease, and her common blood turned to water by
foul air and hunger and drunkenness. And this is the nation which is
greedy for our land, is ravening to steal the gold which it contains."
Then, raising his powerful voice to thunder pitch: "Brothers, shall this
go on? Now, nay, it shall not, I tell you. All is in readiness. For
years _we_ have been in readiness, increasing our armed might, and now
we are ready to strike--to strike with a force and terror that shall
amaze the whole world. Be in readiness, too, brave burghers, patriots
all; and to deliver this message to you am I here to-night God does not
will that this rotten, frivolous, and enfeebled nation shall rule over
you any longer. Be ready, for the day is at hand. `Africa for the
Afrikanders!' is our watchword, and the flag that shall wave over that
United Africa is this."
With the celerity of a conjurer he produced the four-coloured flag of
the Transvaal Republic, and with one fierce jerk of the hand unfurling
it, he waved it above his head. Instantly every hat was off, and round
after round of deafening cheering hailed the symbol. Then, led by the
emissary himself, the whole assembly struck up the "Volkslied," the
national hymn of the Transvaal, roaring it forth in a manner that left
nothing to be desired in the way of fervour, but much in the way of time
and tune, and which must have impressed the numerous baboons infesting
the crags and krantzes of the surrounding Wildschutsbergen with the
instinct that it was high time to quit that section of country, never to
return.
When the singing and cheering had subsided the emissary invited any of
those present to express their opinions, but few cared to do so. One or
two of the old men got up, but their remarks were mere quavering
comments--interspersed with pious aspirations--upon all that the speaker
had said, and fell woefully flat after the fiery periods and power of
eloquence of the delegate from Pretoria. And the secret of that power
lay in the fact that the man was so terribly in earnest. No
timeserving, self-seeking stump-agitator was Andries Botma. Every word
he uttered he implicitly believed, and that the whole Dutch race in
South Africa were under special Divine protection, and the Anglo-Saxon
under the Divine curse, he no more doubted than that the sky was above
and the earth beneath. Though a hopelessly fanatical patriot, he was
essentially an honest one, and this his hearers knew.
The _predikant_ having made a speech to high Heaven, in the guise of a
long prayer thoroughly in accordance with the prevailing sentiment of
the meeting, the latter broke up. A few, mostly the older men, remained
behind, talking over the ideas they had just heard with all seriousness,
but most of them had crowded into another room where Vrouw Grobbelaar,
aided by her trio of fine and rather pretty daughters, was dispensing
coffee and other refreshment. These, too, were talking over the
situation, but with a breezy boisterousness which was absent in their
elders.
"It's coming now, Tanta, it's coming now," cried one young fellow,
thrusting his way to the front. The old lady looked at him across the
table.
"What is coming now?" she repeated shortly--a way she had with those of
the speaker's age and type.
"Why, the war, of course. We are going to drive the English out of the
country. The Patriot says so."
The old lady snorted.
"_You_ look like driving anybody out of the country, Theunis Venter,
even the English. You'd be afraid to lie behind an antheap waiting to
shoot _rooi-baatjes_ for fear of spoiling that pretty waistcoat of
yours"--looking him up and down contemptuously. "And his tight
riding-breeches--oh!--oh! wouldn't they split? And the rings! And yet
you don't look like an Englishman, Theunis, not even in your grand
English clothes."
A roar of applause and derision from that section of her hearers which
had not enjoyed the advantage of a South African College education and a
parent with advanced ideas and generous bank-balance greeted the old
woman's scoffing words.
"_Ja, Ja_, Theunis, that is just what the Patriot said," they chorussed.
But the young fellow looked sulky--very much so. He was one of that
type of young Boer who no longer thinks it the mark of a man and a
patriot to sleep in his clothes and wear his hat in the house. Nor was
he the only one of that type there present. Others took his side, and
hurled corresponding gibes at the conservative party, and the uproar
became simply deafening, all talking and bellowing at once.
But if it be imagined that this turn of affairs caused the slightest
uneasiness or alarm to the fair sex as there represented, the notion can
be dismissed forthwith. There was a twinkle of mirth in the old lady's
eyes which belied the sardonic droop of her mouth, and as for the girls
they looked as placid and unconcerned as though some thirty odd
infuriated males were not bawling the very house down within a couple of
yards of them.
"There--there!" sang out Vrouw Grobbelaar when she had had enough of it.
"Make not such a row, for dear Heaven's sake! Theunis, you are not
such a bad sort of boy after all, for all your trimmed moustache and
English clothes. Hendrina, give him a _soepje_--that is to say, if he
does not turn up his nose at the good liquor his father drank before
him. I'm told that the English get drunk on stuff made from smoked
wood, down in Cape Town. Only one, though--I won't encourage young men
to drink, but the night is cold, and he has a long way to ride. After
all, it isn't his fault they tried to make an Englishman of him."
Boer brandy, when pure and well matured, is about the best liquor in the
world, and this was the best of its kind; wherefore under its influence,
aided by the smiles of the ministering Hendrina, the youth's ruffled
feathers were soon smoothed down, and three or four of his sympathisers
claiming to join in the privilege, good-humour was restored and plenty
of mirth and good-fellowship prevailed before they separated for their
long ride home over the moonlit veldt; for Boers are by nature sociable
folk among themselves, and the younger ones, at any rate, addicted to
chaff and practical joking.
In the other room, where refreshment had been taken in for their
physical weal, sat the more serious-minded.
"Jan," said Andries Botma, turning to his host, "where is Stephanus De
la Rey? Is he sick?"
"No!"
"Why is he not here to-night?"
Swaart Jan shrugged his shoulders and grinned, his two tusks protruding
more than ever.
"How do I know, brother? Only we must not forget that his wife is half
an Englishwoman."
"Ah!" said the delegate, who appeared to be struck with the idea.
"Oom Stephanus would not come," put in a young man reverentially. "That
is all I know about it."
The speaker had been one of the most fervid listeners to the "Patriot's"
discourse, and with much trepidation had lingered behind among his
elders, preferring their conversation to the boisterous merriment in the
other room.
"It is Stephanus' nephew, Adrian De la Rey," said Jan Grobbelaar.
"Ah! a good name. A good name," declared the delegate. "Bear it
worthily, nephew, when the time comes." Then, turning to the
_predikant_, "We must win over Stephanus De la Rey, Mynheer. We must
win him over."
"He is the only `good' man here whom we have not won," was the reply,
given dubiously.
"_Ja, ja_!" assented Swaart Jan, shaking his head softly. "_Ja, ja_! we
must win over Stephanus De la Rey."