The life which our heroes led for the next few weeks in Johannesburg,
although excessively useful, was not momentous. They learned to be sure
of hitting the centre of the bull's-eye with every shot. Also, what
would be of more service in actual Boer warfare, they mastered the
science of taking a bead swiftly and hitting a rapidly moving object.
Sword and bayonet exercises were not neglected, nor horse and foot
drill.
They saw the miners at work on the tunnel that was slowly crawling
towards the German-filled fort, and helped to carry the debris through
one of the several exits. This was the most delicate part of the work,
yet it was managed without much difficulty by the numerous members who
composed the league.
During the daytime they walked about the city or rode over the veldt,
getting gradually acquainted with most of their brothers, and learning
whom to avoid amongst the inhabitants.
They no longer wondered why the former rising had ended in disaster.
Amongst all the crowds who were called Uitlanders not a sixth portion
were, even at this time, bona fide Britishers. At the time of Dr Jim's
gallant raid they were not a twelfth part. The rest of the population
was made up of Russians, French, and German Jews, with a large
sprinkling of other nationalities. Germans mostly, however,
predominated, and they made no secret of their deep and violent hatred
of everything British. Not a single Englishman was employed in any
public department either in Johannesburg or anywhere else throughout the
Transvaal. The labourers even, who were employed by Government were
either Germans or Hollanders when they were not Kaffirs. In the highest
posts were placed Boers, Hollanders, and Germans exclusively. It was a
clear case of "no English need apply" to any burgher employer.
The president, Paul Kruger, and his bigoted and ignorant Executive
Council had got every concession which crafty greed and tyranny could
get from cowardice and treason. They had introduced German soldiers
wholesale into their country, and purchased nearly all the arms and
ammunition which had entered Africa for the past two years. This, with
blind and misplaced confidence, they had been allowed to do by the other
colonists. Indeed, throughout Cape Colony and Natal, the Dutch
Africanders had been openly spending all their spare money in arming
themselves, while the colonials, as a majority, had been watching them
doing this, and neglecting to take the same precautions. At the present
moment, to all appearance, the Boers and their friends were the only
effectively armed people throughout South Africa. We must except, of
course, those who were under the influence of Cecil Rhodes--the men of
Rhodesia and the Three Ace Club league. Affairs were in a fairly
quiescent condition at present. The citizens of Johannesburg had given
over asking for their rights, and accepted each fresh insult and
oppression quietly, and without outward remonstrance. They knew such
were utterly futile with that obstinate bigot, who regarded himself as
an avenging instrument in the hands of the Lord.
Neither was it any secret what all these warlike preparations were
aiming at. If the Home Government shut its eyes, not a man, woman, or
child in Africa but knew that the old man of Pretoria intended nothing
less than the subjugating of Africa to the Boers, as soon as matters
were ripe enough. They would soon find excuses for their violence and
treason when they were ready to begin. As for the anarchy and massacres
that would follow, they were satisfied that they would find plenty of
defenders amongst the reptile gangs of Little Englanders, who were at
present doing their utmost to help them in their work of destruction.
It was an open secret that the hated English were to be driven out of
Africa, and the country torn from the empire.
This was to be the result of our clemency and weak indulgence to a race
who understood only revenge and oppression. The remorseless principles
and inhuman tenets of the Boer religion belonged to those dark ages
which civilisation and the true knowledge of Christianity has swept from
the other portions of the globe where the Bible is known and honoured.
Their colonial history is a long record of steadfast atrocity and abuse
of power. Wherever they have trekked they have left a broad trail of
blood and disaster. Wherever they have settled, progress has ceased to
exist. They are, as a race, the most ignorant, the most remorseless,
and the rudest of barbarians.
The history of Africa, from the most remote ages, has been one of
conquest. There are, therefore, no aboriginal owners to restrain the
hand of the taker, or lay bona fide claims to compensation for land
seized. It has been, in the past, ruthlessly torn from the weak by the
strong, and held only by force of arms. Humanitarians, therefore,
cannot urge the claims of the Kaffirs over the white conquerors. From a
humanitarian point of view, the race that has proved most worthy of
advancing humanity and civilisation has the best of all possible rights
to this open country.
For the sake of future races, it is only one of the great existing
nations that dare take up this grave responsibility.
Neither Germany, France, nor Russia, so far as their colonial policy and
history is concerned, have shown that they are adapted for this great
work. England only has proved that she is equal to the task, as long
ago, Imperial Rome did in a lesser way. Our great empire liberates and
advances every land which she protects. She frees the slave, educates
the savage, and makes the black man equal with the white. She welcomes
the stranger within her gates, asks no tyrannical pledges from the
Uitlander before she gives him employment and all the rights of her own
children. She embraces all humanity as her children, without shackling
them with conditions, either individually or tribal. Whatever king or
chief they owe allegiance to--whatever flag they honour--makes, no
difference to their rights as colonists and citizens while they live
under and claim the protection of the British flag. This is our best
defence for our right to extend and hold our empire in the face of
envious enemies and internal traitors. What we give up, or lose, or
forego is a distinct loss to civilisation, progression, and humanity.
We are the only holders and dispensers of liberty. The German makes a
good colonist under British control; so do the French, the Dutch, and
many of the other clans on the earth's surface.
But when Germany seizes a land she treats it as the warlike Kaffirs did.
She butchers the original owners, and insists on all outsiders
relinquishing their private rights, and becoming subjects. As the
Kaiser has truly said, "On whatever land the German Eagle fixes its
talons, that land is German." This means, it is no longer free, only a
German is entitled to civil rights.
The Boer, wherever he has possessed any authority, has pursued a similar
policy, only, being more medieval and ignorantly conservative in his
ideas, he goes many steps further in his candid tyranny than does his
friend the German. His religion is a blending of gross superstition,
narrowness, intolerance, and Judaism in its most relentless and savage
aspect.
He honestly believes in the justice of the curse of Ham; but he believes
more, for, like the Moslem with his women, he says that the dark races
of the earth are like the beasts, soulless; whom to shoot down is no
murder; whom to enslave is his right, as one of the masterful and
heaven-favoured races.
He believes in revenge and hatred as sacred duties. "An eye for an eye,
and a tooth for a tooth," are words which he gloats upon.
According to the patriarchal laws he is a good husband and father, and
will fight for his own like any red Indian. Like all savages, however,
he does not care for fighting in the open. He prefers to skulk behind
rocks, and take his enemy at a disadvantage.
He is a mass of gross superstition; in this he even surpasses the
Kaffir. He believes fervently in ghosts and omens, and dreads the dark
with trembling horror. He is utterly devoid of chivalry, truth, or
common honesty. A pledge in his estimation means only an expedient to
hoodwink his adversary and gain time. He will make a promise at any
time, and break it without the slightest scruple. He laughs at those
who trust him, as fools. Like the wild boar, he hates to see his lair
disturbed. He would much rather trek than live where civilisation is.
He is rude, uncouth, and pre-eminently inhospitable, and prefers his own
ignorance and superstition to enlightenment. By nature he is a morose
and uncompromising savage who has no place among civilised races, and
not the faintest conception of democracy.
His greed is sateless; his audacity boundless; and his sense of
gratitude nil. Philanthropy and mercy are qualities which he despises,
because he cannot understand them. He professes to believe in the
Redeemer of mankind, but he draws his inspirations from the passages of
Scripture that suit his peculiar temperament, and the ethics of
Christianity do not. As a nation, he is as utterly impossible as the
Turk, therefore is completely out of place in the Transvaal.
The past history of the Boers in Africa has proved this beyond dispute.
They have slaughtered mercilessly, and oppressed their neighbours
wherever they have settled. It is only by the strong hand that they
have been kept so far within bounds.
Their principal grievance against us is that we freed their slaves, and
they nurse this grievance with undying hatred. They have murdered our
settlers ruthlessly, betrayed our statesmen, and mocked us for our
weaknesses. They remember their supposed wrongs, and lose no chance of
repaying them by brutality and treachery, and mock at our generosity in
forgetting what they have done.
Ah! the gallant sons we have lost through trusting those ruthless
murderers! England may forget, but what of the mothers, wives, sisters,
fathers, and brothers of those who lie buried, and yet unavenged?
It is possible to pardon a brave enemy who has fought fairly. As
Englishmen, we do this always--but only after we have wiped out the
blot. But what true Englishman could forgive the bloody assassin who
walks about boasting over his crime? What true Englishman could sit
down tamely, and swallow insult and slavery, as well as murder?
These were the inhuman, hating, and ferocious enemies which some
Englishmen delighted to honour, sympathise with, and admire, for their
treatment of those Englishmen who had saved their Republic from ruin,
and poured wealth into their rapacious pockets. The tactics of their
obstinate and superstitious president is world known. His
shamelessness, greed, craft, and unblushing falsehood, his open enmity,
his avarice, and dense stupidity, all these qualities are representative
of his people, and what we are asked to admire and sympathise with.
Standing as we do afar off, we are apt to forget the atrocious side of
the Boer, and regard the ridiculous side with good-natured contempt.
But to those in the midst of it all, it was by no means a matter to
laugh at. The constant reminders of those atrocities and disgraces, the
wanton insults, the brutal treatment, the persistent turning round of
the screw, without a moment of relaxation, were maddening even to the
meekest and most long-suffering.
As we have already shown, our heroes did not come of a mute and lowly
race. They had British blood in their veins--young English blood that
was quickly heated. Since their coming to the Transvaal this blood had
been at boiling pitch.
They tried to hearken to the words of prudence as preached by Philip
Martin and Mr Raybold. They tried to obey their leaders, and shut
their eyes to the daily outrages of justice which they beheld, and act
in away which their hearts told them was base cowardice.
They saw ladies hustled rudely by rough and armed clowns from the
footpath amongst the mud. They listened to coarse epithets shouted at
their countrywomen if they looked indignant at this usage, and did their
best to keep their hands in their pockets and their eyes on the ground.
They saw the German mercenaries knock down, kick, and baton the citizens
without the slightest provocation, and the citizens take their unmerited
punishment without remonstrance, knowing full well there was no possible
redress from the Boer authorities. They saw Boers spit on the beards of
Englishmen, and they only take out and use their handkerchiefs to wipe
the hateful stains away. They saw children ill-treated because their
parents were English, and the parents lift up their children and soothe
them, without attempting to punish the wretches who had made those
innocents weep.
They saw all this and grosser outrages constantly being enacted under
their eyes, and while they looked they ground their teeth, and wondered
how long they would be able to endure this horrible restraint upon their
pent-up feelings.
"It will be our turn before long to be batoned," remarked Fred, quietly.
"We cannot expect to be allowed to walk the streets much longer without
being molested."
"The Boer or German who attempts to lay a finger on me had better look
out. I'll leave my mark on him," replied Ned, grimly.
"We'll be there at the same time with our signatures," put in Clarence,
cheerfully.
Fred was right in his prognostications of evil. Their independent
bearing had already been remarked upon by the police, and their turn
came sooner even than they expected.