THE BOER. 37 



for solitude as well as freedom. He is amazed at the 

 developments of the big towns and prefers the quietude 

 of his farm. Other people are now supplanting him in 

 the Republic ; his habits of retirement will prove his 

 effacement, and his want of education will consign 

 him to oblivion unless he treks still further on. If the 

 records of these early treks could only be gathered 

 before the chief actors, who are now old, have passed 

 away, much zoological and ethnological information 

 would be saved, often of no mean importance ; whilst 

 deeds of endurance and heroism would be recorded, and 

 a love of exploration disclosed, that would rival the 

 doings of some of our modern travellers who write big 

 books and receive great receptions. 



I have sought to be impartial to the Boer, whom I 

 respect but cannot love ; and my principal remarks 

 apply to the real Boers, the farmers, the dwellers 011 the 

 plains, and not to the official Kriigers, Jouberts, Smits, 

 and others, who really constitute the Boer aristocracy, 

 and no more represent the average population than the 

 inhabitants of the West-end of London are typical of the 

 real population of England. The shadows are deepen- 

 ing over these hardy farmers, the pen will conquer what 

 the sword could not subdue, and they must be either 

 absorbed in or fly from the busy mercantile population 

 that is now surrounding and must ultimately dispossess 

 them. In the nineteenth century there seems no room 

 for this old pastoral life, especially when nature has 

 baited the soil with auriferous deposits ; but I shall ever 

 remember the family wagon of the Boer when my fancy 

 recalls the peaceful wilderness of the veld. 



