Xll INTRODUCTION. 



as it is slowly moving across the loose stones and sand 

 of the grassless burning waste. Thrilling in its simplicity 

 is the description of the flight by moonlight from the 

 Transvaal in the time of war, and no mere multiplication 

 of words could give the imaginative reader a better idea 

 of the crude, ignorant, retiring Boer than the outline the 

 author has given when seen by the sidelights he has 

 thrown upon his family life, his religion, and his hopes 

 of betterment. In reading what the author has written 

 one feels that it is not of the Boer he is learning, but 

 that it is the Boer himself with whom he is brought face 

 to face. And what is true in respect of the Dutch race 

 in like manner applies to the rest of the book ; it is in 

 truth Africa in its crude reality that, and no more. 



THE EDITOR. 



