THE BOER OF TO-DAY. 335 



"jumped," that these classes are not nearly so 

 numerous as in former days. The Boers do not 

 take kindly to trading, which is almost entirely in the 

 hands of English, Scotch, or Afrikanders other than 

 Dutch. They trek about the country, however, 

 with their families, and flocks, and herds, when 

 they wish to sell their horses and flocks, or have 

 oranges, tobacco, brandy, and dried fruits to dispose 

 of. They have entirely discarded the old-fashioned 

 " roer " (heavy smooth-bore gun), and are now 

 almost invariably armed with good breech-loading 

 sporting rifles, and from their constant practice at 

 game shooting are excellent shots, as Majuba Hill 

 and other fields can testify. The men are usually 

 tall, heavy and ungainly in their movements, and 

 somewhat sullen of aspect, unless of Huguenot 

 extraction, when they may be easily picked out. 

 The Transvaal Boers very generally live part of the 

 year on the high veldt or uplands, and in the 

 winter or healthy season migrate with their entire 

 families and belongings into the lower or bush-veldt 

 country, where there is good pasturage, and where 

 they live a happy gipsy kind of life for some months. 



Ten years ago it appeared almost as if the 

 ancient embittered feeling of the Dutch towards the 

 British in South Africa, softened by years of peace, 

 was likely to disappear. 



Ten years ago we in the Old Colony, Boers and 

 British, had made up our minds to forget our 

 differences, shake hands, and pull together ; and for 

 years before that the Dutch had ever looked upon us 

 with respect, tinged perhaps with a little wholesome 

 awe qualities long fixed in their dull natures by the 

 ancient prestige of British arms. The lessons 



