THE BOER OF TO-DA Y. 339 



What is to be the future of the Dutch in South 

 Africa is even now, despite the struggles and intrigues 

 of the Afrikander Bond, still uncertain. That this 

 strange people will remain rooted to South African 

 soil is quite certain, but whether the Transvaal 

 Dutch will suffer themselves to be swamped out of 

 all national recognition by the British element is 

 another matter. President Kruger incessantly warns 

 his people to " keep up their shooting," and although 

 it is improbable that Boer and British will ever 

 again come to blows, it is yet uncertain how the 

 Transvaal Dutch propose to preserve their fast 

 disappearing " Republic of isolation." It is possible 

 that large numbers, disgusted with the overcrowding 

 of the gold-seekers, may again trek north, and 

 seek once more new homes in some fresh and far 

 distant land. 



From their constant habit of warfare upon wild 

 beasts and savage tribes, the Transvaalers, especially 

 the younger of them, have acquired a more truculent 

 and aggressive nature than the Cape colonists, and 

 even than their more staid brethren of the Orange 

 Free State. It is probable, however, that time and 

 more peaceful years, and above all, that desire of 

 gold just awakening among them, will in the future 

 soften and temper these qualities, and that the 

 Transvaal Dutch may, twenty years hence, be a 

 much more changed race than the Cape colonists, 

 over whom the tide of emigration has swept 

 unheeding. It must never be forgotten, too, that 

 large numbers of Transvaal Boers favoured the 

 British occupation, and infinitely preferred British 

 rule to their own halting and bankrupt government, 

 existing prior to 1877. 



