The Boers. 265 



The Dutch are the nominal rulers of the place ; but they 

 don't make much show of authority. The Boers come in 

 to market with their spans of twelve to twenty oxen (see page 

 279). Having done their business quietly and inoffensively, 

 they trek away home. The Transvaal Government appear dis- 

 inclined to meddle with the turbulent foreign crowd in their 

 midst. There are several honourable men among the Dutch 

 officials ; but a large number, high and low, of them get 

 ' squared ' ; a fact which the existence of the iniquitous 

 system of ' concessions J amply proves. No wonder that the 

 Transvaalers view with dismay the increase in size of 

 Johannesburg ; for they see that in the near future they will 

 have to choose between allowing the foreigners a vote in 

 the management of their country, or of assembling their 

 bullock carts and treking further afield. We have harried 

 them out of Cape Colony and out of Natal. Having beaten 

 us in fair fight when we wanted to worry them in the Trans- 

 vaal, it seems hard lines that we should now attack them in 

 a manner they are powerless to resist. Their quarrel with 

 us has always been about the treatment of the black man. 

 We claim for him equal rights with the white man. The 

 Boers deny the justness of this claim, and sooner than admit 

 it, they would fight, and if beaten, would prefer to clear out of 

 the entire country, than submit to our dictation on that point. 

 As Sir Roger de Coverley used to say : there is a good deal 

 to be said on both sides. 



I occupied the first week of my stay in Johannesburg with 

 getting to know, on the polo ground, in the Stock Exchange, 

 and at the club, all the good sportsmen in the place. I found 

 that they had heard from the newspapers about our work at 

 Kimberley and elsewhere, and that they were anxious to see 

 us perform ; but there did not appear much chance of getting 

 together a big class, because all those who were interested in 

 horses had their time fully occupied with a fresh boom that 

 had just then sprung up among New Primroses, Jumpers, 

 Robinsons and other mines. All my friends advised me to 



