8ek-ukuni War, and Fall of President Burgers 147 



a meeting of leading Boers said that had he listened 

 to the one man who gave him sound advice, but 

 who sometimes opposed him, he would not then be 

 in the unfortunate and humiliated position he was 

 in. When asked who the man was he said, " Struben 

 tried his best to save me and the country, but I was 

 misinformed and misled, I did not know the people 

 of the Transvaal." This was told to me by Wessel 

 Schutte who was at the meeting. President Burgers 

 was accused by the Boers of having sold the country 

 to Shepstone ; of using his protest as a blind ; of 

 leaving for the Cape Colony with much money and 

 promise of a pension from the British Government. 

 I knew him intimately and I am certain that not 

 one of these accusations were true. He was senti- 

 mental and impulsive, and committed grave errors 

 of judgment ; but that he was guilty of intentional 

 treachery or wrong doing is untrue, and he lived 

 and died in Cape Colony a poor and disappointed 

 man. Paul Kruger and his Doppers were too 

 44 clever " for him. Some of them called him 

 "Antichrist" because of his Church controversies, 

 and his importation of heterodox Hollander parsons. 

 Many Boer families left the Transvaal for Portuguese 

 West Africa as a protest against their own 

 Republican Government at this time. 



