26 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. . 



immediately released him. He quickly buried the 

 bodies of the dead Kafirs, and they resumed their 

 farming-operations as if nothing had happened." 



Not only does a crude theology colour the life and 

 guide the political existence of the Boers, but it 

 absolutely threatens to prove the source of their dis- 

 integration. From the earliest days of their history 

 church disputes have been readily fomented and 

 violently contested. At the present time one of these 

 is raging to the edification of the whole community, 

 and is consequent to the amalgamation of the two 

 churches, Ned Herv and Ned Gereformeerde, which 

 took place about five or six years ago. There were 

 many dissentients to this amalgamation who refused 

 to join it, and obtained a minister from Holland. It 

 was agreed at the fusion that all properties should be 

 transferred to the amalgamated churches, but this 

 the dissentients refused to ratify, and a lawsuit was 

 commenced in the High Court. But this is little to 

 what occurred at Zeerust last year, when fifty armed 

 Boers entered a Church, took possession of the same, 

 forcibly ejected the minister from the pulpit, and 

 turned the congregation adrift. It is no exaggeration 

 to say that over this dispute the Boers w T ere in mea- 

 surable distance of civil war. My friend the farmer, 

 of whom I have previously spoken, assured me with 

 anger and sincerity that before any alteration was 

 made with the present government of the Pretoria 

 church, the contents of his rifle would have to be 

 reckoned with, and that a notice would be sent to all 

 the Europeans to avoid the Church Square on a certain 

 day. The President at the time of writing is en- 

 deavouring to bring about, if not a reconciliation, at 

 all events some form of arrangement ; but feeling runs 

 so high, that a cartoon on the subject just exhibited in 

 a stationer's window was compulsorily removed, in 

 obedience to the threats of angry men, who would 

 otherwise have demolished the windows. The Boer 

 has no sense of humour. 



These disputes are a real danger to the State ; their 



