THE SIEGE OF MARABASTADT. 135 



feeling that the Government would be compelled to give 

 way to the storm of popular indignation. 



Paul Kruger, the leader of this national movement, 

 was a born ruler of men. Had he lived in Europe there 

 is little doubt but that he would have been one of the 

 men of the age. He, too, saw that in South Africa there 

 was a strong element of Africanderism which if once 

 aroused would command respect even in Downing 

 Street. He knew he could count upon the cordial 

 co-operation of the Free State, and that in the old 

 colony, nay, in the streets of Capetown itself, were thou- 

 sands who would rather cut off their right hand than see 

 Africanderism stamped upon and erased in the Trans- 

 vaal by the paw of the British lion. 



I may here observe that but for the wisdom of Presi- 

 dent Brand, the Free State would have rushed into the 

 conflict, and a fire would have been lighted in South 

 Africa the consequences of which no man could have 

 foretold. 



The Boers conversed frankly about the coming strife. 

 On its being represented to them that the power of 

 England was such that they could not hope to make 

 successful resistance, they replied that they might be 

 defeated probably they would be that they had de- 

 termined to abandon their farms, houses and property, 

 and evacuate the country, rather than submit to our rule ; 

 that they had committed their cause to the Ruler of all 

 events, and, therefore, that the prospect of success or 

 failure in no way agitated their minds. 



Now, a Boer takes a long time to make up his mind 

 about anything, but once having done so nothing can 

 shake him in his opinion. You might as well preach at 

 a milestone. 



