88 BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA AND THE TRANSVAAL 



the spirit of the Hebrew records of the Old Testament, and with but 

 little of the Christian spirit of kindness and mercy taught in the New. 



In this characterization of the Boers I do not include the Burghers 

 or more civilized Afrikanders of the cities, many of whom are as cul- 

 tivated, well educated, and charming people as can be found in any 

 part of the world. 



The Boer skill with the rifle is due to long ])ractice; with them 

 hunting has been a matter both of dollars and cents and of self-pro- 

 tection. When they migrated from Cape Colonv to the Transvaal 

 the}' were compelled to clear the wa}' by killing thousands of lions. 

 Their creditable work of freeing the Transvaal from wild animals, that 

 rendered life unsafe in the countr}', has been offset b}' their destruc- 

 tion of the giraffe, which has been almost exterminated by them from 

 Cape Colony to their northern frontier. In the early days of South 

 African history they were the most abundant wild animals in the 

 Transvaal, Matabeleland, and the Orange Free State, but they have 

 been exterminated like the American buffalo, and the few remaining 

 representatives of the species have been gradually driven north. Like 

 the buff'alo, they were hunted because the skins had a commercial 

 value, and even the bones and sinews were also turned to profitable 

 account. In British territory they are now protected by law, but it is 

 almost too late to save them from extinction. 



For man}'' years the Dutch and P^nglish lived together in amity, 

 but in 1834 a law' was passed in England abolishing negro slavery in 

 all its colonies, much to the disgust of the Dutch, who held the old 

 biblical notions on the subject of slavery. They fiercely resented what 

 they believed to be an outrage on their property rights. It is true 

 that the British government paid a compensation, but the amount 

 being less than the current value of slaves in the colony, the Boer 

 farmers considered that they had been robbed, and when the law was 

 ])ut in operation in 1835 they determined to leave the colony, and 

 made what is still referred to among them as the " Great Trek." 



They settled in what is now known as the colony of Natal, where 

 they attempted to establish an independent government, a i)roceeding 

 which was o])iected to by the T^ritish government on the ground that 

 people who were still considered to be British subjects had no right 

 to attempt to form an independent state in territory which, while it 

 had not been formally declared to be a colony, was classed as a British 

 protectorate. It was therefore formally proclaimed to be a British 

 colonv, and the Boers again migrated. Some settled in the Orange 



