by all means!” both lads cried.
“Well, I will; but first we’ll have another glass of this cool stuff. Tom Thumb!” he shouted. “Here, I want you.”
A moment later the big Zulu appeared, clad in light check trousers and a striped flannel shirt.
“Bring more ‘squashes’ and a cigar,” said Mr Hunter.
“Alright, Baas! I bring him plenty quick,” Tom Thumb replied, turning on his bare heels, and striding noiselessly into the pantry close by, where soon the sound of popping soda-water-bottles told that he was carrying out his master’s orders.
A few minutes later the drink was placed on the arm of each chair, Mr Hunter had lit his cigar, and was leaning back, puffing clouds of smoke from his lips, and staring thoughtfully at the ceiling.
“Light up, boys!” he said at last. “It’s a bit of a yarn, and wants to be followed closely. Now, to start the ball rolling, as it were, I must tell you who and what our neighbours are, and from what race they derive their origin. You must know that the first whites to visit this vast continent of Africa in its southern parts were of Dutch nationality. They were servants of the Dutch East India Company, who placed a colony of their countrymen at Table Bay to form a depot, where vessels could put in and replenish their provisions and water with some degree of safety. They were joined many years after by a band of French Protestants who had been driven from their own country.
“In 1795 the Colony was taken over by the British by request of the Stadtholder of Holland, who had been dethroned. But in seven years’ time we handed the country back again.
“Later on, however, our forces returned once more and ousted the Dutch, setting up a government on the site which is now occupied by Cape Town. Naturally, many of the Dutch and French immigrants had become possessed of property, and had commenced to farm the land; and these stayed on under the new rule. In process of time they intermarried, and by the commencement of this century numbered about 75,000 souls all told. That is the origin of the present Boer nation. They are sprung from the union between Dutch and French settlers, who were the pioneers of Africa.
“Then the British immigrant arrived and sat down by the side of the Boers, and together, in perfect unity and good fellowship, they pushed farther into the country, fighting one long continuous fight against hordes of natives and against lions and other savage beasts. Every step they advanced had to be fought for; for, just as the Bed Indians in America have persistently resisted the onflow of strangers into their hunting-grounds, so have the natives of South Africa fought to resist the onward progress and invasion of the white settlers into the land which they considered theirs by right of birth.
“But now – to hark back for one moment to that time when England stepped in and took possession of the colony – a factor arose to upset the peace and general agreement of Boer and Briton. The fact that they had been handed over by their own government to the British, like so many sheep, had roused the fiercest anger amongst the Boers. And now this resentment was inflamed by the restraining hand which our government laid upon them with regard to the natives.
“Years before, the Boer settlers had become accustomed to slave labour, and as they pushed on into the country, natives were pressed into their service. And these they had punished as each man considered the case deserved. Probably because there was a plentiful supply of Kafirs and Hottentots our Boer friends had not stopped at whipping the poor fellows. They treated them with absolute brutality, even going to the length of taking their lives.
“Such barbarous doings awoke in England a storm of anger, for, thank God, our country has long been opposed to slavery. Freedom and equality has been our motto for many years, and we have sustained it at no small cost to ourselves.
“When the tales of Boer brutality became known to the folks at home, the indignation it caused resulted in the emancipation of all slaves, and from that date the ‘Baas’, as the master is called, and the native ‘boy’ had equal rights; and to injure one of them was a crime punishable by the same laws as hold good in England.
“You can imagine, my lads, what rage this new arrangement caused in the hearts of the Boers. For years they had been free to do as they chose, and now their slaves were theirs no longer, and the natives, who had been in their masters’ eyes like mere cattle, were now their equals in point of law, and were not to be ill-treated with impunity.
“This was too much for the Dutchmen. The very sight of an Englishman roused their anger and hate, and rather than be forced to live side by side with them and be governed by their laws, they struck out a line for themselves and trekked away north into the unexplored wilds. Taking their wives and children with them, and driving their flocks, they set out for the unknown, seeking isolation from the British, and a country they could call their own.
“Thousands joined in what is known as the ‘Great Trek of 1837’. Some of the more daring of them pushed on as far as the Vaal River, which, of course you know, is the southern boundary of the Transvaal, or South African Republic, as it is called nowadays. They paid dearly for their temerity, for the Zulus came down in swarms against them and massacred every one of them. But the staunch Boer, with his dogged pluck, in which he much resembles our countrymen, was not the man to be deterred by first failures. He pressed on, but in greater numbers and with more caution, and when the Zulus attacked again, beat them off and drove them out of the neighbouring country.
“Others of the Trekkers settled on the Zand River, in what is now the Orange Free State, while others pushed across the veldt, and finally crossed the passes of the Drakenberg Mountains and came to a halt in Natal.
“But these last were also to meet with trouble from the Zulus, for whilst their leaders were bargaining with Dingaan, the chief of that fierce native tribe, they were fallen upon with barbarous ferocity and slaughtered to a man.
“Well, you have often heard it said that when the black man sees blood, no power on earth can keep him in check. That was what happened now. The fierce Zulu warriors had dipped their assagais in the blood of their white foes, and they were not to be held back. Like a wave they burst over the smiling landscape of Natal, and when the tide had ebbed hundreds of hapless men and women had been sent to their last account.
“That was the commencement of all the bitter hate which the Boer of the present day has for the native race.
“I think you have seen, my lads,” proceeded Mr Hunter, “that dogged stubbornness of purpose and undoubted pluck were characteristics of that old Boer people. They never knew when they were beaten, and no amount of danger and hardship would prevent them from pushing on for that promised land which was to be theirs alone, and where they might live in freedom and solitude, with no thought for to-morrow, and with no cares to upset the calm and peace of the life for which they longed.
“They banded themselves together and marched against the treacherous Dingaan, only to be beaten. But again they gathered their forces under the leadership of Andries Pretorius, and on December 16th, 1838, gave the Zulus a tremendous thrashing, killing three thousand of them.
“Then, having settled the natives, they built their farms and appointed from their number certain men who were to form the Volksraad or parliament of their new possessions. But again the British stepped in and intimated that they would not allow an independent state to be formed in the colony. The Boers resisted, and hoisted their flag, but reinforcements were sent up-country, and in May, 1842, the whole of Natal was taken over as a British colony.
“Now, had these hardy pioneers cared to live under British rule, they were free to stay on their farms in Natal. But hatred of all things English was as prominent in their hearts as their enmity for the natives. Britons should not rule them, they swore; nothing but absolute
