wood and metals and similar handicrafts. In short, the Boers make ideal
scouts and are unique as colonizing pioneers. In their nomadic
wanderings and frequent wars, the Boers have gained much useful
experience in tactics, strategy, and in the wiles of diplomacy too.
They also learnt to adopt methods of organization, of cohesion, combined
action, and a certain amount of discipline among themselves.

They elect as subordinate and chief leaders men whose abilities and
influence have commended them for such responsible appointments. Before
committing themselves to any very important step these leaders would
first confer with the people, who in turn would generally be easily
swayed to their opinions, and who found by experience that it was safest
to follow their judgment. It thus also became a habit to leave the main
thinking over to those leaders, which enhanced unanimity and led to a
self-imposed obedience and discipline recognised as necessary for the
common welfare and also indispensable for common safety.

So prevalent had the practice become of deferring to the opinions of
their leaders that it engendered an apathy among the people against
considering political and public matters which were not altogether of
engrossing importance. Public meetings would be poorly attended, and at
elections not half the votes were recorded. "Let the elected heads see
to it; they are paid for doing the controlling and thinking work"--that
used to be the general feeling. But during the past twenty years public
interest has by degrees been successfully aroused by the activities of
the Afrikaner Bond; the former apathy and distaste to the consideration
of public concerns have given place to a more lively identification even
with politics, but the tendency of being swayed by men of influence of
their own kind remains unchanged.