branches were recruited from Holland likewise, in natural sequence. They
were men of high attainments and possessed of energy and astuteness and
of various qualifications--doctors, lawyers, editors, clergymen,
teachers. Those who did not receive Government appointments quickly
found lucrative positions in their vocations. The scope increased as
time went by and as those States developed with the growth of the
populations and the establishment of numerous towns and villages,
especially after the discovery of the diamond-fields in 1870. Every year
brought fresh contingents from Holland, including also the commercial
class, artisans, and even servants of both sexes, and agriculturists.
Preserving a constant intercourse with their native country, those
Hollanders also maintained cohesion and clanship among themselves in
their newly-adopted homes. Nor did Holland fail to realize the great
advantages accruing to that country and its people from the new South
African outlets--regular preserves with almost unlimited scope for
further extension and for increasing permanent, profitable connections.
A formidable barrier presented itself in the gradually ascendant
tendencies of the English language and English trade, with corresponding
neglect of the Dutch factors. Regretful forebodings aroused energetic
efforts to check rival interests. The prize was too valuable, and
increasing each year in importance. A dyke needed to be erected to stem
the English encroachments and to preserve and consolidate the Hollander
position of vantage. The ablest men in Holland and South Africa
exercised themselves with that task with an ardour impelled by jealous
hatred against the English and intensified by successive revelations of
more startling discoveries of gold and other mineral wealth in the
Transvaal. It was then, about thirty years ago, that a well-informed,
influential and unscrupulous coterie in Holland devised the fell
projects which developed into that potential association since known as
the Afrikaner Bond.