We were not going to rise so early just to please him, so we answered
him that if he was in a hurry he could pull the waggon out himself. This
he was obliged to do, in order to get past. We then thanked him, and
gently told him that if he had addressed us in a decent manner in the
beginning he would have spared himself all his trouble. We meekly added
the hope that this little lesson would not be lost upon his wayward
mind. His remarks cannot be reproduced here, but it was plain that he
felt very much as little States do sometimes when taken in hand by one
of the great Powers and subjected to a little kind cruelty.

After reloading the waggon we went on, and reached Pieters in due
course. The first thing that drew my attention was the sight of one of
my young colleagues standing under the verandah of the telegraph
office, his face a picture of grief. His father had been killed that
morning.

Going a few miles further, I took charge of the telegraph office in
Lukas Meyer's laager. Meyer, a grand-looking man, formerly possessed
much influence, being at one time President of the New Republic, a State
founded by himself in a tract of country granted him and his followers
by a Kafir chief for assistance rendered during an intertribal war. This
small republic, soon incorporated with the Transvaal, was thenceforth
represented in the First Volksraad by its former president, Louis Botha
becoming its member for the Second Chamber. At the battle of Dundee
Botha distinguished himself. Meyer did not. Then the former gained fresh
laurels at Colenso, and this finally gave him the precedence over Meyer,
General Joubert himself, on his death-bed, expressly asking that Botha
should be appointed his successor. Meyer, then, was in charge of this
laager, Botha had command of the whole line, and Commandant General
Joubert was at headquarters near Ladysmith.