The Transvaal is a Republic originally settled by the Dutch. Its
inhabitants are called Boers, and they are a race of sturdy farmers. It is
from their employment that they get their name of Boer. In the Dutch
language boer means a peasant, a farmer, or a tiller of the soil. It is
the same word as the German _Bauer_, a peasant.

These Boers are governed by a clever old man named Paul Krüger,--Oom (or
Uncle) Paul, as his people call him.

England, as you will see by your map, owns vast tracts of land in South
Africa, and according to her regular practice she is trying to enlarge her
possessions still further. Wherever England establishes a colony, she
reaches out on either side of her, and takes, if possible, a little piece
of land here, and another little scrap there, until by and by she has
laid hold of the greater part of the land around her.

She has been following her usual custom in South Africa.

But the Boers are not fond of the English, and they have been trying with
all their power to keep these neighbors of theirs as far away from them as
possible. As the English have advanced, the Boers have retreated, even
giving up the diamond mines of Kimberly in the process of moving.

One day, however, rich gold-fields were discovered on the Witwaters Rand.
A Rand is the high land on either side of a river valley.

This settled matters for the Boers. From the moment gold-fields were
discovered, Englishmen poured into the Transvaal.