[Illustration: PRESIDENT KRUGER.]

The Boer's politics are summed up in the single word 'Defence.' He is
not aggressive, but he is strong on Defence. Possession with him is
ten points of the law--it is everything. Let the independence of his
country be threatened, and he is at once a man of action. He
figuratively converts his ploughshare into a sword, although the uses
of that weapon are unknown to him. At the time of the Jameson Raid it
may safely be asserted that there did not exist a single Boer--young
or old--who was not in possession of a serviceable firearm and the
full complement of ammunition. The Kantoors--i.e., the Government
offices--were daily besieged by eager men as eager to possess
themselves of the instruments and munitions of war. Every man was
ready; farmers were no longer farmers, but soldiers, prepared to face
the worst in the defence of their only love--their country.




CHAPTER VI


The Boer is not what one would call a sentimental person; he is
practical in all his ways. If he sees a thunderstorm approaching, he
does not go into raptures over the magnificence of the lightning; he
watches that thunderstorm calmly and philosophically. And if he had
anything to do with the order of the elements, he would have that
thunderstorm come his way, and he would detain it exactly three days
over his particular farm, so that the rain should leave a lasting