movement, and he also very probably looked for the day of their
departure. But they did not depart; they had come to stay.

The Boer did not like his English neighbours from the start; there was
far too much of the go-ahead persuasion about them. He wanted to jog
along quietly and cautiously, and he very naturally resented the
presence of people in whom the desire for progression was strong. So
long as the Boer was left to himself he was not aware of his own
tardiness. He was very much in the position of a cyclist on the track;
it needed a 'pacer' to show how slowly he was travelling. The 'pacer'
in this instance brought with him no commendation in the eyes of the
Boer; he merely created suspicion and ill-feeling, which ultimately
developed into rancour.

When suspicion lays hold of a man it invariably changes the whole of
that man's character. It did so in the case of the Boer. It debarred
any chance of reconciliation with the English for the future. The Boer
does not know the meaning of compromise, and if he did, it would go
against his grain to entertain it. His nature is stubborn; he cannot
bring himself to look at a question from any other view-point than his
own. He will argue a point for hours, and although he may be in the
wrong, it is a moral impossibility to convince him that he is not in
the right. His consummate ignorance may largely account for this; but
even semi-educated Boers are not much better in this respect.

The Boer makes an excellent pioneer, and when he found that the
English ideas were not compatible with his own, he decided to move
farther north. That is another of his characteristics--independence.
He is not only independent to a degree, he is sensitive; and when he
discovers by accident that he is a much-aggrieved party, his