strongly, and allowed that it was most proper for a Briton to be equally
strong on his own. And this is more or less what he said:--

"Information? No, I shall not give you any; you are the enemy, you see.
Ha, ha! They call me rebel. But I ask you, my friend, is it natural that
I--I, Hollander born, Dutch Afrikander since '60--should be as loyal to
the British Government as a Britisher should be? No, I say; one can be
loyal only to one's own country. I am law-abiding subject of the Queen,
and that is all that they can ask of me.

"How will the war go? That it is impossible, quite impossible, to say.
The Boer might run away at the first shot and he might fight to the
death. All troops are liable to panic; even regular troop; much more
than irregular. But I have been on commando many times with Boer, and I
cannot think him other than brave man. Fighting is not his business; he
wishes always to be back on his farm with his people; but he is brave
man.

"I look on this war as the sequel of 1881. I have told them all these
years, it is not finish; war must come. Mr Gladstone, whom I look on as
greatest British statesman, did wrong in 1881. If he had kept promises
and given back country before the war, we would have been grateful; but
he only give it after war, and we were not grateful. And English did not
feel that they were generous, only giving independence after war,
though they had a large army in Natal; they have always wished to
recommence.

"The trouble is because the Boer have never had confidence in the
English Government, just as you have never had confidence in us. The
Boer have no feeling about Cape Colony, but they have about Natal; they