all the enemies against whom his countrymen had fought--English,
Zulus, Basutos, Griquas, and Bushmen.

'But,' he said, 'that was in the days of my youth and inexperience.
Had I known then what I know now, I would never have fought against
the English, and I will never fight them again. Old as I am, I would
now gladly turn out against the Zulus, and take fifty friends of my
own, who would follow me anywhere; but I dare not leave my home till
assured it will not be destroyed and my property carried off in my
absence, by the men who call me "rebel" because I will not join them
against the Government. My wife, brought up like a civilized woman in
the Cape Colony, has had five times in her life to run from the house
and sleep in the veld when attacked by Zulus and Basutos. One of our
twelve sons was assegaied in sight of our house, within the last ten
it was surrounded by Basutos, my wife had to fly in the night by
herself, leading one child and carrying another on her back. She
walked nearly fifty miles through the Lion Veld, seeing three lions
on the way, before she reached a place of safety. It is not likely
that we should forget such things, nor wish them to recur; but how
can I leave her on my farm and go to Zululand, when the malcontent
leaders threaten me that if I go they will burn my house and drive
off all my stock? Assure me that we are not to be deserted by the
English Government, and left to the mercy of these malcontent
adventurers, and I and my people will gladly turn out to assist
Colonel Wood.'

_I find that this idea that the English Government will give up the
Transvaal, as it formerly did the Orange Free State, has been
industriously propagated, and has taken a great hold on the minds of
the well-disposed Boers, and is, I believe, one main cause of