sold by his brethren, pastoral life was pictured to us as mild as
milk, as innocent as that of sheep in the fold, until Renan pointed
out its qualities and defects. At the same time we were told of the
Bedouins "with saddle, bridle, and life on the Islam," always
mounted, always armed, always engaged in war or razzias and mutual
pillage; of the Turkomans and their motto: 'Thy soul is in thy
sword'; and those who thus celebrated the amenities of pastoral
life, and the heroic adventures of the Arabs of the desert, never
perceived the contradictions they had fallen into."

At the end of that Chapter I spoke of the Boers, according to
Levaillant, "the most carniverous of men," as having turned out of their
possessions the nomadic Hottentot and Kaffir shepherds. _The Boers
represent that form of warlike and political civilisation in which
production is indirect, and obtained by utilising the labour of others._
It is a type of that ancient pillaging civilisation which we call
war-like, when its methods have been reduced to rules. In this stage
politics mean the organisation of pillage. Mr. Kuyper is right. "The
Boer is essentially a man of war and politics." He has employed his
talents at the expense of Hottentots and Kaffirs; he has continued to
employ them to the detriment of the Uitlanders; and he thought the time
had come to realise his programme of February 17th, 1881, formulated by
Dr. Reitz at the end of his official pamphlet,[4] "Africa for the
Africanders from the Zambesi to Simon's Bay." We have seen what view,
according to his apologist, "the man of war and politics" takes of his
relations with the natives; we shall now see how he regards his
relations with the whites.

[Footnote 4: "A Century of Injustice."]