themselves citizens of the republic, and be liable to be commandeered
and called upon to serve in arms, not only against the natives, upon
whom the Boers were always making aggressions, but against England, when
the war, which all foresaw could not long be delayed, broke out.

For months the negotiations went on between President Kruger and Mr.
Chamberlain, the British colonial minister, and the certainty that the
Boers were bent upon fighting became more and more evident. Vast
quantities of rifles, ammunition, and cannon poured into the Transvaal,
their passage being more than winked at by the Dutch ministry of Cape
Colony.

It was that day known that President Kruger had thrown off the mask of a
pretended desire for peace, and that an ultimatum had been telegraphed
to England couched in terms of such studied insolence that it was
certain war must ensue. The greatest civilized power on earth would have
shown less arrogance towards the most feeble. Not only was England
called upon to send no more troops to South Africa, but to withdraw most
of her forces already in the country, and this by a state that owed its
very existence to her, and whose total population was not more than that
of a small English county.

The terms of that ultimatum had just become known in Johannesburg, and
it was not surprising that it had created an intense excitement. All had
long felt that war must come, and that at an early date, but the step
that had now been taken came as a surprise. From all appearances it had
seemed that the negotiations might be continued for months yet before
the crisis arrived, and that it should thus have been forced on by the
wording of the ultimatum showed that the Boers were satisfied that their
preparations were complete, and that they were in a position to overrun