JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, Colonial Secretary of England.
PAUL KRUGER, President of the South African Republic. (Photo from Duffus Bros.)
South Africa
AND
The Boer-British War
COMPRISING
A HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA AND ITS PEOPLE, INCLUDING
THE WAR OF 1899 AND 1900
BY
J. CASTELL HOPKINS, F.S.S.
Author of The Life and Works of Mr. Gladstone;
Queen Victoria, Her Life and Reign; The Sword
of Islam, or Annals of Turkish Power;
Life and Work of Sir John Thompson.
Editor of "Canada; An Encyclopedia," in six volumes.
AND
MURAT HALSTEAD
Formerly Editor of the Cincinnati "Commercial Gazette,"
and the Brooklyn "Standard-Union." Author of The
Story of Cuba; Life of William McKinley;
The Story of the Philippines; The History of American
Expansion; The History of the Spanish-American War;
Our New Possessions, and
The Life and Achievements of Admiral Dewey, etc., etc.
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME I. IN TWO PARTS
THE BRADLEY-GARRETSON COMPANY, Limited
BRANTFORD, CANADA
THE LINSCOTT PUBLISHING COMPANY
LONDON, ENGLAND —— TORONTO, CANADA
Entered according to Act of Parliament of Canada, at the
Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, in the year One Thousand
Nine Hundred, by J. L. Nichols & Co.
PREFACE.
To measure the South African War of 1899-1900 merely bythe population of the two Boer Republics, would necessitateits consideration as an unimportant contest in comparisonwith the great international conflicts of the century. To measureit by the real power of the Dutch in South Africa, under presentconditions, and by the principles involved in its inception andprosecution, makes it a struggle which rivals in importance theCrimean War, the American Civil War or the Franco-Prussianconflict. In the first of these, Great Britain, France and Sardiniaunited to resist the dangerous designs and aggressive policy ofRussia which threatened their power in the Mediterraneanand the British route to India through its intended seizure oracquisition of Constantinople. In the second, the United States wasfighting a great conflict for national unity. In the third, Prussiaaverted a campaign of "On to Berlin" by speedy and successfulmilitary action.
All of these elements find a place in the South African War.The policy of President Kruger, President Steyn and theAfrikander Bund, of Cape Colony, has been developing for years intoa dangerous and combined effort for the creation of a UnitedDutch South Africa and the seizure of Cape Town—one of thechief stations of British commercial and maritime power.Mr. Chamberlain precipitated matters, so far as the Cape Colony Dutchwere concerned, by a policy of firmness to which they wereunaccustomed at the hands of the Colonial Office and which, cautiousand conciliatory as it w