cruelty and barbarism at the execution at Slagter's Neck in 1815. Here is Mr. Theal's account of the scene, when men were put to death, whose only crime had been an attempt to escape from British oppression:

"All, except Martha Taber, widow of Jan Bezindenhout, were to be conveyed to the place on Van Aardt's farm where William Krugel had taken the oath in the name of the men under his command, and there Hendrik Prinsloo, Corneles Taber, Stephanus Botma, Abraham Botma, Thennis de Kleck and William Krugel were to suffer death by hanging. The remaining thirty-two, after witnessing the execution, were to undergo various punishments ranging from banishment for life to imprisonment for one month or a fine of fifty-six dollars.

"The sentences were in accordance with the letter of the law; but it was generally supposed that the Governor would use his power of mitigation to prevent the penalty of death being inflicted, as no blood had actually been shed by any of the prisoners. Banishment would have been equally effective as a warning to the others and it seemed to most people then as now that something was due to the burghers who aided the government, and who were afterwards horrified at the thought that they had helped to pursue their deluded countrymen to death. There was an opportunity for the English Government to secure the affections of these people, by granting to them the lives-though not the liberty-of the chief culprits; but Lord Charles Somerset did not avail himself of it. On the intercession of Landdrost Cuyler, who represented the services that Krugel had rendered in the last Kaffir war and his uniform good conduct before he permitted himself to be led astray by the leaders of the insurrection, that individual was spared, but the Governor's fiat was affixed to the sentences of the other five.

"On the 9th of March, 1816, they were executed at Captain Andrews' post on Van Aardt's farm. The Reverend Mr. Herrold, of George, attended them in their last moments. Before ascending the scaffold they requested to be allowed to sing a hymn with their late companions and friends, and upon permission being granted, their voices were clear and firm. After this Stephanus Botma-whose ancestor of the same name was the first burgher in South Africa-addressed those present, advising them to be cautious in their behaviour, and take warning from his fate. To outward appearance, they were all perfectly resigned to die. When the drop fell, four of the ropes snapped, and the condemned men rose from the ground unharmed. The great crowd of people standing round, regarding this as an intervention of God, raised a cry for mercy, which Landdrost Cuyler, who was in command, was powerless to grant. Three hundred soldiers guarded the scaffold, and prevented confusion until all was over.”

Thereafter came the Great Trek, as it has been called, the exodus of the Boers from Cape Colony. Historians are gener

ally agreed, that the Boers were driven from their homes into exile by the oppression and cruelty of the British authorities.

The cause of the emigration is thus stated by Mr. Fitzpatrick, in his book entitled "The Transvaal from Within." Mr. Fitzpatrick was a member of the so-called Johannesburg Reform Committee. He will therefore not be charged with partiality in favor of the Boers in his statements.

He says (p. 4):

"The Boers have produced from their own ranks no literary champion to plead or defend their cause, and their earlier history is therefore little known, and often misunderstood; but to their aid has come Mr. George McCall Theal, the South African historian, whose years of laborious research have rescued for South Africa much that would otherwise have been lost. In his 'History of the Boers' Mr. Theal records the causes of the great emigration, and shows how the Boers stood up for fair treatment, and fought the cause, not of Boers alone, but of all colonists. Boers and British were alike harshly and ignorantly treated by high-handed Governors, and an ill-informed and prejudiced Colonial Office, who made no distinction on the grounds of nationality between the two; for we read that Englishmen had been expelled the country, thrown in gaol, and had their property confiscated, and their newspapers suppressed for asserting their independence, and for trifling breaches of harsh laws."

Mr. Theal's statement* of the causes of the Great Trek is as follows:

"To people in England one of the strangest events of the present century is the abandonment of their homes by thousands of Cape colonists after 1836, and their braving all the hardships of life in the wilderness for no other cause than to be free of British rule. Yet there is nothing to cause surprise in the matter, if the character of the Dutch people is considered. These colonists were of the same blood as the men who withstood the great power of Philip II of Spain, who laid the richest part of their country under water rather than surrender it to Louis XIV of France. They were not the men and women to submit to what they believed to be misrule, if there was a possibility of successful resistance or a chance of making their escape.

'Many of them, as we have seen, were accustomed to live in wagons and to subsist to a large extent upon game, so that moving deeper into the continent was in itself no great difficulty. Before them was a great waste swarming with wild animals. What wonder that they should move into it with such powerful motives to urge them on.

'Let us look again briefly at the grievances which determined their conduct. First, there was subjection by a foreign unsympathetic government.

*"The Story of South Africa, by George M. Theal, of the Cape Colonial Civil Service," p. 195.

Second, there was the prohibition of their language in the public offices and courts of law. Third, there was the superintendent of the London missionary society, their ablest and most relentless opponent, in possession of boundless influence with the British authorities. Fourth, there were the slanderous statements made by the philanthropic societies in England concerning them. Fifth, there was the sudden emancipation of their slaves without adequate compensation. Sixth, there was the whole mass of the coloured people placed upon a political footing with them, and that without a vagrant act being put in force. Seventh, there was no security for life or property in the eastern districts, which were exposed to invasion by the Kosas, as the Secretary of State took part with the barbarians. These were the chief causes of their great emigration, and there were many others of less importance.

And now all over the frontier districts the great wagons were laden with household goods and provisions and ammunition, and bands of people set out to seek a new home in the north. Each party was usually made up of families related to each other, and the man of greatest influence in it was elected its leader, with the title of commandant. The horned cattle, horses, sheep and goats were driven slowly on, and often when the pasture was good the caravans would rest for weeks together. They went up from the grass-covered hills along the coast and the bare Karoo farther inland, till they came to one or other of the steep passes into the elevated basin drained by the Orange and its numerous tributaries. With twenty to thirty oxen before each waggon they struggled up, and then went on without difficulty down the long slope to the river and across the wide plains of the present Orange Free State.

"North of the Orange the emigrants regarded themselves as beyond English authority, for over and over again it had been officially announced that Great Briain would not enlarge her possessions in South Africa."

Here is the Declaration issued at the time, of the motives and purposes of the Great Trek.

"GRAHAM'S TOWN,

January 22, 1837.

"1. We despair of saving the colony from those evils which threaten it by the turbulent and dishonest conduct of vagrants who are allowed to infest the country in every part; nor do we see any prospect of peace or happiness for our children in a country thus distracted by internal commotions.

2. To complain of the severe losses which we have been forced to sustain by the emancipation of our slaves, and the vexatious laws which have been enacted respecting them.

3. We complain of the continual system of plunder which we have for years endured from the Kaffirs and other coloured classes, and particularly by the last invasion of the colony, which has desolated the frontier districts, and ruined most of the inhabitants.

4. We complain of the unjustifiable odium which has been cast upon us by interested and dishonest persons, under the name of religion, whose testimony is believed in England, to the exclusion of all evidence in our favor; and we can foresee, as the result of this prejudice, nothing but the total ruin of the country.

5. We are resolved, wherever we go, that we will uphold the just principles of liberty; but, whilst we will take care that no one is brought by us into a condition of slavery, we will establish such regulations as may suppress crime, and preserve proper relations between master and

servant.

6. We solemnly declare that we leave this colony with a desire to enjoy a quieter life than we have hitherto had. We will not molest any people, nor deprive them of the smallest property; but, if attacked, we shall consider ourselves fully justified in defending our persons and effects, to the utmost of our ability, against every enemy.

7. We make known that when we shall have framed a code of laws for our guidance, copies shall be forwarded to this colony for general information; but we take the opportunity of stating that it is our firm resolve to make provision for the summary punishment, even with death, of all traitors, without exception, who may be found amongst us.

8. We purpose, in the course of our journey, and on arrival at the country in which we shall permanently reside, to make known to the na tive tribes our intentions, and our desire to live in peace and friendly intercourse with them.

9. We quit this colony under the full assurance that the English government has nothing more to require of us, and will allow us to govern ourselves without its interference in future.

10. We are now leaving the fruitful land of our birth, in which we have suffered enormous losses and continual vexation, and are about to enter a strange and dangerous territory; but we go with a firm reliance on an all-seeing, just and merciful God, whom we shall always fear, and humbly endeavor to obey.

In the name of all who leave the colony with me.

P. RETIEF."

Mr. Theal gives us the following account of the original organization of the Transvaal Government:

"On the 6th of June, 1837, a general assembly of the emigrants was held at Winburg, when a provisional constitution, consisting of nine articles, was adopted. The supreme legislative power was entrusted to a single elective chamber termed the volksraad, the fundamental law was declared to be the Dutch, a court of landdrost and heemraden was created, and the chief executive authority was confided to Mr. Retief with the title of commandant-general. The strong feeling of antagonism that Dr. Philip had roused is shown in one of the articles of the constitution, which provided that every member of the community and all who should thereafter join them must take an oath to have no connection with the

London missionary society. That body was regarded by them as purely a political institution, advocating and spreading principles of anarchy; and they regarded it as something like blasphemy to speak of its superintendent in Capetown as a minister of the gospel.”

So much for the exodus of 1836-as to its causes.

The Boers took refuge in a wilderness,—in a land that no civilized people inhabited, or wished to inhabit, for the reason that it had at that time no known value. It was partially occupied by sporadic and nomadic savages. It may be assumed, that in their treatment of those savages the Boers were themselves guilty of many acts of cruelty and injustice. That is the result of the infirmities of human nature. That is a feature which has disgraced our own conduct towards the North American Indian, and has characterized the conduct of all the dominant races in the world's history, whenever they have come in contact with races weaker than themselves. Whoever may have the right to reproach the Boers on this account, certainly the right does not belong to Americans, or Englishmen.

Assuming, therefore, that the Boers' treatment of the savages whom they displaced was harsh, and even cruel, the fact still remains, not open to question or criticism on the part of Americans or English, that the Boers established themselves in a wilderness, opened it, cultivated it, planted there their homes, and have lived there ever since. Their right-to dwell in that land, and to govern themselves, and all newcomers, in their own way, is one not open to question on any reasonable grounds, by any Englishman or American. It never has been seriously questioned by Englishmen. It has on several occasions been formally acknowledged by the British Government by solemn treaties. No doubt, Englishmen and Americans who enter the Boer territory are entitled to that degree of protection for life, liberty, and property, which should always be secured by the government of every civilized people to the citizens of other governments who come within its territories. It has not been made matter of serious complaint against the Transvaal Government, that British citizens have not had due protection for life, liberty, and property. That has not been put forward as a ground for the aggressive action of the British Government. Unless, therefore, there be other circumstances not yet disclosed, the