PREFATORY NOTE THE object of the present work is to bring together within the limits of a single volume, in the special interests of busy men, the leading facts connected with the growth of our Empire in South Africa, the doings of the Boer communities there, and the causes and chief events of the present war. These causes, be it remembered, are the result of a "situation" that began to be created long before the Franchise Question, the Jameson Raid, Majuba Day, or the aspirations of capitalists in South Africa were even thought of. They must be traced at least as far back as the Slachter's Nek Rebellion, when the Boers, by trying to enlist the natives on their side in order to drive the British out of South Africa, made their first move in the great struggle for supremacy which was bound to be fought out "to the bitter end" sooner or later; and the full purport of the present conflict will hardly be realised without some general idea-such as the following pages seek to afford of the whole course of events since that time. Gathered together from a great variety of sources -to consult which direct would involve the said busy man in a considerable expenditure of time-the facts |