The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1881-03-09
WHO ARE TIE E
The Sturdy Dutch Farmers in South Africa
Who are Fighting the British Lion.
TChicago Times

CuiIAoo f"S1 "oN@N w Sp'ASN ~
negotiations between the contestants, it was
unreasonable to expect that dispute arising
in regions so distant would excite any other
interest than would be naturally stirred by a
national struggle for liberty, but there is no
doubt, to-day, that both sides mean to fight.
Sir George Colley has contested two desper-
ate battles, and has not yet been able to cross
the frontier. The reinforcements that are
slowly travelling in ox-wagons to his aid may
be matched by Boer reinforcements from the
Orange free states. There is every proba-
bility that a war Of considerable magnitude
is now fairly opened. No articles, therefore,
are more timely than those which discuss the
Beers, their past and their future, in the cur
rent number Of The Nineteenth Century and
Contemporary Re0ieeo. Sir Bartle Frere, who
is in no slight degree responsible for the war,
regards its political aspect in the first Lieut..
Col. ". T. Butler treats Of its history in the
second. Sir Bartle Frere discusses the policy
of Sir Theophilus Shepstone's annexation.
Col. Butler begins by asking, s'Who are the
Beers?
Two hundred years ago four ships sailed
from Holland, carrying to regions that then
lay at the uttermost bounds of the known
world certain French Huguenots exiled by
the revocation of the edict Of Nantes. Those
vessels carried altogether about one hundred
and fifty men, women and children, all
French citizens. Among them were many
good names, names which little more than a
century later were figuring high in that long
roll Of marshalls and generals Of France
which the revolution and its great soldier
gave to fame. Hugo, Joubert, Jourdain,
Retief, Arnold, de Villiers, Bertrand, Fouch,
du Plessy, Mouncy, Serrurier, Victor, and
many other names appear in the list OF those
who selected the distant Dutch colony Of
South Africa as their future home. These
exiles brought to the little colony strength and
mental power Of a new kind. Fifty years
later the French language had died out, the
second and third generation had intermarrled
among the Dutch, and the all-conquerlngg
mother tongue had had its usual triumph.
But these $50 French Huguenots made 8
mark upon the colonial community that has
never been effaced from the national charac-
ter. It was a Retief who led the "Great
Trek into the northern Wilds. 1t was q de
Marias who headed a few hundred followers
against the hosts Of the Matabele king in
1887. It WIS q Collier who read the service
in the lager upon the Black Umvolosl on
the Sunday morning when the Zulu army IN
that 'chest and horn formation" so familiar
to US years later, moved to the attack Of the
Dutch camp. It was q Joubert who covered
the beaten wreck OF the Boer 'scommandO'
after the disaster on the White Umvolosi,
and to-day another Joubert is the moving
spirit in the Transvaal revolt. The French
Huguenots and the much larger number of
Dutch employees of the old East India Com
pany were the ancestors Of the people whom
to-day we call Boers-a people slow TO think
but not easily to be turned from their thought
when they have once formed il slow to en-
bark in any movement, but certain to follow
it to its extreme end when it has once been
begun. 4 homely, sober, v%irtuous, quiet,
dull race Of beings, as full Of faith in God
and Of fair dealing between man and man IS
this world holds sample Of.
In the wears 1866 there began q move
ment among the Dutch inhabitants OF the
Cape Colony which has been productive OF
greater results to South Africa than any 9th
er event in the history Of that portion Of the
world. 1t was the emigration or "trek" OF q
very large number Of Dutch farmers owe;
the then recognized boundary of British do.
minion into the vast, unoccupied tract OF
high-lying land which spreads north from
the Orange river into unexplored regions.
They passed away over the river 10 long
lines Of numbering wagons, disappearing IN
to those breezy uplands which then lay in
vast horizons, measureless. and unknown.
Two years passed aWay-the slclW-mov1ng
columns had been exposed to many hardshlps,
their flocks and herds had suffered from the
~rava;yes Of lions the fierce Matftbele tribe
had frequently carried death into the S'laag-
ers, = and drouth and exposure had lessened
their worldly possessions but all had failed
to change the resolution of the wanderers.
Ever filled with the idea that they would be
rewarded by the possession Of q fair and fer
tile land. where want and hardship would
disappear in peace and pastoral plenty, they
held steadily and doggedly on their course,
the bible their only study, the Sroer" gun,
the hardy Cape horse, the laagered wagon
their only protection. At length the long and
r1ou,~ a.aa.a:.r Y1a+oa,1 over which thew