The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-01-18

u
is excessively luxurious, and it is anus
ing to find how, even on distant hunt
| ing expeditions, when he is in eager
quest of ivory and skins, he is yearning
TO hurry home to his family. Tell him
that you have wife and children, and
you go up hundred per cent in his es-
timation.
| 1t is to be remembered that the aver
age Boer is not like the average Briton,
Jew or German, anxious to make his for
tune and leave the country. He looks,
and will always look. upon Africa as his
home. He desires only to live in %
moderate degree of comfort, in rude
plenty, to provide for his children as they
grow up, and to be let alone. He shuns
towns. sh0pkeeping, and gold mining.
I am not sure that in his primitive, SIM
pie way of life the South African pastor
alist is not a far happier man than the
millions who are toiling, fighting, and
elbowing one another to death for a living
in highly civilized England.
| The Boer looks at Johannesburg he
sees there few men growi ng enormous
~ rich, great many struggling for a
living as at home, crowded together,
often in a stale of excessive discomfort;
ne sees an immense amount of hard
drinking and d good deal of ohicanery,
cheating, vice, and even crime. Is it to
be wondered at that he shakes his head
as no drives out with his OF wagon and
congratulates himself that he is still a
Boer?
But there are Beers and Beers. Many
of the richer, less bigoted, and more
shrewd OF the farmers have begun to find
that the influx of the English, their gold
discoveries, and the wealth they are
bringing into the country are not such i'll
things, after all. Contact with the Bri t
ish has indeed worked wonders already,
Even the more primitive of the farmers
have discovered that the Englishman is
not SO bad fellow. 1t is curious to see
these heavy Dutch farmers coming into
English hotels in the Transvaal and
Bechuanaland, enjoying the table d'hote
fare, and rubbing elbows with their
quon foes.
Many of the Beers have benefited large
|
critics, large numbers by the opening Of
new markets and the constant demand for
cattle and farm produce. Some few, such
as Kruger, Joubert, and others, have
profited by their opportunities, and are
now very wealthy men. Some of the
, wealthier farmers are now sending tn ell
sons to be educated in Europe; some have
| I'm ich ~, =
considerable proportion of the rising gen
Grafton can speak the English language
AS for the remainder, there are strong
5 signs just now that they are preparing
quietly to betake themselves from TIN
hustle and turmoil of modern civilization
f which they see rapidly approaching, ant
seek new homes elsewhere.
81 A certain element Of the Transvaa
! Beers, the Doppers-a severely Calyinisti'
! sect; the frontier men and hunters, thu
poorer. the discontinued, and those still
: bitten with the rsstlessness, the hatred
3 of taxation, of any form of COVER nment
. exhibited by their forefathers, have beer
gradually filtering out of the country. Ir
t 1S777S there was great trek towart
Q long wandering and terrible sufferings il
the wilderness, is now settled in Portu
D guese territory, near Mossamedes, Other
small expeditions have been slowly NOV.
. ing out of the Transvaal
| During the last year the old trek spirit
} has suddenly and wonderfully revived.
Large mum bers of Beers are preparing to
~,
| the country beyond. Other are starting
> for OAKLAND. to the northeast Of the
Transvaal. A deputation of "voor-
trekkers' was actually sent by sea to
! Zanzibar year or SO ago to spy out the
| land in Central Africa and see if some
: country could not be found, free from any
| government, taxation, or white popula
ton, whittier thoroughbred Beers might
5 trek and rest in peace.
t Mr.. Rhodes apparently is not very
DESTROYS to see this class of Boer--a
a somewhat unmanageable one-settled IL
Mashonaland or Matabeleland, and hal
0 been favoring their movement toward
g the North Kalahari and N'gamiland
: From personal experience of this regior
L Cannon say tuHb III as very W6]l uGUeu u
0 support such an influx of farmers
Probably the trek Beers will find GU
Q their mistake and move further afeld
, The Portuguese are, it seems, not do
. sirous to have more of them on the ives
. coast, and we may therefore hear, with
. in few years, of fresh oer settlements il
Y Katanga. and even far into Contra
D. Africa. 1t is quite possible-nay ever
i probable 1t rat within fifty years the de
l scendants of these wanderers may b,
, found settled near the sources of the Nile
still in as primitive state of civilization
! as were their forefathers at the Cape 25'
! years ago.
The population of the Transvaal il
, divided into three great sections-th,
D Boer, the Uitlander, and the Kafir. O.
, these sections two are foreign and one il
j native to the soil. The Kafrs have ocou
t pied the country from time immemorial
4 the other two sections are both of them