Evening star., 1896-01-18

Slow and UncOuth, but ResOlute ID
Defend Their Rights.

Slow and Uncouth, but Res0lute to
Defend Their Rfghts.
From the London Times. <------ :
Among all the white men now thronging
johannesburg and other parts OF the Trans
yaal in search of gold how many can say
with truth that they know anything OF tie
Dutch farmers? Not one man in hundred.
They will sneer at him, laugh at his gut
tural tongue and his heavy. uncouth ways.
rail at his government; but as for taking
the trouble to acquire his language and find
out something of the inner heart Of the
man, they will not do it-in their feverlsh
search for fortune they have not the time.
And yet this farmer Of the wilderness.
rough and uncouth. and often surly AMI
suspicious as he is. has a great and STIR
ring history behind MIN In South Africa, Of
which he is and has a right to be, proud
He and his have struggled, and trekked,
and warred, and been massacred, and have
suffered In blood, and purse, and pastoral
wealth these 30 years past / doubt wheth-
er even an equal number of English peas
ants. farmers soldiers and settlers, IL they
had been planted at the Cape in 1852. as the
early Dutch were. would have emerged
from the long struggle 80 little spoiled, and
having lost so little Of their national char
ecteriStics.
The Dutch Afrikanders are still of pure
European blood, they still cling with the
teaching OF their Bibles, still cherish with
deep affection their wives and families. stu
go about their herding and hunting and
trekking in the old, slow. unconquerable.
dogged spirit OF their ancestors, still turn
their faces north, and as their pastures
grow small and crowded. trek for new
lands with undmmed hope and vigor.
For my part, whenever / shake hands
with one of these great, slow-moving Boera
1 forget his uncouth ways, his oddities, HIS
lack OF the thin veneer of modern culture.
and think to myself-this man, despite his
unpromising exterior, Is one of a band Of
ings, whose bones litter the silent yeldt in
every distant nook and corner of South
Africa, and who are, upon the whole, as
fine race Of pioneers as the world has
seen. They have their faults and weak
nesses. these people, but what nationality
has not?
The Beers are a race of hunters, as well
as pastoralists, and the 1ransvaal Beers
especially have been engaged in a war Of
eN termination Qamentable to the lover OF
animal life) against every species of wild
beast Numbers of them have been occu-
pied ever since boyhood in the hunting Of
elephants, buffalos, lions, rhinoceroses, and
other heavy game They have practically
exterminated the elephant south of the
Zambesi, and the buffalo is becoming very
scarce. No man who understands South
| African hunting can pretend to say that the
chase of these animals is not dangerous
one. requiring the highest qualities,of nerve
and courage. / will not say that the aver
| age Boer hunter will, by way of recreation.
| face the lion singlehanded in the way that
| the great English hunters-Selous Oswell
Vardon. Gordon-cumming, Baldwin and
others have accustomed US to. Few hunters
! indeed, are so QuiXotic. The Boer treats the
lion as dangerous vermin, IL possible OBJ
| tains help from his fellows, and as a matter
of business slays him by volley. But
| hundreds of Beers have slain lions single
| handed, and hundreds have been mauled
and even killed by lions.