The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-04-01
THE BoER's FATAL RIFLE.
Men Who Beat DR.. Jim Shoot Well-Ex-
traordinary Facility in Equipping Them
selves for a OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES as
Warriors Expected

ce~~~NO1SAA AO~@AAN@@NS
scribed and accounted for In vein
of graphic narrative in the Nineteenth
Century for March, by H. A. Dryden.
The following passages from his praise of
these people are interesting:
Between the affair of Boomplants in
1848 and the battle of Laings Mex in 1881,
the Beers, good as had been their prac-
tice with the cid smooth-bore muskets-
Brown Bess.' as we British usually
called the weapon-became vsry much
more dangerous marksmen. The shooting
of heavy game had always been with
them not only passion but matter Of
business. From the early days of their
settlement at the Cape-t he first Dutch
settlers landed in 1652-the destruction of
the wild animal life with which the coun-
try teemed was an absolute necessity on
the part of the farmers pushing their way
inland. The natural consequence was
that with every Dutch farmer the gun
formed, and has always formed, part
and parcel of his everyday existence.
With it he cleared his ground of superb
bundant animal life, destroyed lions and
other dangerous beasts, shot elephants
for their ivory, procured his daily food,
made war upon his foes and defended his
homestead. Even with the immense and
unwieldy fiintlock Ioers' of the last CEN
fury the Beers were no mean performers.
| With these clumsy pieces, although as
often as not they steadied their shots by
using their ramrods as rests, they slew
vast numbers of elephants and thinned
the old Cape Colony of ivory.
| when first-rate breech- loading sport
ing rifles came into vogue. from 20 to 80
years since, the Beers quickly realized
their Importance and become possessed of
them. By this time they were spread as
hunters and pastoralists far up into the
| interior of South Africa. The elephant
hunters penetrated to the most distant
suit that elephants are now approaching
absolute extinction south of the Zambesi
The farmers of the Orange Free State
and Transvaal were also professional skin
hunters, and shot down the enormous
herds of antelopes, zebras and quaggas
of the hides, which they packed and sent
down country by thousands of wagon
Dads annually.
''As soon as the Boer lad could han
die gun his father would give him
cartridge or two, or little powder and
ball, and tell him to go out and get a
buck. Ammunition cost money, and
that boy no more dare shoot off his rife
at random, as an English lad weuld.
than he would think of flying. The con-
sequence was that from the time he could
carry gun the young Dutohman quick
ly learned to become a careful and an ao-
curate shot, as well as an accomplished
stalker. He learned, as his forefathers
had done, almost by instinct. to measur-
distances with the eye, and to be able to
| drop his bullet into the middle of line
of game running away from him. He
could be trusted to lay low the latest
ram in 'klompje' (bunch) of springbok
far out upon the plain.
"The heated atmosphere of the parohed
African veldt, which SO bothers the Git
lander ON his first arrival in the country
was perfectly familiar to him, and he
knew exactly when and how to allow for
it. AS he grew older he became usually q
first-rate sporting shot, and could reckon
absolutely on bringing in head OF
two of game every time he went out.
Many of these young farmers went peri
odioally into the distant hunting veldt
and shot heavier game than the paternal
Transvaal farm afforded. They slew
giraffe and buffalo, sable and roam ante
lope, elephants when they could get
among them. rhinoceros. hippopotamus,
lions and many kinds of the larger ante.
lopes The skins of all these animals
brought in a little money; the meat was
sailed and sun-dried into biltong'
sis is to be wondered at that these men
with such training, should have proved
themselves, as they have done during the
| last IL years, such formidable opponents
to English troops?
| "Glance at the commissariat of these
most excellent irregular troopers see
with what speed and alaroity they are col
lected There is a threatening of war.
| kilograms go forth from Pretoria.
Mounted men in various districts gallon
hot-spur from homestead to homestead
with the call to arms. The Boer sends
mis- Kaffir boy into the veldt hard by fol
his horse, takes down his rifle, fastens q
big bandolier stuck full of Martini Henry
or Westley- Richards cartridges round his
waist, and another across his shoulders
fills one saddle bag with sun-dried flesl
(biltong), another with Boer meal, to
bacco, and coffee, ties up blanket tt
his saddle-bow and kettle and water
bottle to the "dees'' on either side of hi.
saddle. In 10 minutes the man il
equipped for war. He buckles on his
rusty spurs, bids fearful farewell to his
vrouw and numerous kinders-for the
Boer is an intensely family man-and
with his pipe in his mouth rides off on
his rough but hardy nag for the rendez-
vous. In "a hours two or three thousand
of such men are assembled together under
arms, waiting the word from their grim
and determined-lo looking communicate
general, Piet Joub 1t, the man with the