Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1900-02-14

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A Thrilling History OF Fifty Years
Struggle for Liberty in South
Africa.
Even lyddite shells will not main
tain an empire which is built on de-
lusions," says DR.. j. G. Voigt, author of
Fifty Years of the History of the Re.
publics Of South Africa"
In his history and in the article which
he contributes to the February number
of the North American Review, the
Doctor maintains that British rule in
South Africa has been characterized by
ferocity, barbarIty and cruelty never
before committed or tolerated by any
nation claiming to be civilized. After
noting the fact that in every British
colony the world over, the original inhab-
itants are being killed out, he says that
an increase in native population i'm
mediately followed the Boer occupation
of the Transyaal.
His descriptions of the struggles Of
the Beers for their lives and their
homes, and the brutalities practiced up.
on them by the British are thrilling
word pictures.
Here is his account of the execution
of the five republican leaders on the
hill of Slachtersnek:
Retief had frequently heard narrated
to him all the details OF the cruel. exc
cutiOn scene: how the friends and rela-
tives of the condemned men begged in
vain for reprieve; how thirty-two of
the other prisoners, many of them con-
demn d to banishment from the coun-
try for life, were compelled to witness
the execution: how the gallows col
lapsed and fell to earth when the un-
fortunate victims were half-strangled; /;
how the bystanders then went down on
their knees and pleaded with the Brit
ish officer for mercy, pointing out to
him that God had interceded for the
unfortunate sufferers; how the execu-
tioners of the sovereign, who, accord
ing to the Government proclamation Of
the day, was $50 eminently distin-
guished for tempering justice with
mercy" were implacable; how brave
Martha Bezuidenhout, who had been
wounded, and whose husband had
been killed by the Hottentots, was
among those banished for life; how the
British Crown refused to surrender the
bodies Of the executed men to their
friends and relatives, who desired to
give them Christian burial.
The Doctor calls the Beers the South
African Pilgrim Fathers, and after de-
scribing how they had to flee for their
lives back through the passes of the
Drakensbu-g mountains, and how they
died in theig laagers at the hands of
treacherous savages, and from hunger,
hardship and disease, he concludes his
magazine article as follows:
1t is the last year of the century
which opened with the cruel punish
lnent of the republicans of GRAF Rel
net. From June, 1899, to August, 90,
these men were kept imprisoned, with
out trial, in an overcrowded prison cell
more than eighty prisoners being
locked up in one room every night. In
September, 1900, two were sentenced to
death, one was condemned to be pub
licly fogged on the scsffold, others to
Punishment for life, or to imprison-
ment.l Among whom there was one
Lucas Meyer-as there were, also, two
named Kruger, and two named Botha
in the prison at Cape Town.
1t is the 10Th of December; the ami
versary of the opening ceremony Of the
court which ordered the execution of
the Afrikander leaders at Slachtersnek;
the anniversary of the great defeat Of
Dingaan's armies at the BlOed River
the anniversary of the commencement
of the Transvasl War of Independence
at POtchefstrOOm; the anniversary OF
restoration of the South African Re
public.
The sons have come back over those
mountains-th SONS of the VOOrtrek.
hers. Over the Drakensbergen they
have come back, to retake the land Of
their fathers.
The largest army which England hat
ever had on the battlefield in Soutt
Africa-over twenty thousand men
horse, foot and artillery, with powerful
guns from British warships and witt
lyddite shells to help them-has beel
: hurled back from the Upper Tugela
]. line, losing two Thousand men in killed
wounded and prisoners, and also, clever
guns
On the Tugela, where the father
!, died in 1898, ay, and south of the Tu
x gela, are the sOns-nOw, on the 10th Q
d December, 1899.
They are the with Lucas Meyer
: with Louis Botha, whose mother was /
: the lsager on the Bushmans River il
l83S;and with SchalS liurger, whose fail
er was outlawed and prescribed by tn
British government, aud went acros
Drakensberg in 1912.
They stand on the Tugela, while il
the background, the great Drakensber
/ Mountains, where the snow-white eve
hastings grow, rear their topmost peak
above the clouds.
The British General has asked for a
aimistice to bury his dead-on the lot
of December bury his dead, in tn
very ground where rest some of th
bones OF the murdered Voortrekkers.
Ii "Avenge Majuba! the crowds hsv
shouted, in London and at Durham an
al Cape Town. God has avenge
slschtersnek. instead.