all was ended, and that we must retrace our
steps; so many hopes dissipated in a moment! and the thought of having
to turn back after having arrived so near to our destination, was heart
breaking. We were all rather sad, asking each other if we were merely
the sport of a bad dream or if this was indeed the will of God. T
resolved to make one more effort and ask an interview with the President
of the Transvaal, Mr. Burgers. It was granted to me. I went therefore to
the Cabinet of the President and spoke a long time with the
Solicitor-General, protesting energetically against the force they had
used against us, and I discussed the matter also with the President
himself, but without being able to obtain any reasonable reply to the
objections I raised. I saw clearly that I had to do with men determined
to have their own way, and putting what they chose to consider the
interests of the State above those of all Divine and human laws.

"Their Parliament (Raad) was sitting, and I addressed myself to two of
its members whom I had seen the day before, and who had seemed annoyed
at the conduct of the Government towards us. I besought them for the
honour of their country, to bring before their Parliament a question on
the subject; but they dared not consent to this, declaring that if the
Government were to put the matter before the representatives of the
country these latter would decide in our favour, but that they could
never take the initiative.

"I had now exhausted all the means at my disposal. I did all I could to
obtain leave to continue our journey, and only capitulated at the last
extremity. I received a written order from the Government telling me to
leave the soil of the Republic immediately.

"These gentlemen had made me wait a long time, perhaps because they
found it more difficult and dangerous to put down on paper orders which
it was much easier to give vocally. This note was only a reproduction of
the accusations they had made against us from the beginning. They
declared to us that we were driven from the country because we had
introduced guns, ammunition, and a great quantity of merchandise, and
because we had entered the Transvaal without a passport, in spite of the
Government itself having recently proclaimed a passport unnecessary for
evangelists going through the country. In this document they
systematically misrepresented and violated the right which every white
man had had until then of travelling without p