had never dreamt of
expelling the British Government from South Africa and much less had made
any agreement with the Dutch in other parts of the country with a view to
such a result. It was a difficult matter to find a Transvaal Boer or a
Boer from the northern part of the Free State who cared whether the
British or the Dutch were paramount in South Africa so long as the
Republics were left unharmed, but it was less difficult to meet Cape
Colonists and Boers from the southern part of the Free State who desired
that Great Britain's power in the country should be broken. If there was
any real spirit against Great Britain it was born on British soil in Cape
Colony and blown northward to where courage to fight was more
abundant. Its source certainly was not in the north, and more certainly
not with Paul Kruger, the man of peace.

President Steyn, of the Orange Free State, occupied even a more
responsible position than his friend President Kruger, of the Transvaal.
At the beginning of hostilities, Steyn found that hundreds of the
British-born citizens of his State refused to fight with his army, and
consequently he was obliged to join the Transvaal with a much smaller
force than he had reckoned upon. He was handicapped by the lack of
generals of any experience, and he did not have a sufficient number of
burghers to guard the borders of his own State. His Government had made
but few preparations for war, and there was a lack of guns, ammunition,
and equipment. The mobilisation of his burghers was extremely difficult
and required much more time than was anticipated, and everything seemed to
be awry at a time when every detail should have been carefully planned and
executed. As the responsible head of the Government and the veritable head
of the army Steyn passed a crisis with a remarkable display of energy,
ingenuity, and ability. After the army was in the field he gave his
personal attention to the work of the departments whose heads were at the
front and attended to many of the details of the commissariat work in
Bloemfontein. He frequently visited the burghers in the field and gave to
them such encouragement as only the presence and praise of the leader of a
nation can give to a people. In February he went to the Republican lines
at Ladysmith and made an address in which he stated that Sir Alfred
Milner's declaration that the power of Afrikanderism must be broken had
caused the war. Several days later he was with his burgher