lds
of South America, on the steppes of Siberia, and other ends of the earth,
and after each narrative he would make a request for a "loan." The only
adventures he had during the war were those which he encountered while
attempting to escape from battles, and the only service he did to the Boer
army was to assist in causing the disappearance of commissariat supplies.

The men who fought with the Boers because they were deeply in sympathy
with the Republican cause were in far greater numbers than those with
other motives, and their services were of much value to the federal
forces. The majority of these were in the country when the war was begun,
and were accepted as citizens of the country. They joined commandos and
remained under Boer leaders during the entire campaign. In the same class
were the volunteers who entered the Republics from Natal and Cape Colony,
for the purpose of assisting their co-religionists and kinsmen. Of these
there were about six thousand at the beginning of hostilities, but there
were constant desertions, so that after the first six months of the war
perhaps less than one-third of them remained. The Afrikanders of Natal and
Cape Colony were not inferior in any respect to the Boers whose forces
they joined, but when the tide of war changed and it became evident that
the Boers would not triumph, they returned to their homes and farms in the
colonies, in order to save them from confiscation. Taking into
consideration the fact that four-fifths of the white population of the two
colonies was of the same race and religion as the Boers, six thousand was
not a large number of volunteers to join the federal forces.

The artillery fire of the Boer was so remarkably good that the delusion
was cherished by the British commanders that foreign artillerists were in
charge of all their guns. It was not believed that the Boers had any
knowledge of arms other than rifles, but it was not an easy matter to find
a foreigner at a cannon or a rapid-fire gun. The field batteries of the
State Artillery of the Transvaal had two German officers of low rank, who
were in the country long before the war began, but almost all the other
men who assisted with the field guns were young Boers. The heavy artillery
in Natal was directed by MM. Grunberg and Leon, representatives of
Creusot, who manufactured the guns. M. Leon's ability as an engineer and
gunner pleased Commandant-General Joubert so greatly that he gave him full
autho