e was a momentary silence in the group as they looked at each other.
It was broken by Conrad saying to his youngest son, in a voice of
forced calmness--

"Go, lad, get me a fresh horse. I will rouse the Dutch-African farmers
all over the colony. The land is too hot to hold us. We cannot hope to
find rest under the Union Jack!"

We can sympathise strongly with the violent indignation of the honest
Dutchman, for, in good truth, not only he and his kindred, but all the
people of the colony, were most unjustly blamed and unfairly treated by
the Government of that day. Nevertheless Conrad was wrong about the
Union Jack. The wisest of plans are open to the insidious entrance of
error. The fairest flag may be stained, by unworthy bearers, with
occasional prostitution. A Secretary of State is not the British
nation, nor is he even, at all times, a true representative of British
feeling. Many a deed of folly, and sometimes of darkness, has unhappily
been perpetrated under the protection of the Union Jack, but that does
not alter the great historical fact, that truth, justice, fair-play, and
freedom have flourished longer and better under its ample folds than
under any other flag that flies on the face of the whole earth.

But Conrad Marais was not in a position to consider this just then. The
boy who is writhing under the lash of a temporarily insane father, is
not in a position to reflect that, in the main, his father is, or means
to be, just, kind, loving, and true. Conrad bolted a hasty supper,
mounted the fresh steed, and galloped away to rouse his kindred. And he
proved nearly as good as his word. He roused many of them to join him
in his intended expatriation, and many more did not need rousing. Some
had brooded over their wrongs until they began to smoulder, and when
they were told that the _unprovoked_ raid of the Kafir thieves was
deemed justifiable by the Government which _ought_ to have protected
their frontier, but had left them to _protect themselves_, the fire
burst into a flame, and the great exodus began in earnest. Thus, a
second time, did Conrad and his family, with many others, take to the
wilderness. On this occasion the party included Hans and Charlie
Considine, with their families.

There was still wanting, however, that last straw which renders a burden
intolerable. It was laid on at the time when slavery was abolished.

The Abolition Act was carried into effect on the 1st December 1834